Dungeon Hōrōki (lost build of cancelled Famicom roguelike role-playing game; 1988)

Title screen

Status: Lost

Dungeon Hōrōki (ダンジョン放浪記) is a roguelike role-playing game for Famicom that was planned to be developed and released by Ascii. The game was to be Famicom's first roguelike. The game was first announced in July 1988, with plans to release it in November for 6,500 yen, but was postponed to February 1989, then March 1989, and finally never released^[1].
Ascii loaned setting materials, flyers, and ROM to the film's production team to promote this game in the thriller Yōjo Densetsu '88, which was screened on September 23, 1988. In addition to game materials, the film also features a set modeled after Ascii's development office and parts of the actual Ascii headquarters as filming locations.

To this day, this game has not generally surfaced, not even the existence of ROMs.

Plot

Matarō, a poor young man who dreams of getting rich, decides to join the religious group Mandrake after seeing a flyer that says he can become rich by joining their religion. Matarō's test for joining the Mandrake is a harsh one, he must not return to the surface until he finds the "Sephiroth Tree" on the 25th floor of the dungeon's basement.