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Dokapon Journey Review for Nintendo DS

Dokapon Journey Review for Nintendo DS

The Journey is Long…
and I Can’t Level Up!

Last year’s Dokapon Kingdom for the Wii was certainly a mixed bag. On the one hand, I really loved it for being the first and only RPG/Party game mash-up I had ever played. Although the lack of online multiplayer as well as painfullylong CPU turns marred the experience, I was relatively pleased and was able to look past some of its shortcomings and appreciate the new things it tried. However, now that the second entry in this emergent series has been released, I don’t feel the need to be so forgiving.

Dokapon Journey screenshot

For a follow-up title, Dokapon Journey recycles basically every element from its predecessor. Again you play as a warrior competing with two or three others in order to get the king some money (and marry his daughter). The plot may be a little hokey, but since this is a party game, I don’t really think it matters that much.

Your character (along with all the others) can then spin a spinner and move along a board with obstacles, monsters, shops, and treasure. One thing that is immediately annoying is how strict the moving system is. If you have a specific monster you want to fight, and it is five blocks away, you will have to spin a 5 exactly on the spinner to be able to engage the monster. So, if for instance, if you spin a 6, you will land on the space behind the monster, and you will then need to hope that you spin a 1 so that you can backtrack the one space you missed. This can make engaging in battles a little cumbersome, and makes luck a little too important in the gameplay.

The battle system in the game, however, isn’t half bad. When you land on a monster space, you will have to draw a card to see who goes first. You can then choose from four standard “attack” or “defend” actions based on your characters class (chosen at the beginning of the game). While most standard battles will be decided after one turn, if you are fighting a big monster, your battle turns will replace your normal moving turns.

Dokapon Journey screenshot

This is a real detriment to the gameplay, because battles take far too long when you have to wait your turn for every attack phase. While other characters can run around, get treasure, and buy things from shops, you are stuck in battle and can’t move until the battle ends. And when you have a battle that lasts more than three turns, it can get very boring.

The battle system itself suffers from being dull, chiefly because it works a little too well as an RPG. It is strictly turn-based, with no active elements whatsoever. You trigger attacks by pressing the face button tied to a specific attack (such as “strike” or “MP Blast”) and then wait for the other party to attack (or defend), and then your turn is over. When you are in battle, the extent of the gameplay per turn is pressing two buttons, which is not exactly that satisfying. This issue is compounded by the fact that other player’s turns can take an excess of two to three minutes each (or even longer if they decide to go shopping for new weapons/equipment), and you have to wait ten minutes just so you can press two buttons.

Dokapon Journey screenshot

This is a real detriment to the gameplay, because battles take far too long when you have to wait your turn for every attack phase. While other characters can run around, get treasure, and buy things from shops, you are stuck in battle and can’t move until the battle ends. And when you have a battle that lasts more than three turns, it can get very boring.

Dokapon Journey screenshot

The battle system itself suffers from being dull, chiefly because it works a little too well as an RPG. It is strictly turn-based, with no active elements whatsoever. You trigger attacks by pressing the face button tied to a specific attack (such as “strike” or “MP Blast”) and then wait for the other party to attack (or defend), and then your turn is over. When you are in battle, the extent of the gameplay per turn is pressing two buttons, which is not exactly that satisfying. This issue is compounded by the fact that other player’s turns can take an excess of two to three minutes each (or even longer if they decide to go shopping for new weapons/equipment), and you have to wait ten minutes just so you can press two buttons.

On the technical side of things, Dokapon Journey is a passable title, but doesn’t really stand out. The graphics are much poorer than those on the Wii/PS2 version, and the 3D characters and map have been replaced by 2-D sprites and flat environments. The sound in Dokpon Journey also isn’t as good as it was in the previous version, having omitted voiceovers entirely. The background music is annoying and very repetitive. Although you tend to expect some technical downgrades when a franchise moves from a console to a handheld, there was no reason for the sound and the graphics to take such a hit (they weren’t all that impressive last time either), but Dokapon Journey just doesn’t look or sound the way it deserves.

Dokapon Journey was a real disappointment. The first game really got me hooked on the RPG/Party game mash-up formula, and I was excited for the series to improve. However, Dokapon Journey seems to be another entry with the same faults that plagued the first. If they had just improved the format a little, or added a few more active elements to the gameplay, I would have nothing but praise for this title, as the format is still quite endearing. As it is, I just can’t get excited about Dokapon Journey because there have been no improvements, and there are even a few elements that have slid backwards in quality. I am still hoping that there will be more Dokapon in the future, and maybe this time some of the gameplay issues will be addressed. If this series doesn’t level up soon, it will be KO’d before it ever hits its stride.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 2.5 Graphics
Visuals are very simple, and the sprite-based graphics seem a little outdated. 3.5 Control
Controls are easy to use, although there are no active elements to the battle which can be a little boring in a party-style game. 2.0 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Level music is repetitive and annoying, and voiceover is non-existent. 2.7

Play Value
The game can be a lot of fun with three or four human players, but playing with the computer-controlled characters gets boring fast.

3.1 Overall Rating – Fair
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

  • Irresistible board game-RPG combination: This board game and RPG fusion will make you think strategy like never before on Nintendo DS! Customization, strategy, and depth are all yours as you squeeze battling, leveling up, conquering towns, and much more into each turn.
  • Playing dirty is the name of the game: This is all-out, winner-take-all competition, where the system favors those that know how to fight dirty! Jump into someone else’s fight, finish off the enemy, and snatch the experience. Mow down your competition and take a reward from their inventory. Use special items to slow down or injure those who get in your way!
  • Total multiplayer experience: The zany head-to-head-to-head (-to-head) competition of board games is in full force whether you play alone or in a group! Assign control of each character to a human or one of three computer play styles. Get your friends together, and up to four can play in single or multi-card mode!

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