X marks the spot
The Dragon Quest series is legendary for its engaging combat, interesting character and enemy designs, incredible musical scores and long, dramatic stories. The newest entry in the series, Dragon Quest Treasures, takes these elements and shaves them down to be a more beginner-friendly experience. Taking such a classic series in a more casual direction is easier said than done, but Treasures manages to capture the series charm in many ways, without overwhelming newcomers.
Treasures follows Erik (who will be familiar to those who have played DQ 11) and his sister Mia as children as they encounter two mystical animal friends and help each other escape from their Viking-like captors. They soon discover two powerful daggers that, in addition to allowing them to communicate with their new animal friends, send them headlong into both their dreams of being world famous treasure hunters and a quest to recover the dragon stones. The story in the game is light but engaging enough to keep things moving forward and I enjoyed my interactions with Purrsula and Porcus.
MSRP: $59.99
Platforms: Switch
The primary gameplay on offer here is a satisfying if repetitive loop of identifying an island that you want to travel to, inspecting it for it’s potential to give you great loot (more on this later), and then venturing there with your team. Once on the ground you’ll have several things to accomplish. First and foremost, is adding new monsters to your stable of party members. These teammates are recruited by beating monsters in battle. Each time you finish off an enemy there’s a percentage chance that they will be interested in joining up with your merry band of treasure hunters. Once they’ve indicated an interest in joining, you’ll need to satisfy their requirements (which means collecting a certain number of specific items) before you can actually recruit them and start bringing them with you in the field. You’re highly incentivized to add new and stronger monsters to your team, not just for their skills in combat, but also for their Forte abilities. These abilities vary by monster type and allow Erik or Mia to glide, jump higher, run faster, find additional items or sneak among other things. I found that it was critical to include at least one monster who allowed my characters to glide and at least one with the high jump ability, while I could be a little more situational regarding the third members ability. Having a squad of monsters on your side that decided to join after you beat them up is very reminiscent of Dragon Quest 5 and I was always excited when the notification popped up that someone new wanted in.
You’ll battle against the various monsters you come across using a combination of real-time combat for Erik and Mia and AI controlled attacks from your monster teammates. Erik and Mia both come equipped with their dagger for melee attacks and a slingshot for long distance warfare. The slingshot basically serves as an all-purpose weapon and spell casting device, as you can pick up elemental pebbles, pebbles that heal your teammates, and even pebbles that increase the chances of whatever monster you shoot with them joining your team. Your main character and monster teammates also have rechargable special attacks that can help turn the tide of battle if you get in trouble.
Combat is generally unchallenging. Anyone looking for a deep rewarding combat experience is likely to be disappointed. Battles are very beginner friendly and Erik and Mia’s daggers also have the ability to heal the player character by holding the X button, so even in a pinch there isn’t much to worry about. The difficulty lines up well with the games entry level vibe, so as long as you go into it knowing what to expect it’s perfectly serviceable.
Treasure is (quite literally) the name of the game here, and finding as much as you can on each visit to an island is the primary goal of each excursion from your home base. The makeup of your team influences the Golden Ratio, a percentage chance of finding treasure assigned to each island. Each monster has a favorite type of treasure, and aligning the monsters on your team with the type of treasure you’re looking for as well as the treasure forecast for each island will give you the best chance of finding high value items. You’ll want to find as many big treasures as you can find, because the value of each treasure also increases the level of your gang and increases your skills.
Finding treasure when you’re actually on the island plays out through a couple of special abilities your main character has. First is the Fortune Finder, a compass of sorts that your hero can summon to point you in the direction of the nearest set of buried goodies. As you get closer to the treasure the compass pointer will gesure more enthusiastically in the direction of your quarry, finally spinning around in all directions when you’re right on top of it. When you’re very close, your monster friends will indicate that the treasure is nearby, and you’ll have an opportunity to use the Treasure Vision mechanic to get a monsters-eye view of the area where the treasure is hidden. These views show up as snapshots of a small part of the area, with at least one visually distinct landmark you can use to get your bearings. Folks looking for more of a challenge may scoff at the ease at which treasures can be located, but I really enjoyed this mechanic and it made locating new treasures a fun game of hide and seek, at least until the loop starting wearing thin later in my playthrough.
In addition to finding treasure, there are also a slew of quests for your party to complete. These quests are divided up into several categories: Main Quests which advance the story, Gang Quests which help to improve your gang or hideout, Railway Quests which open up new fast travel places on the various islands, Adventure Quests which follow people you meet along your travels, and lastly the bite-sized Daily Quests which are generally fairly simple to accomplish through normal gameplay. Of the side quests available, the railway quests tend to be the most useful as you’ll run into higher level enemies the further into each island you travel. Having a place to rest and fast travel in will help you find treasures much easier. The daily quests feel like a bit of a tack-on, but they are a good way to get some resources so they are worth completing.
As you would expect, the sound on offer here is tremendous. Great, classic, Dragon Quest music coupled with traditional DQ sound effects makes for a very nostalgic playthrough for folks who are familiar with the series. The art direction and character designs are also solid, with the great Toriyama style character and monster designs people have come to expect from the series. Environments look ok, but you can tell the game is running on the Switch.
As an entry level experience in the Dragon Quest universe, Treasures does a lot of things right. It nails the treasure hunting mechanic and provides plenty of nostalgia through it’s audio, visuals, and monster collecting action. Some variety in the main gameplay loop and a little more depth throughout would go a long way towards creating a more worthy feeling entry in the series, but there’s still a lot to love here. Hopefully we’ll get a sequel that can build on some of the mechanics. In the interim, fans of Dragon Quest who don’t mind a walk in the park now and then should check this one out.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
