Maybe you’ve played a Mystery Dungeon game like Pokémon Rescue, or the Final Fantasy Chocobo one. They’re pretty good, right? Now, what if I told you that there’s something else out there that predates all of these excellent games and is just as good, if not better? And: what if that series was still chugging along to this day, quietly kicking ass without the help of popular licensed properties?
I speak, of course, of Shiren the Wanderer, Spike Chunsoft’s roguelike where feudal Japan meets fantasy. Some of you are already protesting because you know all about Shiren, but the reality is that the concept as a whole isn’t that popular. The most successful Mystery Dungeon games are the licensed ones, which have sold millions of copies, whereas the latest Shiren game didn’t even break half a million sales. That game, which released in 2024, sold better than all the previous entries combined. Let us just say that, if you do know of Shiren the Wanderer you are a connoisseur of taste.
For everyone else, let’s put it this way: Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island is my most-played game on the Switch 2. Granted, part of this is due to the fact that the Switch 2 doesn’t really have a ton of games yet. But even in the face of games like Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza, nothing on that platform has been able to keep my attention as well as Shiren the Wanderer.
In it, you play a roving ronin who has adventures alongside a talking ferret. You’re plonked into a randomly generated dungeon where nothing moves until you do. Every step you take, the monsters in the world also take action. Already, the base concept requires a shift in strategic thinking: it’s turn-based, but also kind of not. Sometimes it’s a better decision not to move at all and let enemies come to you than it is to take the offensive.
Really, you have to approach Shiren games with a lot of care and deliberation. Every run begins with Shiren at level one and zero gear. You have to pick stuff up along the way, and what you find is completely random. Sometimes you’ll go through multiple areas with nothing but a wooden sword, and sometimes you’ll find incredible gear, like weapons that attack around corners or let you take two actions at once. But no matter how good your items are, it’s very easy to get into a dangerous situation, even amid lowly enemies. Shiren is harder than your typical Mystery Dungeon game, which might be part of the reason it’s not as popular.
OK, so, it’s difficult. But the reason you should play it is this: Shiren the Wanderer is also one of the most permissive games you’ll ever experience. Items can be used in all sorts of unusual ways, and the only real limit is whether you’re clever enough to think of the solution. Surrounded? You could take some basic actions, like eating the consumable that will plop you somewhere random in the dungeon. Or maybe you pull out the wand that will swap the place of you and a faraway enemy. Maybe you use the item that lets you break down walls to create a path forward that wasn’t there before. Perhaps you trick all the monsters on the floor into thinking that one of their fellow creatures is actually you. My favorite: eating the type of food that turns Shiren’s farts so rancid, everything in your vicinity runs away.
Initially, you won’t know how many of Shiren’s items work. Even the ones that sound self-explanatory will find a way to screw you: if you use consumables that create status effects, you might accidentally give Shiren the ailment and not your opponent; what you had to do was throw the item at your rival. Similarly, there’s a scroll that prevents monsters from stepping beyond its boundaries, but you’ll waste it if you choose to read the scroll rather than place it on the ground. You’d think many of these nuances are easy to remember once you encounter them, but you’ll still find a way to screw up. Once, I was flying high and cruising through many of the game’s initial dungeons, only to lose it all in seconds. I had accidentally used the scroll that turns any item into an onigiri on my powerful weapon, and I had nothing else to replace it. Another time, I was in a dungeon where every single object was unknown until I either used it or identified it. I was having luck just using everything as I went along, until I made the fatal mistake of hitting a small-time enemy with the exact consumable that turned it invincible. There was nothing I could do but die.
You’ll spend a lot of time dying in Shiren. Enemies have all sorts of abilities, like ones that make you drop your items or powers that turn you into an object that can’t really do anything for multiple turns. There are also special hellish areas called monster rooms, where the game will suddenly spawn a ton of enemies in a small area that’s helpfully also full of traps. Incidentally, those areas are always full of fantastic items.
Like many roguelikes, the best quiver in your arsenal is knowledge itself. But the game also offers some mechanics that can help you along the way. It’s possible, for example, to fuse different weapons or shields together to get one item with all of the previous powers combined. If you manage to clear a run, you’ll also be able to store any of the items outside a dungeon, for use next time. You can stock up on good items this way, but the kicker is that it’s equally possible to lose an item that you spent multiple runs crafting into something powerful, and it’ll likely happen in the silliest way possible.
One of my favorite aspects of the game is the actual rescue portion of it. Should you die, the game allows you to post an SOS online that other players can answer. You can also choose to save ‘yourself’ with a new run; once your new run reaches the same depth as the last run and you clear the monsters, you can continue the previous playthrough from that point forward. The biggest incentive to helping others is that you can win points to spend on your own rescue runs and make your next Shiren slightly more capable. That means if an incredible run comes to an end, you still have the possibility of saving it. Shout out to this one Japanese player who has repeatedly saved my Shiren from the stupidest situations possible. I’d go to sleep feeling sad about my run and wake up to the news that this anonymous hero had once again saved the day.
I’m well over a hundred hours into the 2024 entry, and the game continues to surprise me. It never gets old; instead, Shiren continually introduces new types of dungeons and nuances. Some of these special dungeons allow you to bring your equipped items, while others force you to start from scratch. Perhaps you take on the boss rush mode, or the one where shops appear on nearly every floor. Maybe you enlist the help of AI buddies, or maybe you go at it solo. The game itself will randomly introduce temporary conditions that keep you on your toes as well. Challenges like being prompted to use a specific type of item a certain number of times before you leave the floor, or suddenly spawning a ton of money that disappears after a set amount of time, keep the gameplay feeling fresh. Critically, there’s always a reward for playing along with whatever the game has tasked you to do.
I’m begging you, please play Shiren the Wanderer. Not only could I use more people to rescue my poor Shiren from a tight spot, but the series deserves more love as a whole. The last Shiren game before this one was released nearly 15 years ago in Japan, and I’d love to be able to play the next one before I hit middle age. It’s $39.99 on Switch, and a perfect experience for on-the-go gaming. It’s the same price on PC, and it seems to go on sale more on Steam than other platforms. Great news for those of you with a Steam Deck! If you already like other Mystery Dungeon games, you owe it to yourself to check Shiren out.