Late last year Atlus released
Dokapon Kingdom for the PS2 and Wii. The game combined elements of RPGs and
party games to come up with something wholly unique – a deep, complex
multiplayer experience that allowed for plenty of backstabbing and duplicity
between players. This made for hilarious multiplayer sessions, at the expense of
a coherent or worthwhile single-player mode. Now they’ve brought us Dokapon
Journey, a recreation of the concept for the DS.
Like its big brother, Dokapon
Journey takes place in the kingdom of Dokapon. The various towns and villages of
the kingdom have been besieged by monsters, and the king is beside himself. No,
he’s not worried about his people; he’s upset about all the tax payments he’s
missing out on, of course! So the king declares that whomever can raise the most
cash can lay claim to the throne and marry the princess. This is where the
player steps in – as a wandering adventurer, you’ve got to get your hands on
more money than the other guys, as quick as possible.
All players start at the castle together,
before going their separate ways to pursue huge amounts of cash.
Dokapon Journey features plenty of
little changes and improvements over Dokapon Kingdom; the first one you run in
to is at the character creation screen. Where Kingdom had starting players
choosing between 3 basic classes (Fighter, Magician, and Thief) with more
advanced classes available later on, Journey offers all eight classes up
immediately. This may have been a concession to the faster, shorter matches that
handheld gaming is known for, but I call it an improvement – more choices
earlier on means each game session feels more unique. The classes range between
melee-focused (Fighter, Valkyrie, Paladin, and Amazon), magic-based (Mage and
Witch), and rogue-style (Spy and Bandit) character types. Each different class
has unique abilities, both in battle and on the field, and your character class
will pretty much determine your style of play, so choose carefully.
The ninth character class, Darkling, is
only available under special circumstances.
It’s incredibly powerful, but comes with significant drawbacks as well.
Once you’ve got four adventurers
ready, the game begins. Game flow will be familiar to anyone who’s played Mario
Party. The kingdom is represented by a game board, and players take turns moving
a random number of spaces. Landing on a standard space usually leads to an enemy
encounter, but sometimes triggers an event, which could be a mini-game, special
quest, or have other beneficial or detrimental effects. Between the standard
spaces you’ll find shops (for buying new equipment/items/magic), churches (heals
your status, and acts as a checkpoint if you die), Dokapon Castle (where you can
heal for free), and towns. Towns are the key to victory in the game: if you can
defeat the boss monster in a town, you’ll liberate it – and earn its tax money
in the process. Each turn advances the calendar one day, and at the end of every
week you’ll get a status update, and sometimes special events will occur.
Liberate a town and its citizens will
celebrate you, most notably with cold, hard cash.
At first the game seems relatively
straightforward – liberating as many towns as possible to earn the most money.
But once each player has a few towns under their belt the game’s depth begins to
show. You can take the noble route if you want – investing money into your towns
improves them, which in turn increases their tax payout – but there are plenty
of more underhanded tactics available for the more devious-minded. You can raid
your opponents’ towns, for instance; by challenging the mayor to a game of
chance, you could claim the town’s taxes for your own if you win – or get a huge
bounty on your head if you fail, which the other players will be happy to
collect. Similarly, you can rob shops, and even attack your fellow players
directly. Win and you can take anything the other player owns (including towns),
or even change their name, but if you lose you’ll have to face the dire
consequences.
Like any party game, Dokapon
Journey’s multiplayer is definitely the game’s focus. There is a single-player
option, but this simply replaces your human competition for AI-controlled
characters. Since Journey has such strong roots in the RPG genre, just as with
Dokapon Kingdom there are bound to be players disappointed with the game’s
relatively substandard single-player story mode. At the end of the day, though,
this is a game designed to be played against your friends, preferably in close
range so that you can throw things at each other when someone manages an
especially underhanded victory.
The game gives victorious players the
ability to do very mean things to their defeated competitors.
Random chance plays a huge role in
Dokapon Journey; most of your actions are governed in one way or another by a
number-generating spinner, and even combat forces you to try to predict which of
their four actions your opponent will use next. This is bound to irk some
players, who think that multiplayer competitions should be won or lost by skill
alone. While I do admit that it can get pretty frustrating to not be able to
visit the shop you need because you keep rolling a 3 instead of a 4, I see the
heavy random element of Dokapon as the game’s way to a) make sure that
interesting events happen frequently, and b) give less-skilled gamers a fighting
chance, right up until the end. Besides, once you’ve spent a little time with
the game you realize that there are all kinds of ways around the randomness,
like items that allow you to travel a specific number of spaces.
The game’s presentation is
functional, though less than impressive. The anime art style is cute and fun,
but the basic spritework doesn’t do developers Sting Entertainment (known for the beautiful
Riviera and upcoming Knights in the Nightmare) justice. Everything works well
enough for purposes of this game, and it doesn’t look bad in the least, just a
little underwhelming. The same goes for the game’s soundtrack, which is as
generic as fantasy RPG music can get.
Dokapon Journey is a very niche
title, but in that niche it thrives. No, it isn’t a 40-hour epic RPG, but it
isn’t trying to be. Taken on its own merits, the game provides an incredibly fun
multiplayer experience, now more convenient than ever thanks to its portability.
If you’ve got friends and the systems to play it on, Dokapon Journey can and
will devour hours of your life, though you’ll be having too much fun to notice
or care.
Gameplay: 8.0
It’s like an RPG in board game form. That simple description is accurate, but
doesn’t do justice to the huge number of interesting, fun, and evil things you
can do to your fellow players. Whether you’re trying to rob a burly shop owner,
helping a would-be dancer shed a few pounds, or hiring a robot assassin to take
out your chief rival, you’ll never be bored.
Graphics: 7.0
The sprite-based visuals serve their purpose, but don’t push the DS technically
or do much to dazzle players. The game does have a cute anime vibe going for it,
which keeps the game feeling lighthearted even when the competition gets
devious.
Sound: 6.5
The music isn’t bad, but it is bland and forgettable. If you’ve ever heard a
J-RPG soundtrack before, you can probably imagine what this game sounds like.
Difficulty: Medium
Once you’ve gotten the hang of the various systems and complexities of the
game’s rules, your challenge is going to come mainly from the devious minds of
your fellow players, and of course Lady Luck.
Multiplayer: 9.0
No other game in recent memory (except, of course, for Dokapon Kingdom) gives a
group of friends the ability to rob, cheat, murder, and humiliate each other,
and have so much fun in the process.
Concept: 8.9
The blend of RPG concepts with board game style and delivery makes for a truly
unique gaming experience. They’ve made some slight refinements in bringing the
game to a portable system, which has only improved play.
Overall: 8.7
Here’s a little quiz: 1. Do you have three friends with DSs? 2. Are those
friends RPG-savvy enough to know a Hit Point from an Item Shop? If you answered
yes to both, then congratulations! You’re just a copy of Dokapon Journey away
from having some of the most fun the DS can provide.
