A Run of the Torneko's Great Adventure Remaster: Diving to Floor 99 and Returning to the Surface

The story begins with Torneko's family, who dream of running the world's greatest shop, moving to a village in search of the "Mystery Dungeon," where a legendary treasure is said to lie. After greeting the king, you first learn the controls and rules in a tutorial, picking up a strange box on floor 10 and returning home. Then, in a second tutorial dungeon, you likewise pick up a box and return. After two dives, the shop has grown considerably, and the tutorial ends there.

After that, you gain access to the 99-floor dungeon where you cannot bring in items, and the real adventure begins. The shallow floors have many weak enemies such as Slimes and Ghosts, but stronger monsters appear the deeper you go. For that reason, the commentator explains, it is important to get prepared early on.

On floor 1, the commentator picks up an unidentified ring and a Copper Sword, and is relieved to no longer be bare-handed. While thinking they wanted a shield early too, they found one in the next room, which turned out on inspection to be a Dragon Shield +3. This made the early game much more stable, they say.

On floor 2, they pick up a cursed Abacus of Justice. Here they identified all their items at once. According to the commentator, since this game includes the chance of drawing a Scroll of Time Sand, it pays to adjust the timing of identification around that. This time, they had an unlucky loss on this floor, so they identified early, hoping it might make up for it. In the process, the abacus's curse also happened to be lifted. The Abacus of Justice has fairly high attack, but the commentator was thinking of eventually switching to a Dragon Killer in order to hunt plenty of the rewarding dragons.

On floor 8, they encounter a monster house. Since it lets you restock items in bulk, the commentator says it is lucky to run into one on a floor with weak enemies. They lure enemies into a corridor and defeat them one at a time. However, at this point the Chimaera's attack power was a threat, and with more fights to follow, they used a Seed of Agility to handle it carefully. The Mumboh-Jumboh took two hits and the other enemies one, so the rest was just a matter of hitting them in turn. Thanks to the Ring of Strength, they had plenty of damage output, they say.

They also obtained a Ring of Doll Warding in this monster house. Since doll-type monsters appear in large numbers from the midgame on, this ring would prove useful right to the end.

On B11, they were surrounded by enemies that couldn't be killed in one hit, such as Chimaeras and Restless Armours. The commentator equipped the Zoom Ring, which occasionally blows the wearer away, and also counting on the Mumboh-Jumboh's Basiruura, chose to flee the spot. After successfully escaping, they took on the enemies in a corridor. On this floor they also found a Dragon Killer, a candidate for their final weapon.

Because the Restless Armour chips away at HP, they threw a Blinding Herb at a corner to immobilize it. At this point it took 4 to 5 hits to defeat, making it an opponent they couldn't let their guard down against, they say. In a string of fights, the Chimaera's attacks can't be taken lightly either, so they fired arrows while using weaker enemies as shields, whittling it down to one-hit range before finishing it off. Since they couldn't tell what was waiting behind it, this was a decision that put safety first.

Their handling of other enemies is also explained in detail. The Funghoul, which lowers strength, can be killed in one hit with their current damage. Against the Rotting Corpse, which lowers a shield's enhancement value, they fought with the shield removed. The other Restless Armour was likewise whittled down with arrows before being defeated, and they were also helped by weak enemies conveniently getting in between. In the end, the commentator sums it up as a profitable monster house cleared using only herbs and arrows.

On B12, they obtain a Leather Shield, which slows the decline of fullness. This makes managing food much easier, so from then on they decided to proceed while switching between two shields. It also served as insurance, they say, since on the lower floors the main shield could rust and become useless.

The monster house on B16 also contained enemies that move at double speed, so they escaped with a Zoom Herb. After encountering a monster house, enemy positions become visible, so they used corridors to defeat them with hit-and-run tactics. The commentator explains that by using a Rockbomb, which stops in place when hit, you can block other enemies and create time to rest.

By this point, they had mostly gathered the equipment they ultimately wanted, and the remaining items they were looking for were the Thief's Ring and the Staff of Whack. On this floor they finally found the Thief's Ring, and the prospect of conquering the dungeon began to come into view, they say.

After clearing the floor, they gather even more items. Using a Staff of Splitting they hadn't found a use for, they multiplied Baby Satans, which have a 100% drop rate. Since Baby Satans steal items from your inventory, they set down all non-equipment items on the floor beforehand. Then they placed the staff at their feet, waved it, and kept splitting them. Once the staff was used up, they defeated them and collected the items. Through small accumulations like this, their inventory gradually grew.

Upon reaching B22, thanks to the Thief's Ring, every monster stayed asleep in its starting position without waking up. The commentator describes monster houses as having become mere storerooms. Swapping it with the Ring of Doll Warding as needed, they defeated enemies, earned items and experience, and pressed on.

From B25, Dragons, among the strongest class of monsters, start to appear. They have a high drop rate and give a large 3,000 experience. With their equipment ready to defeat them easily, the commentator hunted them as if to drive them to extinction.

On B32, they enter the deep part of the dungeon. According to the commentator, from here to floor 99 the types of monsters that appear are completely fixed. The system continues with floors where seven types appear: Dragon, Mud Hand, Big Eye, Liquid Metal Slime, Mystery Doll, Silver Devil, and Archdemon. From here, while further raising their level, strength, and equipment enhancement values, they aimed for floor 99 with safety first, using the Thief's Ring.

On B50, they reach the halfway point. Certain floors always generate a great maze, and the commentator explains that a Scroll of Remira can shorten the time a little.

B99 was also a great maze. Using a Scroll of Remira, they first picked up a scroll, and on appraisal it turned out to be the Last Scroll. It is a memento proving that you reached the bottom of the dungeon.

However, the adventure doesn't end here. You must retrace your steps and make it back to the surface alive. To do so, you first look for the Strange Box. While you carry it, stairs become up-stairs, and you climb all the way to floor 1 holding the box. The box's description says it gives off a strange smell, but the commentator jokes that having dived this deep, Torneko himself must be giving off quite a stench by now, and says they want to get home quickly and soak in a hot spring.

From B98, since there is no need to pick up items, they focus on finding stairs while being careful to stay safe. The commentator explains that on the way back you don't get hungry, so it's fine to discard the food you're carrying. On the other hand, automatic HP recovery still works, so they made sure to fully recover before climbing each staircase.

Since no items lie on the floors on the way back, there are no Scrolls of Remira either, and they fill in the map by feel. However, floor 50 has a special item, and they picked up the Scroll of Proof as a memento. The commentator jokingly says that once home, they'll take a photo of it and send it to Chunsoft.

When they got back to B24, the mood of the BGM changed significantly, and it really sank in that they were back on the shallow floors, they say. There are no threatening enemies around here, but they proceed without letting their guard down until the end. On B1, they say the monsters somehow even looked cute, and they found the last staircase and returned home.

Their final stats were level 33 and strength 23. The commentator reflects that, honestly, their damage output may have been a bit excessive.

Among the items, the ones that stood out were the Thief's Ring and the Ring of Doll Warding; the commentator says that if you draw these two early, you're set from then on. For weapons, the Dragon Killer was reliable as expected, and thanks to it they never had trouble restocking items from floor 25 on. As for shields, they used two interchangeably partway through, but since the Dragon Shield carried them through the weak early stretch, they consider running two shields to have been a good choice.

As something useful from the midgame on, they name the Staff of Banishment. They used it as a stopgap until drawing the Staff of Whack, but it also worked well as a place to use a Scroll of Prayer for the time being, they say.

In this adventure, they reached floor 99 and cleared the game by bringing back the scroll and the box. The commentator, who had never played the original, describes this game as simple yet already a fully realized masterpiece as of the very first entry. Praising not only the tense adventure in which resources are gradually worn down, but also the approachable monsters and the game design that makes good use of their traits, they say that putting the character Torneko in the lead role was also, in their personal view, a wonderful decision, and close out the video.