Meta:Tiny Q&A: Atlus on Shiren the Wanderer's ordeals
This Q&A was posted to the website tinycartridge.com by jc fletcher on an unknown date.[1] The earliest known mention is from February 8, 2010.[2] It was posted in the week of release, so it was likely released on Sunday the 6, or Monday the 7.
Questions and Answers
Shiren the Wanderer, Atlus's localized release of Shiren the Wanderer 3: The Sleeping Princess in the Clockwork Palace for Wii, takes its turn in stores this week, ready to punish and delight fans of the ronin and his weasel pal.
We spoke with a team of Atlus staff, including project lead Scott Strichart and editor Clayton Chan, about bringing a hardcore RPG to a new audience. And while they didn't offer us any information about localization prospects for Shiren on PSP, Shiren DS 2, or the Koppa Wiimote stand, it's hard to be too sad about that when they offered us so much fascinating discussion about the new game.
Tiny Cartridge: Shiren is a really different game from most other RPGs. What about Shiren the Wanderer, in terms of the experience more so than the systems, do you feel it offers that other games don't?
Scott Strichart, Project Lead: "Different" is a great word to describe Shiren. What I think Shiren offers is a real juxtaposition between the classic rogue-like genre and the mass market JRPG. It's got the challenge you'd expect from a rogue-like, but its story, characters, and visual style make overcoming that challenge a real joy.
It's not easy for a game to please both sides of the fence – the masochistic "hurt me more!!" type who want a rogue-like that is going to do everything in its power to give them a game over, and the more mainstream (if you can call them that) JRPG gamer who just wants a great story and a fun battle system. I think this iteration of Shiren is one of the first games that can successfully straddle that fence.
Tiny Cartridge: With all the measures taken to make this game the most approachable Shiren ever, would you consider this a good first roguelike? Say, if someone reads a bunch about this type of game and even posts about them on websites, but has been afraid to get into the genre?
Clayton S. Chan, Editor: The problem with the term "rogue-like" is that while it's quite descriptive to someone who knows their video game history, it's a loaded, unfriendly, unknown term to people who aren't as well versed. We've tried to stay away from using the term while talking about the game because we'd like the game to just be judged on its own merits.
But, for that hypothetical gamer from your question, I think they'd quite like this as a first dip into the genre. The case with most of these games is that there's an exceptionally steep learning curve. I think for a lot of people who swear off the genre, the majority of their frustration comes from their first death. The shock at discovering that they're back at level one, sans items and gold, puts them in a panic. Then they look for an auto-save and it's not there. I think that the genre's removal of two of their safety nets is a bit too jarring and it's enough to drive people off.
In this Shiren, you keep your levels, so while the challenge remains, the impact of death, the amount of work the player loses, is lessened.
In addition, the majority of games in the genre are a bit light on story, presentation, and graphics. Shiren is filled to the brim with all of those things. In the end, I think the fan of the basic RPG is going to be happy that they decided to give Shiren a go.
Tiny Cartridge: The series, or at least the previous more difficult entries, actually reminds me of another notoriously punishing game you recently published, Demon's Souls. Can you talk at all about their similarities and why you feel fans of Demon's Souls might appreciate Shiren?
Scott Strichart: Since we've gotten into this discussion about genre-bending, Demon's Souls is essentially a souped-up rogue-like with a real-time combat engine instead of a turn-based one. I think the difference between real-time and turn-based is often a deal-breaker for a lot of gamers, but if Demon's Souls players were willing to give turn-based combat a chance, I think they would most certainly find something they could get into with Shiren.
Tiny Cartridge: One of Shiren's companions, Asuka, actually has her own games in Japan. I was wondering if you could go into a bit of her background or share anything you might know about her adventures separate from Shiren's?
Scott Strichart: Interesting that you should bring that up. Asuka's "gaiden" (side story) game takes place when she and Shiren were kids. As Asuka, you save Natane Village from an ogre invasion.
U.S. gamers never got to see how Shiren and Asuka met seeing as that game never made it to North America, but this story does a fantastic job of reintroducing her within literally the first ten text boxes of the script. One interesting point in the story is where Koppa comments on Asuka's reformed manner of speech. As a child, she had a very masculine way of speaking; she was pretty much a tomboy. Koppa calls it "cute," and players will probably assume she used to speak like a little girl. As you know now, that is not the case.
Tiny Cartridge: Another companion question – in Shiren DS, Koppa's contributions to the story and gameplay were incidental. Will he have more of an important role in Shiren Wii?
Clayton Chan: Koppa would like to think he's more important in combat, but at the end of the day he's still just Koppa. However, every character in the party is going to have their own significant impact on the events of the game. Koppa will have his time to shine.
Tiny Cartridge: What were your biggest challenges with localizing Shiren for a U.S. audience?
Scott Strichart: Well, one of our many challenges was dealing with the game's graphic text. As you know, the Japanese language is considerably more compact, allowing you to fit whole words into teeny-tiny spaces. You'll note that on the seals that can be affixed to weapons, there are kanji characters of the seal's name left in-tact on their visual representations. There was no possible way to put more than a single (mayyybe two) English character into those seals, and it would have looked awful if we had. Instead, we found a workaround by putting the seal's name in its description text. The best solutions to these problems are the ones that look and feel intuitive, and I'm pretty happy with how everything turned out.
Tiny Cartridge: Anything else you'd like to mention about Shiren the Wanderer?
Clayton Chan: You should definitely beat the game and then play through all the unlocked New Game + content afterwards. All the funniest stuff is in the extra content.
Scott Strichart: Remember… When you move, they move. Just like that.
Clayton Chan: Hell yeah, Project Lead, spin that back!