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Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island | Review Thread

Thick Thighs Save Lives

NeoGAF's Physical Games Advocate Extraordinaire
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Game Information

Game Title: Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island

Platforms:
  • Nintendo Switch (Feb 27, 2024)
Trailer:

Publisher: Spike Chunsoft

Review Aggregator:

OpenCritic - 84 average - 86% recommended

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Metacritic - 87 average based on 10 Critic Review

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Critic Reviews


CGMagazine - Jordan Biordi - 6 / 10
Shiren the Wanderer may have pioneered the roguelike genre, but this latest entry sure hasn’t advanced it in any positive way.


Final Weapon - Payne Grist - 4 / 5
Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island is the best Mystery Dungeon game. It's absolutely heaping with mechanical depth and a breadth of content. The gameplay requires acute focus and a smart mind in order to progress. Items and enemies have a staggeringly high amount of interactivity that makes exploring even more engaging. Those who don't like roguelikes or strategic RPGs may not enjoy the randomness, as poor luck or focus can ruin a run in a flash. The game's story and characters aren't nearly as deep as the gameplay, but they offer some enjoyable respite from the challenging gameplay.


GameGrin - Alana Dunitz - 8 / 10
This game is fun and addictive, but damn, it can be frustrating when you have a great weapon and items and then die, making you have to start from the beginning with nothing.


GameLuster - Tim Jewett - 7 / 10
Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island doesn't re-invent the wheel, but adds a new entry in a solid, dependable series of rogue-like adventure games.


NookGaming - Isaiah Parker - 9 / 10
Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island is a brutal, uncompromising game. It carries out all of its unconventional and punishing rules with conviction and smart consideration, making for an unsuspecting RPG that’s one of the most consistently thrilling I’ve played in years. Couple this with dramatically improved presentation compared to past entries, and you have an excellent example of how to modernize an old series without sanding off the edges. It says a lot that after finally completing my first playthrough, I was ready to jump back in again for another round. If you’re feeling brave, enter the dungeon and take a roll of the dice with this excellent iteration on the Mystery Dungeon genre.


Pure Nintendo - Kirk Hiner - 9 / 10
Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island is a turn-based, roguelike adventure that will help skeptics understand the appeal of such games. Frustration is part of the fun. And although the gameplay can feel unfair, every attempt to beat it is a joyful run.


RPG Fan - Ben Love - 98%
Spike Chunsoft returns to their flagship series with must-play entry for any fan of roguelike RPGs, delivering one of the most mechanically deep games I've played in years.


RPGamer - Michael Apps - 4 / 5
All in all, Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island provides a thoroughly enjoyable and constantly engaging adventure. It updates the presentation and online features of the series, while stubbornly sticking to the tried and true mechanics that have worked since the SNES era.


Rice Digital - Isaac Todd - Unscored
Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island is another solid entry in the genre, and a decent starting point for newcomers (though I’d argue The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate is better for this due to its cheap price point). It’s not for the faint of heart, but for those that do brave Serpentcoil Island, you’ll find a rewarding roguelike experience to sink your teeth into.


Seafoam Gaming - Connor Nichols - 10 / 10
Even when I initially thought of Shiren 6 as a very good Mystery Dungeon game that focused on gameplay over story, I was quickly blown away by just how much depth there was to this island, and the sheer amount of extra stuff there is to do after beating that main dungeon is just proof that addictive, well-balanced gameplay is the best quality a game can have.


Siliconera - Daniel Bueno - 8 / 10
Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island maintains the series' challenge and ads plenty of dungeons.


TheSixthAxis - Miguel Moran - 9 / 10
Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island is the gold standard for mystery dungeon games. Every system, item, and mechanic come together in endlessly dynamic ways, reaching levels of emergent and exciting gameplay that I've never experienced in the world of roguelikes.


VGChartz - Evan Norris - 8 / 10
The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island is a triumphant return to the Shiren series, roughly 14 years after the last mainline entry. It benefits from an ever-expanding story, a cast of colorful characters, a revamped asynchronous multiplayer mode, and, most essentially, the same challenging tactical gameplay and extraordinary replay value that has defined the franchise for generations.


WayTooManyGames - Eduardo Rebouças - 6.5 / 10
Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island certainly succeeds at providing just enough clues of what’s possibly at the other end of the wall to make the arduous journey to climb it one that you’d want to partake in. It’s the sort of game where your investment won’t necessarily equal a tangible result no matter how much to kick and scream at it. Instead, it’s something that feeds our curiosity, and in that, there’s something to be said about having this be your entryway into this, one of gaming’s obscure and at the same time most influential of series.


Worth Playing - Chris "Atom" DeAngelus - 9 / 10
Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island is an extremely polished and deeply enjoyable entry in the franchise. It doesn't break the mold or introduce wild new gimmicks, but it focuses on giving you more challenges, more options, and making the basic experience shine. This is a fantastic entry point for newcomers and a welcome return to form for longtime fans. It is the embodiment of what Shiren the Wanderer should be: easy to pick up, difficult to master, and addictive enough that you keep coming back.
 

IAmRei

Member
Can you open your hat in this game. I want to try shiren since snes era. But the hat bugs me : )) sorry, my personal problem. But seriously asking.
 
Was going to make a post about this, as it wasn't being discussed. Sad times, these games are amazing, but I get it too many are focused on ff7:rebirth, ( a game i won't get for a bit as ff7:remake is still in my backlog. I wasn't feeling it).

I got the game on launch and liked it, but was feeling like it was missing something at first.

The game unlike Shiren 5 tower of fate... which is on the vita and switch, doesn't have a tutorial. In that regard it feels like a throwback to the 1990s era Shiren. At least this game has a manual and notebook , a how to play section, but try getting new comers to read...lol The game is really aimed at existing fans, and I fall squarely in that camp.

It also didn't have challenge dungeons. Shiren 5 had a hut in the first village where you can go in accomplish objectives in practice dungeons, there were a ton of them. Each one finished rewards you with an item in the real world . You could build up a collection of stuff in the warehouse. It also had more advanced dungeons in a different hut. Shiren 6 has none of this. It has a create your own challenge room where you can place items, obstacles and enemies and try out strategies. It sounds good on paper, but it is a lot of setup for something that you will rarely use. The challenge dungeons would of been better and not having them felt like a regression, as Shiren 1 and the ds game both didn't have this stuff.

That being said. I like the art style, music and atmosphere. People will bitch about not having pixel graphics, but who says that is needed. Each Shiren game is its own thing. Trying something new is fine, you don't want the game to look like its predecessor, especially when Shiren 5 was so massive. It needed to set itself apart from that game. Its still in isometric/top down view , and still turn/grid based in dungeons (not in towns/safe areas), so you feel right at home there.

The game is tough. This is not a newbies Shiren. For that I recommend Shiren 5.

My 4th run I lucked out and got a Manji Kabura sword +3 and a Fuuma Shield +2 , after dying for 3 runs straigh in level 1 and 2. I made it all the way up to level 25 with that gear on my 4th run until i was fried to death by a massive Green Dragon. I have yet to get gear that good since, and if I get one I don't get the other to resonate the stats. Thus is the luck of the draw. What i thought was hard in the early levels is damn near crazy in the 20th+ floors. Behemoth monsters that are 9 tiles large and big portals they come throuhg. You beat one and they will spawn a differnet one in a few turns later. These monsters are super tough, but have a weak point , their back or center, but if you don't have a rock , good luck getting back there. In those cases its best to run!

To my surprise there is unlockable dungeons, and paths. The map is interactible and you can go on different paths. There is an online component for rescuing others or have them rescue you when you die. You earn points and bonuses for successful rescues (or just the attempts will net some points) . You can also get new objects, monsters and gear as well as dungeons after beating the main quest.

I have been having a blast with it, but man is it a hard game later on. Super addicting, as Shiren always is Pinacale of mystery dungeon and the best Console Roguelike (not roguelite) series! It has not been surpassed.
 
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