Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer

A popular and recent trend across the Nintendo consoles has been the advent of “party games” and “brain training” games. This has led to many very strong titles being held in lower esteem and with nowhere near enough media coverage. However, all of these casual games may be getting the coverage, but there are many strong games that are being released to less fanfare and catering towards niche markets.

In recent years the DS has had a series of roguelike games fly into it from all sorts of angles. We’ve had Etrian Odyssey from Atlus, Orcs & Elves from EA and there have even been a few Final Fantasy games that could be considered roguelike. Yet, Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer is arguably the most roguelike game to date on the Nintendo DS. Following all of the rules of its father genre, the RPG, Shiren the Wanderer has randomly generated dungeons, random enemy attacks and vicious consequences for failure.

The roguelike, often referred to as a dungeon-crawler, sub-genre was named after the 1980s PC game Rogue, which is the grounding for most modern RPGs in the console market to date. Yet, the predominant differences between an RPG and a roguelike are that in most RPGs the game doesn’t just consist of dungeon crawling, were most roguelikes will. The other difference is that most roguelikes will implement a grueling punishment on death, called permanent death. This, as it sounds, basically means if the player dies, they have to start the game all over again. Whereas with most RPG games, the permanent death does not exist -- if the player dies they normally return the last town or dungeon.

Shiren the Wanderer is a port from the Famicom title: Fushigi no Dungeon 2: Furai no Shiren. This is the second installment of the Mystery Dungeon series for the Famicom, which was never released outside of Japan. Set in a fictional, feudal, Japan the game starts off with our protagonists: Shiren and his companion Koppa. The two are on a quest to find the legendary land of the Golden Condor, along with many other people.

The basic premise of the game is to get through the dungeons and collect as many items along the way as possible, whilst making sure that the player is able to stay alive. The dungeon design may be randomized but there are a few consistencies throughout the game. As Shiren the Wanderer is a turn-based game, all areas are set designed in grids, and the player can only move one grid per turn. Fortunately this means that the enemy can only move one move per turn as well, and is not able to move until Shiren’s move has been taken.

In terms of battle, there is free movement throughout battle. This means that there is no “battle music” and no “battle screen”, if the player wants to run from the enemy, they are able to do so. However, it also means that timing each attack is very important. Unlike with many normal RPGs, when the attack has been selected it will normally cause some form of damage, in Shiren if a character is bouncing on the spot, the attack has to be timed for when the enemy is touching the ground. Luckily the free movement is restricted to turns like general movement in the game.

Similar to most modern RPGs there are multiple menu screens to navigate through and fully understand before setting out, one of the most irritating options is the Hunger gauge. If Shiren becomes to hungry during the journey he will die and the game will be reset. So at certain intervals the player has to check his hunger gauge otherwise many hours of hard work can be wiped because Shiren is hungry.

Fortunately, the developers added a warehouse at the first town in the game. This warehouse allows the player to store different items. At first this seems a little pointless, yet after a few hours into the game it can become hard to navigate through the item menu, so it’s beneficial to drop some items off. Further, if the player does not fill the warehouse with their goods, if they die the game is reset. Yet, the warehouse keeps all of their goods, regardless of whether the game has restarted or not. This addition to the game keeps the player’s attention after they have died, as losing hours of work can be very soul destroying.

In terms of audio and visual pleasure, Shiren the Wanderer does not disappoint. It’s a throwback to the SNES era, and the graphics haven’t really been changed from the Famicom title. Yet this does not act as a detrimental feature on the title; in fact this retro feel to the game enhances the experience. It’s enjoyable to play a game that is colourful, well designed and enjoyable, yet retains the old-school feel.

The music throughout the game is well composed and suits the game well. There are the standard battle sound effects of swinging a bat, an arrow being launched and springing a few traps. The music in the towns and the few cut-scenes are fairly unique and although it doesn’t burn its way into the skull, it is good and is clearly a spin on traditional Japanese music.

To see more screenshots of Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer, click here.

To see a trailer of Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer, click here.

Final Verdict - 8/10

Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer is a title that caters to the niche market. Similar style games would be Etrian Odyssey and Orcs & Elves in it’s turn based style, and very similar to Orcs & Elves in it’s free movement in battle. All of these titles have many different things in common; however the overlying element of similarity is the rougelike qualities about them. Shiren the Wanderer is the most brutal of the above games in every sense, with severe punishments for slight miscalculations.