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You've spent hours upon hours playing this game, stretched over several weeks of time. You've put in untold levels of dedication to survive each successively more difficult dungeon. No one will ever truly know how much effort you've committed.
And suddenly, it's all over. You made a silly mistake — you knew you should have done this instead of that! Your character is dead, the game is over, and you've no recourse. You'll never return to that dungeon again since the journey was randomly generated. Your collected loot was randomly allocated to the playing field, and thus, your trusted right-hand weapon is forever gone.
Most soul-crushing, though, is the fact that your character progress is permanently deleted.
You've been playing a roguelike, a sinisterly unforgiving sub-genre of the role-playing game. While this niche can provide a lasting and fulfilling experience for the persistent, not all gamers are willing to play a game where the stakes are so high.
Yet Atlus, known for more eccentric titles, is hoping to change that perception with Shiren the Wanderer, the latest roguelike on the block. And in true roguelike-fashion, the publisher is bringing the title to a system with less than stellar sales for the hardcore gamer — the Wii.
Atlus has a few surprises in store for those new to the genre that aim to mitigate the frustration of losing all progress while simultaneously preserving the deep strategy layers beloved by veterans.
Is Atlus blowing smoke, or will this role-playing dungeon-crawler be able to pull off the seemingly impossible?
A few concepts to break the ice
Atlus is hoping that a number of features unusual to roguelikes will help casual players feel at ease with Shiren. At the forefront is an emphasis on a story steeped in Japanese mythology, which the publisher hopes will motivate players beyond the genre's staples of tactical depth and loot acquisition.
Typically, roguelikes are merely a series of increasingly difficult dungeons. Shiren will add an overworld which connects the game's various enemy-infested locales together, thus providing players with an opportunity to take a break from the action. Within the overworld are a series of towns in which players are given full freedom of movement. Here, play occurs in real-time rather than the traditional turn-based system.
Shiren will support the wide variety of Wii control schemes, such as the classic controller, nunchuck and remote, and holding the remote sideways. Hardcore players should feel assured that the game won't make use of any gimmicky waggle controls, either.
A colorful aesthetic, easily navigated menus, and in-game achievements are a just few more bullet points which aim to reel in new players. Difficult challenges unlock post-game and should keep hardcore players entertained long after beating Shiren.
Turn-based gameplay with a real-time feel
Traditionally, all actions in a roguelike take place in turns — for every step you make, your enemies take one; for every attack, your enemies attack; and so on. This style of gameplay can screech to a crawl when things get hairy, and some players aren't accustomed to the slower pace. Furthermore, the turn-based system is tied to grid-based movement, which may feel archaic to those less familiar with the genre.
Of the best-selling video games, few incorporate turn-based gameplay. Some titles, such as Bioware's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and the recent Dragon Age: Origins, broaden their appeal while also retaining their tactical depth by hiding turn-based mechanics inside a real-time shell.
Shiren takes a similar approach; although all actions while dungeon-crawling from both player characters and enemies occur in a turn sequence, they are fluid enough to give the appearance of moving in real-time. Additionally, customizable ally AI allows players to set behavior patterns for other characters, thus speeding up every turn.
For veterans, Shiren offers manual control of each character at the expense of play speed. Enabling full control allows players to strategically assign actions to each party member, which provides the kind of tactical depth that keeps roguelikes popular among hardcore types. This can be particularly beneficial during boss fights, where strategy is of the utmost importance.
Lesser penalties for failure
Typically, player death in a roguelike literally means game over. No retries. No reloads. This type of game usually isn't for the faint of heart, and players unfamiliar with the genre can be understandably frustrated with such drastic consequences for failure.
Shiren's varying difficulty modes will attempt to alleviate this frustration. In easy mode, players can fail without fear of losing anything. They can always reload their single save file, and their inventories will have the same items and their characters will have lost no levels.
For veterans, normal mode will provide similar risks that previous roguelikes hoist onto players. Upon death, players automatically and permanently lose all items, which means that when they load their game, their inventories will be empty with no way to recover the lost loot. On the bright side, players won't lose levels, and death never means starting over from scratch.
Additionally, the game will autosave in normal mode when first entering any dungeon, which overwrites the player's progress. In game terms, this means that players will be forced to either finish the sprawling series of rooms and tight corridors with whatever they brought or lose everything. Their only other options are to use a rare escape scroll or slay the end boss.
For added convenience, both modes allow players to save the game anywhere in the overworld as well as utilize a "quicksave and quit" feature mid-dungeon. The quicksave is deleted when loaded.
Now you're exploring dark, hostile burrows deep below the surface in new territory. Enemies are all around, ready to strike at the slightest hint of hesistation. Previously, your journey was one filled with much peril and distraught.
But this time around, you've got a few extra torches to light the way. Shiren hopes you'll take these torches and guide your characters to safety. Are you up to the challenge?
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI3II8y-A1k 425×344]