Was Dragon Quest Treasures Worth It?

Erik and Mia from Dragon Quest XI get their own treasure hunt. Was Dragon Quest Treasures worth it?

Background

Dragon Quest Treasures is an action RPG where you play as Erik and Mia (as children) on the hunt for treasure. You recruit a team of monsters, travel across a variety of islands and biomes, and dig up relics that are all references from past DQ games. Just to address the Pink Elephant in the room, yes, it is an interesting choice to have Erik be a monster tamer when that function was missing from DQXI.

However, despite superficially resembling the Dragon Quest Monsters games, this is not one. Yes, you recruit monsters, but that’s about the end of it. There’s no breeding and very little strategy beyond “rarer monsters may have better stats or abilities.”

Your monsters will end up doing most of the heavy lifting because Erik and Mia are relatively weak when it comes to DPS outside of crits, though to be fair, they are literal children. You will amass billions in your travels, and while that does sound like a lot, it goes pretty fast when you can easily bring home a haul that’s worth tens of millions.

What does Dragon Quest Treasures do well?

Mild spoilers for DQXI (even if it is over 5 years old). The central premise of this game, collecting treasure, does help to set the logical groundwork for what eventually happens to Mia in the leadup to Dragon Quest XI.

There are a lot of good things going on here. The islands look great and traversal is smooth, easy, and intuitive. Performance is fantastic and battles are seamless. Despite the lack of human characters, the monsters do a good job of making the world feel inhabited.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen action rpg combat stylings in a DQ game. Features like chasing down metal slimes (instead of hoping they’ll stick around for another turn) is true to the spirit of the games. Combat and exploration blend well, and neither is ever frustrating. The Pokémon company could stand to learn from this title.

What could Dragon Quest Treasures do better?

Frankly, it’s just too easy. The treasures that function as ‘member berries for the franchise is cute, but fleeting.

Recolors Galore!

While there are 78 monster species, there are only roughly twenty different types of monsters. Each variant has 2-5 recolors, which means that you’re going to see some of these creatures a lot. The monsters look fantastic, but swapping my regular slime for a desert-themed slime isn’t exciting.

It gets a bit confusing with the punny names. One quest requests a certain pig monster – did they want a sham hamwitch, a ham shamwitch, or a hat hamwitch? They all look the same to me.

Was Dragon Quest Treasures fun?

Dragon Quest Treasures is an enjoyable romp for a while, but eventually the lack of real challenge and depth starts to show. The gameplay loop works, but even a cursory knowledge of the mechanics is enough to reduce the game to a cakewalk.

Is Dragon Quest Treasures good value?

This is a pretty brief game. In this case I think it’s better that it doesn’t overstay its welcome.

Who is this game for?

This is for big fans of the Dragon Quest series, or gamers who grew up with DQ and want to get their kids into the franchise.

Was Dragon Quest Treasures worth it?

For better or worse, this is a very “chill” game. It’s well polished and enjoyable, but at no point is the game ever really tense, and there isn’t much to keep you playing once the novelty wears off.

Huge Dragon Quest fans will likely jump at the chance to support the franchise, and I can’t say I blame them. If you aren’t part of the built-in audience for this game, then wait for a deep discount.

Regardless, I still think it deserves a lot of credit for how it looks and runs on the Switch. Here’s hoping that we see a DQ Monsters game soon.

Is the DLC worth it?

The Digital Deluxe Edition Upgrade is a five dollar DLC on the eShop that includes a few useful items, notably a Great Sabrecat, a Ruby Golem, and an Icy Dragling. These monsters are useful in the early game, but the bigger draw is the Omniheal Bombs (x25) and the Bestest Buddy Pellets (x25). The pellets in particular are a pain to craft, and there are enough of them to get you through the entire game if you use them wisely.

Is it worth it?

This DLC is not mandatory by any means, and definitely falls into the “paying for convenience” category. You certainly don’t need these items. Incidentally, there are some good free monsters available: use the codes PEK and YUB for a VTuber-themed Killing Machine and a King Slime.

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