Shiren is a polished, old school roguelike with an enormous amount of stuff to do in it. I had a good time playing through the main dungeon (and a few side ones) but probably won't put the time in to play everything it has to offer.

I like the visuals, things are cute and appealing and the commitment to a Japanese rural village aesthetic is cool.
I sort of don't like how similar upgraded versions of monsters look. It is super easy to get killed by an over-leveled monster you didn't realize was there, especially since there doesn't seem to be a way to examine monsters effectively.

The UX in general is passable, but can be pretty rough. There are a lot of controls that are mapped as modifiers you just have to remember and everything just feels pretty janky to play. This is partly because of the console controls but it definitely feels like some of it could have been worked out. You get used to it but it never feels really good to control Shiren.

The story here doesn't really matter at all and is mostly providing a thin justification to go through some dungeons. There are some cute interactions and character moments though.

The dungeon and roguelike mechanics are the stars here and they work super well. There are a ton of different dungeon themes with specialized challenges and systems in play most of which are interesting and fun to try out.
This plays like a classic roguelike and almost everything can vary from run to run. There are scrolls, herbs, pots, randomized weapons and armors, equipment improvement systems, ally characters, merchants, and a bank system to carry items from run to run. Shiren is absolutely bursting with stuff to learn and interact with and I think this is the primary draw of the game and why I will probably pick it up occasionally in the future.
Things do feel a bit too random at times though, with unfamiliar monsters coming out of nowhere to end your run, traps and random scrolls that can put you in an unwinnable situation, and attack/defense rolls that are simply unlucky. I found a lot of my deaths felt cheap without being instructive or interesting.
Shiren reproduces some classic roguelike mechanics like hunger and totally random consumables without really even attempting to solve some of their design issues. It is a bit of a bummer that this stuff persists here uncritically, for the most part.

I had a good time playing through the initial challenge of Shiren and will definitely be picking it back up in the future. There is a lot here to explore and it is very fun and entertaining even with the UX and randomness issues I had. If you like old school roguelikes Shiren is worth putting some time into.