''Dokapon: Monster Hunter'', known in Japan as and known in

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as ''Dokapon: Monster Hunter!'', is a 2001

role-playing video game A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as simply a role-playing game or RPG, as well as a computer role-playing game or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immers ...

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developed and published by

Asmik Ace Entertainment , formerly is a Japanese film production and distribution company. In the past, the company has distributed video games. It was formed in 1997 through a merger between the Asmik Corporation and Ace Entertainment, both of Japan. The name Asmik ...

for the

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, 2 ...

in Japan on August 3, 2001. It was later published in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

AIA AIA or A.I.A. or Aia may refer to: Aia * Aia, a small town in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa, Spain * Aia, current Kutaisi, ancient capital of Colchis * Aia, another name for Aea (Malis), an ancient town in Greece * ''Aia'', the collected ed ...

on October 30, 2001, and in

Ubi Soft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include ''Assassin's Creed'', ''Far Cry (serie ...

on June 21, 2002.

Gameplay

Dokapon takes place on Dokkano Island, in the town of Poponga. The goal of the game is to become a licensed adventurer - to do this, the player must pass an adventurer's exam by completing a number of assigned missions, which requires the player to defeat many monsters in battle. Once weakened, the player can collect the monster and use it in future battles to defeat opponents, as with other games such as Pokémon. Dungeons are randomly generated each time the player enters them. Staircases allow the player to move between floors in the dungeons. Within the dungeons are scattered items, weapons, and shields which may be used or sold once the dungeon is completed. Aside from the treasures are monsters. Some will chase you, some will wander freely, some run from you.

Battle

If the player encounters a monster, a battle begins. The battle starts off with the choice of one card. Two cards are face down; one contains a sword while the other contains a shield. The sword card is the attack card and whoever gets that card will attack first. The shield card determines who will defend first. The battle will then start. The battle commands are based on a

rock-paper-scissors Rock paper scissors (also known by other orderings of the three items, with "rock" sometimes being called "stone," or as Rochambeau, roshambo, or ro-sham-bo) is a hand game originating in China, usually played between two people, in which each p ...

game and include a sword or shield according to what turn you have. The sword icon is a normal attack using the weapon you currently have. If the character is unarmed, this is the only command available. This does a set amount of damage based on the character's attack and the opponents defense. Attacks can be evaded depending on the speed stat.

Attack

The sword icon is the main attack. This deals out a set amount of damage. The damage can only be lowered if the opponent uses the shield command. But the attack can still deal a good amount of damage. The rock, scissors, and paper commands will contain other moves which you may use. If you win, you will use that move. If you lose, your move is canceled and the opponent uses their defensive move. Strategy is key when using the commands as you may have a big disadvantage.

Defense

The shield icon is the main defense. You will be dealt all damage if the enemy uses a rock, scissors, or paper based move. You'll take less damage if they use the sword icon but many times the monster won't. The rock, scissors, and paper commands are different and have many different effects. Some reflect the attack or back with full effect or a lower effect, some give your character higher stats or decrease the monsters stats, some don't do anything at all.

Reception

The game received "average" reviews according to the

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website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

. In Japan, ''

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...

'' gave it a score of 25 out of 40.

References

External links

* {{Dokapon series Role-playing video games Asmik Ace Entertainment games Ubisoft games

Monster Hunter is a Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fantasy-themed action role-playing video games that started with the game ''Monster Hunter'' for the PlayStation 2, released in 2004. Titles have been released across a variety of platforms, ...

Game Boy Advance games Game Boy Advance-only games Action role-playing video games 2001 video games Video games developed in Japan