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Dokapon Kingdom
Wii
Dokapon Kingdom: Fun & Frustration Hand-in-Hand
3.5/5 stars
What happens when you combine Mario Party with a traditional RPG? You get Dokapon Kingdom - which provides many hours of entertainment - some of them infuriatingly frustrating - that will either have you smirking with glee or pulling your hair out in frustration.
The main story is that monsters have taken over towns all over the world and The King needs heroes... and he also wants lots of money. Plus the princess needs to be married - so he sends (up to four) heroes on a quest to liberate towns, defeat monsters and become the richest cad around.
You have a spin wheel that goes from 0-6, and you move accordingly. Most spaces you fight a monster, but there are also magic, item, money and locked spaces - weapon, item and magic shops - churches and the important towns. Towns start off with stronger creatures you defeat and "liberate" getting control of that town (and their resources). By investing in towns you get more money and their "special" item you can either sell, eat or give to the king.
Each chapter in story mode has a big-bad you must defeat - each chapter (aside from the final) also has a castle worth big money. Since the ultimate goal of the game is to be the richest hero standing, getting the castle is a big deal.
The RPG element comes from leveling up you "job" class - everything from standard warrior, mage and thief to Robo-Knight and Alchemist. Depending on what job you hold, when you level up your stats will get an extra boost (mages obviously give you more magic, warriors more strength, etc. etc.). Certain weapons, shields and accessories boost these stats as well. Getting the right combination for your job class can have a huge impact on the damage you deal or repel.
Character and enemy design is on the mundane part of things. While it's not horrible, it's not exactly exciting either. You kill an enemy, it dies the same way, you celebrate the same way. Rinse, repeat. You can even fight each other - though the game takes long enough without resorting to infighting, believe me.
The frustrating part of the game comes with "chance" encounters. Random characters show up from time to time - mostly to ill effect. A doctor who steals your money, a dark trickster magician who gives you terrible things that eat all your items, blows you up or just kills you, an annoying man-girl bear thing that plays rock-paper-scissors and almost always wins (stealing money AGAIN). Sure, you can get the wandering merchant who has awesome items or a mole who will make your cities earn extra money, but more often then not, when you see the chance encounter come up, you groan. What's worse, you often get them 3-4 times IN A ROW and it gets downright awful.
I wish there was a way to toggle those encounters on and off, but alas, there is not. Chance also plays a big part in how you do in the game. Getting an incredible weapon or shield early on really helps your chances. Wandering around in a cave does not. Leveling up is an absolute must - depending on what type of character you're using, dumping all your points into a couple of stats is useful. If you fall behind, you stand no chance once the next area is opened up and enemies jump 5-8 levels. Believe me, I found that out the hard way.
Make sure you carve out plenty of time if you do the story mode. I would say you can easily get 40+ hours out of a game - probably double that if you decide to fight each other constantly - and if you explore each cave, liberate every town and go for all the locked boxes, you can push that even higher. There is a lot to do, even if it does get a bit repetitious.
This is a game you need to play with other people. While you can certainly have CPU-controlled characters, it's not nearly as much fun when your watch your friend's unique weapon get destroyed by a random enemy attack (or, in my case, weapon one fight, shield the next - stupid game). I also like stealing towns, though I don't like the Robo-Assassin sent in retaliation so much. Also, if you beat an opponent you can steal things - items, weapons, towns or give them Poo hair or change their name to Stank Butt - the possibilities are endless.
All in all - the fun outweighs the annoyance factor enough to make this a recommendation - as long as you bring some friends along. Just make sure you have plenty of time on your hands.
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