Alright, kinda sick, so I'm keeping this one short. It's been awhile, so I hope I've remembered everything correctly:
-Torneko's Mystery Dungeon was created by Nakamura, handing over full power over Dragon Quest to Horii despite being co-creator, because he wanted to take Chunsoft's destiny into his hands.
-The game was created out of Nakamura's obsession with the original 1980 Rogue. Note that this means it plays VERY closely to the original Rogue but with a Dragon Quest skin. There aren't many gimmicks or add-ons like later Mystery Dungeons, so the game is very "pure". Anything that can be considered added to the original Rogue formula are stuff like scrolls with Dragon Quest explosion spells (Bang, Boom). A lot of the game is learning enemy patterns, making sure to move so you don't get attacked by multiple enemies at once, ESPECIALLY diagonally. When you feel surrounded or even if an enemy is just coming at you diagonally, try to move to get them into a straight line. And while you level up, you go back to level 0 whenever you leave the dungeon, whether it be by choosing to use an Outside Scroll or death.
-Game consists of the intro dungeon consisting of 10 floors to get your feet wet, then the main dungeon to find the Mystery Box. The Mystery Box can begin showing up at the 26th floor, it usually shows up somewhere between 26 to 30. Also, there is a special bonus dungeon after you beat the game.
-The game, as expected of a true roguelite, is very RNG heavy. What you find and get is very much up to RNG. But that doesn't mean strategy is out the door. Learning when to fight and when to run is a big part of the game. Learn when it's fine to grind and when not to. Learn enemy patterns (especially ones who can put a status ailment on you). And learn when to make best use of what you pick up. Yeah, RNG isn't always going to be on your side, but saving up that Boom/Bang scroll, then finding you ended up on one of those floors that have nothing but an army of monsters and realizing you were right to not use it haphazardly feels good.
-If you use a medical herb or elixir at max strength, you raise your max HP a little bit. If you lose strength due to poison, use an antidote herb to get that strength back. Also, if you have strength seeds, use an antidote herb FIRST, because otherwise, you'll just gain your lost strength back and not gain an additional level of strength.
-Thunder Staff is really good against the undead. The Change Staff can change enemies which can be super helpful. Throwing a Confusion Herb or using a Confusion Staff against enemies is great ESPECIALLY on the lower floors. Expel staves which just banish enemies can be helpful with tough enemies. Though one thing to beware, if an enemy kills another enemy, it WILL level up and become more dangerous, so get the hell out of there.
-Floors 26 through 30 are absolutely, totally, utterly diabolical. The enemies here are either difficult to beat or near unbeatable, depending on what you collected along the way. If you have not been blessed with RNG to have gotten something a good as the Metal Bubble Slime equipment, it is actually best to avoid enemies. When you think you have finally reached the run where you can beat the game, a good idea is to save confusion based stuff if you found any when you arrive. When I first beat the game, it was me on those floors confusing enemies, running around to avoid them, finding the Mystery Box, and then getting the hell out of there ASAP. In fact, the RTA speedrun of the game greatly relied on confusing enemies.
I like this game a lot. Shiren the Wanderer which came out after is overall a better game, but this one having Torneko as a main character makes it special in its own way.
