Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island | |
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Developer(s) | Spike Chunsoft |
Publisher(s) |
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Director(s) | Keisuke Sakurai Shingo Anzai |
Producer(s) | Shohei Sakakibara Ryo Nishimura [1] |
Programmer(s) | Shingo Anzai |
Artist(s) | Keisuke Sakurai Kaoru Hasegawa |
Writer(s) | Shin-ichiro Tomie |
Composer(s) | Keisuke Ito |
Series | Shiren the Wanderer Mystery Dungeon |
Engine | Unity |
Platform(s) | |
Release | Nintendo SwitchMicrosoft Windows
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Genre(s) | Roguelike, role-playing |
Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island [a] is a roguelike role-playing video game developed and published by Spike Chunsoft. It is the sixth main entry in the Shiren the Wanderer series, which is a subset of the larger Mystery Dungeon series. It was released on Nintendo Switch in 2024, over 13 years after the last mainline title in Japan, Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate , [3] and 8 years in the west. [4] A version for Microsoft Windows is also in development. [5]
The gameplay for The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island remains the same as other Shiren the Wanderer games; it is a roguelike role-playing video game in which the player traverses randomized dungeons and fights monsters. [3] [6] The game takes gameplay content from the earlier games of the series rather than the latest. As such, little to no content that were featured in Shiren the Wanderer 4: The Eye of God and the Devil's Navel and Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate were recycled, like the Day and Night system in dungeons. [4] [7] The i-Dash from Shiren the Wanderer 2: Shiren's Castle and the Oni Invasion also returns in this game, albeit tweaked a little and with a new title. [8] Benemoth, which are giant versions of a common monster, will occasionally appear in dungeons thanks to the Benemoth Gates, and they come with advantages and inconvenient against the player, most notably being invincible to the player's attacks due to their barrier. [9] [10] In addition to returning monsters from the series, such as the iconic Mamel, new monsters were added to the game. [11] [9]
The UI got an overhaul compared to previous entries, now showing the inventory's capacity, and two semi-transparent dialogue boxes reserved for the Adventure Log in the bottom right corner, and the Notebook in the bottom left. The Notebook logs new findings in a dungeon, such as discovering a new monster or item. [10] Returning from the 2020 release of The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate, the Live Display UI has now two types for players livestreaming the game; a compact type focusing on the gameplay, and a detailed type. [12]
The game features multiplayer content, outside of rescuing defeated players in dungeons. [8] Players are also able to train against species of monsters with the Monster Dojo, or go to alternative routes during the mainline story, which are harder but more rewarding than regular routes. [9] [10]
The story is set between the events of Shiren the Wanderer GB: Monster of Moonlight Village and Shiren the Wanderer 4: The Eye of God and the Devil's Navel. [13] As Shiren and Koppa, referred to as a ferret, leave Tsukikage Village few months after, both of them start dreaming of an island. This dream leads to an existing treasure island named Serpentcoil Island, one of the small islands in the Inland sea. The duo decide to venture there not long after to explore the island, but also debunking the rumored treasure living inside a monster atop of the island, and rescue the lost girl who sent that dream to them. [6] [14] Before that, they walk in the mainland, suffering from drought because of Kokatsu, and help nearby citizens dealing with this crisis. Suzuna, an innkeeper of Uzumaki-Ya, supports the team throughout their adventure, [4] including letting them to rest at the inn or train in the dojo behind it.
As the duo travel through the island, they meet numerous pirates and ninja scattered around the island, with conflicts being created among them. Asuka, a recurrent side character in the series, participates in the adventure to reunite with her allies in the island, [6] although Koppa does not remember meeting her in the past despite the fact they did. Finally, they face off against Jakaku, the rumored monster, and its army of monsters at the top of Mount Jatou. Upon defeating it, they find out that the island is starting to float, pouring water and a portion of treasures hidden by pirates towards the mainland. Soon after, the distressed girl, later named Tatsumi, explains there is more to learn from this place's origins, before Shiren and Koppa got forcefully ejected from the top of the mountain by a fireball.
Prior to the development of The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island, the Shiren the Wanderer series was dormant for over a decade, as the newest game, excluding ports and remasters, was released in 2010 for the Nintendo DS. Initially, the game started as a proposal from the team behind the Mystery Dungeon series as they were passionate about creating a brand new game for the series. This proposal was made before the Nintendo Switch and Steam ports of The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate in 2020. [11] From an interview in 2018, Spike Chunsoft's president Mitsutoshi Sakurai answered for potential ports of the series in the future, although it would be a challenge as employees of the company said it will not do well. [15] In 2020, one of the series scenarists, Shin-ichiro Tomie, had left a secret message in the aforementioned ports, indicating he would still able to work on the next Shiren the Wanderer game if there are enough voices from the fans to green-lit a new Shiren the Wanderer game within the company. [16] [17] Eventually, the Switch port of The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate exceeded the company's expectation in terms of reputation and sales, which led to green-lit the development of the new Shiren the Wanderer game soon after.
The game was originally based on Shiren's Castle and the Oni Invasion, with most of its gameplay sourced from that game along with keeping a mindset of "going back to basic", but a few of them were later replaced by brand new game mechanics. Key members of the team contribtued to the game, such as Seiichiro Nagahata for game balancing and Hideyuki Shinozaki for deciding to put the final boss at the beginning of a new save. Shinozaki was later both surprised and afraid that this decision would not make the game lasts longer than anticipated after finding out players finished it only few minutes after its release. Tomie added the possibility to play as Shiren Kokatsu, a fusion between the protagonist and Kokatsu in his battle form. [18] Story wise, the team decided to set the game after Monster of Moonlight Village due to the return of Asuka, a side character that appeared throughout the series. They wanted to bring her back into the series with a different behavior to her appearance in the 2008 Wii game, Shiren the Wanderer , and therefore had to set the story before the latter. Serpentcoil Island was inspired by the Setouchi region. [11] [19]
The game was revealed and shown during 2023 at the two game expos, Nintendo Direct presentation and Tokyo Game Show. [20] [3] [2] [14] The game includes new transformations for Shiren with penalties, over thirty dungeons present in the island, and mechanics inherited from other Mystery Dungeon games such as the player's paths marked in the minimap from the Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon series, and giant, 3x3 grid size, monsters in dungeons and shortcuts for items functioning like moves in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series. [19] [12] Most of the team who worked on the Super Famicom and Nintendo DS versions of Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer have returned for this game, such as Kaoru Hasegawa as character designer. [19] [21] [22] In an interview with Keisuke Sakurai and Hideyuki Shinozaki, the game's director and project manager respectively, they explained that they were conscious about the release gap between the two games. Therefore, they decided to add numerous tutorials and removed gameplay content from the last game that was deemed hard for newcomers to the series. From the over 60 species of monsters added to the game, 20% of them are brand new monsters to the series. The game was released in January 2024 in Japan, and in February in other markets. [9] [23]
noisycroak contributed to the game's soundtrack and sound effects, including Keisuke Ito, who has composed music for the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series since Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness . [24] Ito was inspired by the Shiren the Wanderer series' past composers, being late Koichi Sugiyama, and Hayato Matsuo, while also saying that his contributions are "a link between the past and the future". [25]
Due to its success, the company has confirmed the development of additional content for the foreseeable future. Official Parallel Data were the first form of downloadable content distributed by the company; the new Parallel Data system was introduced in that game and does not require an update in order to download them. [26] Other updates include new challenges located at the Sacred Tree, new achievements, and new unlockable content. [18]
A paid downloadable content, Plus Pack bundle, was released in Autumn of 2024. In it, Koppa and Asuka appear as playable characters for the Sacred Tree and new additional dungeons, whether available for free or locked in the DLC, are unlocked throughout the story at the Isle of Mysteries, along with free content such as further quality of life updates. [27]
Interviews with Hideyuki Shinozaki and Keisuke Sakurai have indicated that a Steam release of the game was an idea. [28] On November 20, 2024, the Steam port was announced along with a release date set for Winter 2025. It includes a digital soundtrack composed by not only Keisuke Ito, the original composer, but also Yasufumi Fukuda, who has previously contributed in other video games such as Super Smash Bros. Brawl . [29]
The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island was developed by Spike Chunsoft. The company published the game in Japan and Taiwan on January 25, 2024, [3] and in the United States on February 27. [21] The European release was published by Reef Entertainment in the same day as the United States. [21] Downloadable content for the game are currently being developed as of March 2024, with paid downloadable content released later in Autumn of the same year. [30] [27] A Steam release was published in December 11, 2024. [31]
Aggregator | Score |
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Metacritic | 84/100 (NS) [32] |
OpenCritic | 86% (NS) [33] |
Publication | Score |
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Edge | 9/10 [34] |
Famitsu | 38/40 [35] |
Nintendo Life | [36] |
Nintendo World Report | 8.5/10 [37] |
RPGamer | 4/5 [38] |
RPGFan | 98 [39] |
TouchArcade | 4.5/5 [40] |
The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island received generally favorable reviews by critics according to review aggregator Metacritic. [32] 85% of critics recommended the game, according to OpenCritic. [33] Early reception for the game were positive, with Famitsu giving a score of 38 out of 40. [35] Reviewers praised for the revival of the series along with its new content; from updated gameplay like the Adventure Log and the return of online content to the balanced difficulty that new players would not give up early on, as it was known to be harder in the past. [36] [39] They have also criticized the game for feeling clunky and repetitive sometimes, as there are not much action happening on screen compared to more modern roguelike games such as Hades , The Binding of Isaac , and Crypt of the NecroDancer , the latter which did crossover with the Shiren the Wanderer series previously. [41]
The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island set records in the Shiren the Wanderer series upon its release. The game has sold over 200,000 copies in Japan, making it the fastest record sales in the series history. [42] [43] 85,424 copies were sold during its first week of release in Japan, making it the third highest retail launch of the Shiren the Wanderer series, behind the Super Famicom release of Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer and Shiren's Castle and the Oni Invasion, and the second most amount of copies sold during that week, below the PlayStation 5 release of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth . [44] [45] Soon after, the game reached first place in the Japanese Nintendo eShop, above Suika Game . [46]
With its success in Japan, throughout February, numerous fans of the Mystery Dungeon series have asked Spike Chunsoft to work on a new Pokémon Mystery Dungeon or Torneko's Great Adventure game, to which the company replied by asking the concerned companies in order to green lit the projects. [47] [48] By March, the game had higher than expected results, akin to how The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate for Nintendo Switch was before, of which later that month, they confirmed working on additional content for it. [30] The team also thought on working on a seventh numbered game after finishing development, although they will find it hard to change the game's aspect while not repeating the same type of content as the previous ones. [18]
Torneko: The Last Hope is a 1999 role-playing video game for the PlayStation. The game was co-developed by Chunsoft and Matrix Software and published by Enix. In Japan, the game was ported to the Game Boy Advance in 2001.
Mystery Dungeon, known in Japan as Fushigi no Dungeon, is a series of roguelike role-playing video games. Most were developed by Chunsoft, now Spike Chunsoft since the merging in 2012, and select games were developed by other companies with Chunsoft's permission. The series began when co–creator of Dragon Quest, Koichi Nakamura, was inspired by Seiichiro Nagahata's experience with Rogue, who is also a fellow developer from the company, and a desire to create an original series. It began on the Super Famicom, progressing to almost all of Nintendo's and Sony's home and handheld consoles, WonderSwan, Dreamcast, Windows, and mobile devices.
Shiren the Wanderer 2: Shiren's Castle and the Oni Invasion is a 2000 role-playing video game developed by Chunsoft and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It is the second main entry in the Shiren the Wanderer series, itself part of the larger Mystery Dungeon series, and was released in Japan on September 27. The game follows Shiren, a boy who aims to defend a village from attacking demons by building a castle; he finds building materials and other items by exploring dungeons.
Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer, originally released in Japan as Fushigi no Dungeon 2: Fūrai no Shiren, is a roguelike video game developed and published by Chunsoft. It is the second entry in the Mystery Dungeon series, following 1993's Torneko no Daibōken. It was originally released for the Super Famicom in 1995 in Japan. Sega published a Nintendo DS remake in 2006 in Japan and in 2008 internationally. The remake was later ported to iOS and Android and published by Spike Chunsoft in 2019.
Torneko's Great Adventure: Mystery Dungeon is a 1993 role-playing video game by Chunsoft. The first entry in the Mystery Dungeon series, the game features Torneko, a merchant from Dragon Quest IV, and his adventures around the Mystery Dungeon in search of items.
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness are a matched pair of Pokémon games developed by Chunsoft and published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo for the Nintendo DS. The two games were released in Japan in September 2007, and in North America and Europe in 2008. A third version, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky, was released for the same hardware in 2009.
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon is a video game series spin-off from the main Pokémon series developed by Spike Chunsoft. The games feature the fictional creatures called Pokémon who have the ability to speak human language navigating through a randomly generated dungeon using turn-based moves, common to Mystery Dungeon games. As of March 2020, there have been eleven games across five platforms, as well as several manga adaptations and animated specials.
Shiren the Wanderer is a roguelike video game developed by Chunsoft for the Wii. It was released in Japan on June 5, 2008, and in North America on February 9, 2010. A PlayStation Portable version was released later in 2010, with a readjusted difficulty, a new infrastructure mode, and shorter loading times via the ability to install the game.
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky is an enhanced version of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness released for the Nintendo DS in 2009, developed by Chunsoft and published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo. As a sister game, and sometimes referred to as the definitive edition to the aforementioned games, additional features include the addition of the missing Generation IV Pokémon, further character development for a few side characters in content known as Special Episodes, and a few quality of life improvement for options, items, and other gameplay related features.
Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd. is a Japanese video game development and localization company specializing in role-playing video games, visual novels and adventure games. The company was founded in 1984 as Chunsoft Co., Ltd. and merged with Spike in 2012. It is owned by Dwango.
Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate is a roguelike role-playing video game developed by Chunsoft. It is the fifth main entry in the Shiren the Wanderer series, which is a subset of the larger Mystery Dungeon series. It was originally released for the Nintendo DS in 2010 in Japan.
Shiren the Wanderer 4: The Eye of God and the Devil's Navel is a role-playing video game developed by Chunsoft and published by Spike. It is the fourth main entry in the Shiren the Wanderer series, which itself is a part of the larger Mystery Dungeon series. The game was originally released for the Nintendo DS in 2010; an expanded port was released for the PlayStation Portable in 2012 entitled Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer 4 Plus: The Eye of God and the Devil's Navel.
Shiren the Wanderer is a video game series of roguelike and role-playing games developed by Spike Chunsoft. Unlike licensed crossovers within the Mystery Dungeon franchise, this series features original characters, including the eponymous rōnin protagonist Shiren and his traveling companion and talking weasel Koppa, with a plot and the location set generally in feudal Japan, and though indicative of the core games, which is navigating through a randomly generated dungeon using turn-based moves. As of January 2024, there have been multiple games across Nintendo and Sony platforms, mobile devices, Windows, and Steam, as well as few other medias released throughout the years.
Shiren the Wanderer GB2: Magic Castle of the Desert is a roguelike role-playing video game developed by Chunsoft. It is part of the Mystery Dungeon series, and is a sequel to Shiren the Wanderer GB: Monster of Moonlight Village. It was originally released for the Game Boy Color by Chunsoft in 2001. A Nintendo DS remake was released by Sega later in 2008.
Shiren the Wanderer GB: Monster of Moonlight Village is a roguelike role-playing video game in the Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer series developed by Aquamarine, and published by Chunsoft for the Game Boy in 1996. A Microsoft Windows remake, featuring enhanced graphics similar to Shiren 1 on the Super Famicom would be released in 1999, then later re-released with internet compatibility in 2002. In 2010, the game was ported to Japanese feature phones, which was then ported to Android in 2011 making it the first Mystery Dungeon title released on Android.
Shiren the Wanderer Gaiden: Asuka the Swordswoman is a roguelike role-playing video game developed by Neverland and Chunsoft. It is part of the Mystery Dungeon series, and is a side story based on the Shiren the Wanderer series. It was originally released for the Dreamcast by Sega on February 7, 2002. A Microsoft Windows port was later released on December 20, 2002 and re-released later with internet compatibility on February 27, 2004, both published by Chunsoft.
Shin-ichiro Tomie is a Japanese game director, writer and part of Spike Chunsoft's affiliation. Since 1995, he contributes to the company with the Mystery Dungeon franchise as the main writer for the Shiren the Wanderer, and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series. Prior to his affiliation to the company in 1992, he has also contributed in Tecmo's Tecmo Bowl series of sport games.
Kaoru Hasegawa is a Japanese game artist and part of Spike Chunsoft's affiliation. Since 1994, he contributes to the company, with the Mystery Dungeon franchise as the main character designer for the Shiren the Wanderer series since its first title in 1995, and as an artist for other video game titles.
Retail launch sales of Shiren the Wanderer 6 are the second highest of the series, the highest since Shiren the Wanderer 2 on Nintendo 64. As many Switch 3rd party games, it's having stock issues, including digital it's not too crazy to think its the series' biggest launch.