A captivating exploration JRPG the place the X doesn’t fairly mark the spot.
There’s one thing about Dragon Quest, man. I’ve solely performed a number of of them, however even I can recognize how cozy these vivid, 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 making an attempt to expertise their first Japanese role-playing recreation, Treasures is a troublesome 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 types, 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 sequence 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 ultimately essential to Draconia. Porcus and Purrsula process 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 desires to affix you thru a “scouting” course of. You then have to return to your base and provides it the supplies it requests (often discovered within the numerous biomes) earlier than it joins your staff. Fortunately, there’s storage when you recruit them so that you aren’t tied to solely having three at any given time.
Whenever you’re near discovering treasure, your monsters provide you with a warning and you need to use 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 isn’t laborious to seek out usually, and when you deliver it again to base your vault positive aspects “worth” that will increase your treasure searching rank. Growing this rank progresses the story, permits you to seek out a pair extra dragon stones, and boosts your base’s amenities.
Along with serving to you discover treasure, they combat alongside you in battle and every has certainly one of a number of completely different area abilities. One talent permits you to dash for some time, one permits you to glide within the air, and one other permits you to find supplies simpler. My King Slime, for instance, lets me bounce on high of it so as 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 an additional 20 seconds whereas it recharges.
The fight, in the meantime, happens in extraordinarily mild motion RPG encounters not not like a watered down Xenoblade or Ni No Kuni. Your monsters strategy others within the wild and combat them routinely. You are able to do a pair Pikmin fashion instructions, however for essentially the most half they’re auto battling as you management your character (you may change between Erik or Mia when you’re at your base – there is no such thing as a distinction between the 2 mechanically).
As a sibling, you combat enemies along with your dagger by way of single button combos however the bulk of your actions shall be from afar with a catapult slingshot. The slingshot is ready to fireplace 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 by way of a meter that fees over time.
The fights don’t management poorly, however I wouldn’t name the motion significantly enjoyable both. It’s fairly simple 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 principally the identical barring a number of boss battles.
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It may very well be that this fight – and recreation – have been constructed with youthful gamers in thoughts, and that they are going to have extra enjoyable working around the globe with this fashion of fight, however for me the battles ran nicely 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 an extended well being bar or the identical lion man you see like 5 completely different occasions.
Equally, I take situation with the monster choice right here. Of the 75-odd monsters obtainable to recruit, there are in all probability about 20 distinctive species with distinctive animations. The remaining are successfully repeated, with alternate shade schemes and generally completely different powers. In different phrases, you’ve 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 means, making the 144 recruitable Pokemon in Pokemon Thriller Dungeon: Gates to Infinity appear 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 and steal your treasure as you discover the open zones. They’re simple to take out, and I discovered that one banked tremendous transfer was often loads. Nonetheless, these sequences would at occasions 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 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 kind of enjoyable, partly due to the gratifying grind and partly as a result of the treasures are sometimes based mostly on characters and objects in earlier Dragon Quest video games (assume Smash Bros. trophies).
Amassing 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 trying on the colourful cell-shaded graphics, which have loads of Dragon Quest allure to get pleasure from. Fortunately, it runs nicely on Swap.
The story is equally a captivating and low stakes affair about two siblings occurring an journey, however don’t go into it if you’d 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 greatest, Treasures is JRPG sweet that acts both as a stable first JRPG for brand spanking new gamers or a soothing diversion for sequence followers. I simply want the sport wouldn’t get in its personal means 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.