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Dokapon Kingdom
Topic Started: May 17 2009, 01:33 AM (2,848 Views)
Arche
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Deliciously Demonish

So my friends IRL have latched onto Dokapon Kingdom like it was crack. Which is... quite interesting, IMO, since now I know seven different people (plus myself) that all own the same Atlus game IRL, which is a situation I've never experienced before (heck, I haven't experienced seven people KNOWING the same Atlus game IRL).

If you're unfamiliar with it, it's an RPG/Board game hybrid. And has been around for quite a while, in terms of time, it seems, with iterations in the series going back to the SNES days (and apparantly the DS one is pretty much a sprite rip from a SNES version, from what I heard).

It's an RPG only in the sense that your characters have levels, developable stats, classes, and equipment. The story is bare-bonesing bare-bones style things and completely mockable, and the role you play is just as an adventurer who seems to have nothing better to do. So, essentially, the opposite of Zelda, where the world, story and character development, and entire game except for the control/growth scheme fit RPG mold; and instead RPGeneric stat development tacked onto what's essentially a more violent Mario Party.

So, anyways, if you don't want to play this with other people, you should avoid this game, because one-player mode is utterly dull and you will swear at the cheating AI. With other people, it's fun just because of the interactions with other people. You enjoy seeing your friends get destroyed by Halflings and other early-game monsters while you save towns, and the like. The idea of the game is to save towns and make money, so that you're in the lead. The person ranked First by the game wins at the end, which makes sense for a board game. And it's generally a light, enjoyable quest where you get to behave badly and do things like rob shops for rare items, PK to steal towns, use items to fuck over your friends, and all that.

It's all modulated by a turn system where you spin a spinner to see how many spaces you move each turn. You get random encounters of monsters and NPCs (who range from the always-good encounters of the wandering shopkeeper who sells rare items, and the blacksmith who has a good chance of making you a better weapon/shield for money; to the crazy bad encounters of the evil doctor who heals you for amounts that almost always put you into debt, and the incredibly evil trickster Weber who will give you (I am not kidding) his choice of: A) Blackmail, which the player holding when it goes off, kills them; B) Nitroglycerin, which has a 50% chance of exploding when the player gets him in combat and reducing them to 1 HP; C) Big Bug, which EATS YOUR INVENTORY! All three are cursed items that you can only foist off on someone else by defeating them in combat and giving them to them, to boot.)

Basically, it's a social RPG. And quite fun.

Except when the game's utterly broken balancing mechanism makes everyone angry. See, in DK, if someone's in last place for three in-game weeks, they can turn into a class called a Darkling. The Darkling is three times stronger than the average player... that's before their super-equipment, which is the best in the game (and which you can't get normally at all), gets super movement automatically each turn, and gets a slew of special "Dark Arts" spells that are all designed to destroy the other players. Two in-game weeks to be God, basically. And be able to PK everyone, take away their towns and castles, and just be a pest.

This leads to incredibly crappy games where one or two people try to do nothing but fail for the entire game and go Darkling in order to screw the rest up. There is no reason for this other than Darkling is so broken that it essentially lets you get others to do your work for you and then go pick up the pieces after they're dead and you've thrown away their good stuff and taken away their towns.

Game-balancing is a noble thing, but in this case, it's the "balancer" that's broken. Which is a problem, because the game didn't really need balancing to let a person in last place stay in the game. Each successive chapter's area is pretty much worth exponentially more than the previous one, so it's not like someone in fourth can't get to first with a little good playing.

In any case, in a co-operative game where the players are working together to try and finish the game and enjoy it, it's really fun. It just takes one or two jackasses to really ruin it, though. And that seems to be the common strategy, which is a problem.

So, anyways, it's a mixed bag. But it's still a socially progressive RPG, released here, and actually entertaining. So I'd suggest anyone interested by the idea of playing a board RPG with their friends try it out.
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Justin
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Teh RPG Master
I made a topic about this game way back. Makes me wish the friggin' search fuction would actually work. <_<

But yah I agree with the points you've made. The game is wickedly fun with your friends. More so if you can agree on just flat out ignoring the Darkling class. Just because someone is behind doesn't mean they can't catch up. Not only is the story mode LONG and sometimes tedious the randomness of the game has the potential to completely turn the tables.

Like running into the doctor or Weber easily screws over someone in first. Just because someone is in first place for a few weeks doesn't mean they're going to stay there. And outside of Darkling there are plenty of items and things that you can use to screw your friends over. Assassin robot much?
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Johnnygo
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Myopic Islander fan. Thread Killer. Empty Glimmer.
You know, I've been meaning to pick this up because it seems like a fantastic social game.

Unfortunately I'm not much of a social gamer (I'm more of a alone in the dark as sanctuary gamer) so it's always been on my back burner...

Going to have to pick it up eventually... Depends on how social I get in New!City.
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Arche
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Deliciously Demonish

Oops. I looked for an older topic on DK, but didn't find one. My bad. I found one now that I looked harder, but that was in General, which honestly, this game can fall into either.

But, yes, a Darkling-less game is a lot more fun than the regular one. Mainly because anyone in last place doesn't ever not have a chance of getting back into first. There are always White Arrows, Town Conjures, and the like in order to take towns if you're behind, and sniping a Castle away from someone after they've done the hard work of the quest is always welcome. Not to mention that if someone has a lead, then all it takes is Weber to give them a Big Bug and they're usually screwed up because it chowed down on their stuff. Or someone else to decide that they want (or want to throw away) their weapon.
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Justin
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Teh RPG Master
Like I said maybe if the search function actually worked we wouldn't have this problem. That's alright though not a big deal. At least the topic is under the right board now.
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Arche
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Deliciously Demonish

I played DK tonight, and had Weber give me a Big Bug exactly two turns after I got Lost Technology from the Sunken Shrine. From there, it turned into a gigantic scramble for us all to get into a fight so that we could stop the Bug from eating the LT.

We succeeded, but only because the Bug decided to chow down on my Field Magic and I had a bag full of Spinners. Luckily, I won the fight and just foisted off the bug onto another player rather than lost my LT. I actually used the LT later and turned my little Pink Alchemist into a Pink Robo-Knight, who kicked whole lots of ass.

We were actually taking a break and Rico Jr. farming to try and get Hero when that happened, which was, suffice to say, tremendously annoying.
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Exalted
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Ziggy had a ray gun.
If things like team damage and the roleplaying game Amber were not enough to inspire fighting amongst my group of friends I would be all over this. It just looks like pure chaotic fun.

Is there any teamwork required? I feel that games built around competition benefit greatly from a shared goal that cannot be accomplished alone; mostly because it shows that backstabbing is an art.
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Arche
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Deliciously Demonish

Yes, there are some things that sort of do require teamwork. Defeating the final boss, for example, and any group interested in getting the secret job classes will have to work together to achieve them (usually by having two go farm Acrobat, one farm Hero, and one farm Robo-Knight).
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Exalted
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Ziggy had a ray gun.
I bought this as a late present for my brother. We played it tonight along with two others. Having not bothered to read the instructions we chose to set the number of weeks to 100. None of us had the slightest clue as to what we were doing at first, but from the sounds of laughter and conversation, it seems like good times were had by all.

It seems that at level 1 it is best just to pray for a lucky strike against npcs, since victory is extremely unlikely if there is a round 2.

I leveled up as my brother bought some bitching equipment. He "accidentally" ran into my square in order to engage in PVP. I striked, he tried to strike but I counter attacked so I won. I chose to be merciful since it was just an "accident." So I only shaved his head.
Edited by Exalted, Jun 28 2009, 12:50 AM.
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