Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate (Nintendo Switch) Review

This title in the Shiren the Wanderer series first launched on the Nintendo DS as a Japan exclusive
way back in 2010. The dungeon crawler roguelike was later westernised and released on the PlayStation Vita in 2016. Cubed3's Eric Ace had this to say when he reviewed this first port.

"Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate sticks to the roots of the
roguelike genre completely. It is no-nonsense, and gets to the action right away, and, from managing
the depleting health, the random floors, and ever present death wipe-out, fans will feel right at home."

This is still all true for the 2020 port as the core game hasn't changed at all from the 2016 release. Players still explore randomly generated dungeons while trying to avoid getting knocked out and losing all their hard-earned gear. The same 16-bit art style, the same mystery dungeon gameplay, the same 'one wrong move and it's all over' difficulty.

That's not to say that this port hasn't received additional content. Fans can listen through the soundtrack at their leisure through the 'Music Collection' library. The 'Wanderer Rescue' system has been upgraded to connect online and now includes global leaderboards. A new 'Live Display' setting implements optional UI displays designed specifically for streamers. Finally, Spike Chunsoft has included bonus post game dungeons that are incredibly challenging for even the most seasoned of wanderers. Anyone who is a fan of this series will be happy to know that this port is the best way to play this title.

If however, there is no nostalgia for this series, new players of Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate may find it to be an outdated dungeon crawler that is tedious, unrewarding and ugly. After finishing a long and dull tutorial dungeon and receiving text box after text box of exposition, the game just starts with no direction. Sure, there are NPC's to talk to, but most are repetitive and speak with little substance due to the games poor writing and choppy localisation. When Shiren finally gets into a dungeon, players may recognise the turn-based mystery dungeon gameplay from the very similar Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series. Where those games are charming, well written and rewarding, Shiren the Wanderer opts to make its players struggle to get through even the earliest of levels.

In true roguelike fashion, Shiren loses all equipment, money, and experience when he is knocked out. Shiren does have opportunities to store money and gear for later use, but whenever Shiren loses, which is often, there is nothing gained. No upgrades, no unlockables, nothing. Players must instead take on the 'learn from your mistakes' approach rather than a 'get stronger as you go' playstyle. That's to be expected from a true roguelike such as this one, but the fact that each dungeon is randomly generated, and difficulty spikes are unpredictable, it can become heartbreakingly difficult to progress forward. All this is not to say that this game isn't good, but rather it is clearly designed for a very niche player base.

Climbing though towers and diving through dungeons has some great gameplay elements. Enemies are creatively designed, spells and loot are plentiful and it's always cool to see new weapons actually show up on Shiren when they are equipped. Occasionally Shiren runs into a shopkeeper or blacksmith that can get Shiren new or upgraded equipment. These touches are all great for moment to moment action but getting to the end of a dungeon rarely does anything impactful to move the story or its characters into an interesting direction.

Luckily for players that do not care at all for the story, the gameplay is still fun… until it becomes
unfair. Even when Shiren is as prepared as possible with his limited inventory slots, the game may
just decide to spawn a trap that launches Shiren into a room where he is completely surrounded by
overpowered monsters. It can be really deflating.

Masochists that enjoy losing everything and starting from scratch whenever they get knocked out
have a lot to love. Unless this is enough to get new players onboard for Shiren's adventures, there
isn't anything else worthwhile here. Incredibly mediocre localisation, outdated and sometimes ugly
character art, side quests that are poorly designed and a UI display that screams afterthought all
hold this game back from it reaching a modern audience.