Dokapon Kingdom

"Dokapon Kingdom" is a really fun video game title from Atlus that combines a board game with party game and RPG elements. So far, I've only had experience with the story mode, but up to four players can participate. You start by selecting your "job" (initially a warrior, magician, or thief) and customizing your character's name, face, and outfit/hair color. Players take turns flicking a numbered spinner in order to make their way to the king's castle. In the beginning area, some spaces randomly award you with money, items, magic spells, or weapons and armor. Once you reach the castle, it's explained that monsters are occupying towns throughout the kingdom and stealing the king's revenue. You, the adventurers, are expected to liberate said towns and try to earn as much money as possible. The winner is obviously the hero with the highest net worth at the end of the game. Turns progress as days of the week, and rankings are figured at the end of each week.

Once you exit the castle and enter the main world/board (and it's a BIG one) there are many more types of spaces on which to land. Blank spaces will either trigger an event or a battle with a random monster that plays out in true turn-based RPG style. When battling, you have the choice of four actions depending on whether you're attacking or defending. These actions have different strengths and weaknesses, and some can even be exchanged for different abilites when your character increases their job level. There are spaces on the board for weapon, item, and magic shops, towns, and even dungeon entrances that take the players to other smaller boards with their own unique spaces.

When boss monsters occupying towns are defeated, those towns are liberated and add to the hero's wealth. You can invest in towns (or level them up) and earn special "local items," or collect taxes from towns you liberated. You can concentrate on fighting monsters and liberating towns, or you can impede the progress of your fellow adventurers by targeting them with spells or confronting them in battle. If you do defeat another player in battle you can rob them, give them negative status effects (even ones you're currently suffering from), or play a prank on them. As an example of a prank: my cousin defeated me in battle and decided to change my name to "Fart But." I included his minor spelling error because it's that much funnier. I was known as Fart But for many more turns and had also lost my hair in another prank inflicted on me by a boss monster. Eventually my name was restored at the king's castle and a stereotypically gay hairdresser gave me a tall green mohawk... Yes, it's a strange game.