Dragon Quest Treasures is delightful. I expected that I would enjoy the game, but I was so charmed by this game to an extent I couldn’t have predicted. I have spent the last four days glued to my TV collecting treasure with a huge grin on my face.
The gameplay loop of treasures, once you get full control, is wonderfully satisfying and addictive. I wasn’t expecting it, but it gives you a ton of freedom that is extremely empowering. It is a little weird to compare it to breath of the wild, but to an extent it is what it reminded me of the most. While the world is definitely more segmented and smaller, it is extremely dense with stuff to find and with very little in terms of restricting your exploration. You get to know the world so well as you revisit for more loot or quests, and the general treasure hunt involves being aware of your surroundings and familiarizing yourself. Bringing a haul of treasure is fun for many reasons, but the more you bring you get more features at your base and buffs to things like monster recruiting and money made from your stuff. The other side of the gameplay is a very straightforward but fun action rpg. It is not complex at all, and is extremely easy, but it is satisfying to build a party of monsters and wander with them and fight things to watch numbers go up. If that was all the game offered, I don’t think it would be enough to support itself alone, but it is ultimately a fraction of the experience and the treasure hunt is the meat of it.
Every piece of treasure is something that celebrates the series in some way. Whether it be obvious callbacks like statues of the heroes and recurring monsters and weapons, or the less obvious deep cut nods (my personal favorite was the sandwich you deliver in DQ7). If you are a fan of the series in the same way I am, every haul will have you smiling.
I love the world presented here. Similarly to games like Terry’s Wonderland, it uses recurring characters as they were children, but in an isekai story setting as to give them something completely new to do, and I think it makes full use of it. While Erik and Mia from 11 are familiar faces, everything else is completely original and it makes use of that excellently, creating an extremely charming cast of characters for this adventure that are as memorable as they are silly and lighthearted- which is definitely the tone of the game as a whole. Every character gives little quests to do, and they’re all very fun and charming, but also feed into the gameplay loop excellently, giving even more incentive to revisit places and see what else can be found.
As is the case with games like DQ builders and heroes, the music is generally recycled from other games in the series, which I take no issue with since it's all wonderful and fits. However, I am impressed by some of the selections they made. Games like DQ7, 9, and even rocket slime got lots of love in terms of their music, which is something that I hadn’t seen too much of previously- and it is certainly a pleasant surprise. Visually, the game is definitely a lower budget project than Square's other big hitters, but it still looks great. I think it’s emblematic of this game as a whole. This game didn’t need to be a large-scale, groundbreaking, cutting edge experience, but a small, chill, and lovely little game to sit down and enjoy.
I don’t think this game is perfect, things like the combat’s lack of depth, the depressingly low amount of enemy variety for a dragon quest game, and a few QOL features that I feel are missing could definitely be ironed out a bit more and expanded upon, but for what this game is, it feels like a lovely little passion project by the team behind it. So many games lately feel as if they struggle to find their identity or intention, but this one felt so confident with itself and perfectly executed upon what it wanted to be. I had such a great time with this game.
Some final notes for those reading, as at the time of posting this review the game is just a few days old and I would like to provide a bit of extra info for those reading in case it isn't known.
-The game's story took me 35 hours to beat, but if you are a completionist, I would estimate you getting at least double that out of the game. I don’t personally think that hour count matters for any game in terms of value, but I am saying this so you can gauge your time if you want to get into it to that extent.
-There is a post game of sorts, but it is really just an excuse to motivate getting all the treasure left. There are some added side quests and mini dungeons to explore after the credits roll, but it is nothing too big from what I can tell.
-There are some light optional online features, but not anything like full co-op if you were interested. I didn’t watch any trailers for the game aside from the reveal since I wanted to go in blind, but my impression was that there would be co-op multiplayer of some sort. Oh well.
Great game!
The gameplay loop of treasures, once you get full control, is wonderfully satisfying and addictive. I wasn’t expecting it, but it gives you a ton of freedom that is extremely empowering. It is a little weird to compare it to breath of the wild, but to an extent it is what it reminded me of the most. While the world is definitely more segmented and smaller, it is extremely dense with stuff to find and with very little in terms of restricting your exploration. You get to know the world so well as you revisit for more loot or quests, and the general treasure hunt involves being aware of your surroundings and familiarizing yourself. Bringing a haul of treasure is fun for many reasons, but the more you bring you get more features at your base and buffs to things like monster recruiting and money made from your stuff. The other side of the gameplay is a very straightforward but fun action rpg. It is not complex at all, and is extremely easy, but it is satisfying to build a party of monsters and wander with them and fight things to watch numbers go up. If that was all the game offered, I don’t think it would be enough to support itself alone, but it is ultimately a fraction of the experience and the treasure hunt is the meat of it.
Every piece of treasure is something that celebrates the series in some way. Whether it be obvious callbacks like statues of the heroes and recurring monsters and weapons, or the less obvious deep cut nods (my personal favorite was the sandwich you deliver in DQ7). If you are a fan of the series in the same way I am, every haul will have you smiling.
I love the world presented here. Similarly to games like Terry’s Wonderland, it uses recurring characters as they were children, but in an isekai story setting as to give them something completely new to do, and I think it makes full use of it. While Erik and Mia from 11 are familiar faces, everything else is completely original and it makes use of that excellently, creating an extremely charming cast of characters for this adventure that are as memorable as they are silly and lighthearted- which is definitely the tone of the game as a whole. Every character gives little quests to do, and they’re all very fun and charming, but also feed into the gameplay loop excellently, giving even more incentive to revisit places and see what else can be found.
As is the case with games like DQ builders and heroes, the music is generally recycled from other games in the series, which I take no issue with since it's all wonderful and fits. However, I am impressed by some of the selections they made. Games like DQ7, 9, and even rocket slime got lots of love in terms of their music, which is something that I hadn’t seen too much of previously- and it is certainly a pleasant surprise. Visually, the game is definitely a lower budget project than Square's other big hitters, but it still looks great. I think it’s emblematic of this game as a whole. This game didn’t need to be a large-scale, groundbreaking, cutting edge experience, but a small, chill, and lovely little game to sit down and enjoy.
I don’t think this game is perfect, things like the combat’s lack of depth, the depressingly low amount of enemy variety for a dragon quest game, and a few QOL features that I feel are missing could definitely be ironed out a bit more and expanded upon, but for what this game is, it feels like a lovely little passion project by the team behind it. So many games lately feel as if they struggle to find their identity or intention, but this one felt so confident with itself and perfectly executed upon what it wanted to be. I had such a great time with this game.
Some final notes for those reading, as at the time of posting this review the game is just a few days old and I would like to provide a bit of extra info for those reading in case it isn't known.
-The game's story took me 35 hours to beat, but if you are a completionist, I would estimate you getting at least double that out of the game. I don’t personally think that hour count matters for any game in terms of value, but I am saying this so you can gauge your time if you want to get into it to that extent.
-There is a post game of sorts, but it is really just an excuse to motivate getting all the treasure left. There are some added side quests and mini dungeons to explore after the credits roll, but it is nothing too big from what I can tell.
-There are some light optional online features, but not anything like full co-op if you were interested. I didn’t watch any trailers for the game aside from the reveal since I wanted to go in blind, but my impression was that there would be co-op multiplayer of some sort. Oh well.
Great game!