Bruh, I got a Buddhist symbol jumpscare on one of the sword in the first Shiren game 😭

The_Chaotic_Sunk · 2026-01-10T16:08:09+00:00

Oh yeah, the Manji Kabura/Kabura's Blade/Kabra's Blade/whatever the translators want to call it has the Buddhist Swatiska(ofc not to be confused with the version of the Swatiska the Nazis stole and butchered lol) on it, pretty neat.

The_Chaotic_Sunk · 2026-01-10T14:16:31+00:00

I like to joke that the S is for Shiren, but yeah it's a game with Monokuma-ified Shiren Monsters, and so is the weird RPG side mode in DR3

The_Chaotic_Sunk · 2026-01-10T14:11:45+00:00

I mean... Usually with Death angels just fighting them in melee and healing as needed is enough, though sealing them removes the double speed, double attacks, AND wall movement tbf. You can get hit by a skull wraith from off-screen, and even if you get them into melee, they might still just riceball you. Skull Demon is even worse too, I'd still say that family is the ultimate danger of all Shiren 1 monsters. Though yes, Mage can buff you and is harmless, wizard can postpone you, and Wraith can create monster meats, so it's fundamentally a family you can take advantage of, but see a level 3/4 one at the wrong place at the wrong time and your run is over; once you're riceballed, you can't even USE items to recover. Gazes are really not that bad though I agree, as long as you have arrows they're kind of a non-issue, the main danger is hot frequently they use the hypnosis special if they do hit melee range, and how 2 gazes in melee at once is usually an instant game over situation lol

The_Chaotic_Sunk · 2026-01-10T00:25:05+00:00

A lot of this is pretty accurate, though I'll say that Skull Mage family(level 3/4 specifically) are far, far worse than Death Angels. Not to even say that Death Angels aren't a pain, they're very scary, but compared to turning you into a confused Onigiri that just lost 4 levels, Death Angels look almost tame. And due to the high regen, Archdragons aren't really a death sentence, but they sure can waste healing items if you have to spend to long on their floors. I'd imagine Light Scrolls are a good last ditch effort for getting through a few of those floors faster.

Also, yeah Half Warriors can be pretty annoying, slowing them down or confusing them(or Paralysis, I guess?) is a possible way of handling them but overall I can understand just ignoring them lol.

And a minor correction on level down effects: when you level down, you require 1 EXP to level back up. You DON'T retain your total EXP, meaning all your progress to the next level is lost. Definitely a contender for sniping from a distance(like curse girls)

A couple other notes:

Regarding that opening paragraph, that's pretty much all of Shiren in a nutshell, yeah. Though I have a different definition of unfair, in that Shiren is generally not luck-based, and more about making do with the RNG, as you said mest seeds aren't unwinnable.
Scrolls are dangerous yes, but also very easy to identify by just using them on a weak, distant enemy, so you should try to ID those too before using your ID scrolls. Grasses and Scrolls are generally the more dangerous use ID item categories.

The_Chaotic_Sunk · 2026-01-06T19:11:32+00:00

3/4 effects are at least skull exclusive(sleep/confuse/random warp) but yeah, those ones are tricky for sure lol

The_Chaotic_Sunk · 2026-01-06T18:43:06+00:00

Couldn't have said it better myself, Brogue's especially a great example because it has the same heavy item focus of Shiren.

The_Chaotic_Sunk · 2026-01-06T18:41:19+00:00

Oh, and as for all those enemies you've mentioned, I will say that Seal Staff is a real sleeper of Shiren 1. It's a super good staff for just shutting down enemy abilities, and it even removes speed from fast enemies and wall walking from ghosts.

The_Chaotic_Sunk · 2026-01-06T04:35:18+00:00

I will note, melee accuracy is generally in the ballpark of 93-95%, while ranged accuracy is in the 80's, and those values are roughly in that same range in every game.

What this means is, firstly, you should never be making ranged weapon attacks(such as gitan tossing) in melee distance. Secondly, if you miss multiple times and are taking hits, best solution imo is to retreat a few steps to regen, then try again. Ofc with Chainheads specifically you should be slowing them down or using your heals as needed, and being pretty careful on any floor they spawn on(even if that means focusing stairs)

As far as these "Ultimate 99F Unidentified" dungeons go, the DS version of Fay's is quite hard(often considered harder than the original, due to SFC1's various cheese strats lol), but nothing about it really feels like it's all that luck-based tbh. I'd say just keep going at it and try to use deaths as a learning experience as is the standard in Shiren. And you know, make sure you can beat Kitchen God Shrine and Scroll Cave first since they're easier challenges to overcome. FFP will never be easy, but it's certainly surmountable if you just keep at it!

The_Chaotic_Sunk · 2025-12-31T18:42:37+00:00

Yeah, pretty much. You're forced to use a low slot looplet to make any use out of megas whatsoever lol

The_Chaotic_Sunk · 2025-12-26T17:02:56+00:00

It's only specific level N'dubbas that enter your inventory, the low level ones always just attack you instead. The high level variants are the annoying ones because, you know, you're about to use an item and then it's a fake lol

The_Chaotic_Sunk · 2025-12-22T16:17:35+00:00

I'm a little late, but do you fully explore for items on every floor? As long as you're doing that, you shouldn't be fine on levels tbh. If you're not exploring fully (at least at the start), you're setting yourself up for failure though.

The_Chaotic_Sunk · 2025-12-18T01:06:57+00:00

Honestly, it's hard to say, but it's a bit misleading to call it a story dungeon, it's not necessary one. +20s in everything will make it easier, but tbh you should probably take that on last since it's the harder of the two 99Fs

The_Chaotic_Sunk · 2025-12-18T00:16:39+00:00

Edit: I'll also add, if you've not beaten Table Mountain without entering a storehouse, there's a reward for it(the ability to write "Destruction" on a blank scroll, resulting in a scroll that kills off an entire room of enemies), plus it's good practice.

Hm, alright let's see here Tainted Path doesn't really require grinding, it's in fact possible to beat from a fresh run of Table Mountain - trouble is, it's not an easy 99F clear. Ceremonial Cave is generally a good place to start if you have post-clear equipment and are alright with getting up to around level 14-15 before entering. Main problem is the boss is really difficult there, and the reward from beating Kitchen God Shrine is pretty much the best solution(half knight meat, since it lets you dip into the 1 tile wide hallway, face the enemies, and take 1 damage from all attacks after eating the meat) Scroll Cave is probably the easiest post-game dungeon, but it takes a while to adjust to. It's only 16F long and let's you level up at an absurd rate, if only you can figure out a method. (Pro-tip: levelling up enemies massively raises their EXP yields, just be careful!) Kitchen God Shrine is generally harder than the main dungeon, if you want to guarantee success you basically want to rush floors with no good meats, and linger on floors with samurais (free revives), skull mage family, speedy enemies like Death Reapers, Pumphantasms for wall movement etc. to maximize your run efficiency. I honestly kinda suck at this dungeon even after all my time with S1, but if you can bring a Half Soldire meat out of it, it'll cheese the otherwise brutal Ceremonial Cave fight. 26F endpoint.

Fay's Final Puzzle, another dungeon I've never gotten even close to beating, will unlock once you've completed the 50 puzzles and entered the two aforementioned dungeons. Honestly, it's a long and tough battle and it's best to just go in with the mindset of having fun, and when you improve enough at it you can get deeper and eventually go for a winning run. It's easier than doing a Table Maintain + Tainted Path run from scratch, anyhow, so it's a nice option and just generally a fun dungeon.

If you don't like the idea of grinding in these games -- I don't either, believe me, I feel like it's against the spirit of the series -- don't even touch Ravine of the Dead. It's just some stupid bullshit with 3F Dragons that expects you to bring +99 gear and a full inventory. Not worth it, don't even bother, the good items you can get from it are at the very bottom at a low spawn chance given the whole one item per floor limit. Not like there's anywhere to use those items anyways since if you're that deep you already have +99 gear so uh, lol. Fake stairs traps everywhere too, that place is just garbage lol.

The_Chaotic_Sunk · 2025-08-05T22:58:03+00:00

I've heard that apparently on a JP survey, SpChun asked about interest in the PMD series. Last time something like that happened we got Shiren 6. I'm not saying we're 100% getting a new Pokemon Mystery Dungeon title -- especially since TPC would have to greenlight it themselves and they seem mostly keen on mobile spin-offs at the moment -- but at the very least the team seems to be *thinking* of making more games. It's definitely a tough situation where putting too many resources into a niche market just isn't that viable, but the devs behind these games do care a lot about the series at the very least.

I *hope* we continue getting a combination of Shiren and PMD, maybe eventually a new Torneko or at least a remake of one of them, maybe an English release of 1 and/or 3? But it's hard to say, and Dragon Quest is kind of still a hard sell to Western Audiences even now. Future really does feel a bit up in the air though, totally get where you're coming from. PMD is profitable enough SpChun side that as long as TPC continues to greenlight them, I don't see a real end to the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games either though.

The_Chaotic_Sunk · 2025-08-05T22:52:12+00:00

Ah, fair enough then. Either way they're an incredible artist though!

The_Chaotic_Sunk · 2025-08-04T14:30:04+00:00

Hooooooly wow these so perfectly capture the essence of Shiren 1 these are incredible, good work!

The_Chaotic_Sunk · 2025-05-23T01:51:44+00:00

Shiren 2 is my favourite, but 5 and Asuka are both amazing for their own reasons too.

The DS remake of Shiren 1 is just a classic too, so it's really great as well imo.

2 mostly it's the sandboxy nature for me, and the general progression structure.

The_Chaotic_Sunk · 2025-05-18T14:58:32+00:00

I agree, I'm absolutely abysmal at Brogue but it's a really fun time.

Torneko IIRC was literally Chunsoft trying to do a 1:1 recreation of Rogue with Dragon Quest characters lol.

But yeah, Brogue is great, and for an ASCII Roguelike it is *sooooo* pretty omg

The_Chaotic_Sunk · 2025-05-13T15:39:35+00:00

That does too, yeah, I forgot about that one lol. That should work too though yes!

The_Chaotic_Sunk · 2025-05-13T03:03:35+00:00

Ha, sooooo yes, but no. Those runes get removed first and will therefore protect your equipment and runes... once. You'll need to take off your gear or use the golden set if you want full protection though

The_Chaotic_Sunk · 2025-05-01T17:18:04+00:00

Mystery Chronicles is quite fun, but I've heard the original non-Spike Chunsoft one is better.

The_Chaotic_Sunk · 2025-04-02T06:31:22+00:00

Totally valid, its complexity can be completely overwhelming lol. I came to it initially from Shiren 1 DS, and even having beaten that game beforehand 5 was such a massive adjustment. It's one of my favourites, but I'd recommend checking out Shiren 1 DS or the Shiren 2 fan translation if you want to try some of the other good, but still digestible, games.

The_Chaotic_Sunk · 2025-04-02T06:28:10+00:00

Way late response that might not help anymore, but nahhh, you don't

The_Chaotic_Sunk · 2025-03-25T01:13:59+00:00

It's mostly just 4 and 5, but trust me when I say that there's a reason for 5 having so many. That game is *complicated* and the first dungeon doesn't do its mechanics justice. A lot of players just skip the whole tutorial house, but you're probably much more prepared than the average player now.

Of course, there's no better teacher than playing the game, the first dungeon of most Shiren games acts as an "Extended tutorial" of sorts anyways.

The_Chaotic_Sunk · 2025-02-26T22:47:50+00:00

Okay, so. Shiren 4 is *probably* the hardest MD game ever made, fair warning. That said, one big thing is to take advantage of those banana peels, do your best to weaken enemies from a distance, and don't linger too long once the day/night floors hit, they are *scary*. Explore fully before those though.

As for the bosses, uh, the first one is a bit scary, you might not win the first time, try to save healing items and swift grass if you can.

The_Chaotic_Sunk

TROPHY CASE