Jul 112022
One game we’ve discussed a few times now, most recently after the Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase, is the upcoming Dragon Quest spin-off Dragon Quest Treasures.
It’s coming out in December, but we still hardly know anything about it.
The official Japanese website was recently updated with new details about the main characters and the story and world, and Gematsu translated these new details here.
Dragon Quest Treasures follows Erik and Mia, who are pulled into the world of Draconia where they begin searching for treasure. This world is inhabited by monsters, and they gain the ability to communicate with monsters thanks to something called the Dragon’s Dagger.
Erik and Mia are also joined by a cat spirit and a pig spirit, who partner with them. It goes on to say you can press a button to switch between Erik and Mia, who share the same level.
Putting that together with what we saw in the Nintendo Direct trailer, it sounds like you’ll control one human character directly while three monsters join you in your party. From the little bits of combat shown in the trailer, though, I’m not sure if that means there’s a meaningful difference between playing as Erik or Mia or if they’re functionally the same.
I’m most curious about what the gameplay loop is like, since it has such a focus on treasure-hunting. The story details revealed here don’t give much of an indication of what the overall goal is, either.
Now, Dragon Quest Treasures has been described by many people as being a successor to the Dragon Quest Monsters games, but back when Treasures was first announced, they said a new Dragon Quest Monsters game would be announced in the future. I’m looking forward to that.
I feel like I don’t have a solid grasp on what Dragon Quest Treasures is like yet, but it does look worth keeping an eye on. What do you think of Dragon Quest Treasures so far?
What I got out of this is that Purrsula (cat spirit) is Eric’s partner and Porcus (pig spirit) is Mia’s partner.
What if switching between Eric and Mia isn’t just preference but instead is a Pikmin 2-esque puzzle-solving mechanic? I mean, that’s not de-confirmed.
I’ve never played Pikmin 2. How does it work there?
You can press a button to switch between controlling Olimar and Louie, who are both simultaneously present in the world. You can assign Pikmin squads for both/either of them. You can also have the other Captain just follow the primary one.
Besides multi-tasking applications (you can have two captains doing separate things on different sides of a map at the same time), there’s puzzle-solving aspects too (one captain throws another to a higher ledge to activate and hold down a switch so the other captain can cross).
I should also mention that the main objective of Pikmin 2 is to collect TREASURE (dun dun dun) and bring it back to your spaceship at your base to appraise it.
Ah, I see.
In this case, it seems like only one protagonist will appear on the field at a time, from the way it looked in the trailer. It doesn’t entirely rule out a similar mechanic, though.
Alright, news drop (English), and on this question…
“Dragon Quest Treasures puts you in control of two main protagonists: Erik and Mia. Whichever you choose to play as is entirely up to you. Progress and character development are shared between them, which means nothing is lost when you decide to switch.”
So switching is… aesthetic? Maybe it’s a stealth “pick boy or girl” mechanic.
Yep, I saw the news this morning and noticed that part. It does seem aesthetic. Since they’re characters from Dragon Quest XI, it could also be to let you play as your favorite if you prefer one to the other.
[…] Last time we discussed Dragon Quest Treasures, I mentioned that I was still wondering about the gameplay loop. […]