OMG Nintendo

I love Shiren the Wanderer DS. I'm not especially good at it, yet, but I also never played the popular fan-translation of the SNES version. If you want to read Shiren diaries written by a more advanced player for the SNES version, go here. Just bear in mind that some of the SNES tricks don't work now.

What I want to demonstrate here is Shiren's amazing depth. This is a game I expect to be playing, off and on, for the next year or two before I "beat" it, insofar as beating Shiren is possible. So I'm just going to recount what I do and accomplish on a single Shiren the Wanderer DS run, and ramble a bit about the game mechanics as I go.

While I have a DS screencap unit, it, uh, dislikes retail carts, so I do not have screencaps for you fine people. Sorry! When I do my inevitable Baroque diaries, I should be able to take actual screens.

Anyway, let's get started...

I like to think of the Canyon Hamlet as Crapsburg, because it's a hilariously terrible little town. It's where you always start your journey in Shiren after your untimely death. I, for instance, got ganged on by three Chainheads and a Fluffy Bunny upon my entrance to Table Mountain in my last run, and so died despite carrying a ton of otherwise-awesome gear.

That gear is lost to the mists of time now, so here I am in Crapsburg. It's a long way back to Table Mountain. First things first: time to go work on some of Fay's Puzzles.

The puzzles are basically little tutorials that help you learn various details about how the game system works. After you pass one, Fay gives you an item as a reward. Generally I like to do them until I get an equipment item of some sort.

It is possible to farm items by repeating Fay's easier puzzles, and your reward is random-- so you can get something just as good by repeating an easier puzzle as you can for solving a hard one. That's one of the lamer Shiren DS changes, so I generally don't do that. Once I solve all of Fay's Puzzles, I'm going to assume I'm enough of a badass to charge into the dungeon with nothing more than a Riceball in hand.

For now, though, it's time to do Puzzle 21: From Afar. This one is simple. You start with a Jar of Identity and an anonymous staff that is going to turn out to be a Staff of Switching. Swing the Staff of Switching to swap places with a monster. You use this to cross an otherwise impassable moat, and pick up an arrow. Then you need to get around a powerful monster called an Inferno that can one-shot you, and it burns up your Staff, so there's no point in trying to switch positions with it. You can shoot it with your Wooden Arrow, get it to chase you around a looping area of the dungeon, and then make it to the stairway the Inferno (which is now behind you) was originally guarding.

I don't want to ruin all of Fay's Puzzles by describing what I'm doing, but that's pretty much the gist of them. I keep at it until I have a Scroll of Confusion and a Cudgel. Then I pick up a Riceball from my storehouse and get the complimentary Big Riceball the bartender always gives you. Food, weapon, panic button: it's time to go crawl me a dungeon.

1. Old Cedar Road

Not much of interest here. I acquire a stack of arrows, another Riceball, some gitan (moneyz), and a useful Herb of Sight (detects traps). I also managed to gain a level off of Mini-Robbers and Mamels.

2. Old Cedar Road

No monsters or items show up before I find the stairway. As far as I'm concerned, this kind of thing is a lucky break!

3. Mountain Stream

Another lucky break: a Wooden Shield turns up, guarding by mere Chintalas. I get to level 3, but I won't be equipping my Shield yet. I don't know what it does yet, and it could possibly be cursed. I get into an ill-advised combat with a Snaky, and he does way too much damage for a Wanderer with no healing items yet. I pop my Scroll of Confusion, retreat, and get a lucky break that takes me into the next floor of the dungeon.

4. Mountain Stream

Oh hell, luck's finally run out. While trying to spend turns resting to regain HP, a Bowboy shows up. He can kill me from a distance before I could pick him off with my own arrows, so it's time to try running. Unfortunately, it's hard to tell which parts of an area in a Mountain Stream room are going to lead elsewhere, and Bowboy picks me off before I can get away from him.

Yes, that's right: I died on level 4. A lesser gamer might blame the random generation for not giving her items she needed, but this death was my fault. I had arrows when I tried fighting that Snaky, and should've picked him off from a distance. Instead, I overestimated myself, got beaten up, and then didn't have the luxury of resting my HP back up on the next level.

Well, live and learn! For now, it's back to Crapsburg for another run. No, I won't be requesting a rescue-- I didn't make much progress this time, and it's just not worth anyone's time. Score was 54299, which is... not great. I'll have to do better next time.