Game Reviews

When demonstrating this game to the press, Atlus repeatedly rejected the notion Shiren the Wanderer was a rogue-like; perhaps they didn’t want it to be associated with the genre’s reputation for unfair difficulty. What they should have emphasized is that Shiren the Wanderer tones down the worst of that genre’s abuses, resulting in a dungeon-crawling RPG that is usually fair (or at least not completely cruel) and quite fun.For those not familiar with this type of game, Shiren the Wanderer revolves around controlling a small party on a square grid, exploring dungeons that you only have partial maps for; it’s up to you to figure out the rest of the layout, defeat enemies, and find treasure. The best explanation I can offer is a mix of basic Tactical RPG play with ’loot and explore’ RPGs like Diablo, and even that isn’t really an exact match but it should give you the overall idea. Interestingly enough, the monsters in each dungeon aren’t your biggest concern but rather resource management is. The player must be sure to bring enough weapons for each party member (plus back-ups; weapons can be stolen or broken), food (so your party doesn’t go hungry), healing items, miscellaneous trouble-shooting items like magic scrolls, and more. The problem is that you only have so much inventory space, so you have to think ahead on what you’ll likely need for each trek. Loot in the dungeon can help to some extent, but since you’ll find random items each time you don’t know what to expect.

Set in a world that seems to be inspired by Japanese mythology, Shiren the Wanderer initially has you just seeking out treasure and slaying bandits, but the plot gets much wider in scope as you go. This is actually one of the game’s strong points; unlike some Rogue-likes, this title has a fairly developed and character-driven plot. The story is unapologetically Japanese, invoking mythological creatures like the tengu and using bits of traditional music in conjuction with the normal soundtrack, so it helps to have even a cursory grasp of the language and culture. On the other hand,