Shiren the Wanderer offers a lot of new elements for franchise fans


Thursday, December 10, 2009


Shiren the Wanderer offers
a lot of new elements for franchise fans

By Michael Lafferty

“Shiren is an
easy to pick up but difficult to master”



For 1,000 years a princess has slept inside the Karakuri Mansion. Shiren’s
former master bestows the Karakuri key upon him and he finds himself in a
millennium-old mystery, wandering through past and present to unravel the story
of the girl and vanquish and ancient, lurking evil …

For those who have
followed the Shiren series, it has been a franchise that was defined by the
rogue-like quality associated with some Japanese RPGs – in other words,
relentlessly tough. But the pending release of Shiren the Wanderer for the
Nintendo Wii will change that … to a degree.

In the Shiren that
released on the DS, when the player-controlled character died, all experience
and items were lost. Touting a more friendly and accessible approach, the Wii
version will allow players to set the difficulty level before starting and
should the easy level be selected, if Shiren dies, experience and items are kept
and the game resets to the last save point. In the rogue-like games, death means
beginning from the start – there is no sympathy, no resets. With the Wii Shiren,
even if the game is played on normal, death will allow players to keep the
level, though items will be lost.

Atlus USA’s Aram Jabbari
hosted a tour of the upcoming title – slated for a February 9, 2010 release –
along with project lead Scott Strichart.

As for the easier
experience, Jabbari stated that “North American gamers are going to find this
the perfect entry way into the rogue-like games.”

But that is just the
beginning of what players can expect from this title.

“This is one of the first
times that Shiren’s backstory has ever been revealed,” Jabbari said. “The story
is presented in a very elaborate fashion for a JRPG. The characters emote and
the cut scenes are told in engine with a lot of depth to them.

 “One of the things we
play a lot is how the game is steeped, is drenched in Japanese mythology,” he
said. “It’s a great deal about the atmosphere and the premise as well. It is all
heavily influenced by Japanese mythology, even down to the music.”


There are elements that
will be familiar to the JRPG fan, such as the map (hand drawn) that allows
players to traverse the world. The dungeons (and this is very much a dungeon
crawl of a game) are randomly generated, each containing different numbers of
levels before reaching the final boss of the dungeon. One area explored allowed
Shiren, along with Sensei, to free Kobba, the ferret and companion to Shiren.
The Centipede Den was eight levels in size, but some range upwards to 24 levels.
Strichart said that there are dungeons that are unlocked after completing the
core story arc that are in excess of 24 levels and are also incredibly hard.

“Shiren is an
easy to pick up but difficult to master,” Jabbari said.

The game combines a
chess-like gaming approach with tactical combat. Each time Shiren or party
members move (by the end of the game, players can have control three allies –
and either allow the AI to control the characters or go into full control mode
to manage every aspect of the allied character), the enemies move – like a chess
game. The game has tactical elements set up so players can direct the AI of
allies. When it comes to controlling characters in the game, players can go with
the classic controller settings or use the Wii-mote and nunchuk in concert.

 “A lot of the fun is the
‘looting,’ “ said Jabbari. But even in that players will have to be careful.
Some items found may need to be identified to properly understand what they can
or cannot do. And some items are cursed. There is a chance that a cursed item
could be found and equipped without being identified, only for the players to
find out that the combat stats are not very good but the curse will not allow
players to unequip the item until after exiting the dungeon.

“It is a game that is
about the core mechanics but it does have a nice presentation,” Jabbari said.


The game’s graphics, even
through a Web meeting live gameplay demonstration, came across as bright and
colorful with some nice texturing. And for those wondering, composer Koichi
Sugiyama is still very much involved in the Shiren series.

It is estimated that on
easy mode, there is close to 40 hours of gameplay available – more as the
difficulty setting is increased. And this is also a Wii game that will have
achievements attached to it.  

“We are really excited for
this one to come out,” Jabbari said, “and we realize that a strong RPG on the
Wii is a challenge but we are confident in this title.”