![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.gameinformer.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/body_default\/public\/2023\/01\/05\/34185b19\/mia_and_erik_header_dqt.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Reviewed on:<\/b>
\n Switch
\n
\n Platform:<\/b>
\n Switch
\n
\n Publisher:<\/b>
\n Square Enix
\n
\n Developer:<\/b>
\n Square Enix
\n
\n Rating:<\/b>
\n Everyone 10+\n <\/p>\n
Many JRPGs have slow openings, taking their time to establish the story and familiarize the player with the mechanics before letting them loose into the world. I figured that was the case after playing an hour of Dragon Quest Treasures, so I said to myself, \u201cIt\u2019ll get good soon!\u201d I said it again two hours in, three hours in, and five hours in, until eventually, I was forced to accept that this was as good as the game would get. Dragon Quest Treasures is never short on charm or style, but simple, sub-par combat and loot-hunting mechanics had me scraping the bottom of the treasure chest in hopes there was something I\u2019d missed.<\/p>\n
Players of Dragon Quest XI will recognize protagonists Mia and Erik, though they\u2019re much younger in this game. Dragon Quest Treasures is technically a prequel to XI, but there\u2019s hardly any overlap, and the vast majority takes place after the twins jump through a portal into the mysterious world of Draconia. After getting their bearings and making a few friends, they start a treasure-hunting gang and decide to find all seven Dragonstone, magical relics from Draconia\u2019s origin. While the start of the game is story-heavy, most of my 25 hours of play were self-driven, which I appreciated. The plot isn\u2019t particularly interesting or engaging, but I didn\u2019t need it to be; it\u2019s mainly a vehicle to get the player to explore the islands around them.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.gameinformer.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/body_default\/public\/2023\/01\/05\/3909a9e0\/dqt_pirate_attack.jpg\")
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The bulk of Dragon Quest Treasures involves exploring open-world islands to hunt for valuables, which can be found buried in glowing spots on the ground. Mia and Erik track it down by using magic Dragon Daggers to see \u201ctreasure visions,\u201d glimpses of the landscape near the burial site seen through the eyes of the monsters in your party. You can use these images to triangulate the position of the buried chest and claim it as your own. It\u2019s not a terrible mechanic, but it isn\u2019t complex or engaging enough to base the whole game around. I also encountered multiple instances of items spawning in the same areas upon revisiting an island, which suggests that there\u2019s a finite amount of treasure locations to find.<\/p>\n
Once you\u2019ve gathered as many valuables as you can, your goal is to return to base unscathed. Treasure storage capacity is limited, and you drop your current spoils whenever you die. There\u2019s also no fast travel. You can use a button in the menu to return home, but this causes you to drop all your riches, effectively voiding your expedition. You can fast travel without dropping anything if you use a chimera wing, but they\u2019re rare, expendable resources that I kept stashed away for emergencies. These mechanics are all purposefully inconvenient, but they bothered me more in theory than in practice. I rarely died in the field, and I was only forced to use a chimera wing two or three times by the time I finished the game.<\/p>\n
Once you return to your hideout and appraise your haul, it reveals a beautiful rendering of a character or item from past Dragon Quest titles. Even though I didn\u2019t recognize many of the items I found, I appreciated this detail a lot, and I\u2019m certain that nostalgia for the series would greatly heighten the experience. And as much as I didn\u2019t really care for the treasure vision mechanic, I can\u2019t deny the satisfaction I felt when I returned to base with a full inventory and uncovered an iconic, expensive relic that I got to add to my hoard.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.gameinformer.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/body_default\/public\/2023\/01\/05\/db73d02f\/dqt_skystone_treasure.jpg\")
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When you\u2019re not hunting treasure, you\u2019re fighting enemy monsters. Most Dragon Quest games are turn-based, but Dragon Quest Treasures uses seamless, in-world action combat. Unfortunately, the combat is limited and clunky; the attacks at your disposal feel uncomfortable to use, and often caused me to take damage or miss shots. For example, Mia and Erik can attack with their daggers and roll out of the way of enemy offense, but movement in battle is sluggish and cumbersome. Dodge rolls are helpful when you\u2019re watching an enemy strike from afar, but since rolls don\u2019t interrupt dagger attacks, I didn\u2019t have time to evade when I was up close dealing melee damage. As a result, I learned to avoid the dagger in most dangerous situations.<\/p>\n
The other weapon you can use is a slingshot loaded with different elemental pellets, but I wasn\u2019t a huge fan of this either. Up close, everyone moves around too quickly to get a shot off, and while the reticle is capable of locking onto enemies, it\u2019s finicky, and I often had to fight against the controls to line up shots. Still, the slingshot is the only way to deal elemental damage as the player, so it\u2019s not wise to ignore it. Once I had the money to buy pellets consistently, most fights had me hanging back and using my slingshot while the rest of my team fought up close.<\/p>\n
The team in question consists of three monsters that fight enemies automatically. Outside of commands to attack or retreat, you don\u2019t have any control over what they do or where they go. This is fine, though: It gives each monster a sense of personality, and while I wasn\u2019t in control, I could predict their behavior pretty reliably. For example, my silver sabrecat Blanco had a powerful move that caused him to rocket toward the enemy, but my red dragonling Bernie liked to stay back and use magic. You can build a team around their combat roles, but I usually chose mine based on their Forte abilities: traversal techniques specific to each monster species. Blanco was a mainstay because he could sprint, something I couldn\u2019t do otherwise. I also liked having a monster that could glide in case I wanted to jump from a high point without taking fall damage.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.gameinformer.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/body_default\/public\/2023\/01\/05\/9ccd1205\/dqt_riding_blanco.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Whenever you defeat a monster, there\u2019s a chance that you scout it, making it available to recruit. To add them to your team, you just need to pay a fee of items and food you can find in the world. If you don\u2019t have the correct items, you can see the list to narrow down your search, but it\u2019s never any more specific than one of the five massive islands. This limited my party selection by a surprising amount, and I went the whole game without finding enough resources to recruit certain monsters. I\u2019m sure I could have found more resources if I took the time to grind out a few trips with that express purpose, but I wasn\u2019t struggling in battle, so it didn\u2019t feel worth it.<\/p>\n
The whole reason you\u2019re recruiting monsters and hunting for valuables in the first place is to complete Dragon Quest Treasures’ main objective: finding the seven Dragonstones. I wrongly assumed they would be hidden behind boss fights or within dungeons, so it took a long time before I grabbed the first one. I thought I needed a higher-level team to compete with the powerful monsters that roamed near the objective marker, but this was totally wrong. In fact, for several early Dragonstones, all you need to do is run past the enemies and then complete a simple objective or just grab the relic and leave. The stones themselves don\u2019t even take up a treasure slot in your inventory, so you can use the menu to return to base and not worry about dropping it; you don\u2019t need to come up with an escape route. Sadly, the game is not clear about this, and I spent a lot of time doing unnecessary grinding.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s this buildup of minor annoyances that makes it hard to recommend Dragon Quest Treasures. The experience is driven by charm and nostalgia, but if you don\u2019t have an existing appreciation for the series, there isn\u2019t much here that I could recommend over most other open-world role-playing games. It\u2019s an experience that would greatly vary depending on the player; in other words, one player\u2019s Dragon Quest trash is another player\u2019s Dragon Quest Treasure.<\/p>\n
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