I discovered my love for roguelikes on the DS. Even though many consider Izuna to be sub-par, I love that game. Tao's Adventure was pretty cool as well, but Izuna has the insane comedy component. I was glad to finally get my hands on a Shiren game and have not been disappointed. I dream of Shiren 3 coming to Wii, but am doubtful. Well, at least we're getting Chocobo Mystery Dungeon on Wii in July.

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You mean like randomly GENERATED dungeons? Because those are incredibly boring.

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It's not even really just the DS: the Wii just got Baroque and will soon be getting Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon, the PS2 got Persona 3 (wherein the central tower is pretty much a roguelike, so it's like a weird roguelike/dating sim/Pokemon mashup), and so on.

It seems to be getting a sort of revival, now that some mystery dungeon games actually are making their way west. I'm kind of sad that I can't find a copy of Izuna anywhere, though. (And somehow I missed Tao's Adventure completely when it was released...)

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That's a genre that I despised when young, but I'm having a blast at DS, now that I have enough age to enjoy the challenge. These old school styles resurfacing at the DS (dungeon crawlers included) are easily turning the DS my gaming platform of choice.

And 3 Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games: Aren't just 2?

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I'd played Nethack, Moria, and Angband, all long before the DS.

I picked up Shiren the Wanderer, and it's great. I'm not sure I need another DS roguelike. Shiren is nearly perfect, IMO, but I'm considering Izuna 2. If I do pick up another one, I'm sure that would be it.

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Just to get all technical, IMHO Tao's Adventure does not qualify as it did not have randomized dungeons...but then again it was a semi-unofficial sequel to Azure Dreams, as I recall, which was a definite roguelike for the PS1.

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Oh, a major peeve that I would have surely never caught if I didn't get the official guide for PMD2, not only is there the exclusive pokemon aspect to each version (old news, it standard practice of the series, I know) but this time they took it one step forward and made many of the game's items version exclusives (like many of the seeds, orbs, bands, and most annoyingly, TMs). You can trade items with players of the other version but this is not a viable option to me. I was hoping I could have the fun of adapting my wonder team to just what I have found on my own and not having to whine on one of the forums...I really want the "Return TM", will offer up my "X-Scissors TM" for it...

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I started roguelikes playing,... Rogue, back in the day. I really enjoy playing the homebrew Powder, it most matches Rogue I believe. Nethack seemed harder to control. Shiren I enjoy also, hanvt played many other DS roguelikes though.

I also enjoyed Chocobo Dungeon 2 or PS-1

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I downloaded Nethack on a whim one day a while back. I liked feeling as if I was actually in danger because "game over" might be a step away—that kind of thrill and level of difficulty is largely absent from other types of RPGs.

Pokemon really isn't my thing and never has been.
I missed Tao's Adventure completely. (Reading up on it, it was apparently glitchy and utilized the touchscreen badly anyway.)
I passed on Izuna because I've gotten really tired of typical lame anime humor, and from what I hear it plays like a watered-down Shiren anyway.

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Man, a roguelike Zelda on DS would rock.

Thinking about it, the 4 Swords for GBA had random generated dungeons, right?

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I picked up Izuna last August, and I've been playing it on a regular basis ever since. Over the course of the past eight months, it has become my favorite game for the DS, and has made these roguelikes a healthy part of my gaming diet.

... I've now got Baroque, all three of the Pokemon Mystery Dungeons, and Shiren that I'm working on. Plus, that Chocobo Dungeon comes out in July, just prior to the sequel to my favorite game of last year... Izuna 2.

Now all we need is for Sega to bring over Shiren 3, along with that Koppa Wiimote Stand, and I'll be doing great.

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Izuna was my first roguelike. I went into it with completely different expectations for what a roguelike would be than what the genre actually turned out to be like, but that actually turned out for the best. The fight for survival, tactical use of items, learning when to and when not to engage an enemy, all came as a bit of a surprise to me, but I liked it; it was nice to have an RPG with near-zero emphasis on exploration, party building, etc for once. I just wish I could have been able to play more of the game; I was sidetracked by university and never did get back to it to complete it, which is a shame because I found the characters, humor, and setting so charming.

I would have picked up Shiren except for the fact that I wanted to complete Izuna first, and now with Izuna 2 coming out I may just skip over Shiren altogether, because odds are I'll try and squeeze in the rest of Izuna before Etrian Odyssey II and FFTA2 come out.

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I used to play a good deal of Rogue and some Nethack. Shiren is actually very similar to Rogue, featuring a modest number of remarkably different and tuned monsters and items.

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I absolutely LOATHED the first Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, and I only got it because I loved the Pokémon series. I couldn't understand what was going on and I didn't get the point of dungeons that are randomly generated.

But because I absolutely LOVED Etrian Odyssey (which is NOT a randomly-generated dungeon crawler, but a Western-style dungeon crawler) I had to try Izuna. Well I LOVED that game! I think it was the combination of the punishing hard levels and the humor that got me.

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I am in total awe of Shiren the Wanderer! Everything else comes second. I only discovered my love for Rogue-likes recently and only after a couple of Shiren reviews got me interested. The core concepts, "tension" and "reasoning", according to Chun Soft are a far cry from your usual grindcore and force you to adopt a zen-like state of mind, as the tension can get unbearable and death can be so frustrating. My life hasn't been the same since discovering Shiren: I've played Torneko, Asuka, Izuna and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. Shiren is the hardest, most grown-up. PMD is the easiest, but still incredibly polished, ChunSoft product aimed at a younger audience. Personal ranking: Shiren first, Izuna second, PMD third.

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