Dragon Quest Treasures Overview – Overview

There’s one thing about Dragon Quest, man. I’ve solely performed a couple of of them, however even I can respect how cozy these vibrant, poppy worlds are and the way good Akira Toriyama’s character designs look. In that respect, Dragon Quest Treasures delivers. However in case you aren’t a devoted Dragon Quest fan or a brand new participant making an attempt to expertise their first Japanese role-playing sport, Treasures is a tricky promote.

Dragon Quest Treasures is an exploration-focused action-RPG starring Erik and his sister Mia, beforehand seen in Dragon Quest XI. The third-person sport acts as a prequel of kinds, with the siblings being youngsters touring on a raider ship that picked them up.

Within the intro, Erik frees two mystical creatures – a inexperienced flying pig and a purple flying cat named Porcus and Purrsula – captive on the ship’s deck, which then transport the siblings to a different world within the sky. This world, Draconia, consists of a collection of floating islands formed like two dragons. When Erik and Mia enter the brand new world, they’re given daggers that allow them speak to their companions.

Porcus and Purrsula clarify that they’re magical beings despatched by gods to gather seven dragon stones that are ultimately necessary to Draconia. Porcus and Purrsula activity the siblings, who’re hungry for journey, with gathering the stones. The catch is that the land is filled with treasure and subsequently populated by competing treasure hunters. You then set up a base and, on the finish of this two-hour tutorial, are despatched into the world to hunt treasure and discover stones.

It’s at this level that you simply’re given entry to all 5 of Treasures’ Pokemon Legends: Arceus-style biomes. There’s a desert one, a fireplace one, an ice one, a marshlands one, and a grassy plains one. You go to an open zone, discover treasure buried within the floor, and dig it up by holding the A button. You find the treasure utilizing the assistance of as much as three monster companions who journey with you and are capable of sniff out valuables as you discover the world and full quests.

You recruit monsters by preventing them within the wild till one desires to affix you thru a “scouting” course of. You then have to return to your base and provides it the supplies it requests (normally discovered within the numerous biomes) earlier than it joins your crew. Fortunately, there’s storage when you recruit them so that you aren’t tied to solely having three at any given time.

While you’re near discovering treasure, your monsters provide you with a warning and you should utilize your magical compass to see telepathic pictures out of your monsters’ first-person views that present you precisely the place the treasure is situated. Treasure will not be laborious to search out typically, and when you deliver it again to base your vault features “worth” that will increase your treasure searching rank. Growing this rank progresses the story, enables you to search out a pair extra dragon stones, and boosts your base’s amenities.

Along with serving to you discover treasure, they struggle alongside you in battle and every has one in every of a number of totally different subject expertise. One ability enables you to dash for some time, one enables you to glide within the air, and one other enables you to find supplies simpler. My King Slime, for instance, lets me bounce on prime of it with a view to attain excessive cliffs.

Whereas these powers work equally to the traversal choices on this 12 months’s Pokemon video games, they’re tied to quickly-depleting stamina bars. These are not any good. Stamina doesn’t make Treasures higher or harder; it simply annoys me once I run for 20 seconds on the again of my Sabrecat earlier than having to leap off and jog throughout the open world for one more 20 seconds whereas it recharges.

The fight, in the meantime, happens in extraordinarily gentle motion RPG encounters not not like a watered down Xenoblade or Ni No Kuni. Your monsters method others within the wild and struggle them routinely. You are able to do a pair Pikmin model instructions, however for essentially the most half they’re auto battling as you management your character (you possibly can swap between Erik or Mia whilst you’re at your base – there isn’t any distinction between the 2 mechanically).

As a sibling, you struggle enemies together with your dagger by way of single button combos however the bulk of your actions will likely be from afar with a catapult slingshot. The slingshot is ready to hearth all the pieces from pellets to elemental assaults, buffs, debuffs, and therapeutic objects on the monsters whereas they do their factor. There are additionally screen-clearing tremendous strikes that Erik/Mia and your monsters can make the most of by way of a meter that costs over time.

The fights don’t management poorly, however I wouldn’t name the motion notably enjoyable both. It’s fairly simple to get by way of Treasures’ encounters, and by degree 30 I used to be handily defeating monsters 10-plus ranges greater than me. Each struggle felt principally the identical barring a couple of boss battles.

It could possibly be that this fight – and sport – have been constructed with youthful gamers in thoughts, and that they’ll have extra enjoyable working all over the world with this model of fight, however for me the battles ran properly out of steam by the point I rolled credit at round 14 hours. It doesn’t assist that a lot of the bosses are reused, whether or not it’s a daily monster with a protracted well being bar or the identical lion man you see like 5 totally different occasions.

Equally, I take challenge with the monster choice right here. Of the 75-odd monsters out there to recruit, there are most likely about 20 distinctive species with distinctive animations. The remainder are successfully repeated, with alternate coloration schemes and typically totally different powers. In different phrases, you will have the blue Slime, the pink Slime, King Slime, Queen Slime, Metallic Slime, and so forth, all as “distinct” monsters. The bats, knights, and so forth are all the identical method, making the 144 recruitable Pokemon in Pokemon Thriller Dungeon: Gates to Infinity seem to be a humiliation of riches by comparability.

One other annoyance might be discovered with the sport’s rival mechanic. After a sure level within the story, rival treasure searching gangs will try to steal your treasure as you discover the open zones. They’re simple to take out, and I discovered that one banked tremendous transfer was normally loads. Nonetheless, these sequences would at occasions pop up as soon as each jiffy, making this in any other case chill vibes sport right into a considerably extra annoying one.

Regardless of its simplistic construction or maybe due to it, I did get pleasure from Dragon Quest Treasures as a lighter model of the exploration gameplay seen in Arceus. Digging up treasures and getting them appraised is sort of enjoyable, partly due to the pleasing grind and partly as a result of the treasures are sometimes primarily based on characters and objects in earlier Dragon Quest video games (assume Smash Bros. trophies).

Gathering cooler monsters and discovering uncommon supplies additionally contributed to a principally satisfying loop, and I’m a sucker for some enjoyable JRPG exploration. I additionally like wanting on the colourful cell-shaded graphics, which have loads of Dragon Quest attraction to get pleasure from. Fortunately, it runs properly on Swap.

The story is equally an enthralling and low stakes affair about two siblings occurring an journey, however don’t go into it if you would like character growth, excessive stakes, and even perception into the world of Dragon Quest XI. It’s one thing chill and low consequence to get you from the start of the sport to the tip of it.

It’s with these nice vibes the place Dragon Quest Treasures finds its energy. At its finest, Treasures is JRPG sweet that acts both as a stable first JRPG for brand new gamers or a soothing diversion for collection followers. I simply want the sport wouldn’t get in its personal method a lot. If Treasures had extra monsters, a extra considerate fight expertise, fewer annoying interruptions, and a few extra bosses, Treasures would hit the Saturday morning cartoon highs of Stage-5s finest titles. This, sadly, misses the mark a bit.