Dokapon Kingdom Connect from Idea Factory International is a colorful RPG board game hybrid party experience on Nintendo Switch. Learn more in our Dokapon Kingdom Connect review!
Dokapon Kingdom Connect from Idea Factory International is a colorful RPG board game hybrid party experience on Nintendo Switch. This journey will take place on the titular land, and you’ll soon learn that, in Dokapon Kingdom Connect, money is King! If you want to win, you’re going to have to get your hands on as many gold coins as possible before time is up. Win them during mini-games, steal them from other players, or get lucky and find some bonus gold coins along the way as you travel through the gaming board.
One day, the peaceful Dokapon Kingdom was invaded by evil monsters that attacked all towns on the land. As you can probably imagine, this is not good news for the people who call those towns their home. The economy started to collapse, and that meant that people stopped paying taxes altogether… which is not what the King wanted! This makes him jump into action, and he decides to gather the best adventurers out there so that they can defeat the monster. That’s the only way he can finally collect all of the taxes he’s owed!
Dokapon Kingdom was originally released on the Super Famicom – that would be how the Super Nintendo Entertainment is known in Japan – way back in 1994 as Dokapon 3・2・1 – Arashi o Yobu Yuujou. This was followed by a remake on the PlayStation 2 in 2008 in North America. That version was then reworked for the Nintendo Wii by Atlus, who also happened to be the North American publisher of the aforementioned PlayStation 2 version. Dokapon Kingdom Connect now remakes the remake so that a new generation can enjoy this one in 2023.
You can take on this experience either offline, in local multiplayer, or in online multiplayer. Along with that, there are three different game modes on offer: Story Mode, Normal Mode, and Battle Royale. Story Mode will have you traveling through Dokapon Kingdom as you try to complete a series of challenges along the way. For Normal Mode, you’ll get to select how many weeks you’d like to play. Once time is up, whoever has the most money will win!
As for Battle Royale, it’s split into Town Race, Kill Race, and Shopping Race. Town Race will have you trying to win by being the first one to liberate a specific town, which will change every time to keep things interesting. Kill ace will require you to defeat the other players a certain number of times before being declared the champion. As for the Shopping Race Battle Royale, you’ll have to bring the specified item back to Dokapon Castle to win the match.
How will you be playing the game? During each of your turns, you’ll have to spin the roulette to see how many spaces you’ll be able to move on the board. Once you land on a spot, you’ll take on a different mini-game depending on the type of spot your character ends up on. If it’s a blank spot, then you’ll take on a monster battle. When in combat, you’ll be able to charge up an attack, attack your enemy, or try to pickpocket your opponent. Try to outsmart the enemy and win the battle so that you’re rewarded with items and experience points to level up – more on these in a bit.
You can customize your experience by giving your character a name, selecting between a male or a female character, choosing its color, and choosing its face from the available options. But the big thing you should focus on is choosing which class you’ll be playing as! You could go as a Warrior, a fierce fighter who relies on brute strength and strong weapons. There’s also the Magician who, as expected, will focus on magical attacks. Another option is the Thief, who can use speed to steal stuff from other players.
If you land in a town space, you’ll need to defeat your opponent in order to liberate that space. How many towns can you bring peace to during your time with Dokapon Kingdom Connect? Oh, and don’t forget that you can later collect taxes from the towns you liberate as a thank you for your efforts! There are also loot spaces to consider, which will have either a coin bag icon or a book icon on them. When you land on one, you’ll spin a roulette to see which item you can win for your adventure. A treasure spot is similar to the loot space since you’ll also spin a roulette, but the prize will be different amounts of gold coins for you to win.
What happens when you land in an empty space where another player is already located? Then you’ll have to duke it out and try to beat them before they can manage to defeat you! Battles between players are crucial since whoever wins will get to select what they will take from the other player! Will you decide to grab all their gold coins? Will you choose to grab their equipment? Would grabbing all their items make more sense? Maybe stripping them of their field magic would hurt their odds of winning. Or maybe, just maybe, taking a town from them and adding it to your list is the best option.
Commands in battle take a cue from rock paper scissors – known in Japan as roshambo. That means that some attacks will beat others, so you’ll have to pay attention in each battle so that you can find the best approach. Because of this, attacks beat counter, counter beats strike, and defend trumps attack. Knowing when to select this or that option will be crucial for your survival.
Once your hero gains enough experience based on their performance on the board, they will get to level up. When this happens, a hero will be rewarded with bonus points to distribute for each of its five attributes: attack, defense, magic, speed, and HP. Boosting each of these stats as you go is very important. If you want to stand a chance against the enemies, you’ll need to vanquish, as well as beat your opponents when you find them on an empty spot, then you’ll need to continue to improve your character.
Dokapon Kingdom is a colorful RPG board game hybrid party experience on Nintendo Switch. It brings us the classic Wii release with a revamped look and some quality-of-life improvements expected of a game launching in 2023. There are three different starting classes to choose from for your hero, with eight more to unlock along the way. With single-player offline with CPU-controlled bots, local multiplayer, and even online multiplayer, as well as different gameplay modes to choose from, there’s a lot of fun to be had with this game. Dokapon Kingdom is out on Nintendo Switch with a $49.99 price tag.
Disclaimer
This Dokapon Kingdom Connect review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Idea Factory International.
