Shiren:Mystery Dungeon 2: Shiren the Wanderer

Mystery Dungeon 2: Shiren the Wanderer
不思議のダンジョン２ 風来(ふうらい)のシレン

Information

Developer(s)

Chunsoft

Publisher(s)

Chunsoft

Platform(s)

Super Famicom
Wii Virtual Console

Genre(s)

Roguelike, role-playing game

Mode(s)

Single player

Version

1.0
1.1

Credits

Director(s)

Tadashi Fukuzawa

Producer(s)

Koichi Nakamura

Designer(s)

Shin-ichiro Tomie

Programmer(s)

Takemori Yamamori

Artist(s)

Kaoru Hasegawa

Writer(s)

Shin-ichiro Tomie

Composer(s)

Koichi Sugiyama

Release date(s)

December 1, 1995
August 1, 2000 ^{Nintendo Power}

July 24, 2007

Rating(s)

CERO

Additional info

ID(s)

: SHVC-AAXJ-JPN

Internal Name(s)

FURAI NO SIREN

Media
Distribution

32MB Cartridge

MSRP

: 11,800¥
: 926 Wii Points

Synopsis

ふしぎのダンジョン
ふうらいのシレンDS
SEGA

Mystery Dungeon:
Shiren the Wanderer
SEGA

This Mystery Dungeon 2: Shiren the Wanderer page is about a general overview of the first title in the Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer series. For the list of available games in the series, see Shiren:Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer (series). For the main character of the series, see Shiren:Shiren the Wanderer. For Shiren 3, localized as Shiren the Wanderer, see Shiren:Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer 3: The Sleeping Princess and the Karakuri Mansion.

Mystery Dungeon 2: Shiren the Wanderer (Japanese: 不思議のダンジョン２ 風来(ふうらい)のシレン) is a roguelike game developed and published by Chunsoft, released for the Super Famicom in 1995. It is not only the first set of games for the Shiren the Wanderer series but also the first series in the Mystery Dungeon franchise to use original characters. In 2006, a Nintendo DS remake was released in Japan and later released Worldwide under the official name, Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer, in 2008. The Super Famicom version of Shiren the Wanderer was subsequently rereleased to the Wii Virtual Console in 2007.

Gameplay

Mystery Dungeon 2: Shiren the Wanderer is a roguelike game in which the player traverses thirty randomly generated grid-based, top-down areas – referred to as floors – in which they fight enemies and find items. The player can move in eight directions, attack with melee weapons and arrows, and use a wide range of items with different effects: for example, some heal the player, some fling away enemies, and some allow the player to swap positions with an enemy. The items are kept in the player's inventory, which only has a limited amount of space. For every step the player takes, their health regenerates, but their fullness counter also decreases; because of this, the player needs to carry food items with them, which also takes up inventory space. The gameplay is turn-based: every time the player performs an action, such as moving, attacking, or using items, all enemies and characters in the area perform one action as well. In addition to the enemy characters, there are friendly characters, three of whom can join the player's party and help them with things such as healing.

If the player's character falls in battle, they are forced to restart from the beginning, with all their items and experience points gone; to avoid this, the player can store items in warehouses found in towns they travel through. Because of this, the player makes long-term progress by upgrading powerful items at village blacksmiths and storing them in warehouses, while upgrading their character is more of a temporary improvement.

After the player has finished the thirty floors that make up the main game, additional, optional dungeons become available. These dungeons are harder than the main story but include highly powerful items as a reward for their completion. Puzzle-based one-floor dungeons called Fei's Problems are also available from the start, in the first town, hosting fifty puzzles about avoiding enemies, using items, and moving carefully.

Plot

"	To fulfill the wish of his deceased friend, Shiren's journey to reach the top of Table Mountain begins, where legends tell of a city of gold, home of the Golden Condor. Joining him is Koppa, his talking weasel companion, who was enticed by the legend of the golden city.	„
	~ The game's synopsis.

The game takes place in a fantasy version of feudal Japan, and follows a rōnin named Shiren and his companion, the talking weasel Koppa, on a quest for the Land of the Golden Condor. They travel through forests, towns, mountains, and caves, and are joined by three people they meet during the journey: Kechi the Masseur, a man who pretends to be blind; Oryu the Blinder, a traveling woman who has the power to blind people and monsters; and Pekeji, a man who claims to be Shiren's brother, separated at birth. Shiren eventually reaches the land, where he frees the golden condor from an ancient insect-like creature. He and Koppa ride away on the condor, flying across the towns he had passed, and the townspeople look up at the condor and make a wish. The condor lands, letting Shiren and Koppa jump off, before flying away. The game ends with Shiren and Koppa walking away into the night.

Development

Shiren the Wanderer was developed by Chunsoft for the Super Famicom, with the core concept of repeated play, with the player improving their equipment and items each time they play, making progress through several playthroughs. The developers noted that Shiren the Wanderer differed from other Mystery Dungeon games in that the Chunsoft staff create characters themselves, allowing them to express the Mystery Dungeon series more fully than with the other games, which are set in already created worlds that Chunsoft cannot change. The game was developed in parallel with the Game Boy game Shiren the Wanderer GB, which used modified source code from the Super Famicom game.

The music was composed by Koichi Sugiyama, who made use of East Asian elements compared to his more European-styled Dragon Quest compositions, using instruments such as a shakuhachi flute. The scenario was written by Shin-ichiro Tomie and edited by Emiko Tanaka. In addition to the main story, Tomie wrote another scenario for the game, which the developers were unable to implement in the Super Famicom version. When creating the graphics, the development team faced challenges with the technical restrictions of the Super Famicom console: they were only able to use a limited number of colors and were restricted to a 32×32 resolution for all graphics and actions. Later games in the series feature two programs – one for the story and one for dungeons – but the first Shiren the Wanderer only uses a dungeon program. This led to difficulties in portraying certain scenes, such as one where several townspeople are meant to appear, but the limitations of the dungeon program meant that only two non-player characters could be generated.

Release

The Super Famicom version of the game was initially released on December 1, 1995, by Chunsoft, and re-released through the Nintendo Power flash memory service on August 1, 2000. The re-release version was also ported to the Wii Virtual Console on July 24, 2007, exclusively in Japan.

Gallery

For this subject's image gallery, see Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer.

• 

  The Super Famicom cover art.

In Other Languages

Language			Name
English			Mystery Dungeon 2: Shiren the Wanderer
日本語			不思議のダンジョン２ 風来(ふうらい)のシレン
español			Mazmorra Misteriosa 2: Shiren el Vagabundo
한국어			풍래의 시렌 이상한던전2

References

• Gameplay, Plot and Sales sections based on the Wikipedia page.