Dokapon Video Preview
Added 2024-03-23 06:57:10 +0000 UTCI'm taking this month to work on some of my own stuff. I'm currently splitting my time between the Epithet website, novelizing the Epithet museum arc into a book, getting back into streaming more, and this gargantuan video I'm working on.
This stupid video is two straight hours of me methodically ripping apart Dokapon Kingdom, a terrible but ultimately pretty harmless party game for the Wii and PS2. It is, sincerely, one of the most ineptly-designed games I have ever played. It's not the WORST game I've ever played by any means, but it's one of the most ineptly-designed ones.
This chunk of the video doesn't make a ton of sense out of context, but it has a lot of animation work that took me several days so I'm showing if off here. I'm currently on minute 52 of about 116, so, yeah, this is somehow going to be my biggest video ever.
Whoops!
I decided to do this one before the Jetters video to have a test video to learn how video essays work. I'm actually glad I did, because I talk WAY too fast for a video essay.
Hopefully you guys will find this interesting. No clue when this will be done.
Comments
Some day I hope we get this!
Autumn moon
2025-12-06 07:08:27 +0000 UTCI was sure this video was out already, but I'm pretty sure i just Mandela effect'ed myself
Noah Finch
2025-07-01 02:37:55 +0000 UTCI’m so excited for this video
Autumn moon
2024-06-21 02:50:12 +0000 UTC3:34 THERE I AM GARY, THERE I AM!!
Brevin
2024-03-31 05:42:08 +0000 UTCJello rants are my favorite rants
Vanilla Snow Golem
2024-03-29 04:57:58 +0000 UTCOh this is immaculate
Psycho
2024-03-25 03:18:45 +0000 UTCthat slap sound is so brutal
Flare TheGunCalamity
2024-03-24 20:41:42 +0000 UTCOh absolutely, I completely agree lol! This comment wasn't meant to be me saying dokapon is somehow GOOD for making the gameplay bad on purpose. Just that this is the reason behind it, even if I don't comprehend that reason lol. I 100% agree with jello's vid here that there are way better ways to make a game about hilariously trolling your friends that is ALSO still fun.
Bunni89
2024-03-24 20:26:15 +0000 UTCoh this art of you three's dokapon... oc's is so cute!
PurpleIsDebeste
2024-03-24 20:22:42 +0000 UTCi mean, mario party has this reputation as a friendship ruining game, but mario party is also tactical and has strategic elements and, most importantly, is fun. dokapon has none of these things going for it. and frankly it won't ruin my friendships because none of us are fighting each other because we got sick of the game 40 hours ago and are just working together to make it stop
PurpleIsDebeste
2024-03-24 20:15:56 +0000 UTCI feel like the Papa John’s was slap enough.
X-ian
2024-03-24 15:55:46 +0000 UTCIncorrect. The money option is an OFFER, in that the player can have the option to double their money at the expense of a movement debuff. That's a choice, which is something Dokapon never gives you. If the player has spinners then -4 is actually a pretty minor debuff, so it's very situational because sometimes it's a great idea to take the money and sometimes it's a terrible one. The whole point of this section is suggesting ideas to give the players more agency to inflict specific obstacles on their rivals whereas the game as it exists now only gives you the ability to take away their progress. It's the difference between adding challenges for them to deal with in an obstacle course and picking them up and putting them back to the beginning of the obstacle course. EX: Kingdom has two spells called Squall and Psychokinesis that are just straight up busted. They can result in a player being teleported across the worldmap, which can literally cost them an hour's worth of turns to get back to where they were. A small version of Psychokinesis where you can move a player just a LITTLE bit in a specific, annoying way is a much better tool to piss your friends off in a funny way without actively wasting their fucking time.
JelloApocalypse
2024-03-24 10:48:56 +0000 UTCIt was a charity live stream milestone goal
JelloApocalypse
2024-03-24 10:44:59 +0000 UTCLegit this video is gonna make me want to make my own Dokapon-like game.
Lstrike
2024-03-24 00:00:53 +0000 UTCI get what you mean but some of the options you suggest have the exact same problem you complain about the game having, SPECIALLY the one about doubling money and having -4 movement
Cherry
2024-03-23 18:15:46 +0000 UTCGreatly look forward to this. Also, glad I actually got some elaboration on the “drive to jellos house and slap him” bit. Turns out there’s nothing to elaborate on, that’s just what happened
Evan McKee
2024-03-23 14:40:36 +0000 UTCYea. You're always in the jail. Because that's there you BELONG SIR!
Jacob
2024-03-23 11:34:56 +0000 UTCPunishing a player by making them twiddle their thumbs in time-out like a toddler is almost always objectively the worst, laziest, most boring thing you can do in a game. This should be obvious, right? You want your player to play and enjoy your game, right?? If they wanted to sit around doing nothing they could be doing that for free instead of paying fifty dollars for Dokapon Kingdom
BoatHungry
2024-03-23 09:14:15 +0000 UTCOH I LOVE THIS! Even better than critique of how mean dokapon is- IDEAS TO MAKE IT MEANER! You are so heckin right, it woulda been way more fun to have creative and ridiculous penalties instead of just everything makes you miss a turn. I didn't even think of that, how it wastes the potential to still be the same rudeass game AND could actually be fun too!
Bunni89
2024-03-23 08:44:54 +0000 UTCIn any case, I've been SO excited to see this video from you since you first announced it! I've been like.. dualclassing fan of dokapon and absolutely despising everything about how the games actually work, ever since i was a kid. I am rubbing my hands together in absolute glee to see you tear it apart!
Bunni89
2024-03-23 08:39:03 +0000 UTCIt's like the Getting Over It By Bennet Foddy, mario party edition. Game where the entire appeal is supposed to be that the developers made it awful on purpose but like.. competitive awful. Challenge awful. Awful as invitation to all appreciators of true awful. Like dark souls the appeal is meant to be for the odd niche of people who just really enjoy getting their ass rocked by an unfair challenge for a bazillion hours and feeling really accomplished when they eventually win. (Though it being luck instead of skill-based doesn't work quite as well)
Bunni89
2024-03-23 08:37:31 +0000 UTCTbh I don't think Dokapon games are so much "poorly designed" as opposed to "purposefully, unbearably, dickishly hard, as a feature not a bug". It's a recurring element in the whole series, they've become infamous as "the party game that ruins friendships
Bunni89
2024-03-23 08:34:01 +0000 UTCIt almost literally is! From what I've heard the name comes from the japanese onomatopoeia for kicking someone's ass and shaking down their pockets for money lol
Bunni89
2024-03-23 08:32:35 +0000 UTCSounds like the game should literally be called "Screw You!"
Myths01
2024-03-23 07:47:29 +0000 UTCI feel seen. Also love your stuff, love your book, and your dark diety stream had me in stitches.
Masofuts
2024-03-23 07:08:47 +0000 UTCYou. You fucking get it.
JelloApocalypse
2024-03-23 07:07:03 +0000 UTCI remember being really excited to play this game with my siblings. But they didn’t tell me that when you land on the same space as other players you fight to the death. Sucks but no big deal right? No. I lost three turns. At the beginning of the game. By the time I’m able to get to the actual map. I have no money, no levels, and no items. Any monster I fight kills me. I can’t go by the other players because they’ll kill me in one hit compared to my 2-3. We played that game for about 3 hours. And of the 20+ turns I had almost 11 of them were me having to WAIT because I was dead. I can take punishment mechanics. But mechanics where I can’t play the fucking game are awful. I mean who doesn’t enjoy playing a game where you have to wait 3 rounds and one player in particular takes 10 minutes per turn.
Masofuts
2024-03-23 07:06:20 +0000 UTCThe clips of the streams and actual gameplay add a lot. I feel like usually video essays I’ve seen just talk about how they felt when playing but you having the recording of your real ass reaction to the bullshit Dokapon throws at you let’s you drive the point that much further
harry mansfield
2024-03-23 07:04:23 +0000 UTCI do find this interesting :)
Folly!
2024-03-23 07:04:15 +0000 UTC
