It’s almost assured that in any on-line dialogue a few sport of the ‘rogue’ style, not less than one sweaty individual will eagerly emerge from the woodwork to say, “Nicely, ackshually, this sport is a roguelite, not a roguelike.” Eyerolls apart, the excellence isn’t with out advantage, although ‘pure’ roguelikes are comparatively uncommon nowadays regardless of the recognition of lots of their mechanics in fashionable video games. Shiren the Wanderer: The Thriller Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island—the newest mainline launch within the long-running Thriller Dungeon franchise—is a roguelike, and it unashamedly options all of the thrilling randomization and savage brutality that you can anticipate of 1. We’re blissful to report that it executes on its unflinching design brilliantly, offering a tricky, participating, and addictive expertise that you just received’t need to miss (in the event you like roguelikes).
The narrative of Shiren ‘6’ follows the titular wanderer and Koppa, a speaking ferret who accompanies him on his adventures. The 2 of them each acquired visions in a dream a few mysterious treasure mendacity within the abdomen of a robust beast on Serpentcoil Island, so that they head there to see if the legends are true. In a reasonably attention-grabbing twist, we then soar ahead to the very finish of their journey, proper in the course of their climactic battle with the monster. Shiren takes a blow to the top through the battle that provides him amnesia and although he and Koppa battle bravely, they’re ultimately overwhelmed by the creature and awaken in a close-by village. Keen for one more crack on the beast, and in an try to jog his foggy reminiscence, Shiren and Koppa set out once more to retrace their steps and, hopefully, succeed.
The narrative clearly isn’t the sturdy swimsuit right here, however we loved how bits and items are trickled to you over many runs to maintain you invested. Nearly each time you go to a village or lookout level alongside your path to the highest you’ll get one other cutscene advancing the arc of no matter characters are native to that area, supplying you with one thing to stay up for on return journeys. Plus, ultimately you possibly can have a number of of those characters be part of you as elective social gathering members when you progress their subplots far sufficient, which helps to maintain the storytelling feeling related to the gameplay. Shiren 6 is, in fact, very a lot a gameplay-first expertise, however there are many charming interactions alongside the way in which to assist maintain subsequent runs from getting too dry.
Gameplay in Shiren 6 follows the acquainted Thriller Dungeon template that’s remained largely unchanged for almost 30 years. You begin each run at stage one with no gadgets or cash, and need to trawl via flooring after flooring of randomly generated, grid-based dungeons searching for the steps or exit that’ll take you to the subsequent one. Alongside the way in which, you’ll battle hordes of enemies, decide up cash and consumable loot you discover on the bottom, and take a look at to not step on any traps as you’re employed your approach down. Within the very possible probability that you just die, Shiren will lose all ranges, cash, and loot he gained and get despatched again to the beginning village to start out it throughout.
Fight is dealt with through a easy turn-based system the place time solely steps ahead one tick each time you both take an motion or transfer ahead one tile. Regardless of the simplicity, there’s quite a lot of technique that goes into preventing foes, as you’re continually having to judge threat in the way you method a battle. It could make extra sense to run right into a hallway so you possibly can battle a gaggle of enemies one after the other, however then what if one other group of enemies comes at you from the opposite aspect and bins you in? You might be able to destroy this robust foe immediately through the use of a magic scroll in your stock, however you then received’t have some other offensive gadgets left in your stock for dealing with different enemies on this flooring.
This cautious analysis of your choices is a part of the appeal of Shiren 6, as there’s quite a lot of complexity to navigate with all its varied interlocking programs. That is the form of sport that you just make extra progress in not due to advancing metaprogression programs (there actually aren’t any right here), however by constructing a deeper understanding of issues like advantageous merchandise interactions and how you can exploit enemy weaknesses. Shiren 6 could also be uncompromising, however it’s constant, and your failures paired with an honest quantity of trial and error will usually educate you how you can flip conditions to your benefit.
Regardless of the considerably off-putting issue, there’s an impressively addictive high quality to the gameplay of Shiren 6 that retains you coming again. No two runs will ever be the identical, and the punishment can typically be overcome by a stroke of luck. For instance, we had a run the place we found a sword and defend early on that synergized with one another and gained a number of ranges once they had been each outfitted, which allowed Shiren to steamroll the primary dozen flooring of the primary dungeon. Alternatively, your luck can flip towards you simply as simply and successfully finish your run. Typically, you’ll step on an invisible lure that destroys your gear or in any other case cripples you in some crucial approach.
One would suppose that having such unfair, random bouts of unhealthy luck could be discouraging, and it partially is, however you will have the potential of being ‘rescued’ by on-line gamers in the event you request assist, though it’s a must to anticipate them to return via for you in the event you do. Nonetheless, this lifeline not less than helps to melt the blow of all of a sudden shedding a run, plus you possibly can at all times select to later pay it ahead and go rescue somebody your self in trade for some useful goodies to enhance your future rescue runs. Even when a savior doesn’t present up for you and also you’re pressured to start out over, subsequent runs nonetheless really feel worthwhile due to the story occasions you unlock every time via, to not point out entry to shortcuts which shorten the size of your journey again to the place you had been. Like in lots of different roguelikes, then, demise in Shiren 6 actually stings, however there are some welcome methods to reduce how a lot it does so.
The one actual grievance that we’ve towards Shiren 6 is that it falls into the identical repetitive cycles which are typical of video games on this franchise. Although dungeons are visually distinct from one another, it doesn’t take lengthy earlier than it begins to really feel like flooring are indistinguishable from one another because of utilizing the identical recycled enemies and property. That mentioned, this problem is rather less noticeable in Shiren 6 because of its tendency to introduce a small village or lookout level each few flooring the place you possibly can freely roam, discuss to NPCs, and refill on provides. These can present a refreshing break from an excessive amount of dungeon crawling, and their relative frequency implies that one normally pops up nearly at that time that you just’d like to start out seeing one thing totally different.
As for its presentation, Shiren 6 trades the earlier sprite-based artwork type for 3D visuals that reminded us vaguely of these in Bravely Default II. Characters and enemy designs are represented by a squat, virtually chibi-like design, whereas villages are likely to appear like little toy dioramas. In the meantime, the dungeons sustain some good visible range for all of the biomes, as you go to varied caves, forests, and seashores that every one follow distinct shade palettes. All of it appears fairly good, if a little bit fundamental, with the one actual disappointment being that animations are reasonably stiff.
To pair with this, the soundtrack employs a really earthy, winds-based type that feels prefer it matches effectively with the mysterious and adventurous tone. Admittedly, the music tends to be a little bit forgettable—there weren’t very many tracks that jumped out to us as being noticeably sturdy—however we had been total happy with the end result right here and felt it continued effectively from the work current in Shiren 5.
Conclusion
It could have taken over ten years to lastly come out, however Shiren the Wanderer: The Thriller Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island is a brand new high-water mark for the storied roguelike franchise. Its masterful mix of uncompromising issue with a wealth of content material to beat makes for a sport that’ll simply maintain you glad for dozens of hours as you study its methods. Mix that with some cool on-line options and a captivating artwork type, and also you’ve received a sport that’s a simple suggestion for any roguelike followers on the market. This can be a robust nut to crack, however the expertise is effectively value it.
