An enthralling exploration JRPG the place the X doesn’t fairly mark the spot.
There’s one thing about Dragon Quest, man. I’ve solely performed just a few of them, however even I can recognize how cozy these brilliant, poppy worlds are and the way good Akira Toriyama’s character designs look. In that respect, Dragon Quest Treasures delivers. However in the event you aren’t a devoted Dragon Quest fan or a brand new participant attempting to expertise their first Japanese role-playing recreation, 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 recreation acts as a prequel of kinds, with the siblings being children 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 discuss to their companions.
Porcus and Purrsula clarify that they’re magical beings despatched by gods to gather seven dragon stones that are not directly vital 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 hearth 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 needs 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 varied biomes) earlier than it joins your workforce. 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 photographs out of your monsters’ first-person views that present you precisely the place the treasure is positioned. Treasure just isn’t laborious to search out usually, and when you convey it again to base your vault features “worth” that will increase your treasure searching rank. Rising this rank progresses the story, enables you to seek out a pair extra dragon stones, and boosts your base’s services.
Along with serving to you discover treasure, they combat alongside you in battle and every has one in all a number of completely different discipline abilities. One talent 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 the intention 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 tougher; 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 an additional 20 seconds whereas it recharges.
The fight, in the meantime, happens in extraordinarily mild motion RPG encounters not in contrast to a watered down Xenoblade or Ni No Kuni. Your monsters method others within the wild and combat them robotically. You are able to do a pair Pikmin type instructions, however for essentially the most half they’re auto battling as you management your character (you possibly can change between Erik or Mia when you’re at your base – there isn’t a distinction between the 2 mechanically).
As a sibling, you combat enemies together with your dagger through single button combos however the bulk of your actions will likely be from afar with a catapult slingshot. The slingshot is ready to hearth every little thing 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 through a meter that prices over time.
The fights don’t management poorly, however I wouldn’t name the motion notably enjoyable both. It’s fairly straightforward to get by way of Treasures’ encounters, and by stage 30 I used to be handily defeating monsters 10-plus ranges increased than me. Each combat felt largely the identical barring just a few boss battles.
It might be that this fight – and recreation – had been constructed with youthful gamers in thoughts, and that they are going to have extra enjoyable working around the globe with this type 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 many of the bosses are reused, whether or not it’s a daily monster with an extended well being bar or the identical lion man you see like 5 completely different instances.
Equally, I take problem with the monster choice right here. Of the 75-odd monsters accessible to recruit, there are most likely about 20 distinctive species with distinctive animations. The remaining are successfully repeated, with alternate coloration schemes and generally completely different powers. In different phrases, you will have the blue Slime, the pink Slime, King Slime, Queen Slime, Steel Slime, and so forth, all as “distinct” monsters. The bats, knights, and so forth are all the identical manner, making the 144 recruitable Pokemon in Pokemon Thriller Dungeon: Gates to Infinity seem to be a humiliation of riches by comparability.
One other annoyance will 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 straightforward to take out, and I discovered that one banked tremendous transfer was normally loads. Nonetheless, these sequences would at instances pop up as soon as each couple of minutes, making this in any other case chill vibes recreation right into a considerably extra annoying one.
Regardless of its simplistic construction or maybe due to it, I did take pleasure in 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, partially due to the satisfying grind and partially as a result of the treasures are sometimes primarily based on characters and objects in earlier Dragon Quest video games (suppose Smash Bros. trophies).
Amassing cooler monsters and discovering uncommon supplies additionally contributed to a largely 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 appeal to take pleasure in. Fortunately, it runs properly on Change.
The story is equally a captivating and low stakes affair about two siblings happening 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 top of it.
It’s with these nice vibes the place Dragon Quest Treasures finds its energy. At its greatest, Treasures is JRPG sweet that acts both as a stable first JRPG for brand spanking new gamers or a calming diversion for collection followers. I simply want the sport wouldn’t get in its personal manner 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 greatest titles. This, sadly, misses the mark a bit.
