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 glorious video games and is simply nearly as good, if not higher? And: what if that sequence was nonetheless chugging alongside to today, quietly kicking ass with out the assistance of in style licensed properties?
I communicate, in fact, 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 an entire is not that in style. Essentially the most profitable Thriller Dungeon video games are the licensed ones, which have bought 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, bought higher than all of the earlier entries mixed. Allow us to simply say that, for those who 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 would 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 capable of maintain 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 additionally 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, it’s important to strategy Shiren video games with a whole lot of care and deliberation. Each run begins with Shiren at stage one and 0 gear. It’s a must to choose stuff up alongside the best way, and what you discover is totally random. Typically you will undergo a number of areas with nothing however a wood sword, and typically you will discover unbelievable gear, like weapons that assault round corners or allow you to take two actions directly. However irrespective of how good your gadgets are, it’s totally simple to get right into a harmful scenario, even amid lowly enemies. Shiren is more durable than your typical Thriller Dungeon recreation, which is perhaps a part of the rationale it isn’t as in style.
OK, so, it is tough. However the cause you must play it’s this: Shiren the Wanderer can be some of the 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 think about the answer. Surrounded? You can take some fundamental 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 utilize 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 pieces 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 method to screw you: for those who use consumables that create standing results, you may by chance 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 stops monsters from stepping past its boundaries, however you will waste it for those who select to learn the scroll reasonably than place it on the bottom. You’d suppose many of those nuances are simple to recollect when you encounter them, however you will nonetheless discover a method to screw up. As soon as, I used to be flying excessive and cruising by lots of the recreation’s preliminary dungeons, solely to lose all of it in seconds. I had by chance 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 pieces 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 may do however die.
You may spend a whole lot of 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 referred to as monster rooms, the place the sport will instantly 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 implausible gadgets.
Like many roguelikes, the perfect quiver in your arsenal is data itself. However the recreation additionally gives some mechanics that may show you how to alongside the best way. It is potential, for instance, to fuse totally different weapons or shields collectively to get one merchandise with all the earlier powers mixed. In case you handle to clear a run, you will additionally be capable of retailer any of the gadgets exterior a dungeon, to be used subsequent time. You’ll be able to refill on good gadgets this manner, however the kicker is that it is equally potential to lose an merchandise that you simply spent a number of runs crafting into one thing highly effective, and it will seemingly occur within the silliest method potential.
One in every of my favourite points of the sport is the precise rescue portion of it. Must you die, the sport means that you can submit an SOS on-line that different gamers can reply. You too can 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 largest incentive to serving to others is that you would be able to win factors to spend by yourself rescue runs and make your subsequent Shiren barely extra succesful. Which means if an unbelievable run involves an finish, you continue to have the potential of saving it. Shout out to this one Japanese participant who has repeatedly saved my Shiren from the stupidest conditions potential. 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 outdated; as an alternative, Shiren frequently introduces new sorts of dungeons and nuances. A few of these particular dungeons will let you deliver your geared up gadgets, whereas others pressure you to start out from scratch. Maybe you tackle the boss rush mode, or the one the place outlets seem on practically each ground. Possibly you enlist the assistance of AI buddies, or perhaps you go at it solo. The sport itself will randomly introduce non permanent circumstances that maintain you in your toes as effectively. Challenges like being prompted to make use of a selected sort of merchandise a sure variety of occasions earlier than you allow the ground, or instantly spawning a ton of cash that disappears after a set period of time, maintain the gameplay feeling contemporary. Critically, there’s all the time a reward for taking part in together with regardless of the recreation has tasked you to do.
I am begging you, please play Shiren the Wanderer. Not solely may I take advantage of extra folks to rescue my poor Shiren from a decent spot, however the sequence deserves extra love as an entire. The final Shiren recreation earlier than this one was launched practically 15 years in the past in Japan, and I might love to have the ability to play the following 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! In case you already like different Thriller Dungeon video games, you owe it to your self to verify Shiren out.
