Dokapon Kingdom Hands-on
The friendship-destroying game? Sign us up.
June 26, 2008 -
That's correct: Dokapon Kingdom is officially being called the "friendship-destroying game," and we have the poster to prove it. As harsh (and intimidating) as that tagline may sound, there's nothing negative about Dokapon Kingdom -- it's actually a lot of fun, from what we've seen. We recently had the chance to participate in an extended hands-on session with this party RPG, which is being developed by Sting and published by Atlus. While our time was limited, at least in comparison to the game's scope, we had a great time and look forward to what this game has to offer.
So what is it bringing to the table, exactly? The term "party RPG" might sound a bit eccentric, and it is. Dokapon Kingdom is a particularly unusual title but we think it has the ingredients for success. The game takes the basic party/board game premise that Mario Party has made familiar to us and turns the whole thing into a multiplayer RPG. If you're an RPG enthusiast and you have a few buddies with the same tastes, this could be a fantastic combination.
The setup is simple: the King of Dokapon (a gold-loving, oddball of a man) is horrified to find that his beloved kingdom is under siege by monsters. Various creatures have taken over the realm's many towns and now the King isn't collecting any tax money. Considering this atrocity, the King hires a group of heroes to rid the land of the monsters and embark on a number of other quests. The winner will collect a vast amount of wealth and possibly the hand of Princess Penny. Intriguing.
The game gets really interesting when you get into the raw gameplay mechanics. Each player (you can have up to four) gets a turn to move on the top-down game board and perform a number of actions. You spin a spinner and you must move that amount of squares in any direction. Along the way, you can recapture towns from the monster legions, shop for items and weapons, attack other players, and participate in other assorted shenanigans. Each player's character can be customized -- including a job class out of 12 possibilities -- and boasts a full set of statistics to govern the combat system. When you actually get into a battle, you can select one of four actions on either the offensive or defensive side, depending on who goes first. These actions have a sort of rock, paper, scissors relationship, so fighting is quick and accessible yet deep.
Besides having these basic sets of attacks, you also have field skills to consider. For example, a player with a warrior character will get an attack boost, while someone with a thief character can steal an item from a passing player. Ultimately, Dokapon Kingdom looks to have a very satisfying combat/item system, which definitely makes the RPG aspects more appealing. Our only concern is that the simplified battle engine might feel shallow or repetitive after extended play sessions, but this is -- as of right now -- a minor issue.
The world map you and your friends will traverse is colorful and charming, bearing a certain resemblance to our own world map. After over an hour of playing, we just barely scratched the surface of it. On top of that, there are tons of items, weapons, spells and skills that we didn't even get a chance to see. There really is quite a lot of potential for leveling up your little hero and kicking some serious posterior.
With all this in mind, the deal becomes even sweeter when we found out that the game's primary story mode can last up to 15 hours, spanning across eight story-driven chapters. But don't worry, you aren't expected to play with the same set of friends for the whole time. If only a few members of your group meet up, the uncontrolled character can be assigned to the AI while the other players resume the game. This may hurt the outcast's feelings, but at least the game's pacing won't be ruined.
Dokapon Kingdom doesn't look like the most visually stunning game around, but the quirky potential of a party RPG more than makes up for the somewhat lower production values. This is definitely a game that will only appeal to a select audience, but from what we've seen so far, it's going to be a lot of fun.
