Support NeoGAF

[Takao]

 

[Takao]

Dokuro
Publisher: Gungho Online Entertainment
Developer: Game Arts - Team PonKotz Troops
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Genre: Puzzle Platformer
Release Date:
July 5, 2012 (Japan)
October 16, 2012 (North America)
TBD (Europe)
Price: ¥2,400, $19.99, TBD

Note: The Western releases of the game will be digital-only. Asian/Japanese copies feature English as an option, and are an easy import.

Story:
Dokuro is a stoic, little skeleton who is a mere peon in the Dark Lord’s army. One fateful day he witnesses his master returning with a helplessly abducted Princess he intends to force into marriage. At once smitten by her plight, Dokuro resolves to free her from the Dark Lord’s treacherous, monster-infested castle. Along the way, he happens upon a mystical blue potion with the power to transform him into a dashing Hero; tragically, this is the only time the Princess can witness his noble endeavors.

Heedless of any danger, the Princess will continue to walk forward until she encounters an obstacle she cannot overcome on her own. Dokuro must switch between his Skeleton and Hero forms to utilize his various skills and abilities. While the Skeleton form allows him to stalk about in the shadows and ensure her safe passage, the Hero form enables him to mount a gallant offensive against the armies of darkness!

Videos
Dev Walkthrough
English Teaser
Opening Movie
Japanese Trailer #1
Japanese Trailer #2
1 hour of gameplay

Closing:

Dokuro's a chalk based game with a tonne of content, boasting over 150 levels for 20-30 hours of gameplay. For the Wario64s of the world, there is a platinum trophy. Check out some of the demos on the PlayStation Store.

Japanese Site
Metacritic

 

[Canis lupus]

Good job on the OT Takao, just according to keikaku.

TBD Europe pffft.

 

[Trojita]

Bakuretsu Tenshi Do do do do do do do do Dokuro-Chan.

Looks neat.

 

[StuBurns]

Well, enjoy this chaps, if SCEE ever bothers to put it up, I'll join you lucky fellows.

 

[Takao]

Launch Trailer

In my last PlayStation.Blog post, I talked a bit about the origins of my favorite numbskull, Dokuro, and the story surrounding his heroic exploits. My ever-diminishing pool of skeleton-themed puns notwithstanding, I’d like to go a bit deeper into the gameplay elements of Dokuro as well as the concepts that spurred development choices.

Although Dokuro was inspired by children’s books — The Velveteen Rabbit and a Japanese children’s book called Kuma to Yamaneko — don’t let the adorable chalk-laden game fool you into thinking the Dark Lord’s castle is child’s play. At first, Dokuro may look like a pretty straightforward 2D side-scrolling puzzler: You’ve got a clear goal of escorting the princess from point A to point B, and a seemingly narrow list of what you can and cannot do to accomplish it. You push a few boxes around, toggle a switch or two, and bash a few bozos who try to hurt your precious princess. The game wouldn’t be a fraction as interesting as it is, however, if it simply stopped there.

Dokuro for PS Vita

As you progress through the treacherous castle, you are gradually introduced to new concepts and abilities, such as using the spicy-red chalk to transfer fires and toggling the amazing anti-gravity device to solve vexing gravity-defying riddles. Just as soon as these new concepts are introduced, they snuggle right into your existing bag of tricks. Now you’ve got to avoid heavily armed knights, transform into a hero to slash away at your foes, push an explosive barrel up against a fragile wall and red chalk that barrel’s fuse before the bouncing flame monsters get you!

By the end of the game, you’ve learned how to interact with a whole slew of environments and objects including seesaws, windmills, pendulums, and water.

Every new skill you learn becomes a necessary part of your repertoire as you encounter increasingly complex puzzles, but the game won’t just test your brains. While many of its stages can be solved with mental dexterity alone, there are quite a few stages that will rely on your platforming expertise. For many stages, you will have to carefully time Dokuro’s jumps, shoves, chalks and heroic transformations to survive some of the more precarious pitfalls. The game’s creator, Noriaki Kazama, described these extremely challenging stages as ones that “come at the users with intent to kill.” However, if you ever get fed up with these challenges, you are permitted to skip as many as ten stages and return to finish those death-inducing stages after you’ve had some time to calm down.

Dokuro for PS Vita

The developer Game Arts suggests that if you get stuck on an area, the best thing to do is take a step back and look at the whole picture. What can Dokuro do? What concepts have been recently introduced? And why do I keep jumping into those stupid spikes!? Even the seemingly daunting boss battles can be conquered quite smoothly once you observe their movements and take advantage of your surroundings. In stages like that, it’s important to remember the Ambrose Redmoon quote that inspired Dokuro in the first place: “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.”

Dokuro’s motivations may not be clear at first, but once the princess gives him her magical bell to help him protect what’s most important to him, he literally glows with purpose! Seeing this plucky little pile of bones struggle to reach his goals makes the punishing puzzles and brief event scenes all the more rewarding.

Dokuro consists of 15 stages, each with about 10 areas. At the end of each area, you are greeted by a lovely little flower and a small box that says how long you took to clear the area this time around. In my normal puzzling experience, I’d be taken to some kind of stage select or results screen, but the developers were concerned this would pull players away from the immersive experience, so they cut this part out and made it feel like one continuous journey since the levels seamlessly bleed into one another up until you encounter a story event or boss battle.

PlayStation Blog

 

[Dead Prince]

my $19.99 is ready. bringing the vita to work so i have time to download!

 

[erpg]

How large is the download? With JSR delayed forever, I have a PSN card begging to be used.

 

[Pai Pai Master]

Bakuretsu Tenshi Do do do do do do do do Dokuro-Chan.

Looks neat.

I think the same damn thing every time I see this game's name. Will play.

 

[Shai-Tan]

I was thinking $20 is asking too much in a world full of puzzle based indy platformers but it looks like it has the content to justify it.

 

[Takao]

All the wall paper posted is Vita res btw. High res versions can be found on the Japanese site. Speaking of which, here's some I didn't put in the OP:

 

[Mitama]

This game looks amazing.

 

[Blue Submarine No. 6]

This game looks amazing.

I agree. I think it looks like the kind of game that will really shine on the Vita. Day one purchase for me.

 

[-NeoTB1-]

This looks great. +1 purchase.

 

[Lord Ghirahim]

The trailers show too much. Buy the thing.

 

[Roubjon]

Chances are I'll be buying this tonight. Looks awesome.

 

[zroid]

Want, but not day 1. Probably in December when the releases slow down.

 

[2+2=5]

I tried the demo, i really love it(since the announcement to tell the truth), too bad for the european release! I'm starting to be really sick and tired of these delays!

 

[Dead Prince]

does the game have slow down for those that played?

 

[OmegaZero]

Nice OT.

Yet another purchase for my Vita.

 

[MisterC20XX]

Nice OT, Takao. Dokuro just took JSR's place on my buy list.

 

[SAB CA]

Great OT here, feels like an Atlus Faithful press release or something! Classy...

Want, but not day 1. Probably in December when the releases slow down.

Spend 100 in Oct tober, get the 20 back in Nov, Buy Dokuro!

Thought about doing this myself, but I'm more charmed by this, than many of the other current releases this week... seems like, out of all the puzzle / platform games this Gen, someone finally makes one that really appeals to me, haha.

Gotta be there to support that!

The claims of 15-30 hours of gameplay are quite surprising. I have no need to rush through anything like this, and the impressions from the JP game seem to be that the game really uses all it's abilities and power-ups well, making a large majority of the experience maintain freshness all throughout.

Seems like the perfect little Vita experience!

 

[mauaus]

waiting for the words "up via search"

 

[Carl]

Will buy if/when it ever comes out in Europe.

 

[Lord Ghirahim]

Nice OT, Takao. Dokuro just took JSR's place on my buy list.

Sega saves gaming once again.

Want, but not day 1. Probably in December when the releases slow down.

Get it now or I'll PM you BDFF spoilers (...if my copy ever gets here).

 

[Yuterald]

Ugh, there are so many cool Vita games now. I really want to play this, but I won't be able to afford a Vita for quite some time. =(

 

[Toki767]

Game Arts are basically supplying the Vita with a constant stream of quality games. Will pick this up.

I'm still hoping for a new Grandia game though!

 

[Corto]

Look what mr. mailman just left by my mailbox!

I'll boot it up right now. Can't wait.

Edit: And thanks Lord Ghirahim for bringing this game to my attention!

 

[djplaeskool]

Be warned.
This game gets tough.

 

[SAB CA]

Have to add, that launch trailer is fantastic.

From the early gameplay, you could really get the idea that this game is something like "Boring, poorly animated characters move through plain worlds and do expected, puzzly stuff" kinda game. I'd have a hard time being excited for it, if it stopped there.

But the designs, personality, and gameplay REALLY seem to open up, as the game progresses. It's almost like looking at a proof of concept, a fully realized game, and it's more fleshed-out sequel, all squeezed into one purchase.

It looks like so much more than you'd expect at a glance, and that's a good reason why it's getting my purchase today!

Edit: Interesting quote from the PS Blog Replies:

+ Antonio Cara (Community Associate, GungHo Online Entertainment America) on October 16th, 2012 at 8:42 am said:

There will not be a demo, but I did try to make the trailer here show off as much as possible to give players an idea for how the game flows. There are also a lot of gameplay videos floating around on Youtube.

As for the length of the experience, I already see a lot of questions, so I’ll explain it here as accurately as I can.

I play a lot of puzzlers myself and my main rule of thumb is to do it with NO walkthroughs or other kinds of help. Then once I’ve beaten the game fairly and want to platinum/100% complete it, I will look into FAQs and such.

I beat “teleport gun: the game” in the time it would take to watch the third Lord of the Rings movie.

I beat “artsy game with little man in sharp suite looking for girlfriend” in about 1 evening.

Dokuro I had to dedicate 2 full gaming weekends to simply beat it – trophy hunting not included.

Maybe I&#8217;m just getting old >_< but there is DEFINITELY a lot of content to complete.

 

[Lord Ghirahim]

And thanks Lord Ghirahim for bringing this game to my attention!

Have fun!
Also, new avatar (thanks, Kazerei!)

 

[darkwing]

is it up yet??

 

[Valkyr47]

this is going to sound like the most ridiculous question/case of OCD ever... but i need to ask

Im very particular about how my vita screens are setup

i have my Vita games on Page 1, PSN Vita games on Page 2 (Retro City Rampage, Super Stardust Delta, Escape Plan, etc etc), ps1 classics after that, and ps mobile games after that

what should i file this under once i download it? I want to put it with my Vita PSN games since its download and all my normal Vita games i always buy via Cart to save space... and its not available in NA in cart form

however it is TECHNICALLY a vita game, not a Playstation Network title, so its confusing

again, i have ridiculous OCD and i can admit that, sorry

 

[darkwing]

this is going to sound like the most ridiculous question/case of OCD ever... but i need to ask

Im very particular about how my vita screens are setup

i have my Vita games on Page 1, PSN Vita games on Page 2 (Retro City Rampage, Super Stardust Delta, Escape Plan, etc etc), ps1 classics after that, and ps mobile games after that

what should i file this under once i download it? I want to put it with my Vita PSN games since its download and all my normal Vita games i always buy via Cart to save space... and its not available in NA in cart form

however it is TECHNICALLY a vita game, not a Playstation Network title, so its confusing

again, i have ridiculous OCD and i can admit that, sorry

it's a Vita game

 

[Akainu]

That 1 hour of gameplay video was frustratingly hard to watch. But it looked good.

 

[Acquiescence]

Oh shit, I thought this was officially announced for Europe already, only to discover it hasn't even been given a date yet. Shafted once again. Was really looking forward to this too

 

[Frankenstrat]

Bakuretsu Tenshi Do do do do do do do do Dokuro-Chan.

Looks neat.

Fuck. Same thing I immediately thought of. Might have to check this out somehow.

 

[Frankenstrat]

EDIT: Oh, how I hate my university's wifi.

 

[depward]

On the fence. After spending $39.99 on New Little King's Story and not exactly loving it, I don't want buyer's remorse again.

Kinda waiting on more gaffer impressions...

 

[jimmythepage]

lovely OP
will buy once it's in PAL territories, I'm a sucker for 2D

 

[chualie]

this is going to sound like the most ridiculous question/case of OCD ever... but i need to ask

Im very particular about how my vita screens are setup

i have my Vita games on Page 1, PSN Vita games on Page 2 (Retro City Rampage, Super Stardust Delta, Escape Plan, etc etc), ps1 classics after that, and ps mobile games after that

what should i file this under once i download it? I want to put it with my Vita PSN games since its download and all my normal Vita games i always buy via Cart to save space... and its not available in NA in cart form

however it is TECHNICALLY a vita game, not a Playstation Network title, so its confusing

again, i have ridiculous OCD and i can admit that, sorry

I'm the same way. I have to have all my games categorized correctly. It starts annoying me when I think something falls into two categories. It's the same with my music and genre categorization haha.

 

[test_account]

Very nice OP!

Dokuro is kinda similar to Escape Plan. You have shorter levels where you have to solve different puzzles. The big difference however is that Escape plan pretty much only uses touch controls while Dokuro is played with buttons, like any other 2D sidescroller. There are some touch screen stuff, but its very little of it, and some of the touch screen stuff can also be used with buttons as well.

Dokuro isnt only a pure puzzle game as in moving boxes and pulling switches. You also have to fight enemies a few times as well. There are also boss fights.

Personally i really enjoyed Dokuro. I love the artstyle and the controls feels good and responsive. The puzzles are for the most part relatively easy and doable, but i had to really think hard on how to solve a few of them. Without spoiling anything, i also enjoyed the ending quite much too. For those who wonder about the trophies, it is a relatively easy platinum.

These are my opinions and i cant guarantee that everyone will like the game as much as i did of course, but i'd highly recommend people to check it out

 

[zroid]

Get it now or I'll PM you BDFF spoilers .

OH GOD

(...if my copy ever gets here)

*begins plotting scheme to intercept it en route*

 

[Schobeleth]

Such an awesome OT. I'm taking notes for my next OT I can't wait to get the game though... just waiting on that damn store update -_-

 

[SAB CA]

For those who may be wondering, more info gleamed from the PS Blog post:

• Game download is about 325 megs.
• Confirmed you CAN'T double up on Trophies from US and Asian version.

Antonio Cara is doing a great job answering questions, and talking with people on that blogpost. A good showing for Gungho Ent's first direct US Vita release.

 

[Carl]

Antonio Cara is doing a great job answering questions, and talking with people on that blogpost. A good showing for Gungho Ent's first direct US Vita release.

I love when a developer does their best to answer all questions on the Blog comments. Makes me so much more likely to buy their game.

 

[Dead Prince]

brought my vita for nothing D:

 

[Lord Ghirahim]

this is going to sound like the most ridiculous question/case of OCD ever... but i need to ask

Im very particular about how my vita screens are setup

i have my Vita games on Page 1, PSN Vita games on Page 2 (Retro City Rampage, Super Stardust Delta, Escape Plan, etc etc), ps1 classics after that, and ps mobile games after that

what should i file this under once i download it? I want to put it with my Vita PSN games since its download and all my normal Vita games i always buy via Cart to save space... and its not available in NA in cart form

however it is TECHNICALLY a vita game, not a Playstation Network title, so its confusing

again, i have ridiculous OCD and i can admit that, sorry

Make a new page for "games that I bought on PSN even though they are available on cart somewhere in the world". I hope you have sought help for your issue, OCD is no fun.

 

[Takao]

Oh shit, I thought this was officially announced for Europe already, only to discover it hasn't even been given a date yet. Shafted once again. Was really looking forward to this too

It has been announced for Europe. Gungho just haven't given a date.

this is going to sound like the most ridiculous question/case of OCD ever... but i need to ask

Im very particular about how my vita screens are setup

i have my Vita games on Page 1, PSN Vita games on Page 2 (Retro City Rampage, Super Stardust Delta, Escape Plan, etc etc), ps1 classics after that, and ps mobile games after that

what should i file this under once i download it? I want to put it with my Vita PSN games since its download and all my normal Vita games i always buy via Cart to save space... and its not available in NA in cart form

however it is TECHNICALLY a vita game, not a Playstation Network title, so its confusing

again, i have ridiculous OCD and i can admit that, sorry

Make a new section for Vita games exclusive to PSN that were retail other places. Buy Sumioni, Ogarhythm, and New Little King's Story to help fill the page up, lol.

 

[BomberMouse]

It's up via search!