Like an old fairytale, the story of Dokuro unfolds – a princess is held captured inside the Dark Lord’s castle. However, this time a highly unlikely hero appears to save the day: the skeleton that used to serve under the Dark Lord. After releasing the fair princess, Dokuro, from her cell, he has to lead her through the dangerous castle to ensure that she might escape to safety and live happily ever after.
The fair princess Dokuro has been captured by the evil Dark Lord and is now kept captive in the highest tower, awaiting her enforced wedding. However, just when all hope seems lost one servant of the Dark Lord becomes a turncoat and decides to save Dokuro. However, the journey is a long and hazardous one that stretches through numerous areas within the castle, ranging from kitchens and dining rooms to gardens and cemeteries.
The puzzle concept in Dokuro is built upon guiding Princess Dokuro from one point to another in a classical escort fashion. Throughout, several different enemies and obstacles will be found and can be conquered in the quest to escape the castle in one piece, and the pace in which these are introduced is even and fair to gamers.
The special thing about Dokuro is not found within the puzzles itself, though, since the escort questing is a concept that has been done several times already. What makes this so special is its art style – heavily based on chalkboard drawings – and the core mechanic is even built upon this. To proceed in this gothic fairytale, the skeleton must learn to use the magical chalk to overcome the obstacles found. This makes the game extremely thematic and gives it a personality of its own, always leaving players curious about what environment and new tools are going to be revealed in the next area of this beautiful puzzle platformer. However, other than the chalkboard usage – that is poorly designed for non-touch screen devices – it is very similar to many other games on the market.
