Link has 52 chronicles

1. Dokapon Kingdom Review
   

   Player Chronicle -- Posted on Dec 07 2008

   I was taken aback when I picked up this game, thinking i was getting a game similar to Tales of Symponia... BUt i was shocked to open the shrink wrapping to find a mario party game without the minigames. (Wait... What is Mario Party without minigames...??? I'll get there, I promise!) I went along with it though, and created my character from a set of "jobs". Magician, Warrior, and Thief, I chose the Mage, and gave him a spiffy black cloak. I went through the (Here it is) mario party map. Yes, It was Composed of squares you move around on, with your movement decided by a random number generator (a spinner) more obvious than (Here it is again...) Mario Party's Dice blocks. Essentially, The game play is very "meh"... It's like watching someone play Dragon Quest. In fact, the leveling up is similar to Dragon Quest...and every other RPG.
   
   Dokapon Kingdom does offer some pretty novel ideas, though -- and this makes its mediocre execution all the more frustrating. For example, someone has been affected by the Blue Shell (aka the great equalizer) in Mario Kart, and everyone's nabbed a cache of coins from a friend in Mario Party, but Dokapon Kingdom goes the extra step: Fall behind far enough, and you can make a literal deal with the devil and unleash a flurry of hellfire and brimstone on your competitors in the form of status ailments, town takeovers, and myriad other devilish desires. Not all of the cool touches are on such a grand scale, though. For example, whenever you land on a store or town space, you can rob 'em via games of roshambo (sadly not the South Park Version of the term.. Clip link below is for Mature audiences only...))
   http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/103724/?tag=Garrison
   
   (apparently, facsimiles of rocks, paper, and scissors are perceived as lethal weapons in the Dokapon universe). Succeed, and you'll make off with some money or rare items -- fail, and you've got a bounty on your head; if an opponent happens to cash in on that bounty, they'll get a sizable reward. And if you best an opponent in battle, you can humiliate them by saddling them with an embarrassing hairstyle (which isn't really anything special, but it's kinda funny...) or by nabbing their equipment. The problem is that almost all of Dokapon Kingdom's cool stuff is hidden beneath mundane, repetitive core gameplay -- it's simply a chore to trigger the most enjoyable aspects of the game.
   
   Rating 7.1
   
   
   Final Thoughts: Unoriginal, Already been done, Mario Party, Just go buy it.
   

   
   

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Link has 1 comment on this chronicle.

1. BEN
   Posted On Dec 08 2008

   I love your video game reviewing GoG Chronicles, because often times they touch on games that I wouldn't otherwise even hear about. This is no exception and although I won't be buying it for myself, it's something to consider for our younger aged video game events
   
   Also, are you joining us at Cyber Ops this weekend?! You better...