Dokapon is a Japanese series of turn-based board game Role Playing Games originally created by Asmik Ace Entertainment and currently developed by Sting Entertainment. The games are essentially the logical conclusion of shoving Mario Party, Dragon Quest, and Monopoly into a blender, pressing "puree" for five minutes, and adding a dash of cheat-happy AI and salt. Lots of salt.
In the Dokapon series, you are cast into the role of an adventurer in the titular kingdom. Your goal? To make yourself as disgustingly rich as possible. You do this not only by earning money through battling monsters and selling items, like you would in a normal RPG, but also by going around the world map and saving towns from monsters. Then, Monopoly-style, the towns make you their leader and add themselves to your worth. By rescuing towns (and later pumping them full of cash to make them worth more) and gathering treasures, your worth goes up.
Rather than traveling in a standard fashion, the world map is a game board, and a spinner determines how far you'll travel. Naturally, players take turns spinning and moving. The spaces on the board each have different effects. Some are stores where you can buy items, or treasure chests where you can find goodies. Most of them are yellow squares, where you can either find events (ranging from the awesome, such as the town-worth-increasing Mitch, to the downright evil, such as Weber) or fight monsters.
Battles are both turn-based and turn-based. (No, really, it makes sense.) During battle, one side is the attacker and one side is the defender, and which you are is determined by a card you draw at the beginning of battle. Attackers have specific abilities available to them, and defenders do as well. Attackers have a standard attack (whose damage can be greatly decreased by a standard defend), a "Strike" attack that does high amounts of damage (but can be countered and turned against its user by the defender's "Counter" move), an offensive spell (whose damage can be decreased or turned by a defensive spell), and a special ability that can't be countered, but uses up a vital attack turn. Defensive fighters have a standard defend (decreases all damage, but especially that of a standard attack), a "Counter" move (only works on "Strike," but prevents all damage and turns it on the strike-r), a defensive spell (resists offensive spells), and the ability to run away. Each fighter gets the chance to be both an attacker and a defender in one "turn," and then it's on to the next player's turn. If the battle is ongoing, it'll pick up the next time it rolls around to that player's turn again. This is more or less necessary when fighting boss monsters.
Is there a plot to the game, besides "get rich however possible?" Well, yeah, there's this whole thing about an ultimate evil attempting to take over the world and the Princess' hand being up for marriage and all that, but who cares about all that when one of the Status Effects is "Shaved Head?"
Unlike most RPGs, Dokapon is designed to be played with multiple people, and very competitively. Though it can be difficult to amass a group of people together long enough to play a 40+ hour game, if you can pull it off, it's definitely fun. Dokapon is a unique hybrid experience, and, with the right kind of friends, it's a blast. Oh, and—play with your friends. Definitely. That computer? A cheating bastard. And even on Easy, where it doesn't cheat - they're overly predictable in battle.
- Kessen! Dokapon Oukoku IV: Densetsu no Yuushatachi: Also known as Decisive Battle! Dokapon Kingdom IV: Legend of Heroes in English, it is the very first installment of the series, developed and released by Asmik for the Super Famicom in 1993. Despite what the "IV" in the title may imply, it is not a "fourth" game, rather indicating that it is playable with four players.
- Dokapon 3-2-1: Arashi o Yobu Yuujou: The second Dokapon game, also released for the Super Famicom in 1994.
- Dokapon Gaiden: Honoo no Audition: A spinoff game for the Super Famicom in 1995. Plays more like a standard board game than typical Dokapon.
- Dokapon Ikari no Tekken: The series Video Game 3D Leap, released for the PlayStation in 1998.
- Dokapon?! Millennium Quest: Another spinoff for the Game Boy Color in 2000. Pokémon meets the battle system of Dokapon.
- Dokapon: Monster Hunter: The third spinoff for the Game Boy Advance in 2001. The actual first game in the franchise to be localized, this spinoff plays more like a proper RPG that uses Dokapon's battle system and a dungeon crawling element.
- Dokapon DX: The fourth main series game, released for the GameCube in 2003 and the PlayStation 2 in 2004. The PS2 port was developed by Sting, who would later take over the series starting from Kingdom.
- Dokapon the World: The fifth main series game, released for the PS2 in 2004. This is the last Dokapon game developed by Asmik, with co-development from Sting. Had a briefly-available online port for PC in April 2010 that lasted until June 2012.
- Dokapon Kingdom: The sixth main series game, released for the PS2 and Nintendo Wii in 2008 and localized by Atlus USA in 2010. The first installment developed solely by Sting, it is also a Video Game Remake of the second game, Dokapon 3-2-1. The most well-known installment outside of Japan due to being the first localized main series game and an (in)famous playthrough by Let's Play group The Runaway Guys.
- Dokapon Kingdom: Connect: An Updated Re-release of Dokapon Kingdom, released in Japan on April 13, 2023 and May 9, 2023 in Europe and North America for the Nintendo Switch. Online multiplayer is added to this version. The localized version was published by Idea Factory International, making it the first localized Dokapon game in 14 years.
- Dokapon Journey: The seventh main series game, released for the Nintendo DS in 2008. Like Kingdom, Journey is also a Video Game Remake, this time of the very first game, Kessen! Dokapon Oukoku IV.
- Dokapon UP! Mugen no Roulette: The eighth main series game, released for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in 2020.
The first main installment in over 12 years, Dokapon UP! is also a Crossover with visual novel/strategy RPG series Utawarerumono, featuring characters and locales from both the original and Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception.
The Dokapon series contains examples of:
- An Adventurer Is You: Most games feature character classes and class changing, although a few games like DX and UP! have distinct characters instead of classes.
- Anachronism Stew:
- The games are set in a bog-standard fantasy world, but you also have a Robo-sassin, modern casinos, and aliens running about.
- Comes with the territory in UP! since it's Utawarerumono (although this one is more on Science Fantasy).
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- In a series where the Story Mode typically takes as long as an actual full-size JRPG, god bless the Save function in multiplayer for allowing games to carry over between sessions.
- Many of the games from 3-2-1 onward feature a "starter" dungeon in the Story Mode that has no fights and consists mainly of item and equipment spaces so players can start the game with beginner gear. Leaving said dungeon sooner than other players also rewards a level bonus to start with.
- Art-Shifted Sequel:
- There have been gradual changes to the art style over the years to match the current era's style of anime design, but the biggest jumps in art style are the World and Kingdom, as the box art for the World is more gritty and shounen with paper cutouts for player characters instead of the 3D models from the previous two games while Kingdom (the game right after the World) is cutesy and Super-Deformed.
- UP! has a cleaner and more cutesy art style compared to mainline Utawarerumono games.
- Big Ball of Violence: Fights occurring on other spaces are depicted as violent dust clouds.
- Boring, but Practical: The basic Attack option is the least rewarding offensive option in most cases, but it's also the least risky, as unlike with Striking (which can backfire heavily in many cases) and Magic (which can be neutered with defensive Magic), the only option against Attacking is Defending, which only partially reduces the damage taken.
- Character Customization: Some of the later games feature a limited amount of cosmetic customization, including Purely Aesthetic Gender and player color. Kingdom also features hairstyles that can be discovered and which serve a gameplay purpose in at least one event.
- Co-Op Multiplayer: For a certain definition of "cooperative"; while the players are working towards common goals in Story Mode, they're still trying to beat the shit out of each other while doing so.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: The AI in the series is notorious for how terrible it cheats. Many of the later games have the AI read your inputs and automatically Counter your Strikes.
- Counter-Attack: If you select the Counter option when the attacker chooses Strike, you will evade the attack completely, then promptly strike back with a powerful attack of your own, inflicting massive damage to the attacker.
- Cute Witch: The female Magician is almost invariably this in design, and is notably one of the few playable females to dress modestly.
- Damsel in Distress: Princess Penny on the oft chance she gets kidnapped. It tends to not last, though.
- Death or Glory Attack: Strike deals double damage compared to your standard attack and in many cases will invariably lead to a One-Hit Kill. However, the Counter command completely negates Strike and causes the enemy to deal that exact same damage to you. While Striking will generally work against early to mid-game foes, most endgame foes will automatically Counter if you choose to Strike regardless of whatever they planned to do that turn, as will the Darkling. Striking can still work against humans, however, as unlike AIs you can psyche them out.
- Dub Name Change: Princess Penny was originally called "Puririn" in Japanese.
- Excuse Plot: Most of the main series games have a very flimsy "story" for Story/Scenario Mode, usually involving the King sending out heroes to clean up the world and succeed him as the King of Dokapon, sometimes with marrying(?) Princess Penny involved.
- Funny Animal: The Thief class in 3-2-1 is a furred bipedal... "creature" (of unknown origin, but definitely not human).
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Players have the option to Give Up when defending if they know that they're on the losing end of a fight. Giving Up counts as a loss but incurs less severe penalties compared to dying.
- Gaiden Game: Most of the spinoffs, which feature certain aspects of Dokapon gameplay fleshed out.
- Genre Mashup: It's a turn-based board game combined with an RPG combined with Monopoly combined with rock-paper-scissors. With UP!, it's also part visual novel.
- Mission-Pack Sequel: As evidenced by the page description, there has been very little change in the core formula since the series' inception. The later games offer new classes, maps, enemies, and on occasion new mechanics, but the gameplay is more or less the same.
- Ms. Fanservice: Most of the playable female classes are busty, scantily clad young women except for the requisite Cute Witch, the Paladin class in Journey, and the cast of UP! (as Utawarerumono doesn't have much fanservice to begin with).
- Multiple Endings:
- Games that involve marrying Princess Penny will have alternate dialogue if you win the game as a girl.
- DX has proper multiple endings, in Good, Bad, and Normal flavors.
- Oddball in the Series: While 3-2-1 and Kingdom take place in an Expy of the real world and many of the other games straight up take place in a fantasy world, The World is the only game that actually features the real world as part of the setting, with the protagonist becoming Trapped in TV Land.
- Purposefully Overpowered: The Darkling. The series Comeback Mechanic, it's by far the strongest class in the game and has access to a slew of exclusive powers that can shake up huge amounts of the board, up to and including resetting every single town, but requires you to be in last place for a while and you must make a Deal with the Devil (usually sacrificing almost everything in your possession) to become the Darkling. Even then, the transformation is temporary, so be careful about where and when it wears off.
- Random Event: A core element of the game, as random events occur any time you land on an empty space, and there are also Weekly Events that can trigger at the start of every week (or during the week in some games).
- Rock–Paper–Scissors: Many conflicts in the series are resolved this way, be it Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors or literal rock paper scissors.
- Save Scumming: Many of the games avert this as your RNG is "set" and no amount of reloading will change it. You can only change your RNG if you do something different than what you did before the reset, which will alter future RNG accordingly.
- Shoplift and Die: While stealing from a store doesn't have any immediate consequences, failing a stealing attempt will cause a Bounty to be placed on your head, which bars you from entering certain events and also rewards any players who kill you with a cash prize.
- Skewed Priorities: The King in 3-2-1 and Kingdom seems more concerned about his wealth compared to the safety of the Dokapon Kingdom.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Kind of. Most offensive options have a corresponding defensive option that will reduce the effectiveness of the former if used at the same time. Attack can have its damage lowered by Defend, Strike can be reversed with the Counter action, and defensive magic works against most offensive magic.
