Shiren the Wanderer Journeys Back to America

Shiren the Wanderer’s life outside Japan has been arduous, especially for those who discovered and enjoyed the duo of titles we received.

Sega gave the franchise its first shot with the DS remake of the first title, which sadly couldn’t even achieve the minimal success they expected. While it was crippled by typical “Sega” issues (the anemic advertising efforts and awful cover art being the biggest), most gaming types outside the PC audience were unaware of how good roguelikes are. It’s worth noting that other roguelikes, like the Atlus USA-published Izuna titles, were localized, but came from companies which rely on low profits to sustain themselves. But even then, not many were making the trip.

And speaking of Atlus USA: They bravely gave Shiren its second shot in America with the Wii title, the third mainline game in the franchise. (A remake of the second Game Boy title was also released for DS in Japan, which no one wanted to localize after the first game’s sales.) Its sales data isn’t public, but rumors suggested it sold well below 10,000, a tragically low amount even by Atlus USA’s standards. That many players on dedicated systems still didn’t get how roguelikes worked didn’t help, though it’s a shame they didn’t give the “Plus” version on PSP a shot.

Two companies tried and failed to establish Shiren as a viable niche franchise in western territories, but the series continued in Japan with two brand new installments for DS. Both were visibly aimed towards a wider audience than previous titles, with their difficulty levels being more forgiving, and more “anime” art styles. It’s a shame no company was crazy enough to give the series yet another shot outside Japan with these…until now.

It’s good for us that Aksys Games is that crazy, as they recently announced the localization of the newest title: Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate. It’s the enhanced “Plus” Vita version of Shiren the Wanderer 5, whose original version previously released for Japanese DS systems in December 2010, and Japanese Vitas in June 2015 to commemorate the franchise’s 20th Anniversary. In addition to expected new features like a widescreen aspect ratio and trophies, this version also added new dungeons that will be unlocked after the main quest is completed, and the ability to twirl the camera with the right analog stick.

The franchise is still a mostly unknown entity in America, but it’s been one of the most popular Mystery Dungeon roguelike franchises in Japan for years. That means this new installment doesn’t stray much from the beaten path, and offers a roguelike experience traditional for the franchise and genre. Like previous installments, Shiren 5’s settings and dungeons are based on feudal Japan’s. You’ll control the titular silent rōnin Shiren, who’s accompanied by talking weasel Koppa. In addition to the traditional roguelike grind, Shiren will also come across a cast of (literally) colorful characters. They’re thankfully more believable than the last game’s cast, which included a scantily-clad blonde-haired cowgirl in hot pants. Yeah.

Shiren 5 also retains the day and night cycle previously introduced in Shiren 4, a DS and subsequent PSP installment we also didn’t receive. Shiren’s vision can also be affected by weather conditions while dealing with enemies and traps in dungeons, which also include fog of war. These obstacles will assuredly be particularly perilous given the franchise’s history with being difficult, even if this title is easier than some older installments, though dungeons will hopefully be balanced in a way that won’t make them blatantly unfair. New to Shiren 5 are special puzzle rooms, which include solving problems involving numbers and choosing which staircase to climb among many. This is how it will live up to its subtitle.

It’s hilarious that we’re seemingly doomed to receive only the odd-numbered Shiren installments in English, but hopefully this performs well for Aksys. They have experience with releasing roguelikes on Vita, as the Compile Heart-developed Sorcery Saga: Curse of the Great Curry God apparently did well enough, so they’re capable of attracting the niche market. (Unless some among their target audience need little anime girls to buy it, but that’s not true, right?) It would be nice to have a publisher that could reliably publish Shiren games outside Japan in the future, assuming Spike Chunsoft plans to continue the franchise. Since they went through the bother of commemorating the series 20th Anniversary, there’s a good chance they will.

If you’re interested in this title, keep an eye out when it releases on June 24th, physically and digitally.

P.S. This news is also humorously coincidental, since I proposed porting Shiren 5 to PC to increase its localization chances in a post about Danganronpa’s PC release (coming next Thursday!). That could still happen, but I’m glad this title is coming regardless.