[Late to the Party] Shiren the Wanderer
SabreCat:
As many of you know, I'm a fan of the Roguelike genre of computer RPGs; the great Nethack ranks in my top three most addictive games of all time. Roguelikes are, in general, characterized by the following attributes:
1. Single-player and single-protagonist: even if you can recruit additional characters, you don't control them directly
2. Turn-based
3. Tile movement: gameplay takes place on a grid of squares or rectangles, like a checkerboard
4. Dungeon crawling: killing monsters and acquiring treasure and power
5. Randomized map layouts
6. Permadeath: hitting a Game Over requires the player to start over from the beginning, no reloading prior progress
Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer is a Roguelike for the Nintendo DS. I don't know its genaeology. It's possible some Japanese developer played Nethack and wanted to bring the genre to consoles, or it came about through parallel evolution via other JRPGs, but there are now a number of these console "Mystery Dungeon" games on the market. And this one is a very strong entry to the genre, despite the limited inputs available on a handheld.
Shiren is, above all, a very polished game. It's actually not the first entry in the series, nor the first version of that episode, and the time the developers had for tweaking is evident. The graphics are cute and effective, every creature bearing an instantly recognizable and often humorous look. The soundtrack is catchy without feeling intrusive or repetitive.
But the real meat is in the gameplay, and the devs have outdone even Nethack in some significant ways. They've toyed with the "start all over" formula, allowing the player to make progress on various subplots and side quests even if you lose repeatedly, which takes some of the sting out of it without undercutting the basic design choice. Very few monsters are dull "move toward the player and attack" beasties--most have at least one special power that makes them unpredictable and worth careful attention, even late in the game. There are no useless items, making each round of inventory management involve important decisions. And you learn many of the game mechanics via a set of incredibly clever "puzzle" mini-dungeons, highlighting such unusual features as the ability to transform into monsters and use their powers to get out of tricky situations. The result is a game experience that seldom grows dull: feel your heart rate rise each time you hit a crisis point, where the next move could spell game over--and feel the wave of exhilaration and relief when you find the clever out that saves your bacon! (My personal best: surrounded by rapidly attacking Death Angels, I deliberately triggered the Big Landmine beneath my feet, injuring me but taking out all four deadly monsters at once in the process.) You can even get in a bit of community multiplayer love, via "rescues" over Wi-fi that can set a fallen wanderer back on the path to success.
I really have only two complaints with the game. For one, the localization has some trouble, leading to confusing menu choices in various places--it took a lot of futzing to figure out how to proceed with a Wanderer Rescue, for instance. And the ability to stockpile items, re-traverse early areas, and upgrade weapons to unfathomable levels encourages grinding play in a game that really doesn't need it. You're supposed to succeed by your wits and what you find on the way, not by how many hours you spend doing boring stuff! But I can forgive both these problems by account of its being such a solidly entertaining game. If you can muster a bit of patience and frustration tolerance, I highly recommend it!
Fiction Cloud: Mirage
[Character] Dantalion
Cunning, leering, with an army at his command.
A Qlipothic demon.
As many of you know, I'm a fan of the Roguelike genre of computer RPGs; the great Nethack ranks in my top three most addictive games of all time. Roguelikes are, in general, characterized by the following attributes:
1. Single-player and single-protagonist: even if you can recruit additional characters, you don't control them directly
2. Turn-based
3. Tile movement: gameplay takes place on a grid of squares or rectangles, like a checkerboard
4. Dungeon crawling: killing monsters and acquiring treasure and power
5. Randomized map layouts
6. Permadeath: hitting a Game Over requires the player to start over from the beginning, no reloading prior progress
Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer is a Roguelike for the Nintendo DS. I don't know its genaeology. It's possible some Japanese developer played Nethack and wanted to bring the genre to consoles, or it came about through parallel evolution via other JRPGs, but there are now a number of these console "Mystery Dungeon" games on the market. And this one is a very strong entry to the genre, despite the limited inputs available on a handheld.
Shiren is, above all, a very polished game. It's actually not the first entry in the series, nor the first version of that episode, and the time the developers had for tweaking is evident. The graphics are cute and effective, every creature bearing an instantly recognizable and often humorous look. The soundtrack is catchy without feeling intrusive or repetitive.
But the real meat is in the gameplay, and the devs have outdone even Nethack in some significant ways. They've toyed with the "start all over" formula, allowing the player to make progress on various subplots and side quests even if you lose repeatedly, which takes some of the sting out of it without undercutting the basic design choice. Very few monsters are dull "move toward the player and attack" beasties--most have at least one special power that makes them unpredictable and worth careful attention, even late in the game. There are no useless items, making each round of inventory management involve important decisions. And you learn many of the game mechanics via a set of incredibly clever "puzzle" mini-dungeons, highlighting such unusual features as the ability to transform into monsters and use their powers to get out of tricky situations. The result is a game experience that seldom grows dull: feel your heart rate rise each time you hit a crisis point, where the next move could spell game over--and feel the wave of exhilaration and relief when you find the clever out that saves your bacon! (My personal best: surrounded by rapidly attacking Death Angels, I deliberately triggered the Big Landmine beneath my feet, injuring me but taking out all four deadly monsters at once in the process.) You can even get in a bit of community multiplayer love, via "rescues" over Wi-fi that can set a fallen wanderer back on the path to success.
I really have only two complaints with the game. For one, the localization has some trouble, leading to confusing menu choices in various places--it took a lot of futzing to figure out how to proceed with a Wanderer Rescue, for instance. And the ability to stockpile items, re-traverse early areas, and upgrade weapons to unfathomable levels encourages grinding play in a game that really doesn't need it. You're supposed to succeed by your wits and what you find on the way, not by how many hours you spend doing boring stuff! But I can forgive both these problems by account of its being such a solidly entertaining game. If you can muster a bit of patience and frustration tolerance, I highly recommend it!
Fiction Cloud: Mirage
[Character] Dantalion
Cunning, leering, with an army at his command.
A Qlipothic demon.