Dragon Quest Heroes: Torneko’s Mystery Dungeon is a bit rough around the edges, but this rerelease of the first-ever Mystery Dungeon game can still be a lot of fun thanks to its progressive mechanics and the always reliable Dragon Quest charm. You can tell this is the first go at this now-expanded genre, but it’s a good enough go to revisit if you’re fond of Dragon Quest or Mystery Dungeon games.
Despite being a massive fan of Dragon Quest, I’ve never actually experienced any of the Torneko games. This subseries has a few different entries (and even a Yangus-led installment), and, interestingly enough, it started the Mystery Dungeon genre. Long before Pokemon and Final Fantasy took to the dungeons, the plucky merchant Torneko built the foundations of the genre, and though the limitations of this simple start definitely show in this rerelease, it’s still a pleasant piece of history.
For the unaware, Mystery Dungeon games typically task you with wandering through randomly generated floors of a dungeon whilst trying to amass gold and items on the way to a particular floor. In Dragon Quest Heroes: Torneko’s Mystery Dungeon, your primary goal is to obtain items for Torneko’s wife to sell at their shop, as well as gold and treasures to upgrade the store. This creates a pleasant little loop of collecting things and making your shop bigger and bigger, creating a continuous sense of progression.
On the other hand, Dragon Quest Heroes: Torneko’s Mystery Dungeon is pretty unrelenting in its difficulty, which is only exacerbated by the RNG elements. I’m pretty decent at games in general, but I died repeatedly in the tutorial dungeon due to bad luck. Though you get to keep half your gold upon losing in the main dungeon, it’s a rather punishing feeling to die far more frequently than you succeed in a somewhat turn-based RPG. It can be a lot of fun to plan your moves and build strong loadouts, which is why this genre took off in the first place.
Dragon Quest Heroes: Torneko’s Mystery Dungeon can be a lot of fun, depending on your RNG.
When you do manage to get solid equipment and items early on, it can be incredibly rewarding to plunder the dungeon and defeat monsters. You enter a strategic flow state, carefully stepping into the best positions and planning how to avoid or crush the enemies around you, with each floor you reach getting more tense and exciting. This isn’t as common a feeling as you might hope, though, as a lot of the time, you’re getting walloped by the randomness of the dungeon. It’s the risk you take in this sort of game, but it feels the slightest bit slanted in this first entry. Still, I’d argue the game is enjoyable enough to be worth your time, and it’s also a pretty neat piece of history to get rereleased.
The visuals of Dragon Quest Heroes: Torneko’s Mystery Dungeon are expectedly delightful, blending Akira Toriyama’s unbeatable style with sharp pixel art that feels fresher than the original Super Famicom release. Each iconic monster is immediately recognizable, even in this smaller and less-detailed form compared to their usual Dragon Quest appearances. Torneko’s portly and jolly design is perfectly conveyed, too, further selling him as an immediately likable protagonist – even without dialogue.
Then there’s the music, which is always a joy in a Dragon Quest game. There isn’t a large variety of tracks throughout, but they’re all plenty catchy. I dig how the music iterates on itself as you go deeper and deeper into the dungeon, selling the feeling of descending into a dark dungeon with little idea what to expect. And also, who doesn’t love the Dragon Quest sound effects?
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The Final Word
Dragon Quest Heroes: Torneko’s Mystery Dungeon may have some bumpy parts that are tough to revisit all these years of iteration later, but it serves as a pleasant enough adventure and a fascinating piece of gaming history. I hope the next couple of Torneko games follow suit, as I’d love to have an excuse to see how each subsequent game builds on the last. Plus, I’ll never say no to more official releases of the past Dragon Quest games that the West missed out on.
