Most of this review will be in comparison to Shiren DS2 as it was chronologically the most recent release before this game (and the one I played most recently). That said as Shiren DS2 was a port of a GBC game that seemingly retained most of the original’s limitations, Shiren 4 by comparison is a large upgrade in basically every aspect.
In terms of design this game is much closer to Mystery Dungeon 2/Shiren the Wanderer DS[1] (don’t you just love how these game titles are so confusing?) than Shiren DS2, as the main goal is to progress through one long dungeon with intermittent rest stops.
A bunch of changes have been made to game progression including:
• Bananas are now the primary food source, which ripen and spoil over time (if not inside a pot). Banana peels can also be set as highly useful traps.
• There is now a day-night cycle which switches up survival strategy and item management, as during the night your weapons become next to useless so you must instead rely on moves you learn from NPCs, which can only be used once per floor.
• Equipment can now level up and gain new passives over time which makes progression feel much more natural. Bless and plating scrolls are also more common.
• Tag system lets you recover equipment after collapsing (for a negligible fee) which greatly reduces the consequences of failure.
• On top of that, the Undo grass item is basically a get out of jail free card (warps you back to start with all of your belongings upon death) and is an occasional find on the ground and in shops.
• There’s also some quality of life stuff like being able to name storage pots for easy organization, being able to move the camera around, and bracelets being no longer able to crack/break.
This ultimately makes the game much easier, but honestly I think that’s okay because these games can still be pretty punishing anyways, and you are never immune to dying to random bullshit. You are never immune even at a postgame level, some monsters at higher levels can destroy your items and even erase runes from your equipment.
There are plenty of very challenging postgame dungeons you can attempt to clear too if the main game leaves you wanting more. Including:
• The main story dungeon, now extending to 99 floors.
• Banana Kingdom, probably the “easiest” challenge and works sort of like the N’fuu dungeon from DS2. Though I find Banana Prince to be a much less helpful ally.
• Trapper dungeon makes a return, though slightly more tolerable here.
• I think my favorite one conceptually is Static Forest, where you cannot level up but equipment upgrade items are very common. Works sort of like a hyper condensed version of the main game grind. That said I could only get to about the halfway point with a combination of the strongest weapon and shield you can find on the ground (and some luck).
• Jaguar’s Hunting Forest is the easiest 99F clear if you bring in upgraded equipment and lots of revive grass, as revive grass basically trivializes the dungeon’s gimmick of unrestorable HP.
Most carry-in dungeons can be trivialized to some extent by bringing good items, but the preparatory grind is dull at best. I’m not super interested in tackling the harder ones because I don’t think I have the determination or skill to get even as far as halfway.
Weird difficulty (exponential) curve aside, really the only things I can detract from the game are:
• Most of the NPCs look like racial caricatures, which really doesn’t sit right with me. The game’s artist is clearly very capable of not doing that and yet here we are.
• The music feels pretty generic and forgettable. While the previous entries’ soundtracks aren’t much to write home about either, Hayato Matsuo has made some pretty good dungeon crawling tunes before. You probably won’t be playing this with the sound on anyways.
Oh, and there's a story, I guess. Not super different from other narratives in this series about an ancient destruction god getting revived and Shiren having to defeat it. Very similar story beats to DS2 as well.
Try this one out if you were put off from Shiren DS1 much like I was, the difficulty here feels more balanced in favor of the player (if not elaborated on enough in this review), while still retaining elements of challenge that makes the roguelike attractive.
In terms of design this game is much closer to Mystery Dungeon 2/Shiren the Wanderer DS[1] (don’t you just love how these game titles are so confusing?) than Shiren DS2, as the main goal is to progress through one long dungeon with intermittent rest stops.
A bunch of changes have been made to game progression including:
• Bananas are now the primary food source, which ripen and spoil over time (if not inside a pot). Banana peels can also be set as highly useful traps.
• There is now a day-night cycle which switches up survival strategy and item management, as during the night your weapons become next to useless so you must instead rely on moves you learn from NPCs, which can only be used once per floor.
• Equipment can now level up and gain new passives over time which makes progression feel much more natural. Bless and plating scrolls are also more common.
• Tag system lets you recover equipment after collapsing (for a negligible fee) which greatly reduces the consequences of failure.
• On top of that, the Undo grass item is basically a get out of jail free card (warps you back to start with all of your belongings upon death) and is an occasional find on the ground and in shops.
• There’s also some quality of life stuff like being able to name storage pots for easy organization, being able to move the camera around, and bracelets being no longer able to crack/break.
This ultimately makes the game much easier, but honestly I think that’s okay because these games can still be pretty punishing anyways, and you are never immune to dying to random bullshit. You are never immune even at a postgame level, some monsters at higher levels can destroy your items and even erase runes from your equipment.
There are plenty of very challenging postgame dungeons you can attempt to clear too if the main game leaves you wanting more. Including:
• The main story dungeon, now extending to 99 floors.
• Banana Kingdom, probably the “easiest” challenge and works sort of like the N’fuu dungeon from DS2. Though I find Banana Prince to be a much less helpful ally.
• Trapper dungeon makes a return, though slightly more tolerable here.
• I think my favorite one conceptually is Static Forest, where you cannot level up but equipment upgrade items are very common. Works sort of like a hyper condensed version of the main game grind. That said I could only get to about the halfway point with a combination of the strongest weapon and shield you can find on the ground (and some luck).
• Jaguar’s Hunting Forest is the easiest 99F clear if you bring in upgraded equipment and lots of revive grass, as revive grass basically trivializes the dungeon’s gimmick of unrestorable HP.
Most carry-in dungeons can be trivialized to some extent by bringing good items, but the preparatory grind is dull at best. I’m not super interested in tackling the harder ones because I don’t think I have the determination or skill to get even as far as halfway.
Weird difficulty (exponential) curve aside, really the only things I can detract from the game are:
• Most of the NPCs look like racial caricatures, which really doesn’t sit right with me. The game’s artist is clearly very capable of not doing that and yet here we are.
• The music feels pretty generic and forgettable. While the previous entries’ soundtracks aren’t much to write home about either, Hayato Matsuo has made some pretty good dungeon crawling tunes before. You probably won’t be playing this with the sound on anyways.
Oh, and there's a story, I guess. Not super different from other narratives in this series about an ancient destruction god getting revived and Shiren having to defeat it. Very similar story beats to DS2 as well.
Try this one out if you were put off from Shiren DS1 much like I was, the difficulty here feels more balanced in favor of the player (if not elaborated on enough in this review), while still retaining elements of challenge that makes the roguelike attractive.