Well, I never thought the day would come. Given the hiatus of the MD series, it’s the day I’d be reviewing a Mystery Dungeon game in some form before its release, let alone the Shiren games in general. The last Shiren came out in 2010 as Shiren 5, which was then localized for the Vita as Shiren the Wanderer: Tower of Fate and Dice of Fate, and subsequently ported to Steam and Switch.

As one of the defining roguelike series in Japan, and the series that changed my life forever in the form of the Pokemon division of the series, I’ve developed a tremendous appreciation for Shiren, Mystery Dungeon, and Chunsoft as a whole in the years since. And I’ve experimented a bit with earlier Shiren titles, such as the original SFC title Shiren GB2 and the soccer spinoff NETSAL. When Shiren the Wanderer 6 was announced, I was excited to see how they could create a new and original Mystery Dungeon and how Tomie’s team could recreate the fresh feel and addictive feel of past MD titles with a modern touch, with a few tweaks.

Well, I think they might have it.

Story

It takes place after the events of the first Game Boy game. Shiren and Koppa have left Gekko Village after learning that there is an island in the distance known as Hebi Toguro Island. Full of treasure and secrets, the two set off, but are wiped out by a terrible force, so they must embark on a long journey back to the island’s center, helping the people of various villages and towns along the way while Shiren discovers the island’s charms. I’ll try to find out the secrets along the way on my own…

Overall, I thought the main story of Shiren 6 was a very interesting story with a lot of appeal. Of course, the majority of the game consists of challenges in the main dungeon, but throughout the dungeon, there are various towns and rest areas with various NPCs, each of which has something to say and some of them have side quests to offer. The more you fight the gauntlet of the 32 main levels, the more entirely new routes open up in the dungeon.

It was in the side quests here that I felt Shinichiro Tomie’s writing style really shone through, as I perceive it. The character interactions here are very well written, have great developments, and every storyline I came across was a good one with a moral, something to think about. Still, the main story is good enough as it is. Don’t expect anything super deep like his work in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, but take it for what it is – an interesting adventure story. Writing style. Again, the localization team did an especially great job here.

Presentation

Considering that the last Shiren game was originally a DS title, itself based on the visual style of the DS remake of the first Shiren game, it’s not surprising that Shiren 6 is going for a more modern look to go with 3D. The Shiren 2/3 nature is back, but in a style similar to the N64 classic Shiren 2, and much better than the latter game. Everyone’s back in 3D, and the characters look fun and silly. Going from beautiful sprites to somewhat chibi models might seem a bit jarring at first, but the game manages to pull it off, with excellent visibility and a faithful look within the dungeons, monster designs and unique environments. It also returns the stream-friendly and convenient UI options introduced in the Switch port of Shiren 5, a display option that’s extremely useful if you want to see everything on the screen.

In general, I like the look of this game a lot more than Rescue Team DX, simply because there are no weird filters applied and the game doesn’t shy away from incorporating fun animations during cutscenes and gameplay. certain status effects. The game certainly knows when to catch your eye in certain cutscenes, and as your adventure progresses, you’ll earn in-game achievements that unlock different key art for the title screen menu, all of which is done in a fantastic, classic 2D style, similar to the game’s cover art. The only real criticism I have regarding the graphics is regarding the simplicity of certain cities in the game, as some of them look very flat compared to the more impressive dungeon biomes. Still, the game itself runs very well, so I’ll take some of the flat looking cities and textures if that’s why it performs better.

When it comes to audio quality, it’s nice to say that Keisuke Ito has hit it big again. As with his godlike work in Super Mystery Dungeon, he’s back with a slew of new compositions, many of which are entirely new to the Shiren series and are very well done. His dark musical style resonates in many of the biomes you traverse during your adventure, adding a musical treat to every attempt to progress through the dungeons. The story scenes also feature impressive music, while boss fights, monster houses, and more feature epic, situational tunes. The sound effects are typical of the series, including some familiar SE sound effects from the 3DS title Pokémon Mystery Dungeon.

Considering that I felt Shiren the Wanderer 5’s original soundtrack was much less memorable than previous works, this is a return in the best possible form and is honestly one of my favorites of the entire Mystery Dungeon soundtrack and my new favorite OST of the Shiren series. It manages to live up to GB2’s OST and Ito has done an amazing job here that I can’t praise highly enough. This is a soundtrack I’ll definitely buy when the CD comes out.

Gameplay

Since this is a Mystery Dungeon game, the core concept is simple, especially if you’ve played any of the spinoffs, previous MDs (like the Pokemon games), or clones of it. Enter a top-down dungeon with randomly generated floors, find your way to the exit in a turn-based format, and proceed to the next floor until you reach the end of the dungeon. Sounds easy, but Shiren 6 is a punishing game and you’ll need to pay close attention if you want to clear the 32-floor main dungeon. When you enter a dungeon, you start at level 1 and often have nothing unless you stock up on items in your warehouse. Then you have to gain experience and overcome the situations that each new floor offers you at each level. Yes, this means that you can easily encounter a situation where you start running and have neither weapons nor shields in sight on the first few floors. Yes, you can find items to survive in such situations. And yes, you can even block yourself if you are surrounded by enemies or take the wrong path and run out of resources. Unlike the Pokemon division of the series (where the only dungeons that were almost as difficult were the ones after the level reset), here every move matters, which leads to a lot of fun strategies and careful planning. You might think it’s a good idea to charge into a crowded room, attack enemies, and gain experience, but before you know it, you’ll be cornered and destroyed in three attacks in one round. And you’ll be back at Starting Town again!

Of course, some may wonder what the point is of dying and replaying if you don’t get to keep any items or Gitan money when you die, but fortunately Shiren 6 provides plenty of incentives to keep going and keep getting better. Each passage reveals the enemies you’ll encounter on each floor, and any items, stats, traps, or enemies you encounter are added to your beast fable, so each dungeon passage becomes a way to build your own collection. There are also towns along the way, each with their own NPCs, shops, warehouses, and even side quests you can explore, and these side quests often lead to their own separate dungeons or alternative routes, providing unique challenges and serving as excellent practice for missions. Even if you still have trouble with the main dungeon, have a short section that you can be proud of having conquered. Like old-school arcade games, every death is essentially a learning experience, and I love that.

It also helps that even if you die many times in a row very early on, you can still discover new things and features you can experiment with, such as: There’s a lot of variety to choose from, including training rooms that let you generate your own dungeon rooms, populated with enemies and traps to challenge, companions you can turn into allies if you encounter them during the main dungeon, or the ability to encounter shopkeepers and NPCs that can do beneficial favors, such as: you can trade an item you don’t need, or move one of your items from your inventory back to the vault in the starting area. (This means you can start your run with a powerful item, especially if you just stuff a bunch of items into a pot and toss them in.) There’s a huge amount of variation to experiment with, and the random dungeon generator really helps to mitigate the repetition; games like this often feel like visiting the same floors over and over again.

Strangely, I’ve rarely felt this way, especially when the items you encounter vary wildly from run to run. I once got incredibly lucky, finding three Resurrection Grasses almost in succession in the middle of a dungeon, only to be cornered by a Minotaur immediately after. On the other hand, a victorious run yielded two Invincibility Grasses, encountered a very helpful companion, and I was stocked with room-clearing Wind Blade Scrolls, which essentially got me through the second half of the dungeon.

The Shiren team has definitely taken notes from their recent MD efforts, refining the gameplay loop to an incredibly good balance, bringing back the arcade aspects of previous games without overdoing the frustrating aspects. That’s what makes this game absolute. It’s more addictive than any MD title I’ve played to date.

Even if I end up without a weapon on some floors and it seems hopeless, I always feel the urge to search the whole floor for goodies while fighting enemies so that if I’m lucky I can find some equipment that can turn the situation around. Considering that even items like arrows and pebbles are especially useful when unarmed, I never felt like giving up on running away, even in seemingly hopeless situations like Behemoth Gates where giant enemies spawn on the floor. I could kill them from behind, but they’ll likely chase me until they get bored and disappear.

The number of times I cringed to realize that an item I’d barely used before, like a recoil stick or a sleeping roll, saved me at the last moment led to so many fun and satisfying moments. Although I ultimately failed, it was still fun and educational, as a good roguelike should be.

All this raving about the game mechanics hasn’t even mentioned the even crazier events that happen in Shiren 6’s post-game. The main dungeon may be hard, but at least you know what items do what, aside from a few bracelets here and there. But what if alternate routes or post-game dungeons come into play? Oh, and I hope you love how every scroll and weapon is completely unknown before you identify it, leading to many situations where you equip a sword only to find it horribly cursed and unable to throw it away, or use a scroll you think might be useful only to experience something totally unexpected. There’s a real hardcore challenge here, and only a master can make it to the end of the post story, but I didn’t make it in time for the review.

Still, there’s a tremendous amount of content and other things to do, unlocking more facilities and features as you progress through the post game at your own pace, while clearing the main island of Serpent Coil is just the beginning of one A. It’s a fun and challenging dungeon to tackle, and with a ton of in-game achievements and unlockable content and bestiaries available, there’s plenty of additional opportunities for addictive fun.

Conclusion

Ultimately, I’m very happy to say that Shiren 6 has accomplished something that previous Shiren games I liked didn’t: breaking down the barrier to entry rather than just being a simple game. Many previous Shiren games were very fun and entertaining, but very hard to beat, and even the best results in some games felt like they were achieved purely by luck.

But where is this in Shiren 6? This gameplay loop is nearly perfect and highly addictive. I’ve felt the difficulty of Super Mystery Dungeon in previous Shiren games, but Shiren 6 was the first to truly recreate the fun that comes from escape scenarios and ingenuity in item management. And the reaction of great satisfaction when a miracle occurs. It’s still fun to wade through waves of enemies and sneak up to the stairs with your staff. Shiren 6 has plenty of such fun moments, even if you die over and over again. Still, even losing becomes fun and motivates you to continue, as each defeat unlocks a side quest to create your beast fable and learn better strategies.

Despite all this, the game makes it easy for new players to get started, and provides much-needed support in the form of a warehouse to store your goodies and NPC companions to help you in battle (which are often rewarded for completing the game). Since there are side quests, it’s satisfying to discover and complete a detour dungeon) It really feels pretty close to the first Shiren game, albeit with a modern touch of quality of life, and I must admit that I spent the entire test phase working on the main dungeon, completely hooked on this game, until I finally pulled off a perfect run and felt like a champion.

It took me quite a while to finally clear the main story dungeons, but every attempt was extremely fun, whether it was discovering new items to catalog or trying risky strategies with items to see what worked and what didn’t. I was slowly building up my warehouse along the way in preparation for the perfect run. Shiren 6 has it all, almost perfectly recreating the roguelike feel, making it more of an addictive arcade game. Add in a very challenging post-game featuring more classic rogue elements and you’ve easily got a content-rich game where the main story is just the beginning of a bigger challenge that you’ll easily tackle over the next few months. To make it completely perfect. Honestly, it’ll take quite a while to fully complete these in-game achievements and beast fables. Cataloging the lineup of monsters on each floor is as addictive a goal as the gameplay loop.

That’s why I’m confident that Shiren 6 is a new high point for the entire MD series, as well as the perfect Shiren game for beginners. Whether you’re a PMD fan who loves challenging dungeons and wants more of that thrill, a roguelike fan who just wants to keep trying until you get the perfect run, or just one of those old school Torneko fans from the PS1, this is definitely a phenomenal roguelike, by far the best Mystery Dungeon game on the Switch, and definitely one of the best roguelikes on the whole system.

At first I thought Shiren 6 was a very good Mystery Dungeon game with more of a focus on gameplay than story, but I was soon blown away by the depth of this island, and the sheer amount of extra things you can do after beating the main dungeon proves that the addictive, well-balanced gameplay is the game’s best quality. If you’re a Pokémon MD fan and have always wanted to know what the inspiration for this title was, Shiren 6 is absolutely the best place to start for anyone craving more Mystery Dungeon action, and you’ll be returning to it again and again for months to come.