Much likethe Atelier series,which only gained wider recognition in the last few years or so, Shiren the Wanderer has a very long and storied history that many recent fans are likely unaware of. In fact, in Shiren’s case, that history stretches all the way back to the days of the SNES. As any fan of a long-running series knows, that kind of longevity can be a double-edged sword, as it allows both for the fine-tuning of great core features and for the accumulation of gimmicky, junk features that wind up weighing the experience down.
Such has apparently been the case for the most recent entries in this series as well and is what the team at Spike Chunsoft are most directly addressing with its next installment: Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island. We were recently able to have good hands-on time with the game, and it’s looking like the developers’ efforts on that front are paying-off. This new Shiren offers a lean and focused roguelike, dungeon-crawler experience, one that’s likely to please longtime fans and serve as a no fuss jumping-on point for newcomers.
Wandering warrior and fortune-seeker Shiren and his magical, talking ferret companion, Koppa’s travels have brought them to the titular Serpentcoil Island in search of a fabulous treasure. The treasure supposedly rests in the belly of a giant monster living at the top of a dangerous mountain, but true to form, that fact doesn’t faze Shiren and his buddy in the slightest.
As seems to happen to every adventurer with a bit too much hubris, things don’t go as expected, and they both eventually end up back at Serpentcoil’s inn minus all their gear and Shiren’s memories of what transpired within the island’s dungeons. How exactly they wound up at the inn is apparently one of the mysteries of the island, one that all the characters just accept as normal.
This being a normal occurrence is telling too, as it more or less sums up how failure is handled in Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island. When the player is defeated, they go all the way back to square one; there’s no permanent progression. Items, money, equipment and character levels are all lost upon defeat, and the dungeons’ distributions of enemies, gear, hazards and terrain features are all randomized. The only way one can progress is to keep trying, learning enemies’ strengths and weaknesses, and developing strategies for each area of the dungeon.
Fortunately, there are features in place to help players learn quickly. There’s a monster guide that logs all of the monsters that players have encountered so far and explains their strengths and weaknesses. There’s also the “Monster Dojo,” which allows players to create their own rooms and practice against different combinations of enemies and hazards.
There are also a couple of other systems players can take advantage of to more directly improve future runs. The first is the warehouse, to which players can send items from the dungeon if they happen to meet the courier NPC during a run. He’ll only take one item at a time, but one good item can make all the difference in the early portion of a run. The other is a new “Sacred” category of item. Players can occasionally obtain these blue or gold-hued items in the dungeon and enjoy effects like bonus damage, resistance to certain status debuffs and more.
Sending one of these back will almost certainly give one a massive advantage in a future run. Actually, it might not even be all that much of a loss for the current run since items and gear are fed at a fast pace, meaning it likely won’t be all that long before one finds another one. Neither of these systems allow for true or even consistent progression, but they do allow for a leg-up when needed.
By the way, for those unfamiliar with how the Shiren games work, enemies in the dungeon operate similarly to those of theCrypt of the Necrodancergames in that they only move/act when the player does. This allows the player ample time to consider each action, and one quickly learns to take advantage of it.
For example, some monsters are aggressive and will always advance if they can. If Shiren advances up to them, then they can take a free shot at him. If they advance up to him, though, then he gets that free shot. So rather than advancing, all one has to do is swing their sword in the air a couple of times and let the monster walk into it.
There are also monsters that are strong but don’t act quickly, so they can’t catch Shiren if he runs away. Shiren heals with each step he takes, meaning he can go in for some damage and then quickly run away without much consequence. This is how one really progresses: by learning what works best in any given situation. This all might sound like a lot, but it actually comes rather naturally as one plays, and it’ll likely pose no issue at all to anyone familiar with roguelike (or even roguelite) games. One is also able to get right back into the dungeon after a defeat too, so they can quickly channel that loss and experience into a (hopefully) better run.
Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island offers one more thing for longtime series fans: it’s returned to 3D once more. In terms of art style and overall presentation, it’s reminiscent of the 3D portions of the3DS Fire Emblem games.The characters are more exaggerated and cartoony than in Fire Emblem, but resemblance is there nonetheless. Those who enjoyed that kind of aesthetic before will likely still enjoy it here, and it probably won’t be too much of a distraction for those that aren’t so interested.
Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island is shaping up to be a very “no fuss, no muss” kind of roguelike dungeon-crawler. It’s using each successive run to learn more and more about the dungeon and how to operate in it. It’s about as straightforward as such a game can get: no permanent character upgrades, and no anomalous wrinkles to keep track of like day/night cycles and the like. It’s likely not the sort of revolutionary game that’ll create new roguelike fans, but it’ll probably be a refreshing experience for those experienced with Shiren the Wanderer and similar games.
Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island is set to launch on August 23, 2025 for Nintendo Switch.
