Shiren and Koppa overlooking a hamlet tucked away in the forest. For no valid reason, I’m convinced Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer 4 new setting, a tropical island, will do more harm than good with freshening the roguelike’s atmosphere (despite the bulk of the game’s dungeons taking place underground). The anime art style Chunsoft employed fails to ease my concerns.

Then again, Link’s Awakening shipwrecked the series onto an island, and that was the best Zelda game ever. Plus, this backdrop change allows Koppa to talk to monkeys, who I suspect will help the pair on their quest.

Shiren 4’s plot is kind of wackadoodle: The hero and his weasel washed up onto island’s shore after a shipwreck, and the natives presume Shiren is a demon. Before they can burn him at the stake, however, a girl named Kamina takes pity on the strange foreigner (as bored women stuck on an island are wont to do) and tries to save him.

The village’s Jaguar priest — which is a dude wearing a Jaguar mask and gloves/boots, King-style — threatens to roast Kamina instead unless Shiren can prove he’s not a demon by doing his dungeon crawling thing and bringing back the Jaguar’s Eye.

You can see a few new screenshots from Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer 4’s introduction here.

Import: Shiren the Wanderer DS 2 ($48.90)

Preorder: Shiren the Wanderer Wii ($39.99)

Buy: Shiren the Wanderer DS ($17.99)

See also: Shiren the Wanderer 4 JP official site

[Image via NB]

tags / mystery dungeon / shiren the wanderer / chunsoft / spike / imports / nb / fanart / ec