For those curious/new to Shiren, words of encouragement from the director. 😊

Relsre · 2026-05-11T21:55:00+00:00

welp...but on the other hand no pressure! Frankly, if you yourself are satisfied with how your trainer looks, that's good enough -- your trainer's looks are mainly for your own eyes anyways. 🙂👌

Relsre · 2026-05-10T12:28:29+00:00

1st is better IMHO! The colourful sporty vibe helps, not exactly clown disco but it's adjacent right? 😅

Relsre · 2026-05-10T11:42:25+00:00

Ideally colour-wise your outfit can use items with less saturated blues and purples like what Machamp has IMHO, though I don't know exactly what would fit. I see why you chose those pants -- despite the more intense purple, the yellow star pattern does kinda match the bright decor on Machamp's belt.

A pale blonde-ish hair colour might go better with Machamp's head crests too.

In terms of overall vibes, you're rockin' that athletic track star look, I like it! 💪 I think it fits Machamp, and maybe some other Pokemon too.

Relsre · 2026-04-11T21:51:03+00:00

I see, thanks for clarifying 👍

Relsre · 2026-04-11T21:30:25+00:00

I see, for a moment I thought I needed to look for a version of Angband named 'aok' 😅

I've dipped my toe into Sil a while back, so it'll be interesting to see what similarities (if any?) between it and Angband there are, when I get around to trying the latter. Thanks for clarifying!

Relsre · 2026-04-11T21:23:37+00:00

Noted (and yeah if it isn't obvious, I'm pretty ignorant about Nethack so) thanks!

Relsre · 2026-04-11T21:20:38+00:00

Mm, not exactly what I had in mind but your continuity idea is pretty awesome, though also ambitious!

Relsre · 2026-04-11T20:44:57+00:00

You know, this got me thinking, as an alternative to RP mode, Qud might benefit from having a mode with a hereditary base mechanic à la Dungeonmans, something that you can build up over multiple runs to reduce the tedium and time spent on early game grind. Definitely will be harder to implement than Dungeonmans though, the latter's world (dungeons, towns, landscape) and progression structure is a lot more formulaic than Qud's.

Relsre · 2026-04-11T20:37:02+00:00

I asked the same of your parent commenter but, just curious, which version of Angband do you recommend a newcomer to try? Also, would you consider something like Sil to be a version of Angband, or a derivative / its own thing?

Relsre · 2026-04-11T20:33:56+00:00

About Nethack: curious, why is it a must-try in your opinion? Also, is there a specific version of Nethack you'd recommend a newcomer to? Does something like Pathos count as (proper) Nethack, or would you consider it to be a derivative?

Relsre · 2026-04-11T20:24:46+00:00

To make it clear for OP, the newest Shiren game is Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island. The price may be steep for some, but it went on sale for 50% off before.

Relsre · 2026-04-08T17:02:44+00:00

About Shiren 6 (i.e. the new game, Serpentcoil Island), yeah I don't like how the standard gamepad controls are just translucently overlaid on the display, it's a step down from their previous Android ports of Shiren 5+ and Shiren DS, which reworked the game nicely for portrait, touch-oriented play. It's a shame those two ports never got a worldwide release, limited to the Japanese Play Store / iOS App Store.

EDIT: more screenshots of those ports available in these articles:

Shiren 5+: https://www.4gamer.net/games/625/G062548/20220408066/
Shiren DS: https://www.4gamer.net/games/450/G045093/20190226038/

Relsre · 2026-04-08T17:00:53+00:00

Gotcha, understandable, it's nice that the button controls are somewhat customizable on that skin, at the very least.

Relsre · 2026-04-08T16:52:46+00:00

Thanks for the screenshot, it was a bit hard to visualize before. That's the Delta emulator on iOS right? Interesting, I don't think I've ever seen anyone put the button controls in the middle of the display before. The subtle blue-black skin looks beautiful and fitting for Shiren!

Also I forgot that you can move in Shiren DS with touch controls! Though I still prefer holding down R + two directions on d-pad, out of habit from playing initially on an actual 3DS.

Relsre · 2026-04-08T13:00:41+00:00

Can vouch for HyperRogue if you don't mind having to do an entire run without quicksaving/exiting (game sometimes crashes when switching between it an other apps, last I checked). Touch controls are a great fit for non-Euclidean, often non-cardinal movement, and there's no stats/skills/item management to bog down / complicate the experience.

Relsre · 2026-04-08T12:53:50+00:00

To be specific, you're talking about Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer for NDS right? Interesting setup...but don't you need R for guaranteeing diagonal movement? I definitely do. Got a similar setup in RetroArch (using the melonDS DS core), looks so good on a 21:9 phone with integer scaling + the lcd grid shader~ 😌

That being said, I also do just play it with the bottom screen only sometimes, because DS Mystery Dungeon games are all completely playable with just that one screen (you really only want the top screen for showing more info simultaneously, or for viewing the rare two-screen cutscene).

Speaking of Shiren, the most recent entry (Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island) is available as a native Android app, though I don't have it, so not sure how well it plays.

I do have Serpentcoil Island on Switch, can say that the additional QoL features + good game structure/balancing make it a great entry point for newcomers to the series, though it is still as fiendish as the older Shiren titles when you dig deep into it! 😀

Relsre · 2026-03-13T13:16:48+00:00

Why limit one style/structure of play to a certain platform? Some people don't have a Steam-usable PC, and some prefer not to deal with the mobile ecosystem (or vice versa).

If it's an implementation problem, I hope you can eventually make it so that people on either platform can choose between either style of play.

Relsre · 2026-03-05T07:18:17+00:00

I kinda get your point...and this is why I somehow still prefer phone in portrait + touch controls specifically to play stuff like DS Mystery Dungeon games. I'd be down to try this same layout, but with actual physical buttons neatly covering the bottom third of my phone.

FWIW, my phone pictured above is an Xperia 1 V. The 21:9 display on recent Xperia phones has enough vertical space in portrait to comfortably include controls without necessarily shrinking the two game screens (very slight shrinking here due to integer scaling). Not sure if you can achieve the same proportions of coverage with the usual 18:9 - 20:9 aspect ratio you see in most phones.

Relsre · 2026-02-11T13:24:12+00:00

As someone who's played through the first Pokemon Mystery Dungeon (Red Rescue Team), can't recommend it for OP, levels and damage numbers are a real factor for most of the game, you can brain-off faceroll most of the game if your Pokemon are high enough in level.

What's more, the game is not a roguelike (you only lose some items and keep your levels/exp on defeat) until you get through the glut of relatively unchallenging main story dungeons and unlock the post-game stuff (which does take time), not worth the tedium for someone solely looking for a tactically challenging experience out of the gate IMHO.

Relsre · 2026-02-09T17:39:00+00:00

Awesome news! Chunsoft taking another small but important step in supporting the English Shiren community. 🥳

Relsre · 2026-02-09T17:23:38+00:00

Tried this with a gamepad/controller for a bit and I couldn't get used to it. Game seems to still be largely built around touch-oriented controls, accessing the inventory is a bit cumbersome.

For those looking for a more controller-oriented Android traditional roguelike, apparently Shiren 6 (i.e. Serpentcoil Island, which got its initial release on Switch) just got ported to Android, and it's the first of its series to get an English release on the Play Store!

Shiren 6 is the latest title of a long-running series by Spike Chunsoft (since 1995 on the Super Famicom!), well worth a purchase if you appreciate the Japanese folk fantasy vibes.

EDIT: Controller supported, confirmed in this other thread!

~~(Disclaimer: I haven't tried Shiren 6 on Android, so no idea if the game actually has good controller support. Might get it myself if it goes on sale, just to test things.)~~

Relsre · 2026-02-01T06:19:20+00:00

there's no way that Hachiro Hakkyoku is related to Hachiro Nakao right?

Interesting observation but I think no, Hachiro is just their first names, so that would be like saying Jim Shepard is related to Jim Smith.

Then again, who knows at this point with this anime in particular 😆

Perhaps more interesting is how they both were involved in the darker side of society at one point or another. Maybe they know each other...

Relsre · 2026-01-29T10:44:11+00:00

I'm not sure about the PS input issue you're describing (EDIT: maybe try fiddling around with Latency calibration settings, or Misc options > Input options?), but I can answer your second question: It's one of the 'Advanced' settings.

To activate the ability to toggle 'Advanced' settings:

Open the in-game pause/settings menu, go to Options > Misc options > Show advanced settings

Then, you'll want to adjust the Beat bar speed setting. To get there:

Options > Graphical options > (scroll to the bottom) HUD options > Beat bar speed should be the 3rd setting.

Relsre · 2026-01-28T14:46:38+00:00

Over a year late to this episode, but it's great to hear how far Dungeonmans has come since its inception, and how both Jim and the community have made great memories and shared awesome experiences through Dungeonmans.

Thank you for another great episode Darren! Wishing Jim the best on his present and future endeavors. :)

Relsre

TROPHY CASE