An lovely Kitty Defend smiles up at me from my most recent treasure haul. The local appraiser, unmoved by its cute design, could say it’s not worthy of a lot, but that just signifies I get to proudly dangle it on display screen in my vault in its place – it’s not the most useful piece of my hoard, but I seem on it with pleasure even so. That Kitty Defend is a appropriate metaphor for Dragon Quest Treasures as a entire: It’s much from the richest jewel in the Dragon Quest crown, but a laid-back composition, charming earth, and unlimited stream of benefits make it a soothing RPG even now worth admiring.
Treasures stars Erik, your thieving companion from Dragon Quest XI, and his sister Mia, but it usually takes location extended in advance of the Luminary stepped into their life, when both pint-sized pickpockets lived with a crew of Viking marauders. Immediately after obtaining a traveling pig and a conversing cat (like you do), Erik and Mia tumble by way of a magic portal into an additional dimension, which conveniently indicates that very little they do or see has any bearing on Dragon Quest XI’s proven story – but that’s just good for a activity entire of regular meta references to the collection as a total anyway.
The portal drops Erik and Mia into Draconia, a world where by dragons the moment turned the hopes and reminiscences of persons into treasures and tucked them absent for safekeeping, with every single a single having the form of products and people today from Dragon Quest history. The dragons are very long lifeless, but their several entire body pieces now comprise the 50 %-dozen regions that make up Draconia, even though I assure that is in a awesome way fairly than a gruesome just one. For illustration, Draconia’s wings are home to windswept moorlands, although frigid mountains and icy caves make up its shoulder, aptly named The Chilly Shoulder.
Your total objective in this article is to construct a foundation for your budding gang of treasure hunters using the income you make from obtaining loot, all while serving to your cat and pig guides restore excellent favor with their gods. Hoarding treasure is central to all your efforts, but when you and the portion of monsters you will assemble to enable dig up the sparkly prizes, you are obtaining more than just a piece of Dragon Quest nostalgia. You are restoring a thing – goals, connections, and function – the people of Draconia (and even your rival treasure hunters) assumed was misplaced endlessly, albeit indirectly. In the meantime, the regional teach director does not care no matter if you locate armor from Dragon Quest V or a statue of Dragon Quest X’s priestess, but they are thrilled when your initiatives lead to their beloved train stations obtaining back on track, earning checking out Draconia easier in the process.
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This alternate truth set up gives Treasures the independence to test a little something different with its tale, which it only partially manages to capitalize on. This is additional of a Dragon Quest fairy tale than it is a Monsters-style spinoff, 1 of the healthful, a bit bittersweet assortment. Absolutely everyone, monster and human alike, is obsessed with locating treasure for no other purpose than since it exists – and although that looks like a shallow foundation for any tale, the 1 told here basically suggestion-toes all over some very major themes. Treasures is a child’s fantasy escape at its coronary heart, a likelihood for two orphans to depart their abusive home, have exciting, and make a daily life for them selves absent from the problems of escalating up and older people unfit to care for them. It feels like Dragon Quest satisfies J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan in that sense, which is a astonishing but not unwelcome location to attract inspiration.
Draconia is the siblings’ Neverland, even down to a person of the duo’s main opponent remaining a nefarious pirate, albeit of the skeleton selection instead of the hook-handed-previous-man kind. Like the Misplaced Boys of Neverland, time and culture forgot the folks of Draconia as very well, or at minimum the kinds you befriend at the old Trans-Draconic Railway headquarters, in which Erik and Mia make their foundation. It is heartwarming to check out as you build a surrogate household of misfits and monsters at the railway headquarters, a aid team for Erik and Mia and a safe location to return to. For individuals familiar with Dragon Quest XI’s tale, Erik and Mia’s unfortunate, damaged long run (broken, ironically, by the same obsession with treasure that fuels this experience) generally hangs overhead, adding a tinge of unhappiness to the otherwise delighted setup for committed supporters.
Regrettably, Treasures by no means truly mines that wealthy vein of story likely like it could, doing very little to create on any of its themes following very first presenting them. Erik and Mia have no character growth throughout the approximately 30-hour marketing campaign, and their relationships with most NPCs exterior a tiny handful are minimal to interactions that close alongside with whichever quest they requested you to entire. How much you get out of Treasures’ story and figures is dependent on how invested you are in the concept of reinvigorating the hearts and minds of this world, due to the fact you never ever witness a great deal of the success of these initiatives. It is hard not to see Treasures as a missed prospect in that perception, a single that with a little bit more depth and detail could’ve been one thing specific and a lot more meaningful.
In among meeting new folks and staring at your treasure hoard, you will take Erik or Mia on expeditions to just one of Draconia’s islands to see what you can find and influence other monsters to sign up for in the hunt. The moment you get there in these vast open up places, you’re really significantly no cost to make a decision what you want to do and when. You could rush to a rival treasure hunter’s base and swipe their hoard, request out ancient monuments, or persuade a Queen Slime to help restore the Chilly Shoulder prepare station, – or just ignore every little thing and come across extra treasure.
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The primary questline is centered on recovering historic artifacts, but it typically will take a backseat to the many more requests that appear your way from welcoming monsters and fellow treasure hunters. Whilst it’s uncomplicated to get bogged down in the amount of aims – and the horizon does get cluttered with quest markers at instances – the benefit of owning so a lot of quests is that you’re normally carrying out a little something, even if these quests are just versions of finding sure methods A nearby princess’ emissary could need to have aid obtaining an ancient monument on the other facet of the dragon’s stomach. It’s a lengthy trudge to get there, but on the way you can seize some soil to craft additional pellet ammo to use in your upcoming fight and pick up a number of scarce stones to support electricity the future damaged-down teach station that wants restoring.
Regardless of what you pick to do, you’re normally encouraged to be on the lookout for treasure to enable your foundation expand and unlock new most important quests. You have an innate treasure compass that points you in the common route of unusual goods (because of training course you do), but it goes haywire when you get as well close. That means you have to depend on the treasure vision of your monster companions to monitor the merchandise down, with visible clues centered on their own line of sight. Slimes only see from ground stage, for case in point, though the eyesight of a Sham Hatwitch is appropriately obscured by its possess hat. It’s a charming, generally Dragon Quest spin on what would if not be a repetitive mini-game, and combined with the tiny ascending jingle that plays when you dig up treasure, it assists continue to keep the regime feeling exciting even just after dozens of hrs.
None of the tasks you are given are ever pretty complicated, but it allows that Treasures and its treasure looking enchantment to the lizard section of my brain that lights up following locating anything shiny, resolving an easy puzzle, or examining a process off the listing. Does it subject if my base’s benefit raises to significantly, or if I unravel the mysteries of Draconia? No! But I set a awesome piece of Dragon Quest record on a plinth again property and manufactured a fictitious, train-loving robotic joyful the moment for a several minutes, and that was plenty of for me. The reduced-tension, very low-stakes character of what you are executing and the regular drip of accomplishment lends Treasures a feeling of coziness that helps make it straightforward and enjoyable to pick up, even if you really do not generally see earth-modifying results from your labors.
Treasures passively encourages you to take its quests and treasure hunts in small doses by limiting how much treasure you can have, which usually means you have to revisit your base at intervals and get a crack from questing. Although there’s plenty to do again at headquarters, that intentional speedbump can get started to really feel a very little arbitrarily frustrating, like maybe Square Enix had designs for anything more substantial that never ever materialized. You have daily quests related to what you’d hope from a live-support recreation, but they play minimal position in your routine and give paltry benefits. You can also theoretically build and strengthen your base, although the enhancements extend to just a handful of stores you can only entry by means of the company’s reception desk.
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In spite of drawing inspiration from Dragon Quest Monsters, Treasures is a lot less involved with you setting up an unstoppable group of critters and mostly just wants you to examine with them, which is a fitting complement to the emphasis on item accumulating. Battles are comparatively simple, too, with the concentrate firmly on what treasure-acquiring aptitudes and other competencies your companions have. Every monster you consider with you has a set of most well-liked treasures they are additional possible to uncover through expeditions and a species-distinct skill termed a Forte – capabilities these types of as gliding or sprinting that make travel less difficult or assistance you get to tough places. Just about every location is relatively very simple in construction, with handful of interesting layouts or effectively-concealed techniques, and they are built all around using precise talents to locate treasure places and unusual objects. Bland as the layouts may seem, the simplicity can be welcome at instances as it makes backtracking and avoiding unfriendly monster mobs a lot a lot more bearable.
When you do decide on a fight, you enjoy a passive part, serving to offer problems with pellets from your slingshot or mend your monster buddies. You have no command in excess of their steps and can only situation primary attack and gather instructions, but the monster AI is, mercifully, very adept at figuring out the finest way to tackle enemies. Slimes and Drackys perform alongside one another to established up elemental combos, tankier monsters this kind of as Restless Armor cast their defensive spells at exactly the proper moment, and they all really equilibrium their assault alternatives to preserve MP.
In this article, too, there is the possible for a thing far more involved that would make fuller use of these functions – further battles with emphasis on constructing combos and locating the proper blend of monsters. And in this article, much too, Treasures prioritizes becoming light and breezy as an alternative, without significantly require or reward for supplying your crew composition that kind of assumed and care. There’s actively off-placing about that, primarily given that these fights are continue to enjoyable ample as is. It’s just jarring to see what appears to be like like so many discarded programs, and that lack of distinct direction is significantly uncommon for a Dragon Quest activity.
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