Dokapon Kingdom: Connect is here to destroy friendships!

Fans of digital board games and role-playing games with medieval fantasy themes will find plenty of content in Dokapon Kingdom: Connect, but don’t let its innocent and cute appearance fool you: this game is here to create lots of fun and chaos between all participants, after all only one can win and the game makes sure you know it.

No laws, no rules, anything goes

A special charm in Dokapon Kingdom: Connect is that the game encourages you to win at any cost, after all, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to screw over your friends during a match. In terms of gameplay, Dokapon is a mixture of “Mario Party” with “Monopoly” and RPG elements.

The game has a Story Mode where you’ll have a LONG playing session, probably needing to stop and go back to the save a few times, which can be a good thing if you manage to organize your group for lives, as there will be content for a long time.

In free mode you have three sub-categories of gameplay, these being beating other players a certain number of times, or liberating specific cities on the map, for example, allowing for more freedom and a faster game. This is great for players who want to livestream a shorter, more accessible adventure.

Each player chooses their character with a basic customization, followed by their name, color and one of the three classes available: Warrior, Mage and Thief, each with its ups and downs. As you evolve these classes, you can unlock others, giving you more freedom and variety in your gameplay.

The game also gives you a great deal of freedom in its gameplay, for example, you can rob stores instead of spending hard-earned cash on items, you can attack other players and in your victory, you have actions such as: stealing items or money, drawing on your opponent’s face, changing their name or even messing up the loser’s hair, in other words, your friendships will be totally at risk here.

Dokapon has charm and a high learning curve

One of the problems with the game is its high learning curve. Unfortunately, as appealing as its universe and characters are, the game is very much focused on competitiveness and, unlike a “Mario party”, it requires a greater knowledge of the mechanics in order to get the most out of it, which is not welcoming for people who just want a quick fun and may put off new players.

To bring the adventure to your live stream, you’ll need to be willing to explain a lot to your audience about how the game works and its mechanics, and you’ll need to play a bit first and familiarize yourself with everything so that your broadcast isn’t confusing.

Remastered and with new features, but could use more polishing

Originally released in 2008 for PS2 and Wii, the game has been remastered and re-released for Nintendo Switch and PC, and despite some minor graphical improvements, the game isn’t that much more polished. Perhaps new classes could have been included, better models and even a greater variation of enemies. The highlight of this version is its online component, allowing you to play with friends from all over the world, hence the name Connect stamped on the game.

I tested the PC version via STEAM and the game runs very smoothly, which is to be expected, after all it doesn’t have graphics that require a very powerful machine, which makes it much easier for streamers.

Another limitation is that the game is only available in two languages, English and Japanese, which is a shame, because in its remastering it would be very welcome to have more languages to increase the game’s accessibility to other people and make it easier to stream.

Fezudu