Review: DOKAPON KINGDOM: CONNECT is a solid port of foul play

Earlier this month, Idea Factory released Kingdom of Dokapon: Connect. This is an RPG board game for the Nintendo Switch and is a port of the fan favorite Wii game. The game allows up to four players to play a board game in various game modes with RPG elements such as character classes and fighting. Idea Factory was kind enough to provide me with a copy of the game for review purposes, but thoughts are mine. You can get your copy of Kingdom of Dokapon: Connect via the eShop or your favorite retailers such as GameStop (affiliate link).

Everyone in the Dokapon Kingdom loves money. One day monsters suddenly appeared in this peaceful land and started attacking nearby cities. The economy collapsed and people were at their lowest. Taxes were no longer paid, of course. So that’s when the king acted! He’s decided to gather the bravest warriors to save these cities so he can get paid! In return, the one who collects the most will be rewarded with the princess’s hand in marriage and the throne. And so begins an adventure for money, where absolutely everything goes!

When I heard Kingdom of Dokapon was getting a Switch port through Kingdom of Dokapon: Connect, I was excited. I had played it once over 5 years ago at a friend’s house, but it cost too much on the used market and/or was never a high enough priority for me. With a Switch port, it’s much more accessible, and I got to revisit this game. Unfortunately, this also meant that I was seeing a lot more issues with the game.

Before exploring my complaints Kingdom of Dokapon: Connect, I want to highlight the positives. First, the game appears to be a very faithful port for anyone looking for the original experience on modern hardware. Secondly, the pictures are very bright and fun. The characters are cute with fun animations. Music is also fun to listen to. The game is exactly what it advertises. Plus, there are five different game modes to help turn things around. The story mode has a fun little narrative where you have to help the king by defeating monsters and liberating cities etc.

Now we will talk about problem areas. The biggest problem is the imbalance between the classes. When you start the game, you can choose between Warrior, Mage and Thief. The Thief is so overwhelmed it’s not funny. They have the ability where if they outrun another player, they simply steal an item from that player. This provides a huge advantage in the early game as you can steal anything and if you don’t need to, you can sell it for potentially thousands of gold. There were a few games I played where I didn’t play Thief but had one controlled by a CPU and gave up because Thief was so far ahead it was impossible to keep up. This means you have to ban Thief, everyone has to play Thief or you have to accept friendships end.

Another irritating thing is the fact that this is a board game and therefore there is a fair amount of possibilities involved. If you are unable to spin the right number, you are unable to do anything you hope to do. That’s an inherent risk with this type of game and so it’s not that frustrating for me and honestly, if it weren’t for the Rogue’s completely unfair ability it wouldn’t be a big deal.

At the end of the day, Kingdom of Dokapon: Connect it is a solid port. The issues I have are not with the port, but rather with the game in general. If you want an RPG board game experience to play with friends, you might want to get yourself a copy, but you should consider everyone rogues or class bans. Do you have any advice for Kingdom of Dokapon: Connect Players? What’s your favorite part of the game?