Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate Reviews
If you love grinding for hours in dungeon crawlers after doing a three-hour long tutorial, this is the game for you.
Shiren the Wanderer is one of the finest rogue-like mystery dungeon game in recent years. It features a challenging difficulty but with an addicting gameplay that results in the players spending countless hours in the game trying to get the best loot.
One of the best games you can own on the Vita.
Though I wouldn't consider it the best entry in the series, I absolutely enjoyed my time with Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate. It's a beautiful, challenging quest with a pleasing soundtrack I wouldn't mind having in my iTunes. With all the love I have for it in mind, I don’t know if I can recommend the game to anyone who isn’t already familiar with the series. Even if you’ve played the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon spin-offs, this is another beast entirely. It’s a game you can play for 20 hours and feel like you didn’t make any progress at all. That’s a type of punishment some gamers just can’t handle. For me, it’s a type of punishment I can’t get enough of.
Shiren The Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate is one of the best roguelikes available on any platform and it happens to have some of the best pixel art I’ve seen in a long time.
Shiren is not for everyone. Anyone craving an accessible or user-friendly RPG need not apply. Fans of challenging rogue-likes, however, should snatch the game up immediately.
“Shiren the Wanderer: Tower of Fortune and Dice of Fate,” is a classic either-or proposition. You either get it or you don’t, with rarely any middle ground in between. Folks who don’t like retro roguelike gameplay will find the dungeon crawling tedious, outdated and unforgiving. Gamers who appreciate old-school roguelikes, however, will love its sprite art and the diverse challenge the game provides. If you have a soft spot for classic dungeon crawling, you’ll be quite pleased after rolling the dice on Shiren.
Shiren is super charming and a delight to play. The story is interesting, the characters were awesome, and the gameplay is super addicting and fun. However, the game has limited accessibility to those who want to just experience the story with its unforgiving saving/progress methods. It is gameplay heavy and does require dedication to complete.
If you have casual experience with the mystery dungeon genre and desire more from it, I wholeheartedly recommend Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate. Once you let it in and embrace it, this adventure will pull you in with its endless replayability, stark gameplay depth, and charm. If you grow easily frustrated, however, and find yourself feeling disheartened by losing resources and progress quite significantly, a different mystery dungeon title will more than likely be your cup of tea.
Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate does an incredible job at showing where the roguelike genre started. Fans of this series and its 'all or nothing' gameplay will adore this port and all its new content. However, players new to this genre or this series will find very little good here. There has been no effort to reach out to a wider audience or bring this game forward to a level of modern quality. Although it is still the Shiren the Wanderer that fans know andlove, it is more than obvious that this is a game stuck in time.
Although Shiren the Wanderer isn't a long title, it's hard to stop going back in and taking on the next challenge that's offered.
I have a real feeling of regret knowing there is a lot of content here that I will never see. There are numerous aspects of Shiren the Wanderer that I couldn't find a way to jam into this review like how allies function, the over 100 optional sokoban puzzles, the Minesweeper-like dungeon, creating new items at the Tanuki lottery house, fusing items together for new effects, and much more. For anyone wanting to dive into a game with real depth, this is a great one.
As is, there’s a good time to be had with Shiren the Wanderer. I enjoyed it for what it is, but I feel the cons here are too strong. If I weren’t reviewing this, I’d have jumped out after my second lock-up. At the same time, I think if the A.I. was fixed and clearer instructions are given in regards to the secret pots, this could be a recommendation.
I have a suspicion that it isn’t a game that will click with everybody. This includes people who would love it but might be turned away by the first few punishing hours. For that reason, it could be an easy game to miss. The franchise also struggles for visibility in the West, which doesn’t help matters at all. If you’ve enjoyed Mystery Dungeon games before, this is a game worth looking into.
Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate was excellent on PlayStation Vita, and it remains excellent on Nintendo Switch. There are a lot of roguelikes available on this console at this point, but there's something about the classical elegance and adherence to genre tradition that makes Shiren the Wanderer appealing. It's a little like how some people still love the sound and experience of vinyl records, really. You're not going to be blown away by innovation with this game, but you may well find yourself in love with its sincerity and near-perfect refinement.
Despite its age and its retro style that may not be to everyone’s taste, Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate has a charm that’s hard to deny. Its simple gameplay loop is endlessly rewarding, luring players back again and again, even after multiple deaths. The constant promise of loot helps, as does the speed in which Shiren levels up. Success is always just around the corner; you just need to survive long enough to get there.
It is a tight package bursting at the seams with loads of content, but it is also a game that asks the player to be in a certain frame of mind, one in which losses aren’t regarded as just a waste of time but opportunities to learn for the sake of future success.
A thoughtful and rewarding classic Roguelike, Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate is incredibly satisfying if you put the time into it.
Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate is an interesting game. It does a lot of things right and is the prototypical mystery dungeon title. And if that's all you want, then look no further. But I suspect most people are going to find the dungeons frustrating and the permanent death mechanic infuriating. This is an acquired taste that you'll either love or hate. Unfortunately, my personal feelings fall closer to the latter.
Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate is one of those releases that could really go either way. If you don't mind repetition and you're not afraid of some tough difficulty spikes, there's a lot of depth and content here to keep you busy for quite some time. If those caveats do raise concerns for you, there are a couple of other Mystery Dungeon titles on Switch that may offer a more palatable experience. Wherever you may fall, Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate is certainly worth your time, and we'd encourage you to give it a look.