Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island comes out on Feb. 27th, 2024 in North American and Europe, check it out! (website links in the description). This message and video are not sponsored content (I don't have that kind of pull around here), I just wanted to spread the word/love. Hope you guys enjoy the video and if you pick it up, the game as well!

I fucking love the Shiren the Wanderer series!! Something about mystery dungeon games just feel so damn cozy.

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

It's funny how we were just talking about how much we like these games a couple of months ago, and then this new game comes out. Coziest deaths ever.

@stevenjohnson8736

4 ай бұрын

@@ImportGamingFTWI’m thinkin about pre order this game for my switch oled is this game worth playing on the switch

Thanks for the early review! I absolutely adore the Torneko and Shiren series, and glad to see releases still in 2024.

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

Thanks for watching--yeah, this release completely hit me by surprise, I had to do a double take when I saw it at the store.

@LordGek

3 ай бұрын

Odd for me is that I did recently learn of the upcoming Touhou Genso Wanderer title dropping in May after a long pause and NOW I think I understand WHY as that series is sooo clearly another company trying to cash in on the Chunsoft Mystery Dungeon craze.

Man, I need to play another mystery dungeon game. I love these things!

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

This is your chance to play the latest and maybe even greatest!

Thanks for the cozy video! I plan to get into the mystery dungeon series one of these days. The aesthetic of the N64 one has a look to it kinda exclusive to that era (the time I’m most nostalgic for). Also, great editing. Not overly fast like some videos while also visually interesting. You’ve found a great balance! You’ve improved a lot.

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

I love the look and feel of the N64 game, it's definitely unique, not just on those aspects but also among the system's library. Thank you for the kind words on my editing, I'm happy to hear it's improved!

I've loved the Shiren series since the DS. Really looking forward to playing the new one in a few days. Thanks for the detailed review.

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

Hope you enjoy it, thank you for watching!

Great overview. I watched a few reviews yesterday and they were like 5mins and hardly scratched the surface on what to expect. I don't have much experience with the Mystery Dungeon series itself but I am a fan of classic style dungeon crawlers. My favorites in particular are Brandish on PSP and SMT: Strange Journey on DS. I've actually been feeling the itch for a dungeon crawler to play in bed before going to sleep so I'm excited to try my first Shiren game with this one!

@WalrusFPGA

4 ай бұрын

Give the english translation of Torneko no Daiboken on SNES a try if you want to warm up to the gameplay structure first. The shiren series is a direct descendant of that, though much more complicated in its items & gameplay systems 🙂

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

I knew some of you out there had that "itch," ha ha. The original Brandish is great (but perhaps headache-inducing), I think I have the English PSP release but I don't recall playing it. Love the art on that one, though! Hope you enjoy Shiren 6!

How are you not much bigger! Your voice is like silk and you have so much passion. Much love 🖤

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

Thank you, that's very kind of you to say!

Shiren is awesome. Personally Torneko's Great Adventure, the SFC original, is my favorite in the Mystery Dungeon series but Shiren is right behind

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

They're so good--and absolute classics in the SFC library.

Your description of the gameplay was hilarious in context. What you should have said is “this is a roguelike. An actual roguelike. Not like all those modern games that borrow one game mechanic but otherwise bear no resemblance to Rogue. Enough said.”

Your videos are really great! I've been binging them lately.

@ImportGamingFTW

3 ай бұрын

Well hey, thank you, I appreciate you going through the vids. I have a lot of old videos, some of which are quite embarrassing or of questionable quality, but I still stand by the recommendations! I hope you've found some new games to check out.

Thanks for this! I've dabbled with the series in the past, but never spent a great amount of time with any of the titles. I've decided to jump in with the western release and see how I get on. Pretty excited to be frustrated!

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

Happy to hear it, thanks for watching. Since you know what you're getting into, may your frustration be glorious...but don't break any controllers!

I appreciate the time & effort put into this review. I was on the fence about getting this but after watching your review, I'm picking it up now.

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

Thank you very much--did you end up picking it up and giving it a try?

@siskavard

4 ай бұрын

@@ImportGamingFTWYes & I’m terrible at it & I absolutely love it

I only recently, accidentally, play a shiren game on switch and I was hooked almost immediately. Felt like a breath of fresh air. Then I saw this Shiren and I put in the pre order right away!! ❤❤

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

Mystery Dungeon and Shiren games are an acquired taste, but once they do manage to hook you in, it really is hook-line-sinker!

_Super well-presented and engaging_ overview to Shiren 6 as well as the series in general! Thank you for making this Jimmy, I'll be sure to keep this in mind if I know anyone curious/new to the game. 🙂👍 Can't wait to try it for myself, I'll be playing it in Chinese~!

This is the Shiren primer I needed. Always tried to get into the series but it never clicked. After watching this whole video, I’m positive this series is not for me, but I’m very glad I finally understand why. Thank you Jimmy!

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

Always appreciate the feedback, and sorry to hear this isn't the game for you, after all. Though I might not be presenting the game in the best way, you may actually really get into this one!

I play a lot of the classic roguelikes with the crazy long keybindings. This game is pretty much just like them and is almost as hard as games like Nethack or Mines of Moria. Honestly a great modern game that retains the nature of the classics.

@ImportGamingFTW

3 ай бұрын

Happy to hear the positive reception from a roguelike vet! I think this game is great!

I'm playing the Japanese version too. Had to make a new Nintendo account just to purchase a Japanese game, but worth it! It's absolutely a masterpiece. One thing I'm not sure, however, is the quality of its EN translation. There are so many wordplays and connotations that would make no sense after translation. My recommendation is to learn Japanese and play the original.

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

Nice--yeah, I'm really interested in the translation/localization, I imagine it would take quite a bit of creativity and "professional judgment" to bring this one to English-speaking audiences and keep a lot of the heart, much like the recently released Mameda no Bakeru. I know I wouldn't want to be in charge of that job!

@kingjer125

3 ай бұрын

@@ImportGamingFTWbut it was released in the us?

I'll be getting this game next week and sinking my teeth right in! Can't wait!

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

Right on!

I was really happy when this was announced, I love the Shiren games (at least based on the few I played). I was kind of bummed out that it had a 3D art style, not only because I agree about the pixel art looking better, but because when the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series switched to 3D, I found it to be harder to tell the exact locations of stuff. I probably won't be picking up this one soon, as I just finished the main story in the first Game Boy title, and am currently trying to do the post-game dungeon, but I think I'm starting to give up on it. A man can only take so many hour-long failed attempts due to bad luck before he realizes he could've done something better with that time... But what can I do when it's so addicting? I would happily finish all these titles to 100% if it was my job to do so, or had infinite time on my hands, but with so many other games are waiting to be finished, you can't really spend hundreds of hours on any single one. :D

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

Yeah, maybe give it some time--you'll probably have many more hour-long failed attempts at some of this new game's more tricky and unforgiving dungeons...but it is still so addicting, and finally getting to the end is such a fun time.

Growth curve and difficulty curve are very different this time around. I have 2 100% clear files in tower of fortune so I can go into some of the nitty gritty. The amount of dungeons in this game seems a bit less than the previous title with only 2 99f dungeons so far. Early floors are now incredibly difficult compared to prior titles due to monster abilities and hp/atk stats. The ironic thing though is the early mid to late mid level floors tend to be very easy. Power scaling feels most balanced at these points and although many exploits are absent in this title, I find that they aren’t fully necessary anyways. Some rare items are now common and some common items are now rare, the doppleganger staff among others are locked behind the number of runs rather than progress. The companions are a bit strange, some can equip gear, have strange abilities but all of them start at level one each dungeon. I have completed most visible title card dungeons, a new feature that shows on file selection which dungeons are complete or not, the new feature is that it shows seemingly all possible dungeons to unlock in the game. A helpful tip, you can switch gear on an npc by throwing another item in the same slot at them. I might start helping with the wiki soon but with the in game catalogue, the game has never been more accessible.

@ImportGamingFTW

3 ай бұрын

You've been busy! I've gotten through probably 7 or 8 of the dungeons so far (none of the 99 ones, though I've played one through the Parallel Play mode), and I want to go through more but I haven't been able to play much lately. I will have to take a look at the wiki sometime, props to you if you contribute!

Hidden GOTY here boys!

Excellent video dude, thanks for the review! :)

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

Thanks for coming by, Derek--I hope you're doing well, and I knew that if I kept talking about RPGs you'd eventually appear!

Excellent review. Really excited to play this.

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

Thank you, I hope you enjoy it!

I will actively search your rescue requests when I get my copy.

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

Thank you--I put one out the other day, but somebody saved me!

Damn Jimmy! you're so productive lately. another banger of a video, thank you!

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

Thank you, I've been trying to be more productive, so I'm glad you noticed. Unfortunately, I will probably have to take a break for the next 2 or 3 months due to real life stuff!

@Senorcyborg

4 ай бұрын

I'll gladly wait till then my guy.@@ImportGamingFTW

Oh wow finally!

Thanks for the review. I only mystery dungeon I played was Pokemon Explorer of Darkness, but this one looks fun and and and to try out the Shiren series.

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

Thanks, and I hope you like this game if you decide to give it a try.

Your review is giving me hopes. I got this game day 1 (for Europe, it was feb 27), but it’s crushing me. I get so many runs with no shield, no weapon for the first 8 floors, I was about to give up on the game, but I want to get better at it.

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

Hang in there, eventually you'll either get some really decent gear that will take you all the way through to the end of the dungeon, or you'll be so familiar with monsters and items that you can squeeze your way out of many of the more punishing or unfair situations. If I had time, I'd love to do a beginner's tips type video for Shiren 6, but unfortunately I will be extremely busy in the coming months. Best of luck to you!

My copy arrives today, Woo hoo! I played a few of the Shiren games and honestly I think the old DS one might be my favorite even though it technically has “less stuff”. This review was great as I was wondering what was different from the Tower of Fate (and thankfully no more day/night crap!) You have yourself a new sub

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

Thanks for coming by and for the sub! I hope you're enjoying the game now that you have it. How do you think it compares to 5?

@DelDuio

4 ай бұрын

@@ImportGamingFTWSo far I like it more, but it’s super hard (even for a Shiren game). I really like all the new items too, like Leaping Grass and the Water Drying Scrolls.

What do you do while waiting for "Help" aside from helping yourself? Can you still play while waiting? Nobody would wait for random player's help for 7 days if you can not play the game.

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

As far as I know, it's just helping other people with their requests or parallel play. Doing the former could help you save up points, power yourself up and then you can more easily save yourself--but I usually just ended up starting over except for times I found something really fancy.

I was watching this earlier when it was taken down

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

Well, I appreciate you coming back after that unpleasantness! I hope you didn't make the Goemon face when you got booted off!

Great review! Have my eye on this for sure. I really haven't played much Shiren, only a bit of 5. Most of my experience has been with the Pokemon ones and Chocobo as well. The $60 price tag is making me a bit hesitant, otherwise I would buy this in a heartbeat.

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

I think you'll like this game based on your experience with 5 and the other spin-off series, but yeah, it is a tough sell for full price unless you're really going to commit or know you'll love it. I still recommend it, though, other games that have less polish and passion put into them from much larger studios come out all the time, I'm happy to support the Shiren team.

@sdw4527

4 ай бұрын

@@ImportGamingFTW Figured I should get back to you. Ended up getting the game after all, and haven't been able to stop playing it, it's so good! The difficulty wasn't actually a deterring factor at all, in fact I actually love that it's so difficult haha.

Looks pretty neato. I've never played a shiren game but i did play both the Izuna games on ds back in the day. It was my first time playing anything with that dungeon crawling gameplay. I enjoyed them quite a bit. Good video Hapa san.

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

What's up, brother? Ah, Izuna--I had both of the English language versions on DS once upon a time, and I got them for very cheap, but ended up selling them one of the year's I went to Portland for a pretty low price. Funny how much they've skyrocketed in value, even the Japanese versions. I think my first dungeon crawler in this style was Azure Dreams--a classic in my book.

@mikekrow

4 ай бұрын

@@ImportGamingFTW Im doing good just working on my games mainly. I actually got them a long time ago cheap and sold them pretty high. haha. Ive never heard of azure dreams, I'll have to look it up.

Speaking on the Torneko spin offs would you do anvideo on Torneko daibouken 3 and Shounen Yangus fushigi no dungeon? There's nothing on them on the English web.

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

You know, a few years back I thought about doing a video on those, particularly Yangus, but I figured they were talked about to death since they were DQ titles. I guess not? I might try to pick them up again in the future, though I'm in the process of selling a lot of things in anticipation of a move. Maybe somewhere down the line, though!

@MaliciousMalcontent

4 ай бұрын

That'd be really neat, really enjoy the vids btw.

Is there a escape herb item, or something similar where you can bring your items and weapons back to the village and Upgrade/store them?

@ImportGamingFTW

3 ай бұрын

I mentioned it somewhere near the end of the video, but there's an escape scroll that unlocks as an item, but only after beating the game, recruiting the pirate characters and going through a series of events that unlocks a bonus 20F dungeon (that's pretty tough and only Asuka shows up in if you have her unlocked). It's not really that useful later on since most of the later dungeons will reset you to level 1 at the beginning, but fine for taking back rare items. I haven't found anything like the "Undo herb" like in other games.

I have the DS version. Will most likely pick this one up.

We haven't gotten a standard pick ups video in such a long time! Please do your part to help the Japanese economy and consoom! We all love those videos! (We all do, right? I mean, we all probably do... I do!)

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

Ha ha, I appreciate that, you're one of the few that seems to enjoy those here on the channel. I will probably start uploading pickups stuff on the second channel from here on, but I think this video will be my last for a while since I'll be busy selling off a ton of games so I save money and move. So...please wait a while! I'll go back to my consoooming ways again soon.

This game looks great! Thanks for the review :)

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

You're welcome, thank you for watching and leaving a comment!

I have always wondered if they were for me. I have the Etrian Odyssey Mystery Dungeon on 3DS but never gave it much chance. Would you say this new game is a better starting point or should I give EO Mystery Dungeon another shot?

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

I always thought about playing the EO games, but I've never played them so I can't give you an informed opinion, sorry. As far as this game being a better starting off point, due to its simplicity and return to the older titles in many ways, it might be a good way to try to get into the series. But as I mention, the punishing difficulty might be something that turns away a lot of potential new fans.

Another great review!

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

Much appreciated!

I’ve been looking forward to this game since its Japanese release, finally the English version will be out in few hours! I know they tried to get back to the root of the series with this game, though I only played the Dice of Fortune, one thing that you mention though that makes me a bit worried is that this one ramped up the difficulty, and the DoF already felt a bit tough for me 😅, nevertheless I’m willing to rise and rise again as many times as needed in this one too! Also Thanks for explaining how to defeat the “behemoths”, I was a bit concerned about the strategy for those. The art of Shire is always very beautiful and though the menus look with not much personality, they certainly look very useful for the gameplay … btw have you thought of livestreaming a round of gameplay for the English version?… Really nice video, a new subscriber gained 😊

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

Hope you like the game--I think it's a lot more forgiving in early stages, and a lot of ones success in the optional dungeons are really dependent on luck, but gameplay is pretty fast-paced, so failure doesn't waste TOO much of your time.

Great review

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

Thank you.

Seems like a intresting series wonder if i should pick this or dice of fate up to get into the series

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

Can't go wrong with Shiren 5, in my opinion. It's cheaper and the early stages are pretty beginner friendly.

I'm addicted

Whoa, the game's almost out domestically. Snuck up on me! A full-price title though? Tough call. At least there's a physical version to grab.

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

Yeah, I was a bit surprised at its price as well, but it sold very well its first week and for fans of these kinds of games, it's worth the price!

@CAPMAX_Gaming

4 ай бұрын

@@ImportGamingFTW I've been playing Void Terrarium to get into the Mystery Dungeon mood!

Do you attack enemies manually or automatically?

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

All manually!

Hmmm! Glad I watched this. As a newbie who fell off Tower of Fortune on Vita pretty quick, it sounds like this one might boot my ass out even quicker. I was excited for it and it looks great but maybe I should try that delicious looking N64 entry if I am going to have a brief Shiren experience at all.

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

That would be an excellent choice!

I actually managed to beat this game in under ten tries. It took me 17 attempts to beat 5.

@ImportGamingFTW

3 ай бұрын

The first story dungeon, or the entire game?! I've probably tried 20 times on the Escape Scroll optional dungeon before I beat it.

@rpgnut5897

3 ай бұрын

@@ImportGamingFTW The first story dungeon although it definitely took me less then 20 tries to beat the dungeon you're talking about. So far that's the only reset dungeon I beat.

I own the game both as download and module and strangely enough both versions use seperate save data. Can’t use the saves from the Eshop version with the module. And there is no way of telling which savedate is which in the switch menu. Really odd.

@ImportGamingFTW

3 ай бұрын

That is weird--is your eshop version from the Japanese store or somewhere else? I wonder if it's to prevent the online crossplay between regions/languages.

@Spezifischable

3 ай бұрын

@@ImportGamingFTW Nope. Both from the same region.

@ImportGamingFTW

3 ай бұрын

@@Spezifischable Yeah, that is weird then!

Watching stuff like this, I feel so out of place here where I live (In midwest America, in MO) and I feel like places like Japan are more my speed.

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

Maybe you should try to make the trip out and see if it does indeed match your speed.

Can i play this game without playing any previous ones?

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

Sure can, but it helps if you have, since the gameplay mechanics might be a bit overwhelming for newcomers. As far as the story goes, there are some connections to previous titles, and I think this one technically takes place before 4 (not really sure, though), but it is its own self-contained story.

Not fans with the graphic. Feels sad that because I love pixel art in tower dice

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

Same here, I would have loved some more pixel art or something even crazier, like watercolor-style graphics. However, the 3D isn't bad, and it grows on you. I think it's really just the dungeon design that makes things look kind of bland.

So it’s still very unforgiving? 😩 At least give us difficulty settings I want to like this game but I suck at it lol.

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

Yeah, it's pretty "old school" with the difficulty. No nightmarish night cycles, though!

Make video menkyo o torou ps1!!

I’m the first one here

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

Good morning, sir.

50 FUCKING DOLLARS FOR THIS?! NINTENDO GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER

@jaredrogers4466

4 ай бұрын

Nintendo didn't set the price of the game.

@ImportGamingFTW

4 ай бұрын

I am a bit surprised by the full-price tag. Not sure if Nintendo had anything to do with the decision, though, most likely just Spike Chunsoft.