Dokapon Kingdom and Dokapon Journey Pt. 1

Dokapon Kingdom and Dokapon Journey are, for good reason, advertised as friendship-destroying RPGs. Those who argue that Mario Party causes more damage to friendships are downright wrong. Dokapon is all about backstabbing, treason, murder, and picking on the helpless. Sounds fun, right?

The first thing I should outline is that Dokapon Kingdom and Dokapon Journey are similar enough that they may be simply considered “Dokapon.” However, the differences between the two games are so numerous that I need to do two parts. The focus of this article is Kingdom, as I have been playing it for several years more than Journey.

The main goal of Dokapon is to save the land of Dokapon from monsters terrorizing its towns. However, the true motives of the so-called “heroes” is to selfishly gain ownership of as many towns as possible to become rich and gain favor with the king, so that you may marry his daughter, becoming the next ruler of Dokapon Kingdom. To do this, you will bribe, gamble, murder, pillage, and betray, as long as it gives you an advantage. It sounds complicated, but the only complicated part of the game is remembering items enemies drop. (Which I totally don’t have memorized.)

The game begins in an unnamed forest, where players race each other to be the first to reach the castle, where they will receive extra points to add to their stats according to how quickly they reach the castle relative to other players. Being first to the castle can give you an early advantage, as you have more time to make it to the weapon store before everyone else, as well as superior stats. But the bloodshed begins before you reach the castle. As large amounts of cash, swords, shields, and good magic spells can be found in treasure chests in the forest, it is common for players to kill one another in the forest to steal equipment and money.

PvPs this early in the game are surprisingly intense. To summarize the combat system,  the player whose turn it currently is chooses from one of two cards. One says “first” and one says “last.” The players then select commands. Attackers can choose from “attack,” “strike,” “magic,” (if they have any) or a battle skill. Defenders can choose from “defend,” “counter,” “magic,” or “Give Up.” Defend reduces damage taken from attacks and strikes. Strikes do more damage than attacks and are calculated with both the attacker’s speed and attack, but if a strike is countered, the attacker will suffer quite a bit. Magic is only weakened by other magic. Notably, there is an offensive battle magic that breaks the target’s equipment, called “Rust,” and a defensive battle magic that reflects all effects and damage onto the attacker, called “Bounce.” In addition, players’ stats are displayed on screen to help players decide. Giving up results in a penalty lesser than death, but if you’re a wanted criminal, you can’t give up.

On the subject of giving up, don’t. If you have been in last place (in terms of net worth) for three whole weeks (21 turns) a purple bat appears over your head. By completing a certain task, the last place player can become Darkling. The Darkling is a terrifying being that spins multiple spinners at once. If it lands on your town, the town is taken by a monster. In Journey, the Darkling has quintuple the stats of the player who became Darkling. It is more complicated in Kingdom. You can’t give up against it. You can only accept your death. It is possible, however, to kill the Darkling with proper item usage.

A more detailed explanation of the two games is coming in Part 2, as well as a possible Let’s Play.