Game title: Dokapon Kingdom
Platforms: Wii, PS2
Developer: Atlus
Release date: October 14, 2008
Pregame:
The appearance of Dokapon Kingdom went largely unnoticed in the gaming world. While it eventually found a niche audience, it didn't have a catchy slogan or a TV spot, and it wasn't widely acknowledged or reviewed. It doesn't have any sequels (unless you count the DS game Dokapon Journey, but that's another story), and was never game of the year. Nevertheless, appear it did, and it brought with it a lighthearted, silly take on the party game genre.
Play-by-play:
As you may be able to tell by the game's box art, "cutesy" is the motto here, and that motto is apparent everywhere. Essentially, the game is an RPG version of Mario Party in an anime-esque style that lets you kill your friends and take their stuff.
The game works like this: at the start of the game, player select their characters' name, face, sex and class, then all players are sent to the game board to level up and fight for money. As they move around the game board, players will fight various monsters (and probably each other) via a turn-based battle mode that is not unlike rock-paper-scissors.
While the character classes are fairly simple (and limited, at the beginning of the game), players can switch classes later on, combine their benefits, and eventually unlock new ones. With some luck and fairly minimal planning, players can save the world.
The game does have a savable Story Mode (although the short-lived Normal Mode option is likely preferred for parties), but the story itself is weak. Generally speaking, though, a game like this is not where you should be looking for an epic plot. Basically, the world has been taken over by monsters, so go travel the board game-like world to fight them, and if you do the best of the group you get to marry the princess (yes, even if your character is female). End of story. Now go play.
You'd be surprised how fun it can be to cross blows with a giant or harpoon a pixie, but you get knocked out by your best friend and it's on. There are a million ways to screw over your friends in this game, and if you've been wronged one too many times, there is a particularly fun way to get your revenge.
Essentially, a player who is stuck in last place for long enough can make a deal with the devil and sacrifice nearly all their current possessions to temporarily turn into a demon and ruin everyone's day. While playing as the Darkling, as it's called, players have drastically higher stats and gain special powers. The strongest of those essentially resets the game, putting everyone on equal ground (as equal as it can get, anyway). It's a nice way to balance the game and keep everyone from picking on the same player the whole time.
While players progress through the game, they'll notice patches of comical oddities. For example, once in a while the king of Dokapon will proclaim that all his Wabbits have escaped and you'll be rewarded for hunting down the long-eared, surprisingly tough critters.
Fair warning though, any time the king speaks, you'll pretty much want to claw your ears off just so you won't have to listen to his horrible, horrible voice. The voice work in this game is just awful, and not because the voices are bland. They're all just so incredibly happy and high pitched, and the lines are so corny you want to die.
Die you will, too, and often. Usually the cause will be your best friend or some giant or lucky monster. Death isn't so much a permanent end as it is a minor inconvenience in this game. If you die, you'll spend a few turns in your coffin until you're revived. It'll give the other players a chance to get ahead, but it doesn't automatically mean you're losing.
Despite the game's whimsy, the initial setup may be a little off-putting, mainly because chunks of this game are, well, offensive.
Take character creation, for example. Let's say that you want to make a female warrior class. The default is male warrior, so you just switch the sex, aaaand all the clothes are gone. Someone that is built to beat the hell out of monsters goes from being in full-coverage armor to wearing a thong in 0.23 seconds. While that is pretty bad, bikini-esque female armor is pretty common in gaming, sadly. So you shrug it off and move on to selecting a face for your character. Get a load of this shit.
For a female character, your options are "normal face," "sexy face," "ditsy face" and "selfish face." What the hell!? Okay, okay, maybe the male face names are just as insulting. Let's just check those and NOPE. Males get "normal face," "cool face," "mean face" and "enthused face." These are the exact same faces. They're interchangeable anime faces that don't even have eyelashes or lips (just a line for a mouth).
How is that acceptable? That seriously got past Atlus' PR department? The only justifications I can imagine are language issues or culture differences between Japan and here. Still, that sounds a lot like "Japanese people are prejudiced," which is of course a prejudiced statement itself.
Those offenses seem to cross a line, although at several other points during the game, players will find that the game will poke fun at them directly. For example, the player that does the worst is said to have come in last, or "loser" place. Then the rankings go up to the "second-worst" player, then the "best non-winning player," then the "ultra-super-fantastic first place." This game, and the king specifically, will not hesitate to kick you when you're down.
I guess my advice for this game is to show a little thick skin and go into it with a sense of humor. The game really is fun, so try to laugh at the little absurdities. Just don't get me started on the racist villages.
Final call:
Despite the shortcomings, the ridiculous tone of this game seems to make up for it. This is a game where, in a few short turns, it's possible to rescue a town from a vicious troll, pick a friend's pocket, fight a different friend to the death (and draw on his/her face in victory), while trying to avoid deceptively cute monkeys that are poisoning people with the "Z virus."
It's a fun game for groups, and since it's possible to save a game and come back to it, you can play as much or as little as you like. If one player decides to drop out, it's possible to have that character become an NPC. Dokapon Kingom is an absolutely absurd party game, and you'd be missing out if you didn't try it.
Platforms: Wii, PS2
Developer: Atlus
Release date: October 14, 2008
Pregame:
Play-by-play:
As you may be able to tell by the game's box art, "cutesy" is the motto here, and that motto is apparent everywhere. Essentially, the game is an RPG version of Mario Party in an anime-esque style that lets you kill your friends and take their stuff.
The game works like this: at the start of the game, player select their characters' name, face, sex and class, then all players are sent to the game board to level up and fight for money. As they move around the game board, players will fight various monsters (and probably each other) via a turn-based battle mode that is not unlike rock-paper-scissors.
While the character classes are fairly simple (and limited, at the beginning of the game), players can switch classes later on, combine their benefits, and eventually unlock new ones. With some luck and fairly minimal planning, players can save the world.
The game does have a savable Story Mode (although the short-lived Normal Mode option is likely preferred for parties), but the story itself is weak. Generally speaking, though, a game like this is not where you should be looking for an epic plot. Basically, the world has been taken over by monsters, so go travel the board game-like world to fight them, and if you do the best of the group you get to marry the princess (yes, even if your character is female). End of story. Now go play.
You'd be surprised how fun it can be to cross blows with a giant or harpoon a pixie, but you get knocked out by your best friend and it's on. There are a million ways to screw over your friends in this game, and if you've been wronged one too many times, there is a particularly fun way to get your revenge.
While players progress through the game, they'll notice patches of comical oddities. For example, once in a while the king of Dokapon will proclaim that all his Wabbits have escaped and you'll be rewarded for hunting down the long-eared, surprisingly tough critters.
Die you will, too, and often. Usually the cause will be your best friend or some giant or lucky monster. Death isn't so much a permanent end as it is a minor inconvenience in this game. If you die, you'll spend a few turns in your coffin until you're revived. It'll give the other players a chance to get ahead, but it doesn't automatically mean you're losing.
Despite the game's whimsy, the initial setup may be a little off-putting, mainly because chunks of this game are, well, offensive.
Take character creation, for example. Let's say that you want to make a female warrior class. The default is male warrior, so you just switch the sex, aaaand all the clothes are gone. Someone that is built to beat the hell out of monsters goes from being in full-coverage armor to wearing a thong in 0.23 seconds. While that is pretty bad, bikini-esque female armor is pretty common in gaming, sadly. So you shrug it off and move on to selecting a face for your character. Get a load of this shit.
For a female character, your options are "normal face," "sexy face," "ditsy face" and "selfish face." What the hell!? Okay, okay, maybe the male face names are just as insulting. Let's just check those and NOPE. Males get "normal face," "cool face," "mean face" and "enthused face." These are the exact same faces. They're interchangeable anime faces that don't even have eyelashes or lips (just a line for a mouth).
How is that acceptable? That seriously got past Atlus' PR department? The only justifications I can imagine are language issues or culture differences between Japan and here. Still, that sounds a lot like "Japanese people are prejudiced," which is of course a prejudiced statement itself.
Those offenses seem to cross a line, although at several other points during the game, players will find that the game will poke fun at them directly. For example, the player that does the worst is said to have come in last, or "loser" place. Then the rankings go up to the "second-worst" player, then the "best non-winning player," then the "ultra-super-fantastic first place." This game, and the king specifically, will not hesitate to kick you when you're down.
I guess my advice for this game is to show a little thick skin and go into it with a sense of humor. The game really is fun, so try to laugh at the little absurdities. Just don't get me started on the racist villages.
Final call:
Despite the shortcomings, the ridiculous tone of this game seems to make up for it. This is a game where, in a few short turns, it's possible to rescue a town from a vicious troll, pick a friend's pocket, fight a different friend to the death (and draw on his/her face in victory), while trying to avoid deceptively cute monkeys that are poisoning people with the "Z virus."
It's a fun game for groups, and since it's possible to save a game and come back to it, you can play as much or as little as you like. If one player decides to drop out, it's possible to have that character become an NPC. Dokapon Kingom is an absolutely absurd party game, and you'd be missing out if you didn't try it.
So glad somebody else noticed the stupid disparities between male and female expression names!
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