Dokapon Kingdom Connect review

“My Kingdom for a Proficient Port with Online Functionality!”

When Atlus localized Dokapon Kingdom in 2008, it wasn’t unusual to see a quirky title make it stateside. During the PlayStation 2 era, there was a refreshing amount of eccentricity, thanks to titles like Chulip, God Hand, Mister Mosquito, Ribbit King, Stretch Panic, and Under the Skin. Largely, audiences were receptive to peculiarity.

Fifteen years on, the industry has shifted. Now, the multimillion blockbuster is in vogue. But the problem is that these grandiose efforts are too expensive to fail. Even a small misstep can send stock prices into a tailspin. As such, gaming’s contemporary titles are often designed and focus-tested for mainstream appeal, effectively stripping away every trace of unconventionality. As everything from the 2K sports titles to Gran Turismo 7 has demonstrated, these efforts can also be money pits, goading you into purchasing DLC at regular intervals. Idiosyncrasy is growing increasingly rare.

Buying Your Way into the Monarchy

With the release of Dokapon Kingdom Connect for the Switch, publisher Idea Factory revisits the era when games were wonderfully imaginative and didn’t nag you at every opportunity. As a remaster of the 2008 release (which was a remake of a 1994 Super Famicom game), Dokapon Kingdom is a curious blend of a board game with light role-playing elements. Instead of the generic pewter playing places of Monopoly, you’re playing as a character with a job class, basic stats, and the ability to level up.

Much like Hasbro’s popular tabletop recreation, the goal is to acquire as much capital as possible. The difference is that this objective isn’t just about becoming a rich jerk. The king of Dokapon is offering his daughter’s hand in marriage to the warrior who can save the kingdom. It seems like an influx of monsters have stopped people from paying their taxes, putting the future of the realm in jeopardy. While some of Dokapon’s modes offer alternative goals like dispatching rivals, the default method for success is by gaining material wealth.

Where Feudalism Meets Capitalism

Castle ownership is one of the best ways to accomplish this. Becoming a town’s titleholder offers a recurring six-digit income. Like Monopoly, reinvestment is usually a sound strategy. Pumping additional funds into towns results in a higher rent payment when an opposing player is unlucky enough to land on your settlement.

But largely, that’s where the similarity ends and the peculiarity begins. Whenever a player lands on a blank spot on the board, they’ll face off against a monster. Combat plays out like a simple turn-based RPG, where you’ll have four different offensive and defensive options. Initially, your character might struggle and a basic foe can deplete all of your hit points. When that happens, you’ll forfeit a few turns as well as possessions- but eventually, you’ll get reincarnated. Death is common across the early minutes of Dokapon. Later, it can occur when you fight the tougher monsters that guard the multitude of towns across a substantial playfield modeled after our planet.

The RNG is Your Toughest Rival

But alas, rotating a spinner to determine how many steps you take and Pokémon-style battles aren’t engaging over the long haul. But Dokapon Kingdom Connect has a multitude of randomized events to ensure things don’t get boring. After trailing behind my CPU-powered rivals for too long, a character appeared in a plume of purple smoke. He tempted me with the possibility of dabbling in the Dark Arts. If I agreed, I wouldn’t be able to take over towns, level up by fighting monsters, or even earn money. But for fourteen turns I could dish out sweet revenge. From randomly spreading caltrops across the board, causing a market crash that halves everyone’s fortune, or just spreading monsters about, Dokapon let me unleash an immensely satisfying reprisal that propelled me back into the game.

Of course, that’s just a single example from a game that offers a constant succession of surprises. But know two things before venturing into Dokapon Kingdom. One, there’s a high degree of randomness in the game. Yes, the player in last place might get the occasional boost. But if you’re in the middle of the pack, expect no assistance with landing on special spaces of the board, like towns, stores, or even the junctions to other continents. Second, a match of Dokapon can last for more than 15 hours. While there are plenty of opportunities to record your progress as well as shorter game variants, the game’s normal and Battle Royale modes might outstrip attention spans. For multiplayer, up to three people can play on a single Switch. And while you can play online, the length of games can be a big commitment.

Conclusion

Yet, all these transgressions might seem a bit moot when you’re actually playing Dokapon. Unconventionality in gaming is gradually being devalued, replaced by overly sanitized, painfully generic efforts. But venturing through Kingdom Connect’s seven continents delivers a much-needed dose of nonconformity. Across that quest, you might even run into a hairdresser willing to change your appearance. Anyone who misses the era when cosmetics weren’t sold for actual money, is likely to have time with Dokapon’s wonderful weirdness.

Dokapon Kingdom Connect was played on Switch
with review code provided by the publisher.