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This game is as good as gold - Dragon Quest Treasures Quick Review

21K View2022-12-13

PLAY IT OR SKIP IT?

Please play it! I’m a lifelong Dragon Quest fan, sure, but I’m still shocked at just how good and original Dragon Quest Treasures turned out. This is the most unique spin on Dragon Quest in many years, and it’s a perfectly appealing adventure whether you’re a total newcomer to the series or a fellow hardcore player.

TIME PLAYED

I sunk five hours into Dragon Quest Treasures over the weekend, which got me through the early tutorial content, as well as the first major boss encounter and quests. By the end of that time, I had opened up access to travel to different islands and a half-dozen sidequests. I’m planning to spend a lot more time with the game over the holidays, as reportedly a completionist approach can take upwards of one hundred hours.

WHAT’S AWESOME

• Charm factor. The Dragon Quest series has always benefited from memorable monster design by Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama. After all, everyone knows the Dragon Quest slime! But these adorable creatures have never been more friendly and fantastic than they are in Dragon Quest Treasures. I loved recruiting and teaming up with a variety of cute monster and hearing them react to each new discovery.

• Focus on exploration. In a break from Dragon Quest tradition, Treasures is a real-time action-RPG, not turn-based. Moreover, while I did plenty of fighting, most of my time was just spent exploring the fantastic islands of Draconia in search of loot. Each monster comes equipped with an ability to aid exploration, such as launching the main character into the air or letting them glide to safety from heights. These abilities just made searching through each area even more of a delight.

• Likable characters. With its focus on old-school storytelling, Dragon Quest games are sometimes a little bland in the plot department. I won’t pretend like Dragon Quest Treasures breaks new ground or anything, but it features livelier writing and a more original scenario than many games in the franchise. Sibling protagonists Erik and Mia provide an energetic momentum to events, and each of the rival treasure hunting gangs I encountered had its own silly personality without falling back on just being generic JRPG bad guys. Some of them even become allies!

• Gang management. One cannot simply take up becoming a treasure hunter without putting together a like-minded crew. Dragon Quest Treasures includes an enticing layer of base and gang management, where you must look over potential new recruits, decide who makes the cut, and even determine which treasures you put on display. I love this stuff, and it makes for a great way to catch your breath and relax between quests.

WHAT SUCKS

• Combat. Though “sucks” might be a strong word. The real-time combat in Dragon Quest Treasures isn’t bad per se, it’s just kind of so-so. I mostly hacked and slashed mindlessly, while occasionally putting some distance between the enemies so I could lob pellets at them using my slingshot while my monster buddies did most of the work. Bosses offer a little more challenge, and the game has a logical system of elemental weaknesses to consider, but it’s all just relatively basic compared to the exciting stuff happening in the rest of the game.

💬 What's one treasure you'd be willing to drop everything and go on a hunt for? Share your pick in the comments below!

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