For more than 10 years the party game genre has remained the same. There’s always a board with positive and negative areas on the map (ex: some may award items, others may take them away). To decide how many spaces a player can move, a randomizer – or rather, a dice rolling replacement – is implemented. Players can steal from each other, and when it’s not your turn to play, expect to wait a long time with nothing to do.

That’s the party game mantra: turn-based simplicity that mirrors the board game experience you once had as a kid. Plus mini-games – lots and lots of mini-games.

Atlus, however, thought it might have a way to create something different with Dokapon Kingdom: blend the style and playability of a party game with the aggressive battles of an RPG. The developers at Sting also threw in a story that mocks the genre’s traits (certain characters beg for money, ask for you to deliver specific items, etc.) and make fun of a king who’s obsessed with his own fortune. Is this too good to be true or too quirky to be loved by fans of either genre?

Dokapon Kingdom may be classified as an RPG, but it will look very familiar to party game players. Every level – albeit cave, waterway or just outside the king’s grand castle – has been designed with a pre-determined walking space. You can’t veer off the path, nor can you decide where to go each turn. Space advancement is decided by a six-digit spinner that each player spins at the beginning of their turn. There are special items that can influence or replace the spinner, but your movement is generally limited to the max of six spaces.

Up to four players may compete in Dokapon Kingdom, or you may choose to take on one, two or three AI-controlled opponents. Worlds (board game environments) tend to get large, so the developers kindly simplified the process of moving by indicating where you can go each turn. This auto command doesn’t have to be used, but it is very helpful in showing all the possible advancement points.

However, since this is a board game, players cannot move less than the number they’ve spun. If you spin four but only wanted to move two spaces, you’re out of luck. On the bright side, most of the environments are not lost when the player advances. You can circle around most areas as much as you like until the desired space is reached.

Each board is littered with item, weapon and armor spaces; land on one to trigger yet another spinning device. After stopping the spinner, the item that you land on (ex: a crystal that allows you to move five spaces) is yours. Land at an item shop and you’ll have the chance to purchase new items with your earnings.

By now you’re probably wondering, “This sounds like Mario Party. How is this an RPG?” The truth is that Dokapon Kingdom is yet another Mario Party clone – minus the mini-games, which are replaced by RPG-style battles. When you land on an opponent or monster, the RPG battles finally kick in. The same is true for plain spaces on the map.

Unbelievably, the game does not allow you to attack first – even if you’re the one who initiated combat. It seems that Dokapon Kingdom believes attacking is a privilege, not a right that every warrior should be given. Thus, to attack, players must first pass the randomized card test. Two cards appear with their backs to the screen – one determines who attacks first, the other determines who attacks second. You can switch the cards between yourself and your foe, but without knowing which one is which, why bother? The outcome can be pretty painful: it isn’t uncommon for the enemy to get the first blow.

That is the beginning of your troubles. When attacking, you only have a limited number of options to choose from: standard attack, strike (a different kind of attack), and two spells or special attacks. No attacks are made until the defender makes a selection, which may be to defend (block an attack), counter attack (counters strike moves), special move or give up. Choose to give up and you automatically lose cash or an item and will be unable to move on the board for one or two turns.

These limited choices aren’t bad but they don’t work very well. Until you level up (which only happens by defeating enemies or by fulfilling the king’s requests, which often forces you to battle enemies), most battles work like this: the first attacker wins. Most attacks, even those that are successfully defended against, are too strong to be stopped. When you go through the trouble of seeking out a monster, start a battle and are forced to attack second because the card randomizer said so, you will be very annoyed.

But that is only part of the agony. Unlike every turn-based RPG on the planet, battles are not fought until someone wins – they are fought until two turns are taken. If no one has lost or given up by that time, the game says, “To be continued,” and switches over to the next player’s turn. This feature was likely designed to prevent the non-battling players from having to wait out the full length of a battle, which can be a while if attacks are missed or countered. And this would be fine, if it was fair. But suppose you get to attack first – that means your opponent will get to pound on you before the battle is paused. When it’s your turn again and the battle starts up, one would think that it would be your turn to attack, right? The monster (or other player) made the last move. So it must be you who gets to attack next. That’s only fair. Right!?

Not in this game’s eyes. The turn randomizer appears once more to ruin your day.

Gameplay: 5.5
Dokapon Kingdom had a lot of promise. It's not everyday that a developer tries to reinvigorate the Mario Party brand of gameplay with a mix of other genres. That's what Dokapon Kingdom tried to accomplish, and while it succeeded in putting the two together, it failed to make either element (RPG or party game) stand out. On the RPG end, it made the gameplay far more frustrating than it had to with a randomized system that shouldn't have been employed.

Graphics: 5
In addition to playing like Mario Party, Dokapon Kingdom looks like a Mario Party game ... for Nintendo 64.

Sound: 5
Fueled with the sounds of kiddie anime, Dokapon Kingdom will not be music to your ears.

Difficulty: Easy
A game can't be difficult when battle conclusions are somewhat random.

Concept: 6
Mario Party with RPG battles, not button-mashing mini-games.

Multiplayer: 6.3
Dokapon Kingdom may combine the play styles of party games and RPGs, but it wasn't necessarily made for fans of either genre. It'll take a specific group of players to get into this one, a group that has extreme patience and a high tolerance for frustration.

Overall: 6
Not for everyone. There may be players out there who will think this game was made for them, but as a fan of RPGs and select party games, it's hard to tell who those players might be.