Dragon Quest Retrospective: Torneko no Daibōken: Fushigi no Dungeon

Note: There is no official English version of Torneko no Daibōken: Fushigi no Dungeon, so all screen shots are made using an English fan translation.

It is inevitable that a successful series will branch out into new territory, but results may vary. Final Fantasy‘s first spin-off, Mystic Quest, could be frustrating at times and yet was not made for series veterans, it was meant for beginners. Despite that it was a spin-off title, it was still a turn-based RPG like the rest of the series, and it wouldn’t be until the PlayStation era that Final Fantasy would begin experimenting with other styles of gameplay. It is now almost expected that each new entry in the series features a battle system crafted from the ground up to be a brand new experience for fans of the series.

Meanwhile, what of Dragon Quest? Final Fantasy has long been known for changing up its gameplay with each new entry in the series, but Dragon Quest fans were up in arms when main series game number nine was going to feature action co-op gameplay. So what, if anything, did Japan’s favourite RPG series experiment with in the 1990s?

If you’re familiar with the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series, Chocobo’s Dungeon or even Shiren the Wanderer, then you’ve seen this type of game before. Torneko no Daibōken: Fushigi no Dungeon was the first “mystery dungeon” game and without it, none of the rest of these games would exist. The game itself took inspiration from Rogue, an early example of a completely randomized dungeon crawler.

Perhaps due to their love of putting randomness into many different gameplay systems in the Dragon Quest series, the next logical step for the franchise was definitely to create a game with as much randomness as possible. Dungeon layouts are random, loot obtained is random, enemies present in each floor of the dungeon are random based on a list of what enemies belong on that floor… basically, the ability of the player to win the game is entirely random.

To a western audience, this might sound like bad game design, but would you believe the original game that kicked off this sub-genre was developed in the United States by Americans? Even before then, many board games like Monopoly were developed by Americans and relied on a pair of dice to move the game forward, thus making one’s ability to win the game highly dependent on forces outside of the player’s control. Some games, like Monopoly, gave players at least some measure of control over their situation in order to try to increase the odds in their favour, but a lucky player who lands on Park Place in one turn and then rolls a pair of ones to land on Boardwalk in their next turn is going to have a bit of an advantage over everyone else. You also can’t help it when the dice screw you over and you roll doubles three times in a row, especially if that third roll would’ve taken you past Go and instead of collecting $200, you’re now in Jail and are further away from Go than when you started.

At least Monopoly offers players a little bit of decision making and strategy. A game like Snakes and Ladders is 100% dice rolls, and a player who constantly hits snakes can do nothing about it while their sibling sails up all the ladders and boasts about it all the way. This is a great example of why relying too much on random numbers can be seen as bad gameplay, because clearly one person is having a lot more fun than the other.

It’s also a lot more fun to play a game and know that if you play perfectly, you can reasonably expect to win. It’s a bad feeling to be handed a loss and know there was nothing you could do to stop it from happening, and in building a game that requires a lot of dice rolls, it’s entirely possible to find yourself in an unwinnable situation through no fault of your own. Balancing a game like a roguelike sounds like a nightmare. It’s no wonder the ones aimed towards the younger generation like the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games err on the side of being not as onerous and can be made easier with a bit of dungeon grinding.

With that in mind, how does Torneko no Daibōken encourage its players, even when they enter an unwinnable dungeon and lose, and is it ultimately a good game? Let’s find out.

Its story is, admittedly, basic. Torneko from Dragon Quest IV, originally translated as Taloon for some reason in the western release “Dragon Warrior IV” but corrected in later versions, has always been fascinated with treasure hunting. It’s his main motivation when we first see him in Chapter 3 of Dragon Quest IV, for he wants to eventually open a shop and sell these treasures in order to be the world’s greatest merchant.

Perhaps Torneko is also the inspiration for the game Recettear.

Anyway, in Torneko no Daibōken, he is brought before a king and hears about a dungeon outside Lynx Village – you get to name the village and that’s what I named mine – and so the entire game is basically this: he wanders into the dungeon to explore it and to try to loot it for treasure.

Because this game is a roguelike, it’s a little more difficult to discuss how balanced it is, because it’s very easy for the game to generate a dungeon that is not balanced in the player’s favour. It’s also a lot more difficult to grind for reasons I’ll soon get into, and the necessity of grinding is one of the ways in which I’ve evaluated games in past retrospective articles. Grinding is typically discouraged in games like this, what with decreasing resources in some games (food, for example), a superboss that spawns if you take too long on a floor (if you count Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 as a roguelike, for example, a grim reaper will show up eventually if you don’t move to the next floor of Tartarus), or other mechanics unique to each particular game.

Torneko no Daibōken begins with a test. Torneko must brave a trial dungeon that’s ten floors deep and find a Jewel Chest that the King lost down there. Only when the chest is found will the King let Torneko into the real Mystery Dungeon.

Sure enough, this is a more difficult task than it would otherwise appear. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Mystery Dungeon format, this is how it generally differs from regular RPGs. Torneko can’t grind for money and buy the best gear in order to survive the lower floors. He has to basically hope the game generates enough stuff to help him get through to the end. He’ll need several Big Bread in order to keep himself from starving on the way down and back. If the game refuses to generate any for him beyond the one that the King gives him, he’ll have a very hard time of it and be forced to eat all the herbs he comes across instead, some of which will have effects on him that are unfavourable. These herbs only stave off hunger a little bit, and once he runs out of these, he’s pretty much up a creek, so they say.

He’ll also need decent weapons and armour and is fully dependent upon the game to give them to him. If he doesn’t find any weapons, he’s stuck fighting with his fists. Even a basic Club will give him more attack power. It doesn’t matter if he finds a ton of Strength herbs, a sword will be more effective at defeating the tougher enemies.

Case in point, the trial dungeon throws Magicians at Torneko starting on the second floor. If he doesn’t have a means to defeat them quickly, they can put him to sleep and get several free hits on him. He can reasonably assume he’ll only be level two at that point and so one sleep spell will be enough to very nearly defeat him.

Fighting barehanded also means that Bikill scrolls won’t be able to help, as they increase a weapon’s strength, but until he picks one up, these scrolls will just take up space in his inventory.

That’s another thing to watch out for. Most roguelike games feature a limited inventory, so Torneko will always be trying to decide what he absolutely can’t part with, and what he can live without. Toadstools can decrease his strength, so carrying an Antidote Herb is a must. Identify Scrolls are great to use on wands, otherwise he might waste something good by using it on a low level enemy.

Wyverns are strong and they start attacking on the ninth floor. A level ten Torneko has enough hit points to withstand about three hits from them, assuming he isn’t somehow wearing awesome armour yet, so if he doesn’t have a way to defeat them within those three turns, he’ll be sent back out of the dungeon before he knows what’s happening.

Fortunately, the game features long range options, too. Arrows can do physical damage against enemies, and if he’s extremely lucky, Torneko might find a Thunder Staff (or three, like I did in my successful run of the trial dungeon). At approximately 20 damage per charge, the Thunder Staff is great for getting rid of Magicians in one hit and Wyverns in two. They’re also great for foiling an imp-type enemy that can steal items and warp to another point in the dungeon.

Finally, the Jewel Chest is found and… I was unable to find an Outside Scroll during my successful run of the trial dungeon, but I’m told that the Jewel Chest will prevent the scroll from being used anyway. Torneko unfortunately has to climb back up those ten floors. Since the developers aren’t complete monsters, enemies on those ten floors don’t get stronger for the trip back. Wyverns are only present on floors nine and ten, and the Magicians back on the second floor are no longer a threat to Torneko as long as he gets lucky with dungeon loot.

In my own experience, it takes approximately an hour or thereabouts to successfully complete the trial dungeon. Failures return Torneko to Lynx Village and reset his level to one with none of the items he previously found, so it seems there’s not much that can be done to stockpile supplies in order to cheese the system and give Torneko an easier time in the trial dungeon.

Once Torneko can enter the main Dungeon mentioned in the title of the game, he begins the process of opening a shop with his wife and son and fully intends to sell the treasures from the Dungeon in his shop.

The bad news about the power he gains from the trial dungeon is that it doesn’t carry over into the main dungeon, he starts at level one every time he enters it, regardless if he was killed or not. This must be where the Kingdom Hearts series gets the idea from, always resetting Sora’s progress back to level one in each game. Torneko also only gets one Big Bread now, as opposed to the Medicinal Herb and Identify Scroll the King gives him along with a Big Bread. He is basically at the mercy of the Dungeon now.

Torneko’s first mission in the Dungeon is to accumulate 500 gold pieces, something which he already has after the trial dungeon, but I guess the money got spent already? In theory it should be more than doable in the actual Dungeon. In practice…

See, the frustrating thing about a randomly generated dungeon is when you start it and are immediately destroyed when it generates too many Ghosts than are even remotely fair for a level one character to handle. The good thing, though, is that another attempt is very easy and quick to begin. If anything, the Dragon Quest series’ tradition of making death not a game over but just a setback with heavy punishment is reflected here in the most extreme manner possible, but as with the main series, players are encouraged to try again.

Still, it’s frustrating to find something awesome like the Dragon Sword+1, which is already six points strong, or the Metal Babble Sword, which is ten points strong, only to still lose because Torneko has no defense.

Although Torneko loses all of the items he picks up in the Dungeon if he is defeated, and especially despite always starting at level one no matter whether he succeeded or failed within the Dungeon, he only loses half his gold upon being defeated, just like in the main Dragon Quest series, so even a loss counts towards his family’s goals to continue to expand his shop. First 500 gold pieces, then 1000 gold pieces, then 3000… the cost of his upgrades will inevitably increase with time. I can see how it might seem like losing just drags the game on and on, what with Torneko’s family only being able to benefit from half of his exploration. Less than half, really, given all his items are always gone.

There’s an Iron Safe ten floors into the Dungeon, though. Just like in Dragon Quest IV, finding one of those can prevent Torneko from losing any gold upon defeat, speeding up the process of upgrading his shop.

All he has to do is survive those ten floors, but the Safe vanishes every time he returns to town so he has to survive those ten floors every single damn time… at first.

This is where the developers show a little bit of mercy to the player. After upgrading his business a few times, his wife tells him that they have a safe now, one that can store items he brought back with him and can use in future runs of the Dungeon. If he finds a very good weapon and even better armour and then is able to return to Lynx Village without dying, Torneko can start his next run with a weapon and armour that can trivialize the first few floors and help him to excavate deeper and deeper. He’ll be able to make further upgrades to the weapon and armour if he can find more Bikill and Upper scrolls, but like every aspect of the game, that’s mainly a function of RNG. It’s 100% possible to go several runs of the Dungeon without seeing either of those two scrolls, adding a somewhat artificial limit to how far he can explore, because eventually, enemies will overwhelm him through sheer power until his armour is good enough to resist them and his weapon is good enough to take them down in two or three hits.

The game’s gradual allowance for Torneko to grab more gear before setting out – he eventually unlocks the ability to take one item with him, and after a few more upgrades to his shop, can take three – means that he’ll be all but guaranteed to make it at least as far as floor twenty in his attempts to explore the Dungeon, maybe further. Like I said, it all depends on whether he continues to upgrade his gear and that, of course, depends on the availability of the necessary items.

Enemies are also always outpacing Torneko, necessitating the grinding for Bikill and Upper scrolls. The Green Dragons on floor 27 are exceptionally tough and shouldn’t be fought more than one at a time. Even above level 20, Torneko doesn’t have enough HP to tank one if he doesn’t have some very good armour to mitigate their attacks.

Eventually, Torneko’s mission becomes the search for a treasure known as the Box of Happiness, and unfortunately for him, the box is located on floor 27. Unless he’s very lucky, he’s going to need to face down some of those Green Dragons.

It’s around this point in the game that Torneko’s wife has a heart to heart with him and it’s possible to navigate the dialogue menu and have Torneko confess that he’s worried about his wife’s health and is willing to stop adventuring. However, in a lovely subversion of the usual structure of a Dragon Quest style “but thou must”, his wife assures him that everything’s alright with her and confesses that she was worried she was driving him too hard and that he might be suffering. Torneko doesn’t have to choose the “right” option in the menu, as they all result in some pretty cute dialogue between the two and show the love they share for each other.

As a result, Torneko’s mission to find the Box of Happiness is renewed, and it’s suggested that the shop has been fully upgraded. The Box of Happiness may be the final mission of the game, but even after it’s found, the rest of the dungeon is left to explore at your leisure after the end credits roll.

Not that it’s all that easy to get to floor 27 to pick up the Box. Bad luck drove me to use an Outside scroll to flee floor 27 the first time I made it down there and it was hours before I was able to get back there to try again. I have several runs that stopped at floors 25 and 26 due to various difficulties. Surprisingly enough, my successful run was plagued by Mystic Dolls draining a grand total of 40 of my maximum hit points, pretty much keeping me from ever having 100 HP. It was like having to deal with a bully playing keep away, their hand on my head pushing me back, their other hand holding my HP gains out of reach. They also gradually neutralized any gains I got from the Strength Herbs that I managed to grab and use during the run, taking me down from 18 points of Strength back to around 11. You start with 8, Strength Herbs give you one extra point and Mystic Dolls drain you one point at a time. I was also somewhat underleveled due to pitfalls opening up on several floors, sometimes right when I began exploring the floor.

After finding the Box, the game forces Torneko to climb back up those 27 flights of stairs because the Box of Happiness also blocks the use of Outside scrolls, but just like in the trial dungeon, the journey back up is actually a lot easier than the trip down and while it can take a couple hours or so to get to floor 27 as a casual player, climbing back up takes less than an hour. The game doesn’t generate very many items for Torneko to pick up on the way back up, as if to encourage the player to leave the dungeon as soon as possible. To be fair, Torneko would likely be charging excitedly back up the stairs, eager to share his discovery with his wife and everyone else, so any items on those floors would’ve been wasted.

It also helps that the further up he goes, the more we get to see the difference that a few levels makes when fighting enemies. After leveling up on Green Dragons, Torneko can usually do triple digit damage to pretty much anything on the first two floors, and kills a lot of enemies in one hit. It should be noted that pitfalls can still be generated, and it feels like they’re much more of a waste of time on the trip back up. When going down, at least you’re getting closer to your goal if you fall through one, even if you’re denied the experience, gold and items you would’ve earned on the floor you were forced to skip. When going back up, it actively wastes your time if you fall down a pitfall and have to explore the lower floor again, looking for where the set of stairs moved, especially since there isn’t really anything else to actually discover except enemies.

To Torneko, an hour feels like a few minutes when you have the most sought after treasure in the world in your possession. The first person Torneko shows the Box of Happiness to is his wife, and it turns out to be a music box which stirs the hearts of everyone in Lynx Village and even lets the deaf hear again, among other small miracles. While the end credits roll, Tonreko shows the box to everyone in the village.

With the Box of Happiness in his possession and the whole village expressing their joy, the game ends with Torneko’s new shop getting its grand opening, with the music box front and centre.

It should be noted that there weren’t a lot of RPGs with post game content back when this game was released, so the fact that you could keep playing on the same save file after finishing the main story is a novel way to keep the audience engaged. The one downside to the post game content is that in his wife’s excitement at seeing the Box of Happiness, she forgets to ask which items Torneko would like to store in his vault, so the weapon and armour that he’d been building up during the quest for the Box, as well as anything else he might’ve wanted to keep from his successful run are gone. I had acquired the Belly Ring on one of my runs, which prevents Torneko from getting hungry during his dungeon exploration runs, and it would’ve been nice to keep that. The post game content pretty much forces Torneko to start from scratch and considering it took me twenty two hours and seventeen minutes to get from the start of the game to floor 27 and back, it would likely take me a while to build up a new weapon and armour and hopefully find a new Belly Ring. There’s also a post game quest to find another treasure on floor 30. I might not have minded doing this if not for the other games waiting patiently for their own Retrospective articles (Final Fantasy VI, for starters), and a lack of content available in the post game run to floor 30 that you won’t already have seen. There wouldn’t be any new enemies, and the dungeon run is pretty much more of the same.

So ends the second chapter in the life of Dragon Quest‘s lovable merchant, Torneko Taloon. This is definitely not the last we’ll ever see of him, but for now, we must turn our sights to other Quests and other Fantasies, telling tales in other worlds across time and space…