Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate Reviews

I originally played this on Switch, with the intention to have a great game for traveling, so my play time is higher than what's displayed on Steam. I come from Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. I enjoyed the Lv1 dungeon challenges as well as the general gameplay so I wanted to see what the genre proper is like (since PMD is a mystery dungeon lite in execution). Way more story focus, usually way less punishing. And, well, I'm SO pleasantly surprised. I was a tad apprehensive, since the Pokemon staple of moves in PMD seemed so integral. Shiren doesn't really have that type of customization, but it has SO many items with whacky effects and it actually throws them at you from the very start, so gameplay is always varied. I'm always excited to see what new strange effects I stumble upon. In combination with actually really varied enemy patterns, attacks and designs, the dungeon never feels boring to me. I'm always on my toes. It's great. Obviously I also already lost a whole BUNCH of great equipment, especially at the start. It was demoralizing, but the base town is filled to the brim with facilities. Some of them are a welcome distraction if you want to keep playing but aren't up to the story climb - there's mini dungeon challenges, a mine sweeper-esque dungeon minigame, even a block pushing puzzle facility. And then, there's bounceback mechanics. If you're smart with the shops and storage, you won't actually have to grind it all back. It's not as direct as "buy tons of Reviver Seeds and Escape Orbs", but the game doesn't just throw you to the meatgrinder if you messed up either. It's not what I expected, but a very welcome surprise. Lastly, I adore the artwork and music in this game. I am a big fan of pixel art and this game does it so well. It's detailed, it's colorful. The dungeon tilesets are a bit simple in the tower (I much prefer the outside areas) but that's nitpicking. The non-pixel art in the menus is great too, love the illustrations. I can't speak of music much, but it's varied and pleasant, with some rousing themes for the dangerous parts. It *is* challenging and sometimes, the dice of fate *really* have it out for you (I just got confuse-blind locked in rotation for a solid 5 minutes, unable to escape) but overall, I'd say this is a great jumping in point if you want to see more of the genre's gameplay (I much prefer it to PMD now, in that regard) and a great game in general. Just build your safety nets and be okay with maneuvering around imminent defeat sometimes.

Peak Shiren. A tough but fair game with beautiful 2D graphics.

Just started it and I like it so far. Remind me a lot of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon!