Incy-wincy Shiren went up the Fortune Tower
Down came the monsters and knocked the Shiren out
Out came the finger and turned the DS off
And the incy-wincy Shiren went up the tower no more
How do you like my song? ^_^ Strictly speaking I haven’t quit yet, but it’s only a matter of time. Since the first Shiren game I’ve been coping with the sheer number of KOs by myself a mental target for number of deaths and then quitting when I reach it. This time it’s 25 deaths. If I haven’t cleared the game by that point then it just wasn’t meant to be.
That’s especially true this time because Shiren the Wanderer 5 is quite generous with the Revival and Take home herbs, at least at this early stage. Story-wise I’m supposed to help some guy Jirokichi save his girlfriend’s life by facing the god of fortune at the top of the Tower of Fortune. To even get into that tower we have to get the dice of fate from three lower towers, the Tower of the Past, the Tower of the Present and the Tower of the Future, in order of difficulty. Past was nice and easy, just the way I like it. Present, died once when a monster put me to sleep. Stay away from the sleeping monsters!!! But the next run went pretty smoothly. Next up is the Future. The game gave it a pretty scary write-up at the start, but I’ve got some good equips and items, I should be okay. Maybe. If not, there’s always the 25-death limit to fall back on.
I should note that strictly speaking I don’t have to do the Tower of Fortune, at least not right away. Unlike the other Shiren games I’ve played, there are several side dungeons open already at the start of the game. There’s the usual tutorial dungeon, and one where you get to pick which level to start on (with your level scaled to match) and another based on Minesweeper and another with stone statues that do… something or the other. I only heard the descriptions from the dungeon keepers, never tried any of them. If there’s a main story dungeon then I feel compelled to do that one first, whether I’m forced to or not. If you’re really curious you can find out for yourself in a month’s time when The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate comes out in English on the PSVITA.
As for new gameplay features, I haven’t noticed very many so far. Nothing that really stands out, at least, especially compared to the day/night system in Shiren 4. I would definitely notice a change of that magnitude! I’ve seen a number of “Good against X-type enemies” weapons around. And there’s the option to buy friendship items that befriend all enemies of a certain type. E.g. all Mamul-types in the game will start fighting for you instead of against you. That’s interesting. I would experiment with it, but if the friendly monster dies the enemy that killed it will probably get a level up and then I’ll have a big problem on my hands. I think I’ll stick to my party members, thank you very much. At least they aren’t as frail as past companions have been.
Apart from that it’s just Mystery Dungeon business as usual in Shiren-land. The major differences will mostly likely come from the side dungeons and post-game bonus dungeons, which is why the main quest throws all these companions and useful herbs and stuff at you with abandon. That doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll be able to finish this one, but since the game is being so nice I’ll give it my best shot. I’ll be back when I hit the limit or finish the game, whichever one comes first.
Ahhh Dungeon Crawlers… so refreshing.
I’m glad you’re back, I thought that Granblue game ate you 🙂
Do your best shot like always, but don’t quit mid way! If you’re close t the end, even if you pass the 25 mark, continue and beat it!
Aaaaand I love your soooong!! Go incy wincy shiren spider!!
25 is my bench mark, plus or minus one. If it hasn’t happened by then, it’s not meant to be. Granblue I’m still playing, but it’s a long-term prospect so I’m taking it slow and playing other games as my main effort.
Just spent all night reading your blog pretty much except for the otome entries (not my thing).
Had some questions:
1) Are you a woman? Most otome players are. Just curious.
2) Are you from Japan, living abroad, or just took it upon yourself to learn the language? Again, just curious.
3) Not a question but a THANK YOU for summing up and articulating the same reasons I couldn’t get in to TWEWY. I can only handle arpgs if they’re very loosely “a” like say…Super Mario RPG or Mana Khemia.
1) Yes. Though I don’t think you have to be to like otome games.
2) Just took it upon myself to learn the language. I enjoy language-learning in general.
3) I’ve been thinking about giving TWEWY another try, actually. Back then I couldn’t handle ARPGs at all, but now that I’ve got a few under my belt maybe I’ll make another go of it.
The turning point for me was playing Rune Factory, which is a super-easy ARPG with lots of options for getting so strong the monsters aren’t so scary any more. That gave me more confidence to try other ARPGs, which eventually led to Phantasy Star Portable. I really got into that and haven’t looked back dinvr. If you think you might ever want to get into ARPGs, give Rune Factory (or any ARPG where you can grind levels) a try.
TWEWY is one of the best ARPG for the ds! The story is amazing, the characters likable, etc.
Hard to play on pc but doable, I did that myself! I ended up with a carpal tunnel syndrome but was worth it!
I heartly recommend you to do another try.
PD: I miss you already 🙂
I’ll post when I have something to post.
3- Do it!
I booted this up on the VITA for a game in between bus rides, wish me luck <— geddit because dice theme and stuff
Har har har. Lots of luck, then. You’ll need it… is what I want to say, but the main game at least is easier than the other Shiren games I’ve tried so far. I should really get back to it sometime.
The Tower of the Future onwards is a bit of an annoying jump – I don’t quite like how night monsters can just one-shot you just because of the “oops I accidentally moved instead of doing something I actually wanted and now I’m dead”
Though really I’m mostly here to say they randomly threw up Princess Maker 3 on Steam in English with no warning whatsoever. Heard the translation was pretty bad though but I guess this is one of those “beggars can’t be choosers” things.
Ufufu, I see you have discovered the reason why I dropped first Shiren 4 and then Shiren 5. Fighting night monsters isn’t too terrible once you get the hang of it, but man is it unforgiving!
I too have heard bad things about the quality of the Princess Maker translations. On one hand I don’t want to be one of “those gamers” who clamor for a localization and then find excuses not to play it, but on the other hand why play an inferior version when Japanese is no problem for me? I’ll have to ruminate on that a bit.