Gamertell Review: Shiren the Wanderer for Wii

Title: Shiren the Wanderer
Price: $39.99
System(s): Wii
Release Date: February 9. 2010
Publisher (Developer): Atlus (ChunSoft)
ESRB Rating: “Teen” for Alcohol Reference, Mild Fantasy Violence, Mild Language and Mild Suggestive Themes
Pros: Japanese DLC is included on the game disc, multiple difficulty levels including one where you don’t lose items or your levels when you die, there are some interesting characters to interact with, can control Shiren and his partner of the moment if you want and cutscenes look good.
Cons: Doesn’t have the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection support the Japanese version had, dungeons and monsters don’t offer much variation, story is only passable, rogue-like and Shiren fans may find it too easy and accomodating.
Overall Score: One thumb up, one down, 77/100, C+, * * 1/2 out of 5

Shiren the Wanderer Wii isn’t entirely a new game. It’s actually a remake of an old SNES game called Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer 3 that, unfortunately, was never released overseas. for a while, it seemed like the Wii port of Shiren the Wanderer 3: Karakuri Yashiki no Nemuri Hime wasn’t going to be released overseas either, as Sega never announced it. Thankfully, Atlus did, and while it’s quite unfortunate that all of the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection support is gone, it’s still a good rogue-like RPG for beginners and people who finished Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo’s Dungeon years ago.

A mysterious mansion that may hold treasures beyond your wildest dreams.

Shiren is an experienced warrior who wanders around the world, getting caught up in all kinds of adventures, with his faithful . Most recently, his Sensei, who is also his uncle and mentor, gave him the key to the mysterious Karakuri Mansion. Shiren then makes the small town of Otsutsuki his home base and begins journeying to reach the Karakuri Mansion so he can explore it and discover if the legends about it holding an extraordinary amount of treasure are true.

But, Shiren isn’t the only one who’s interested in the Karakuri Mansion. Asuka, from the second Shiren game, also gets involved in the quest and fights alongside Shiren, and a ninja named Oboro and a bandit named Jurouta are also investigating and trying to get into Karakuri. There’s also a strange woman Shiren keeps running into that seems to know quite a bit about the mansion.

Dungeon crawling is fun, but some of the Japanese version’s Wi-Fi features’d have been nice

Shiren the Wanderer is a very typical dungeon-crawling rogue-like. If you’ve played games like Izuna, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon or the aforementioned Chocobo’s Dungeon, you’ll feel right at home. There are relatively bland dungeons, filled with hidden traps and monsters, and you go around trying to find the exit. It’s a turn-based action RPG, meaning for every move you make, the monsters will make one move too. You’ll probably die a few times, but that’s expected in a rogue-like. At the end of each dungeon is a boss, which you defeat, so you can return to your home-base, regroup and then head to the next dungeon. It’s also worth noting that, like all Atlus games, the translation is great and often funny, so even though the story isn’t all that epic, there are some lines and jokes that are.

There’s one feature that Shiren the Wanderer players are going to either love, or despise. People who have never played a rogue-like before, or get frustrated after dying for the twentieth time in a standard Shiren game will be overjoyed to know that, no matter what difficulty level you choose, you’ll keep all the levels you’ve earned when you die. So each time you enter the dungeon, you’ll be stronger. This same information is unwelcome news to fans of previous Shiren games. The series is known for its difficulty and challenges, and experienced rogue-like players may find the retained levels feature infuriating. As long as you go through a dungeon enough times to earn sufficient levels, there’s really no way you can lose.

I can’t help wishing that somehow the Wi-Fi features could have been retained. Yes, the game comes with the bonus dungeons that owners of the Japanese version had to download and that does help make the loss a bit easier to bear. The loss of online scoreboards isn’t too heartbreaking either, I suppose. But the item trading and rescue features would have been nice to have, and I really wish the versus multiplayer mode was still there. I truly enjoyed the online matches when I got to play the Japanese version of the game at a friends, and I miss it.

A rogue-like for beginners.

The best word to describe Shiren the Wanderer is accommodating. Yes, it’s part of a series of roguelike games and once again stars Shiren and his talking ferret, Koppa, but it works wonderfully as a stand-alone title and, as someone who has never spent a great deal of time on previous Shiren games, I didn’t feel left out. It has multiple difficulty levels, and the easiest one goes to great lengths to make the dungeon-crawling experience as painless as possible. It even makes things easier for people playing on harder difficult levels by allowing partner characters to be directly controlled and character levels to be retained. This will disappoint rogue-like and Shiren the Wanderer fans who want a merciless challenge, but beginners and fans of Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo’s Dungeon will be pleased.

Site [Shiren the Wanderer]