I need to recruit King Slime. But in order to attract one, I needed to convince chef Madame Blancmange to come to my base so I could make the Snake Salad as part of the recruitment fee. To recruit a chef, I need to bring a Hamwich hat to work for her. Means scouting, then receiving recruitment fees for a person. Also, while I was looking for Hat Hamwich from Windswept Moors, I was also able to find a working Greywing Gateway station for Rail. That means looking for Limestone. Sadly all those green ore deposits are giving me yellow Gems instead. What I am saying is, Dragon Hunting Treasure is a big to-do list. It’s a fun game full of personality, but it constantly works your way through missions with no cooldown.
Erik and Mia want to be treasure hunters. They crave excitement and adventure. That’s exactly what they got when they freed Porcos and Purrsula, two strange monsters that the vikings they were traveling with were captured. The four of them go to a temple, pick up enchanted daggers for the two brothers, and proceed to Draconia through a strange portal, a land built on the backs of dragons formerly. Their goals? To find the Dragon Stone for their two monstrous allies while simultaneously building a huge treasure and monster army to fulfill their glorious dreams.
Necessary, Dragon Hunting Treasure is about discovery. Your chosen protagonist wanders around Draconia. You can collect resources at designated points, fight monsters, dig treasures, and complete objectives. Battles take place in real-time, where the player gives general commands to allies with the D-pad while sending Mia or Erik to attack with their daggers or slingshots. The slingshot can be used to fire projectiles that can deal damage, assist, or debuff, essentially a magic substitute. Monsters can be recruited by defeating them, with Buddy Pellets increasing the odds of scouting one. Recruiting a person means having things like gil, collected materials, or prepared food available for a fee. Exploration means using a monster’s unique Forte skill, such as the ability to glide through the air, jump to higher platforms, or sneak into lower spots than usual, to reach new areas. If you can see somewhere, there’s a chance you can get there! The world is well built, each island is unique and wandering around can be a great pastime. Not to mention that unlike another recent open-air monster collecting game, I didn’t experience any lag or bad effects.
The treasure hunt is an inevitable draw. It can be fun! I like to try my luck, make the most of the treasures I have, then try to get to a train station unscathed so I can reap all the rewards. You can use the compass attached to your dagger to know where to go. This is probably best when going through a Treasure Hunt that you pick up from other players. But when I pass Dragon Hunting Treasure, it’s more fun to happen to them while doing other things. Items, be it large ones or bric-a-brac that don’t even need to turn off the compass, are everywhere. Your monster will display a thought bubble above its head when one is nearby, and will have an audible cue and a balloon filled with an exclamation mark if it’s a few inches away. You can then use your dagger to adjust and see the treasure vision through their eyes. Those images remain at the top left of the screen, complete with shades that represent how each species sees the world, so you can narrow things down and claim your prize. As for those awards, they are all flashbacks to the past Dragon Quest Game. (Even rocket slime nods appear!) You can use them as decorations and the value can increase if monsters “polish” them while you’re away or others see them, which increases your net worth. friend. This increases your ranking and allows you to do more.
This is not to say that the combat system is not interesting either. It can be a lot of fun! It’s a bit overkill because you don’t directly direct the actions of your allies. You need to pick a good team that both have powerful move sets that work for you and different Specialities that allow you to do better while exploring. You want to use Medals that you find in dungeons or sometimes as drop items and assign them wisely. You’ll want to keep an eye on them when they attack, hoping you can strike at the right time to trigger Monster Medley for more damage. Not to mention I often wander into dangerous spots after saving my Dagger Gauge to Unleash the Dragon as a super attack on monsters or by buffing Mia (or Erik) for a short time. If you build a good team, it will be interesting to see how well you can do in, say, Growl or dungeon.
But enjoyable as all, it is a bit overwhelming and exhausting. You have Main Quest, Gang Quest, Railroad Quest, Adventure Quest, Daily Quest, Treasure Map Quest and Banner Quest. Euston constantly suggests you reach new Ranks to receive treasures, to increase your abilities. Purrsula and Porcus keep asking about the Dragon Stone, which means going to Growl to find new stones with clues. Not to mention there are asynchronous online treasure hunt options. I know I’ve said this before, but… it’s a lot!
Daily tasks are sometimes completed without thinking about them. They can be as simple as giving an order or visiting a place. The main quest is more extensive and goes on for quite some time. Gang quests can be quick if you already have the right item for the fetch quest ready, but it can be a lot! And the Rail Quests I’ve encountered tend to require rarer materials. There’s so much to do, it’s always there and the list keeps growing. Even so, if you’re playing at a good pace and taking frequent breaks, that’s probably going to take the pressure off compared to trying to get everything done as quickly as possible for a variety of reasons. (Obviously I didn’t play in optimal conditions!)
At least, Dragon Hunting Treasure making it easy to keep people alive. You can heal yourself with MP when not in battle with the touch of a button. It is also possible to revive a monster that has fallen in battle by approaching them and holding a button to bring them back to life. Enemy strength is indicated by the color of their title and the level above their heads. Blue means they are weaker than you, white means they are equal, yellow means they are stronger and red means the enemy will wipe you out. I’d even say that the lines showing you which enemies are targeting would be of great help, as it can help you decide who to target and when to dodge.
Speaking of holding, that’s my biggest gripe with Dragon Hunting Treasure. You need to hold the button to dig the treasure for more than five seconds. You need to hold the button to raise the flag when facing the rival gang and win the match. You need to hold the button to respawn a monster. I want to create suspense or encourage challenge, but that is too much. There’s also no accessibility option to change to toggle, like in some games, so I can see people with mobility problems or arthritis just… can’t play because of this option.
Dragon Hunting Treasure is a lot! It offers tons to do. Players have many different islands to explore, many quests to complete, and countless types of monsters to collect. It’s clearly the kind of game someone has to pick up for weeks. The downside is, it can almost be overwhelming given how many tasks fall on your to-do list. As long as you take the time (and take regular breaks to rest after you’re done digging), it’s an experience that’s manageable and sometimes even memorable.
Dragon Hunting Treasure will come to Nintendo Switch on December 9, 2022.
