©Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd.
The Shiren the Wanderer series, itself a spin-off series of the popular Mystery Dungeon series, has been on hiatus and no new games have been released since 2010’s The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate on Nintendo DS. However, thanks to the success of that game’s Nintendo Switch/PC port in 2020, a new game is finally coming. So late last month, at a special press event in Tokyo, I got about two hours hands-on with Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island.
The game’s plot is simple: titular samurai, Shiren, and his furry weasel companion, Koppa, eventually travel to Serpentcoil Island. The island is plagued by monsters, pirates, and ninjas — the island itself is an ever-changing dungeon with different environments. What’s even stranger, however, is that anyone killed on the island wakes up in the coastal port town—with all their equipment, treasure, and even experience gained mysteriously missing. . As Shiren, you venture into dungeons, die, and start again. However, the time is not reset. Accessing new locations causes new characters to emerge and opens up new paths—allowing the story to develop and continue.
In terms of basic gameplay, each dungeon’s randomly generated floor map is laid out on a grid filled with treasure, monsters, and exits to the next floor. Every time you take an action—like move, attack, or use a magic scroll—enemies can do the same. This means they only move if you move—so you always have time to stop and think about your next move.
©Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd.
And when you move, you also recover. So many battles (especially those involving multiple enemies) involve a combination of attacking, running away (healing yourself as you do so), and then attacking again. However, any action you take reduces your “satiety” level (i.e. your stamina bar)—meaning you need to keep finding food in the dungeon or risk dying of starvation. . Ultimately, you have to balance between fighting monsters for equipment and items or going straight to the exit so you don’t waste your limited food supply.
Obviously, the game quickly becomes much more complicated than this. There are dozens of enemies that act differently, random traps that harm you in terrible ways, as well as tons of magic scrolls and other consumables (which quickly fill up the limited inventory space). your amazing craft — even if you find a jar to expand it) to play with.. Each dungeon pass will likely be a lot different from the last just because of item RNG.
But perhaps the most important thing to note about Serpentcoil Island’s Mysterious Dungeon is that it’s much more “rogue-like” than last time.”roguelite.”That means that every time you enter the dungeon, you’ll Start from zero: no equipment, no items, no cash, no levels, no lasting power-ups.
©Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd.
The only exceptions to this come in the form of warehouses found in various towns on the island, which break up dungeons and Porters, who you can encounter randomly. At these warehouses, you can drop off any items or equipment you want; If you come to the same town on your next run, you can pick them up and put them to use. (Of course, once you die while holding these items, they will, like all other items you are carrying, disappear forever). On the other hand, the Porter will take an item you were carrying back to the warehouse in the starting village, giving you an extra advantage on your next run.
In my limited experience, with only four runs (two that went past the 10th floor of the dungeon and two that only went a few floors), I found the warehouse to be almost pointless. If I don’t randomly find weapons, accessories, and shields early on, my chances of reaching the second warehouse (the first one I can unload on my own) are almost zero. And as for Porter, I had no extra weapons or accessories in my only encounter with him — leaving him completely wasted.
©Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd.
However, I can see how both the warehouse and the Porter will be useful in the long run. The warehouse will boost consistency a bit more — potentially saving runs that are at risk of failing early due to poor RNG, when you lack the right strong weapon, shield, or attachment for the area at hand. And for Porter, let’s say you have an amazing run and can get extra weapons, shields, and accessories — along with a flask to store them all in — you can send that flask back with Porter and make sure you kill the Porter. The first dozen or so floors of the run followed without any effort at all.
These two systems are important because the Mysterious Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island cares little about things like “fairness” or “balance”. It’s entirely possible to die simply because you never find a weapon—and eventually, your enemies will go beyond what your fists can do. There are also times when you start from a floor surrounded by enemies and get stuck in a corner—and if you don’t have a randomly dropped magic scroll dealing AOE damage in your hand, it’s the end of your run. Friend.
©Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd.
Ultimately, based on my time with Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island, I can say two things about this game: 1) This is clearly the kind of “hardcore” Nintendo it seems to be, and 2) it’s not the game for me. While I’m no stranger to roguelites like Hades, Returnal, and Crypt of the Necrodancer, all of these games have systems that provide long-term progression, making subsequent runs easier—and making you feel like even your worst runs weren’t completely meaningless.
There is no such hand-holding for Serpentcoil Island’s Mysterious Dungeon. It all depends on individual skill, luck and the dozens (perhaps hundreds) of hours needed for both to pull it off perfectly. And I won’t lie; I felt terrible after nearly an hour of careful dungeon exploration to suddenly return to zero thanks to an ambush spawn or a new powerful enemy that far outstripped my randomly purchased gear. If this kind of unforgiving game is your kind of thing, I have no problem recommending it — and if you’re on the fence after reading this, I’d at least encourage you to try it for yourself if I have a chance.
Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island is scheduled to release on February 27, 2024 in North America and Europe for Nintendo Switch.