Dragon Quest Treasures, the upcoming spin-off of Dragon Quest 11, will see the return of a feature with a storied history in the franchise: recruiting monsters defeated in combat to fight by the player's side. During this week's Nintendo Direct Mini, Dragon Quest Treasures showed off a brief compilation of its gameplay, giving fans a look at the new and returning mechanics that the game will feature. In the short time that Dragon Quest Treasures had the spotlight, it revealed a great deal about the land of Draconia and how players will be able to interact with it, including the taming of a variety of monsters.
Recruiting monsters is a feature that dates back to Dragon Quest 5, originally released on the Super Famicom in 1992. Since then, monster recruitment has appeared in a number of Dragon Quest games, from series titles to spin-offs like Dragon Quest Builders 2; even mobile games such as Dragon Quest Tact feature monster collecting. Each iteration of the monster recruitment system is implemented in an updated way, and with increasing levels of complexity. Now, in Dragon Quest Treasures, the monsters recruited by the player appear to have a more significant role than ever.
After its cinematic opening, the showcase begins with the player exploring the world of Dragon Quest Treasures, using an ability to locate nearby treasure. They are accompanied by a Slime, a Dracky, and a Restless Armour. The monsters seem to provide the player with some indication of the treasure's location, in addition to the direction from their compass-like ability. The player is then shown riding atop the shoulders of a Restless Armour, followed by a Great Sabrecat. The mounted monsters have stamina bars and appear to move at different speeds, implying that recruiting monsters with a variety of physical capabilities will be beneficial.
Every Dragon Quest Treasures Recruitable Monster
These are all the monsters confirmed by the Direct Mini:
- Slime
- Pink Slime
- Dracky
- Drackyma
- Great Sabrecat
- Restless Armour
- Ham Hatwitch
- Killing Machine
- Golem
- Orc
The player in the Direct is shown attempting to scale a steep mountain and cover long distances without touching the ground. In each instance, they enact an ability of one of their monstrous companions in order to progress. Given Dragon Quest Treasures' origin as a new Dragon Quest Monsters game, this level of reliance on monsters' abilities over the protagonist's makes perfect sense. During this section of the showcase, the player bounces off a slime to reach new heights; a Drackyma seen in their party as well. Subsequently, the player - accompanied by a pink Slime and a Dracky - jumps into the air and hangs from the Dracky as it flies, carried along by a breeze.
Finally, the combat of Dragon Quest Treasures is put on display as the player engages several Orcs in battle alongside a Ham Hatwitch, a Killing Machine, and a Golem. No UI is shown to indicate the player issuing commands, so their AI could be autonomous in combat. The player's monsters appear to have an unprecedented level of utility and versatility in Dragon Quest Treasures, so the mechanic should be fairly prominent, and feature far more recruitable monsters than appeared in this week's showcase, but these are all the creatures currently accounted for. If future games such as Dragon Quest 12 borrows these features, the solid mechanical foundation laid out here could cement itself as a new franchise standard. As long as the series follows the lead of Dragon Quest Treasures, monster taming will only become an even more beloved feature.
Dragon Quest Treasures is set to launch on December 9 for Nintendo Switch.