Shiren the Wanderer The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island Review (Nintendo Switch OLED)

by Jim Smale · March 11, 2024

Shiren the Wanderer The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island Review, After receiving a vision of a mysterious girl held captive by a terrible monster, Shiren and Koppa make their way to Serpentcoil Island—a distant isle rumored to be the lost stronghold of treasure-hoarding pirates. Determined to rescue the girl and find the treasure, the two race into danger… only to be soundly defeated, like all the others who tried before. Undeterred, Shiren and Koppa vow to challenge the monster again to save the mysterious girl.

Shiren the Wanderer The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island Review Pros:

Decent graphics.
1.5GB download size.
Five save slots.
Roguelike gameplay.
Tutorial pop-ups as you play the game.
You can set up controller shortcuts.
Grid-based locations can be turned on and off.
Can remap controls.
Internet functions are an option.
Can skip and fast-forward cutscenes and interactions.
Decent loading times.
Set camera angle.
Third-person view.
A great group of characters with a couple of stand-out memorable ones.
Beautiful art and drawings in the game.
It really is a good-looking game.
A dungeon location has multiple sections.
A world map that fills in as you explore and play.
A destination has a cool mechanic where you can view the completion level of the selected destination and you can see info on other online players.
Enchanting soundtrack.
Mystery dungeons are randomized on every run.
Enemies move one step everytime you take one step.
In-depth how-to-play manual broken down into parts.
Dungeon mini maps uncover as you move around.
It’s scary looking but the menus and Hud are very easy to read and understand.
End of run/life breakdown.
The adventure log is what fills in enemies and items encountered.
After dying you go back to your house and lose all accumulated items and coins.
You make progress even if you fail over and over.
Shukuba Beach is your village where you live and you can unlock new items and talk with people.
Turn-based combat.
A really cool level-up sound plays.
Full running commentary (text-based) of your actions and this can be reread at any time.
Earn exp and level up to heal and get start increases.
Unidentified items can be found, you have to get an identification scroll or pot.
Easy to use inventory system.
Fullness is the only real thing you need to keep an eye on outside of HP. You get hungry as you move around and eating will refill it and once full it can slowly heal you.
It is possible to farm in areas and level up a ton.
The game gets very moreish and just eats time.
Buy and sell items at markets and vendors.
A cool thing is you can still wear and use unidentified objects and maybe they work and maybe they are cursed and are stuck on you until you identify it.
Blacksmiths will let you upgrade equipment for a cost.
The adventure log has an almost Pokedex feel and look about it.
Your level is only valid in the current dungeon and resets after leaving/dying.
The monster dojo is where you can go and try out scenarios by placing enemies and traps, it’s like a training sandbox.
Warehouse – find them in dungeons or use warehouse pots to store items in the warehouse. Anything in the warehouse is safe until you take it out and die.
Encounter other wanderers in a dungeon to trade items.

Shiren the Wanderer The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island Review Cons:

Very story-heavy at the start from cutscenes to interactions and text.
Cannot skip all text and cutscenes.
A lot to take in.
No real voice work.
Tutorial pop ups are not always well timed.
Takes a little bit of failed runs to get into it all.
The dungeon timer doesn’t seem to stop as you have no actual pause button.
Maps are not always easy to read.
The game does take a while to feel like you are making progress.
More for early on but traps are invisible and hitting them is so random and annoying.
The game doesn’t do an amazing job of describing the full extent and features of the completion mechanics.