Dragon Quest Treasures review - A fun, addictive treasure-hunting experience

Dragon Quest Treasures is a game I’ve waited for almost this entire year. Dragon Quest XI is one of my favorite titles in the Dragon Quest series. To see a prequel based on Erik left me filled with excitement. This offering reminds me a great deal of Dragon Quest Monsters, while also combined with a treasure-hunting experience.

But does one overpower the other? Or do they merge seamlessly? This is easily one of my favorite games of the year, even if I’ve only played it for about a week now. With so many treasures to find and adventures to get up to, every play session has felt different.

Is Dragon Quest Treasures worth your time and money? Go on this journey with me, and you’ll find out!

A whole new adventure awaits Erik and Mia in Dragon Quest Treasures

Thanks to storyline shenanigans in Dragon Quest Treasures, Erik and Mia get swept up through a portal and are now on a series of floating islands, known as Draconia.

There’s an abundance of treasure lying in wait here, and the two siblings want to rake in as much of it as possible. As a pair of poor serfs working under the Vikings of Erdrea, this is their chance to make like bandits and live on their own.

Anyone who has played Dragon Quest XI knows their story, but I’ll keep that under wraps. Treasure and wealth mean a great deal in this JRPG. They’re also looking for a series of powerful artifacts while contending with other treasure hunters. There are plenty of rival gangs out there, trying to take what’s yours.

Erik, Mia, alongside their talking/flying pig and cat friends, will build a gang of comically named monsters, and gain as much treasure as possible. The gameplay loop is pretty simple. You need to gather as much treasure as possible to increase your gang level.

You’re also trying to help your new familiar friends restore their good name with the gods they serve, by finding seven dragon stones - no, not the Dragon Balls. What treasures do you get, though? They span the entire Dragon Quest franchise, from armor and bikinis to statues of classic characters.

You can even show off your favorite treasures in your vault. You also have to defend it from attacking gangs! That’s right, the NPCs aren’t content to let you keep all the treasure for yourself.

While exploring the world, you also occasionally get attacked by rival gangs, which get stronger each time they show up during an expedition. Going back to your base will reset that strength, however.

Treasure hunting and you

That’s what I mean by expeditions in Dragon Quest Treasures. You can only carry so much loot, depending on the monsters that you bring with you to an area. They can also drop this treasure if they get hit too hard, or get KOed. So, you'll have to scoop it up before you go.

While at your base, you’ll have to determine which area you’re going to go to, and which monsters you're going to bring along. Each named monster has particular treasures they’re good at finding.

There’s also a Treasure Forecast that shows what loot you’ll likely find on each island. You can use this to your advantage to find the highest Golden Ratio possible.

Dragon Quest Treasures’ Golden Ratio is the percentage that you find the treasures you’re after. You want that to be as close to 100% as possible. However, you’re going to have to do a lot of walking (or riding on a monster’s back sometimes), until you connect all the trains. That’s one of the major storyline quests in the game.

You’ll have to bring some Sanguinite to the various Station Masters in Dragon Quest Treasures, alongside other gathered items that are in each area. It will be easy enough to find these in most cases - though I got grossly unlucky early on and spent over an hour trying to find just one Sandelion.

As you wander the islands, you’ll fight monsters who will occasionally get “scouted” and will want to join you. You can use your Catapult (Slingshot) to fire pellets in combat. There are some that heal, use status buffs/debuffs, or increase your chance to recruit an enemy.

The monsters in your party will clue you in when there’s treasure nearby - an icon appears over their heads with a treasure chest on it. You can use your Treasure Vision too, to point you in the direction you should be walking in. When you’re incredibly close, the mechanic will show you three perspectives - one from each monster.

You can look through their eyes and find the spot to stand on. When you’re in the right spot for your reward, you’ll see a glowing gold mist on the ground. It’s very easy to find them. This is the best part of the game and honestly, it’s what keeps me going back.

Many of the rewards in Dragon Quest Treasures feel quite familiar (Image © 2022 ARMOR PROJECT/BIRD STUDIO/SQUARE ENIX All Rights Reserved)

It’s so cool to grab a ton of treasure, run back to base, and see what my haul is worth. I love seeing some of the most iconic items in the Dragon Quest series show up here. I’ve had items from Dragon Quest I (Staff of Rain), statues of main characters (Dragon Quest VIII), and so much more.

It’s the best part of the game, and I could keep logging in and treasure-hunting all day. The only way it could be better is if it were co-op online, but you also have to fight. Whether monsters in the wild or in treasure portals, you’ve got plenty of fighting to do in Dragon Quest Treasures.

How is combat in Dragon Quest Treasures?

Sometimes, you’re rewarded for finding a treasure with a blue teleportal. This is an area where you’ll go through a few rooms of powerful enemies. Combat’s a big part of the game, but it didn’t always feel so great to me. Erik’s damage always felt mediocre, but that’s probably because of the level of foes I was fighting.

The game is pretty open-ended, so you can explore as you please. So many times, I’d be trying to progress a quest, and enemies 10+ levels higher than me and my group would appear. As I was level 15, I’d see nearly level 30 monsters. That was one of my big complaints. I felt like Erik was just so weak, and had to rely on the monsters to deal the biggest hits for me.

The protagonist builds up a super meter as you fight, and this can unleash the Power of the Dragon - a power-up buff - or you can use it to unleash special attacks with your monsters. That damage is significant, so I used it on my monsters instead. While combat is okay, the best part of the game is the treasure hunting.

While combat was pretty good, I never felt powerful unless I was doling out critical strikes. Erik's damage was so weak compared to the monsters that he felt like a support character.

Combat doesn't make your quests or tasks harder, though. None of them are especially difficult, and that’s to Dragon Quest Treasures’ benefit. It makes the game accessible and easy for anyone who wants to play it.

Visually bright and charming, with a familiar score

I love the colorful visuals of Dragon Quest Treasures. It looks like it belongs in the franchise, and all of the monsters and NPCs have that classic art style. The treasures all fit nicely, and are such a charming, nostalgic look back through time.

The score is incredible. I love the callbacks to the franchise's classic themes throughout Dragon Quest Treasures. I hummed the music through a good majority of my playthrough of this game.

In Conclusion

Dragon Quest Treasures is such a fun game! There are some minor complaints, but they are honestly far and few between.

I found a way around powerful monsters, and was quick to recruit most of the ones I wanted on my team. The story was simple and easy to follow, which isn’t a bad thing. Every game doesn’t have to be a gripping, tragic tale.

Plus, the main hook of the game - the treasure hunting - is a blast! While I streamed it, other people became vested in seeing just how much money I was going to make off of my excursions into the world. I was enthralled with that part of the game. It’s such a fun experience, and I think it’s a worthwhile addition to any player's Nintendo Switch collection.

It's a fitting addition to the lore of Dragon Quest XI, while also being a side-story that reminds me a great deal of Peter Pan going to Neverland.