Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review

Our VerdictFlexible, fun, and ferocious too, this roguelike has more than enough dungeon diving for everyone.

Our Verdict

Flexible, fun, and ferocious too, this roguelike has more than enough dungeon diving for everyone.

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The decades-old Shiren the Wanderer series is famous for being bluntly unforgiving, and The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island is no exception to that intimidating rule. I’m dumped into a randomised dungeon and expected to fend for myself using nothing more than whatever I find lying around on the floor, the stairs to the next level only promising more of the same pain. A monster strolls into the room, one tile at a time, and I freeze, carefully considering every step and sword swing I can make before I act.

Need to knowWhat is it?An irresistibly tough roguelike packed with charmRelease dateDecember 11, 2024Expect to pay£34.99 / $39.99DeveloperSpike Chunsoft Co., Ltd.PublisherSpike Chunsoft Co., Ltd.Reviewed on:Intel i9-13900HX, RTX 4090 (laptop), 32GB RAMSteam DeckUnknownMultiplayer?NoLinkOfficial website

Need to know

What is it?An irresistibly tough roguelike packed with charmRelease dateDecember 11, 2024Expect to pay£34.99 / $39.99DeveloperSpike Chunsoft Co., Ltd.PublisherSpike Chunsoft Co., Ltd.Reviewed on:Intel i9-13900HX, RTX 4090 (laptop), 32GB RAMSteam DeckUnknownMultiplayer?NoLinkOfficial website

It’s tense and unpredictable. Learning how to improvise is a necessity, especially as I can’t guarantee when, where, or even if vital equipment will turn up. Spells rarely do something as simple as hurt the enemy ahead, and deadly traps could be hiding under any and every inch of the floor. Any mistake or careless slip could (will) quickly spiral into an unrecoverable disaster, and that would mean I’d lose everything, every item, weapon, and even my stats, and have to start over from the first floor.Again.

The odd thing is Shiren doesn’t feel merciless in practice. It’s more like trying to juggle chainsaws on horseback. If—if—everything goes my way and I don’t blink, or sneeze, or breathe at the wrong time, then I’ll have pulled off the greatest trick ever.

The first few floors cover simple concepts like attacking and diagonal movement in concise popups, keywords can be clicked on at any time (making it easy to find the answer to questions like “What the heck is the ‘empathetic’ status and do I want it?"), and the Monster Dojo back in the first village is a training ground and safe experimental sandbox all rolled into one. I love being able to pop in there and use the premade puzzles to not just read about but play through the fundamentals of successful Shiren-ing, or customise an empty room to test out some status effect or just observe an enemy’s behaviour. How long,exactly, can I send a room full of monsters to sleep for? Just how much damage is reflected back at my opponent when I’ve got a Counter Shield equipped?

Everything I learn here I can apply to my exploration of the island, giving me a sneakier, smarter option when faced with a battle I’d definitely lose if I faced it head-on—like the sudden appearance of a buff muscular tiger, a monster that had tossed me around like a basketball on a previous run. This time was different. I’d taken a minute to experiment with magical staves back in the dojo, and remembered I had one on me now that could paralyse anything its magical bullets touched. In one move that tiger became about as dangerous as a fluffy kitten, literally unable to get its paws on me while I chipped away at its health from a safe distance.

It was the perfect reminder of Shiren’s most important lesson. Everything from simple bracelets to shining swords are stuffed with conditional effects and unique properties (and can often be enhanced with even more), and I really do need to use them all. Mindlessly rushing up to a monster to hit it in the face—even if I can hit it really hard—is rarely the right answer unless I’m after a quick, inglorious death.

Image1of5Later areas look appropriate intimidating—if you can reach them(Image credit: Spike Chunsoft)Training scenarios make it easy to experiment with Shiren’s rules(Image credit: Spike Chunsoft)Getting surrounded is usually fatal(Image credit: Spike Chunsoft)Serpentcoil’s energetic storytelling helps to keep spirits high(Image credit: Spike Chunsoft)Exploring areas thoroughly can lead to significant rewards—and dangers(Image credit: Spike Chunsoft)

Image1of5

Later areas look appropriate intimidating—if you can reach them(Image credit: Spike Chunsoft)Training scenarios make it easy to experiment with Shiren’s rules(Image credit: Spike Chunsoft)Getting surrounded is usually fatal(Image credit: Spike Chunsoft)Serpentcoil’s energetic storytelling helps to keep spirits high(Image credit: Spike Chunsoft)Exploring areas thoroughly can lead to significant rewards—and dangers(Image credit: Spike Chunsoft)

Later areas look appropriate intimidating—if you can reach them(Image credit: Spike Chunsoft)

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island

Training scenarios make it easy to experiment with Shiren’s rules(Image credit: Spike Chunsoft)

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island

Getting surrounded is usually fatal(Image credit: Spike Chunsoft)

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island

Serpentcoil’s energetic storytelling helps to keep spirits high(Image credit: Spike Chunsoft)

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island

Exploring areas thoroughly can lead to significant rewards—and dangers(Image credit: Spike Chunsoft)

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island

I can’t be certain what will show up and try to kill me while I’m making the long trek from sandy beach to rocky summit, but as Serpentcoil draws monsters from predetermined pools I can get a sixth sense for when archers andsamurai grasshopperscould start appearing, and with some time and practice I can at least prepare myself for them.

I was eventually so well prepared—in personal experience, not shiny items laden with special effects—that I decided to test my skills against the game’s epic cold open, where I’m plunged into a do-or-die battle against the final boss with nothing more than a few semi-randomised pieces of standard equipment to help. The game expects me to lose here. I’m supposed to watch Shiren pass out and then wake up on the beach, ready to start his first full dungeon run. Instead, I won. No, I did more than just win: I comfortably cleared the entire adventure on a fresh save in less than five minutes.

To put that in modern roguelike terms: it’s like I rode an elevator directly to Hades and beat him without a single upgrade or godly boon.

Break everything

The map charts your progress. And many, many, failures too(Image credit: Spike Chunsoft)

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island

After spending hours and hours learning and trying and failing and trying and failing again just so I could hope I’d reach the final battle, it felt like I’d reached a new stage of enlightenment. This game is so eager to accommodate absolutely any wild idea I have, to run with whatever crackers strategy I can imagine, it’ll even let me win unwinnable battles. It makes all the hardship along the way feel collaborative—every enemy attack is a fresh clue, every sneaky trick something I can use myself. Shiren wants me to learn the rules so I can not just break them, but throw every last one of them back at it. Strategy and knowledge beat everything, even a backpack full of really sharp swords and shiny shields.

And the best part? When it’s confident I’ve mastered the basics, Serpentcoil explodes into a wildly creative version of itself. As in Hades, beating it once is essentially just the beginning.

Image1of3Casually dropping stunning location shots is very much Shiren’s thing(Image credit: Spike Chunsoft)Achievements unlock fun in-game rewards(Image credit: Spike Chunsoft)Quick tutorials help to make this complex game more approachable(Image credit: Spike Chunsoft)

Image1of3

Casually dropping stunning location shots is very much Shiren’s thing(Image credit: Spike Chunsoft)Achievements unlock fun in-game rewards(Image credit: Spike Chunsoft)Quick tutorials help to make this complex game more approachable(Image credit: Spike Chunsoft)

Casually dropping stunning location shots is very much Shiren’s thing(Image credit: Spike Chunsoft)

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island

Achievements unlock fun in-game rewards(Image credit: Spike Chunsoft)

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island

Quick tutorials help to make this complex game more approachable(Image credit: Spike Chunsoft)

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island

This is an incredible roguelike. Newcomers will find it has all the information they need to learn the basics at their own pace, and a charming, well-paced story filled with memorable characters, from food-loving samurai to awkward pirates. Longtime wanderers can use their skills to break through to the NG+ features in mere minutes, and the game is happy to instantly raise its own bar to match.

At any and every level, this is a flexible and layered adventure packed with rewards, happy to give players a toolbox filled with absurd abilities and let them invent their own path through the game.

The Verdict89Read our review policyShiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil IslandFlexible, fun, and ferocious too, this roguelike has more than enough dungeon diving for everyone.

The Verdict

89Read our review policyShiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil IslandFlexible, fun, and ferocious too, this roguelike has more than enough dungeon diving for everyone.

89Read our review policy

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil IslandFlexible, fun, and ferocious too, this roguelike has more than enough dungeon diving for everyone.

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island

Flexible, fun, and ferocious too, this roguelike has more than enough dungeon diving for everyone.

More about shiren the wanderer the mystery dungeon of serpentcoil islandShiren the Wanderer’s simple graphics disguise a systems-dense roguelike full of the emergent stories I love the genre forRejoice, roguelike nerds: Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island is coming to SteamLatestWatching an all-romances speedrun of the legendarily janky Fallout: New Vegas is a delightSee more latest►

More about shiren the wanderer the mystery dungeon of serpentcoil island

Shiren the Wanderer’s simple graphics disguise a systems-dense roguelike full of the emergent stories I love the genre forRejoice, roguelike nerds: Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island is coming to Steam

Shiren the Wanderer art

Shiren the Wanderer’s simple graphics disguise a systems-dense roguelike full of the emergent stories I love the genre for

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island screenshot

Rejoice, roguelike nerds: Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island is coming to Steam

LatestWatching an all-romances speedrun of the legendarily janky Fallout: New Vegas is a delightSee more latest►

Latest

Watching an all-romances speedrun of the legendarily janky Fallout: New Vegas is a delight

null

Watching an all-romances speedrun of the legendarily janky Fallout: New Vegas is a delight

See more latest►

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Our Verdict#

Break everything#

Our Verdict

Break everything