Possibly you’ve got performed a Thriller Dungeon recreation like Pokémon Rescue, or the Last Fantasy Chocobo one. They’re fairly good, proper? Now, what if I instructed you that there is one thing else on the market that predates all of those wonderful video games and is simply pretty much as good, if not higher? And: what if that collection was nonetheless chugging alongside to at the present time, quietly kicking ass with out the assistance of fashionable licensed properties?
I communicate, after all, of Shiren the Wanderer, Spike Chunsoft’s roguelike the place feudal Japan meets fantasy. A few of you’re already protesting as a result of you understand all about Shiren, however the actuality is that the idea as a complete is not that fashionable. Probably the most profitable Thriller Dungeon video games are the licensed ones, which have offered thousands and thousands of copies, whereas the most recent Shiren recreation did not even break half one million gross sales. That recreation, which launched in 2024, offered higher than all of the earlier entries mixed. Allow us to simply say that, in case you do know of Shiren the Wanderer you’re a connoisseur of style.
For everybody else, let’s put it this manner: Shiren the Wanderer: The Thriller Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island is my most-played recreation on the Change 2. Granted, a part of this is because of the truth that the Change 2 does not actually have a ton of video games but. However even within the face of video games like Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza, nothing on that platform has been in a position to preserve my consideration in addition to Shiren the Wanderer.
In it, you play a roving ronin who has adventures alongside a speaking ferret. You are plonked right into a randomly generated dungeon the place nothing strikes till you do. Each step you are taking, the monsters on this planet additionally take motion. Already, the bottom idea requires a shift in strategic considering: it is turn-based, but in addition sort of not. Typically it is a greater determination to not transfer in any respect and let enemies come to you than it’s to take the offensive.
Actually, you must strategy Shiren video games with numerous care and deliberation. Each run begins with Shiren at degree one and nil gear. It’s important to choose stuff up alongside the way in which, and what you discover is totally random. Typically you will undergo a number of areas with nothing however a picket sword, and generally you will discover unimaginable gear, like weapons that assault round corners or allow you to take two actions directly. However regardless of how good your gadgets are, it’s extremely simple to get right into a harmful state of affairs, even amid lowly enemies. Shiren is tougher than your typical Thriller Dungeon recreation, which is perhaps a part of the explanation it isn’t as fashionable.
OK, so, it is troublesome. However the cause you must play it’s this: Shiren the Wanderer can be one of the crucial permissive video games you will ever expertise. Gadgets can be utilized in all types of bizarre methods, and the one actual restrict is whether or not you are intelligent sufficient to consider the answer. Surrounded? You could possibly take some primary actions, like consuming the consumable that may plop you someplace random within the dungeon. Or perhaps you pull out the wand that may swap the place of you and a faraway enemy. Possibly you employ the merchandise that allows you to break down partitions to create a path ahead that wasn’t there earlier than. Maybe you trick all of the monsters on the ground into considering that one in every of their fellow creatures is definitely you. My favourite: consuming the kind of meals that turns Shiren’s farts so rancid, all the things in your neighborhood runs away.
Initially, you will not know what number of of Shiren’s gadgets work. Even those that sound self-explanatory will discover a solution to screw you: in case you use consumables that create standing results, you may unintentionally give Shiren the ailment and never your opponent; what you needed to do was throw the merchandise at your rival. Equally, there is a scroll that forestalls monsters from stepping past its boundaries, however you will waste it in case you select to learn the scroll reasonably than place it on the bottom. You’d assume many of those nuances are simple to recollect when you encounter them, however you will nonetheless discover a solution to screw up. As soon as, I used to be flying excessive and cruising via most of the recreation’s preliminary dungeons, solely to lose all of it in seconds. I had unintentionally used the scroll that turns any merchandise into an onigiri on my highly effective weapon, and I had nothing else to interchange it. One other time, I used to be in a dungeon the place each single object was unknown till I both used it or recognized it. I used to be having luck simply utilizing all the things as I went alongside, till I made the deadly mistake of hitting a small-time enemy with the precise consumable that turned it invincible. There was nothing I might do however die.
You will spend numerous time dying in Shiren. Enemies have all types of skills, like ones that make you drop your gadgets or powers that flip you into an object that may’t actually do something for a number of turns. There are additionally particular hellish areas known as monster rooms, the place the sport will abruptly spawn a ton of enemies in a small space that is helpfully additionally filled with traps. By the way, these areas are all the time filled with improbable gadgets.
Like many roguelikes, the most effective quiver in your arsenal is information itself. However the recreation additionally provides some mechanics that may aid you alongside the way in which. It is attainable, for instance, to fuse totally different weapons or shields collectively to get one merchandise with all the earlier powers mixed. Should you handle to clear a run, you will additionally have the ability to retailer any of the gadgets exterior a dungeon, to be used subsequent time. You may fill up on good gadgets this manner, however the kicker is that it is equally attainable to lose an merchandise that you simply spent a number of runs crafting into one thing highly effective, and it will probably occur within the silliest manner attainable.
One among my favourite points of the sport is the precise rescue portion of it. Must you die, the sport permits you to put up an SOS on-line that different gamers can reply. You can too select to avoid wasting ‘your self’ with a brand new run; as soon as your new run reaches the identical depth because the final run and also you clear the monsters, you may proceed the earlier playthrough from that time ahead. The most important incentive to serving to others is that you could win factors to spend by yourself rescue runs and make your subsequent Shiren barely extra succesful. Meaning if an unimaginable run involves an finish, you continue to have the opportunity of saving it. Shout out to this one Japanese participant who has repeatedly saved my Shiren from the stupidest conditions attainable. I might fall asleep feeling unhappy about my run and get up to the information that this nameless hero had as soon as once more saved the day.
I am effectively over 100 hours into the 2024 entry, and the sport continues to shock me. It by no means will get previous; as a substitute, Shiren frequently introduces new kinds of dungeons and nuances. A few of these particular dungeons will let you convey your outfitted gadgets, whereas others drive you to start out from scratch. Maybe you tackle the boss rush mode, or the one the place retailers seem on almost each ground. Possibly you enlist the assistance of AI buddies, or perhaps you go at it solo. The sport itself will randomly introduce momentary circumstances that preserve you in your toes as effectively. Challenges like being prompted to make use of a particular sort of merchandise a sure variety of instances earlier than you permit the ground, or abruptly spawning a ton of cash that disappears after a set period of time, preserve the gameplay feeling contemporary. Critically, there’s all the time a reward for enjoying together with regardless of the recreation has tasked you to do.
I am begging you, please play Shiren the Wanderer. Not solely might I take advantage of extra folks to rescue my poor Shiren from a decent spot, however the collection deserves extra love as a complete. The final Shiren recreation earlier than this one was launched almost 15 years in the past in Japan, and I might love to have the ability to play the subsequent one earlier than I hit center age. It is $39.99 on Change, and an ideal expertise for on-the-go gaming. It is the identical worth on PC, and it appears to go on sale extra on Steam than different platforms. Nice information for these of you with a Steam Deck! Should you already like different Thriller Dungeon video games, you owe it to your self to examine Shiren out.
