i'm only about six hours in and still doing what i assume is the introductory dungeon before the game hoists the hardcore stuff on you, but the new shiren game so far is genuinely incredible. totally get why it's practically sold out physically here and is at number two on the switch eshop charts. here are some things i really like about it so far that i think may appeal to you, especially if you've never played a mystery dungeon game of any sort or bounced off shiren specifically:
- the game moves at a super breezy pace. level traversal and combat is quick and snappy, menuing is about as pleasantly smooth and streamlined as you could hope for a game like this, the auto-health regen kicks in a lot sooner to encourage you to try run when combat gets dicey (and don't worry, the game starts getting aggressively proportionately quickly to compensate), this is a game built to make the mystery dungeon experience feel buttery smooth, even over 5. having been playing a lot of the snes original lately beforehand, which i love, it's a night and day and difference when it comes to pacing
- speaking of 5, this game dials back the number of systems you're introduced to up front, especially in the base village area, which is even more compact and quicker to prepare runs in than the snes original. 5 is a great game, but frankly i found the dizzying amount of stuff to remember to do between runs a little intimidating and it's great to have this go back to basics. just grab your free onigiri, withdraw any equipment you had sent to storage, and you're on your way. if there's another permanent hub elsewhere later in the game, maybe that has more to do, but this initial one is exactly as stress free as it should be for both a shiren opening area and for new players in general. love it!
- the rng in this initial dungeon seems to be a lot more generous with drops in early floors to allow you to experiment with builds and mechanics sooner, which i think is the right call. like i said, the game takes off the gloves quickly enough and so far the farthest i've gotten in this initial dungeon is like 17 floors out of 31, and i've put dozens of hours into multiple shirens. they recognize the generosity in its design has to be balanced out elsewhere for anything to have stakes and so far they've nailed out.
- so many smart little things they do around the menus. i don't know if other roguelikese do it these days (i haven't seen it at least), but item descriptions will have things like mechanics-related keywords highlighted that you can then press start to open the relevant tutorial page on to get a quick refresher, which i love, especially for details on status effects. clutch feature in addition to the item and monster glossaries that fill out their info as you encounter them, with the info being retained between runs.
- as an extension of the glossary stuff, when you use a blank scroll, you no longer have to type out the name; you just pick a known scroll from the list and it instantly transforms. as cute and delightfully hardcore as the old way was of manually filling out the name, this is frankly the way it should've always been. i have a feeling they might have switched to this to relieve themselves of some localization headaches, too, which, can't say i blame them. wholly sympathize.
i could go on and on. the presentation, while definitely low-fi, looks a lot better on a proper switch screen, where the resolution makes it a lot easier to forgive the polygonal aesthetic. it also has a nice depth of field effect that's always active, giving it the sort of diorama look that indicates spike-chunsoft definitely paid attention to the link's Awakening remake. and the story, while not super deep, is cutely told. the underlying setting is neat and once you get past the initial intro with a new file, cutscenes are as brief as you want them to be. as far as i can tell, thanks to them specifically marking which npcs will trigger such scenes, i assume you can even skip them outright and be on your way, though you may miss out on some unlocks.
all told, fantastic shiren, it's genuinely never played and felt as good as this. totally understand why it's breaking series sales records here in japan and hope more people overseas finally give it a chance now that people are a lot more familiar with roguelikes on the whole. if you're at all into these kinds of games, i strongly urge you to pick up the english version when it drops soon and doubly so if you've only ever played the spinoffs like the pokemon mystery dungeons. this is the grand daddy of the console roguelike playing at its utter best and people should absolutely be standing up and paying attention and giving shiren its dues at last.
