Square Enix
The Dragon Quest saga has produced numerous spin off over the years, among titles that exploited the Wii movement sensors (Dragon Quest Swords) to the Musau (Dragon Quest Heroes), passing through the most recent titles that made the verse to Minecraft (such as Dragon Quest Builders).
But the most loyal fans of this long -lived franchise will certainly not have forgotten the Dragon Quest Monsters series, of which the present Dragon Ques Treasures, an exclusive Switch out on December 9, represents an evolution in a modern key, which replaces the Monster Farming with the compulsive search for hidden treasures.
We played it for you and we are ready to tell you everything in our review.
Without taking us too seriously
Erik and Mia, characters already known and loved by the public of Dragon Quest XI, are the protagonists of a cheerful and carefree story, who makes no secret of turning mostly to the youngest: taken as unloted on a Viking ship, while arriving from Desire to explore and look for treasures firsthand, they are forced to look at the Vikings to get drunk and sing after yet another scorcribanda.
Just during one of the beer and harmony parties, the two manage, however, they manage to sneak away and meet two funny creatures that the Vikings imprisoned: Suyn, a green pig with wings, and Misha, a purple kitten, also winged
After freeing them, they run away from the ship with them to give themselves to adventure, unaware that, in addition to a world of treasures, there are a thousand other vicissitudes to wait for them on an enchanted kingdom called Draconia.
In this new enchanted world not, all monsters are hostile and, soon, the two brothers will build a party of bizarre creatures that will help them replenish, of adventure adventure, their magnificent booty.
As per tradition for the spin offs of the main series, the general tone is light -hearted, light dialogues and many of the funny characters to the point of tearing a smile: the Dragon Quest franchise has built its versatility and ability on these elements to attract both young novice players and old sea wolves looking for something that you don’t take too seriously.
Despite the inevitable neckline between the names pronounced by the characters and their Italian adaptation, the presence of a location for the texts in our language (moreover very well done) proves to be fundamental in order not to cut off the younger public bands and give the Welcome to everyone in the world of Draconia.
An extremely condescending level of difficulty (on which we will return later) and the fact that the story does not require any previous knowledge to be appreciated and understood all the way make Dragon Quest Treasures (which you find on Amazon) an ideal entry point in the colorful World conceived by Yuji Horii now thirty -six years ago.
In short, a modern fairy tale suitable for any type of audience, which will probably combine parents and children during the next holidays: if this was the intent, it can only be said to each other.
Easy Peasy
The gameplay takes the shapes of an action RPG rather to the rose water, where the depth is sacrificed on the altar of accessibility, despite the dozens of internal systems that apparently seem to be many to memorize.
Everything that could create scratch cards has in fact been automated, so as to allow the player to devote himself to exploratory phases only, however rather delicious, and combat, whose basic components include only the pressure of three buttons.
But let’s go in order: from the early bars, the game suffers the player of main and secondary missions (even if they all look like the classic Japanese role -playing fetch quests), opening all six maps available and allowing you to explore the world of Draconia at will.
In theory, the order in which to visit every single island should be dictated by the level of the monsters that populate it, but our experience says that it is possible to face without fear even monsters of a dozen levels higher than our party and out of it easily winners – And this, if combined with the ease with which it is possible to escape from the clashes, makes the de facto exploration without constraints, focusing everything on the adventurous factor of the countryside.
By wandering around the maps, it will be imperative to take incetta of resources and treasures, which can be found thanks to the instinct of the monsters that will accompany us in battle: when a balloon containing a casket will appear on their heads, it means that a treasure lies nearby, ready to be found and brought to our trophy room on the island that acts it has central hub.
Finding treasures serves to raise the overall level of the group, and therefore, on the wheel, to collect more money, to expand the structures available at the Central Island, to satisfy the requests of the numerous quests scattered around the world of Draconia and so Street.
Report stations of a sort of flying railway that connects all the islands together, beat other guilds of hunters of treasures, some hostiles, other friendlies, and, lastly, collect the seven spheres of the dragon hidden for the world of Game (where we have already heard it, this?) are the ultimate objectives of our vicissitudes, but times, ways and rhythms of the adventure are totally in the hands of the player, in line with the relaxed and light -hearted atmosphere of production.
The quantity of content is remarkable, but the evident basic repetitiveness and the flattening of the curve of the difficulty remove petrol from the game already after a dozen hours, when, in fact, almost everything he has to offer has been seen.
To punctuate the exploratory phases, grazed by total freedom and an interesting open world to visit, in which it is imperative to exploit the peculiar skills of each monster well (some allow you to jump higher, others to plan, others still to launch beyond the A ravine), there are really too simplified fights, ideal for younger but rather monocordic players for everyone.
Once a hostile creature is crossed, it is possible to launch flals with the Y key, cure yourself by holding down the X button and roll away by quickly pressing the latter key, with the clashes that end in a few seconds thanks to the good artificial intelligence of our monsters and to the scarce Vis Pugnandi of the opponents.
To run into the game over is almost impossible: you can re -enter your fallen companions indefinitely, which, in turn, can cure our hero and protect it with special spells, and also during the boss fights guarding the rarest treasures the Challenge level never really rises.
Both the recruitment of new monsters and the growth of the character at the level crossing are automatic and, in the absence of equipment, net of pins sporadically obtained from defeated monsters, the level of customization is very limited, and the adventure flows much more focused on the exploration and recollection of resources that not on real -time fights, which not even the inclusion of a slingshot for distance attacks manages to revive.
There is nothing that does not work or that is really broken, apart from the continuous pathfinding problems of allied monsters, which fit into elements of the scenario and leave us alone in combat – but, at the same time, there is nothing Of incredibly well realized or satisfactory: the youngest will have fun and could enter the magical world of Dragon Quest from this door, while veterans could enjoy the title only as long as they take it in a relaxed way and without too many pretensions.
Sobbits and cartoons
The technical aspect, never predominant in any episode of the Dragon Quest franchise, defends itself well mainly thanks to a colorful and inspired artistic direction, which fishing with full hands by the boundless bestiary of the series to propose funny, original and well -designed monsters, well designed, From Porcellini d’Ondia with the wizard hat with hands that drip continuously, passing through living armor without a knight.
To the great variety of enemies and recruitable monsters is added a discreetly vast world to explore, rather empty at a first glance but in reality, scattered with treasures and objects to be found underground, making the free exploration of the game environments pleasant.
The animations sector is well cared for, especially as regards the protagonists and the handful of main characters, and the polygonal models, however simple, are well made and in line with other similar productions seen on Nintendo Switch during the last two years.
We are faced with a production that has nothing to envy to the cartoons of Saturday morning – and that will surely hit the youngest among our readers positive or, in the case of the most experienced gamers like those who write to you, their children.
To lose some blow, as often happens on Switch given the age of the machine and its poor hardware power, they are the frame rate, which jumps in a rather conspicuous way on the occasion of the most crowded fights and too sudden movements of the camera, and the General resolution, which, despite the adaptation in real time thanks to techniques to ensure that the most distant elements do not seriously seriously on the CPU, is rather spoiled if you play in television mode.
At least from this point of view (not from that of the frame rate) things are better relying on the portable mode, which covers the flaws with a lower native resolution and a less extensive horizon line.
We must also report the frequency of pop-in phenomena of elements of the scenario, with stones, bushes and, in the most serious cases, entire hills that appear in front of the player almost from nothing, when he approaches a few steps from them.
Fortunately, this phenomenon, during our tests, has never affected enemies, and therefore has never really caused problems related to gameplay, but it is nevertheless annoying to see the game world that unrolls in front of the player gradually as if it were a Persian carpet.
It must be said that the entirety of our test took place with version 1.0.0 of the game, therefore without the usual patch of the day one, but honestly, we doubt that all these problems can be solved in full with a single update.
The gaming experience remains pleasant and none of the aforementioned problems prevents the regular unraveling of the main game mechanics, but it is good to point out that the optimization is not exceptional and that the drops of frame installments are on the agenda.
Very well, and it was to be expected, from a sound point of view: the dubbing is not too widespread, and it is available both in English and in Japanese, but it is the soundtrack that takes the scene, with a compilation of some of the More iconic and loved motivates of the almost forty years of life of the franchise, some in original version, some adapted for the occasion.
