Shiren 6:Parallel Play

Parallel Play (Japanese: パラレルプレイ) is a gameplay element in / Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island. Parallel Play is accessible from the Top Menu. It separates its gameplay from the regular game, not allowing to carry any items or progress back to the main mode. Parallel Play starts by selecting Parallel Data to play with.

Parallel Play can be accessed for free with the game, a Nintendo Switch, and an Internet connection. Additional subscription services are not required.

Unlike Rescues, Parallel Play is region locked.

Creating, Sharing, Receiving

Parallel Data can be obtained in two ways:

• Creating it from the menu while inside a dungeon.

This can be done in both in the normal game and during Parallel Play itself.

Parallel Data cannot be created while in a Hidden Route.

Players can upload their Parallel Data.

• Downloading Parallel Data from the Internet.
  • Selecting Random Search in the menu will find a random selection of Parallel Data of other players available for download, different every time.
  • Friend Search
  • Parallel Data ID, which can be entered in the menu for downloading that specific Parallel Data.

When Parallel Data is created, everything about that current Adventure is preserved, including the dungeon layout, found items, monster encounters and named items. The current state of the Notebook is also preserved. Up to 5 Parallel Data can be saved at one time for each Wanderer Diary save.

Possible Uses

Co-op

Because new Parallel Data can be created while doing Parallel Play itself, a player can stop playing, upload data, let another player continue from that point, wait for them to upload the new data, and continue from there.

Competition

Parallel Play can be used to race or speedrun the same dungeon with the same Parallel Data. Parallel Data may also be played multiple times, tracking different times for the same circumstances.

Dangerous Situations

Parallel Data may be created when finding a dangerous situation, to see if creative ways to overcome it can be discovered.

Planning Ahead

By creating Parallel Data and playing it without leaving the current Adventure in the main game, a player may use this feature to learn what lies ahead, knowing floor layouts in advance, including the locations of the stairs, rare items, and threats such as specific monsters or traps.

Playing Locked Dungeons

Unlike Rescues, Parallel Play doesn't prevent the player from accessing dungeons and floors that haven't yet been unlocked in the main game.

Learning About Items and Monsters

Parallel Data includes the Notebook data of other players, so it may be used to read about items and monsters that haven't yet been found.

Replaying Story-Only Situations

Some story-related gameplay aspects of the game can only be done once in the main game, however they can be played multiple times without having to create a new save by using Parallel Play.

Official Distributions

On March 28, 2024, Spike Chunsoft and Spike Chunsoft US announced Official Parallel Data distributions starting at the beginning of April.

Development

The developers originally wanted to implement Parallel Play, or a feature similar to it, in one of the rereleases of Shiren 5, but they were not able to. The idea came from a desire to give players a new community method to share gameplay, and the first idea was to allow players to "relive" the Adventures of rescue clients, later the developers focused on making players use the same floor configuration. The developers also noted that some players think it would be cheating to use Parallel Play to see what later floors are going to look like, but since that's possible through other methods, such as save backups, the developers decided to keep the feature as it is.

Version Differences

• Version 1.1.0 made Parallel Data saved with the older versions incompatible with the new versions. Spike Chunsoft's old distributions can still be downloaded, however some of the floors are different.
• As of version 1.2.0, when a Parallel Play Adventure ends, the game asks if the player wants to restart it without needing to go through the menus again.
• Trying to download Parallel Data using a Parallel ID for a different region now gives an error message that says the region doesn't match, instead of simply saying the ID doesn't exist. This can be seen with official Parallel IDs. This change was made in an update prior to Ver. 2.0.0, or it may be handled by the server and unrelated to game updates.

Gallery

• 

  Parallel Board.

• 

  Parallel Board.

Trivia

• For several weeks after the game's release, selecting "Random Search" in the English version would find none or very few (usually one or two) Parallel Data to display, even if doing it multiple times back to back gave different results. As of April 19, 2024, selecting "Random Search" gives a full page of results, and then four more.

In Other Languages

Language		Name
English		Parallel Play
Japanese		パラレルプレイ