I said I’d give Shiren the Wanderer another try now that I have more roguelikes under my belt so, here we are. And here we’ll be for a while, because I’m not going to run away so easily this time. Even though I really want to <_< >_> because it’s boring. I’ve been doing the same stretch from Canyon Hamlet to Cryptic Rock Valley over and over again because apparently that’s the “recommended” way to finish Table Mountain. See, I’ve actually done some research this time, and the ‘easy’ strategy goes like this:
1. Keep adventuring until you get a good sword (Katana or Mastersword) and a good shield (Armor Ward).
2. Go back and forth between Canyon Hamlet and Mountain town beefing them up with the Blacksmith and Earth/Air Bless Scrolls until they’re around +10.
3. Work on the Oryu/Pekeji sidequests while you’re at it so you can get two sidekicks.
4. Use a melding jar to meld 2 or more Hide Shields onto the Armor Ward so it doesn’t make you hungry so quickly (optional but recommended) –> don’t waste the free jar you get from Gaibara like I did ^^;;
5. Stock up on Riceballs, especially the free ones you get in Canyon Hamlet.
6. Once your weapons and sidekicks and items are the way you like it, make your way to Cryptic Rock Valley and continue the story.
7. ???
8. PROFIT!
I’ve only made my way up to step 3 ^^;; and my Armor Ward is only +4, but it will shoot up once I merge it with the Hide Shield+4 I’ve been saving. I’ve got about 8 riceballs in two jars of holding, so I should be okay just as soon as I’ve saved up the 7000 it will take to buy a Melding Jar and sort out my Armor Ward…
…Or at least that was the situation I was in when I started writing this post several hours ago. Just a few minutes ago I started making another routine run to Cryptic Rock Valley… and got wiped out in a monster house. Farewell my lovely Armor Ward+4. And two Air Bless Scrolls. And worst of all, my Happy Armband! …*sigh*
And now I’ve got to do this again? Fight the same monsters again, pick up the same three or four herbs, same three or four scrolls, same three or four weapons, same three or four shields. The only thing they have an infinite variety of is ways to die. I don’t think anything will top the time I gave Pekeji a riceball and then he turned around and slugged me in the face, though…
Urgh, I can’t believe I have to do the whole go back, go forward, go back, go forward thing all over again. *sigh* The log shows that I’ve gone on 30 adventures in a little over eleven hours. I was going to tough out Shiren the Wanderer for 100 adventures just to say I’d given it a fair shake but now screw that. 75, no, 50 adventures. 11 hours is already over my patience limit so a little more and then I’ll call it a day. For good this time.
Have you ever played Azure Dreams for the PSX?
It’s very Shiren-esque (as is most JP Roguelikes, really) except with recruitable monster party members + a rudimentary town building system, and I think it’s significantly easier than said game though that might just be an adult perspective talking.
No, I haven’t played it. Isn’t that the one where you could date girls? I’ve been thinking of trying it for that reason, but I had never given the gameplay any thought. Another game for my list then, thanks!
Yup, that’s the one. Don’t know if I would really consider it “dating girls” though, since there aren’t really any gameplay mechanics tied to them, it’s more like each of the eligible girls has a mini-storyline that you can play out to get them to fall in love with you.
Have fun with it when you get around to it.
I will, I hope. And so my backlog continues to grow…….
So, level +10 is supposed to be good enough to forge ahead as far as sword and shield are concerned? Well, that’s good to know! My own Master Sword is at level +24 now, so I suppose I could go on safely… I was actually planning to raise it all the way to its maximum level, since I LOVE so much the grinding process in that game, but maybe I’m gonna try to tackle Table Mountain right away after all. At any rate, your post reignited my desire to play that game that I had left on the back burner for a while, so thank you for that.^^
That’s what the FAQs say, anyway. I’ve made it up to stage 27 (of 30) with just a Mastersword+8 and up to stage 26 with just a Katana+10 so they’re probably right. What you really need is a good shield, and shields are much harder to raise than swords.
shiren can be beaten without using powered up equipment, that’s the beauty of the game, knowing how the game works is a much better weapon than anything else
for example did you know that rice monster can be killed instantly by throwing a rice ball at them? one techinique to power level early on is to let one of the level up ghost hit a rice ball monster and then instantly kill him with a riceball, it will make you a shitload of XP
similiarly another trick that people don’t know is that throwing money deals damage equal to money/10 so if you throw a sack of 500 gold coins it does 50 damage, this also pierce defense so it’s perfect way to kill overleveled monster
Yeah, I’ve made it quite far using just equipment I picked up in the dungeons and the rice ball from Canyon Hamlet, which is kinda cool. I’ve used the rice ball trick before too, though the only way I learned that was from a FAQ. I always find money too useful to throw, though. I’m still playing it, but I always seem to die somehow regardless. Aieeee.
Have you unlocked Faye’s dungeon? That’s where the full Shiren experience happens.
Is that the cooking dungeon? My memory is fuzzy.