While Torneko explores the dungeons, he collects items and fights monsters, similar to ones found in Dragon Quest games.

After successfully obtaining the permission, he ventures into the dungeon, gradually expanding his store with the income he earns from selling the items he brings back from his repeated adventures.

Finally, he succeeds in bringing back the "Box of Happiness"; a rumored treasure hidden in the dungeon's innermost depths.

[11] By the time the company released their first Sound Novel game in 1992, Otogirisō, both Koichi Nakamura, founder of Chunsoft and co-creator of the Dragon Quest series, and Seiichiro Nagahata, one of the executive officer of Spike Chunsoft and corporate planning officer back then, wanted to work on a different genre.

Unlike today's game software development, as soon as someone expressed their idea on a project, the team from company, who was small back then, started brainstorming without going through the approval process or budget which resulted in an unclear work division.

[12] When Nakamura and Nagahata explained the system introduced in Rogue, which was used as template, there was a considerable resistance from employees at the beginning; as he talked about it, other staff members gradually left the discussion, disagreeing with his idea, or making excuses they were busy with other projects.

Nakamura directly wanted to put the Dragon Quest series in the project, while Nagahata thought of using The Legend of Zelda.

[10][12] For this reason, Nakamura chose Torneko, the well-loved shopkeeper from Dragon Quest IV, imagining that he was exploring for items to put in his shop.

[10] Yuji Horii and Akira Toriyama have also contributed in creating different angles of characters and monsters, with the help of drawings made by Nakamura, as their official artworks were always shown in a frontal view.

[12] A hunger system was added in the game so the player has to pay attention to the adventure through the dungeon, as once it is empty, Torneko's HP decreases for each turns.

[14] Then, a transluent map was added when exploring a dungeon, with dots representing the player, items, traps, and monsters in a floor.

[16] A game counselor mentioned he has played the same prototype in the past, and was later awarded a Happy Music Box by Chunsoft, claiming he was "one of the first Americans to reach the bottom of the dungeon".

Sony Records released the soundtrack, titled Suite Torneko's Great Adventure: Musical Chemistry, on October 21, 1993, in Japan.

[19] Torneko's Great Adventure was released on September 19, 1993, exclusively in Japan, with a catchphrase that will be re-used throughout the series; "The RPG that can be played 1,000 times".

[20] In November 1993, Famitsu magazine's Reader Cross Review gave the game an 8 out of 10 and it earned the Gold Hall of Fame.

[23] Although it has sold less than the Dragon Quest's mainline titles, the success behind its sales is due to its crossover with the latter, which is a cultural phenomenon in Japan.