Sorry these fell off for so long, folks. Blame old Game Boy games and Brawl. I haven't forgotten our intrepid Wanderer, though, who I believe I last left in the depths of Table Mountain.
I don't have a usual diary to share with you, because... well, remember what I said about progress becoming incremental? I've only made it two or three levels past the Stream Village, and not in any sort of fashion worth writing about. I started dying a lot in ways that weren't worth reading about. So, go read this new @Play article about newbie mistakes. It's excellent and if you're struggling, it is going to be able to tell you exactly what your mistake is. (Mine was "Kept wasting good equipment on killing Skull Wraiths in level 26.")
After getting that "Wow, I'm not playing this game right at all" feeling, I decided to go focus on a feature I'd been neglecting for awhile to try and regain focus. So I've set aside the drive to Table Mountain for awhile to focus on a feature I had previously been ignoring: rescues.
I had been ignoring rescues in hopes of playing a "pure" Shiren game, but after playing with the feature a bit I'm not sure that's intended or possible. Rescues seem to be there purely as a way to accumulate lots of items without having to engage in more mechanical forms of grinding. I'm also quite embarrassed to find that the "you can be rescued three times" rule is one that refreshes between permanent deaths, while I had for some reason operated under the assumption that you got three rescues ever. After some reconsideration, there's pretty much no reason not to be asking for rescue constantly when you're not actively playing the game. Only having to accept every fourth "failure" death is going to cut down on equipment loss dramatically.
Going on rescues is intriguingly different from the rest of the game. You get three shots at rescuing anyone, and when you do so the dungeon actually isn't randomly generated anymore (so the Fay's Puzzle training for dealing with very specific situations does pay off). Each rescuee has a specific dungeon that you get three chances to try and navigate. I think, but am not sure, that it's basically the dungeon which killed that particular Shiren. So, getting a rescue relies upon someone else going through "your" dungeon more skillfully than you did, which is an excellent thing in principle. (It also explains why my friends doing the Kitchen God's Shrine and Scroll Cave keep cursing about no one being willing to run rescues there.)
You seem to find more food in these dungeons than usual, but I've also found they tend to have unusually difficult first floor. One rescue dungeon had me beginning next to three Mamels in a tiny room, certain death if you entered at level 1 with no equipment. So if you're struggling elsewhere in the dungeon, I can't recommend going on some rescues enough. If there are any faults in your dungeon crawling technique, you shall rapidly discover what they are and figure out better ways to do things, since you get to confront dangerous situations multiple times.
After you rescue a fallen Shiren you're supposed to be able to send him a "Revival Spell" that lets him come back to life. I never finished a rescue before someone else had done that, but I still got to keep all of the equipment I earned during the rescue and the item you get as a rescue reward. After a rescue, I was able to start with as much equipment as I'd usually have after reaching Mountaintop Town. To say it made things easier was a vast understatement. After clearing a few simple rescues I coasted through the game until I got myself killed in level 26, as per usual. I'm now taking advantage of the DS version's lenience and awaiting rescue, since some of my kit at the time was quite good.
(Incidentally, my friend code is 1891-0898-1025 for Shiren if you're dreadfully interested in saving me. Post your codes and I'll give rescuing you priority when I'm doing rescues, bearing in mind that I suspect many of you guys reading this are farther in the game than I am.)
If no one rescues me before the next time I feel like playing, then it's time to go do some rescues and build up good equipment again. This sort of repetition would kill me in most games, but it doesn't feel terribly repetitive in Shiren because the level and loot layouts are never the same. I'm not sure I want to go out of my way to grind up super-equipment for clearing the main game, short of exploiting Storehouse Jars. I am going to kill the damned boss of Table Mountain no matter what, and that story is going to be the next Diary update.
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