Learning about the wandering rogue tower

LEARNING ABOUT THE WANDERING ROGUE TOWER SERIES

Nevertheless, the game works, because while it never quite feels fair or predictable, it's always consistent. There's no way to foretell that, for instance, one of your companions is going to wander off on his own to fight the toughest enemy on the current floor of dungeon and get his ass beaten, causing that monster to level-up and mop the floor with poor Shiren because you ran out of healing items and stuck your only dungeon-escape scroll in a pot for later (meaning you can't use it, because you have to break the pot to collect any items within, but you're on an open-concept floor, which means there are no hard walls to shatter the pot against). You can gird yourself with a small arsenal of gear, or stack the odds in your favor by recruiting companion characters to fight alongside you, and even so you constantly run the risk of dying in a horrible instant, losing all the progress you've made in a hours-long dungeon run to a stroke of bad luck.

LEARNING ABOUT THE WANDERING ROGUE TOWER SERIES

Very little about the game is predictable, presenting players with a series of randomly arranged dungeons containing a randomized assortment of monsters and a random collection of consumable items and equipment to gather. Like all proper roguelike, Shiren has no interest in petty human notions of 'fairness.' It does not play fair, and it makes no apologies for its harshness. It can be a nerve-wracking, spirit-crushing experience at the best of times, and taking a particularly cruel tumble can fill you with the desire to fling your Vita across the room in a rage. and nothing about Shiren offers relaxation. Video game fans look to their hobby as a way to unwind, to relax. All the things I love about the latest Shiren game (which bears the unwieldy subtitle of 'The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate') will be precisely why many people will hate it. I try my best not to be a snob about video games, even if I do have my own particular expectations and interests.

Let's get this out of the way right up front: Shiren the Wanderer is not a game for everyone.

Learning about the wandering rogue tower