Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island

Developer: Spike Chunsoft
Publisher: Spike Chunsoft
Platforms: Switch
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $59.99 – Available Here

Overview

Like a lot of us out west, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon kind of introduced many to the rogue-like dungeon exploring genre, but through some research – I found and fell in love with the DS romp that released in 2010. That very game would get a localized port on the Switch, and through some luck – Spike Chunsoft have brought Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island to the same platform years later. This title brings us a more modernized take with several enhancements and a brand new locale and story, but does it have enough weight to be worth its full pricepoint? Let’s find out.

Story

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island‘s title really says it all. Along with your handy buddy, Koppa (a ferret), you start the game with few memories, with the task of going back and exploring a dungeon with over thirty floors and great threats amongst each one. You die, and its right back to the start. That said, every death and bit of progression introduces new portions of the narrative, expanding this world as you make your own way through the game. The story is fine enough, but I do wish that it added elements of gameplay, or attributed more than hints to how progress, but for fans of this franchise, the story means almost nothing compared to the actual mechanics that make this game such a banger.

Gameplay

Like most Mystery Dungeon titles, the player must make their way from floor to floor in Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island, exploring in order to find items that grant you survival. Yep, unlike the missions in the Pokemon franchise, Shiren acts as one big course that has the player start from nothing, where they are expected to go until they either conquer the lot of floors ahead, or die and have to restart. Thankfully, the controls are fluid, and the gameplay comes with clever mechanics that make death rewarding as you educate yourself of the items and elements you find along the way.

Players take the role as a young adventurer and get tossed into the thick of the game, which is floor 1. Each floor is randomly generated, so from items to enemies to even layout – nothing really stays the same. You must then choose to progress by finding doors or staircases, which lead you to the next floor. Scrolls offer quick spells that can take out a room of enemies in one blast, and weapons and shields can litter the floor to give the player an edge over their standard melee attack in battle. The trick of it all is that sometimes you can go multiple floors without finding any consumables or equipment, so you really need to research every item to understand how it will work in specific situations. For instance, a magic staff can have the power to knock back an enemy, so if you notice a foe who has done you in or you are not of the level to take them on, use a staff to get away. 

Consumables can add levels to your equipment or character, increasing your stats as you grow. Every few floors, the player may end up in a village, which has randomly set shops with items that you can either take or leave if your currency collected is up to par. Shortcuts can also be found by triggering events from your progression, which give new routes for more seasoned techniques. As I mentioned, I wish that Shiren had more narrative that effected the gameplay, as most just open new areas and do little to give assistance. The base game is huge, but due to the randomly generated…everything, there is a stiff difficulty that can come down to luck. Players could clear these floors in one go, or could be stuck for hours retrying floors they had previously cleared. Either way, the journey is what matters here, and the addictive nature has that “just one more try” feel that keeps you coming back to best your last run.

Online play offers players to request a save, where a level one player must get to your portion of the game from level 1 in order to pull off a rescue. Succeeding in this doesn’t progress you if you are the hero of sorts, but instead gives you currency to purchase aid for your next rescue. Its a smart system that is community driven, but the community’s efforts usually come up a bit short at the moment due to the small player-base. If I had any complaints about the game itself, it wouldn’t be in the rescue system, but instead the pushing of the rescue system. Every time you die, the option by default comes up to request a save. If you are tapping “A” to progress, you automatically build a rescue request, going through a few screens before you have to cancel it and move back to the main screen where you left off to move forward. This would be fine if I wasn’t traveling (with no connection) or even felt the need for a rescue, but I did find the pushing of this to be a bit tedious as simply starting at “no” by default, but instead the player kind of gets pushed into attempting to connect to do a rescue, and that seems to be a weird, yet still small annoyance that gets old quick.

Audio

 The soundtrack here is fine, but kind of forgettable. We are given the usual feudal Japan setlist and it captures the atmosphere, but I would have liked to see this fleshed out a bit more. For a game where you repeat so much, some more voice acting to build these characters and story or even better songs overall could have gave the game the boisterous personality it so deserves.

Visuals

Most of the past titles in this franchise were in 2D with sprites. Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island is much prettier with 3D models of characters and enemies alike, and while it isn’t always a stunner, it is very smooth and very nice to look at. Graphical improvements also come with a much cleaner interface, as well as smoother animations and a cleaner look overall.

Overall

Minor gripes aside, Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island is one of the best roguelikes in years for the Switch, due to its clever gameplay and satisfying progression style. While Pokemon Mystery Dungeon it is not, the trade-off for greater depth and more interesting enemies and strategic elements give this title the punch it needs to hold the players’ attention for hours on end. Roguelike fans rejoice, this may be one of the most thought-out adventures to come along in some time, and one that will surely be respected for generations to come.

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