Featured in today’s Nintendo Direct Mini, Dragon Quest Treasures is set to come to the Nintendo Switch on December 9.
Dragon Quest Treasures is a spinoff of the long-running JRPG series that will be centered around Erik and his sister Mia from Dragon Quest 11 as children treasure hunters exploring the world in search of loot. Originally announced during the series’ 35th anniversary in May of 2021, Dragon Quest Treasures was not confirmed to be coming to Nintendo’s handheld until June’s Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase.
The video showed the siblings exploring by boat, on foot, and even via flying trains. A major difference in this spinoff is the ability to recruit the iconic monsters from the series to your team. They will help in locating treasure, can be ridden as mounts, and used to help traverse the environment.
Loot you pick up can be brought back to your base and evaluated for its worth and exchanged for gold that can be used to purchase upgrades.
The last Dragon Quest game to come to Switch was Dragon Quest 11 S: Echoes of an Elusive Age — Definitive Edition in 2019, one year after it launched on other platforms. This version included more language settings, an improved soundtrack, more Draconian Quest options, and an entire 2D mode that changes the 3D graphics into sprites reminiscent of the classic Dragon Quest games.
Despite being a spinoff, Dragon Quest Treasures coming not only to Switch at launch, but to the West in general, is a major step forward for this series that is one of the few that still staggers its home Japanese release from the rest of the world. Hopefully this is something we can continue to look forward to with future entries in the series.
