Despite middling reviews and a limited audience due to its hardcore nature,
Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer has established an impressive following, mini-communities of masochists spread about the internet's gaming districts. Of course, the dedicated
GameFAQs forum is bustling with dungeon-crawling discussions, but
NeoGAF and the
Penny Arcade Forums are also fine venues for settling your roguelike affairs.
These communities are valuable hubs for not only finding a hero to rescue your felled wanderer, but also for trading stories of
Shiren's grand escapes and even grander deaths. It was
these sort of tales for the original Super Famicom release that impelled @Play's (a regular column on the roguelike genre) John Harris to seek the game and write up his own
playthrough narratives. His accounts in turn inspired many other gamers -- including us -- to try out the
Shiren, so you can imagine our anticipation to hear his impressions of Chunsoft's DS port.
John's latest @Play article is a must-read for any
Shiren fan; he defends the title against misinformed reviewers, provides an introduction for those of you who haven't decided if
Shiren is for you, and shares a huge list of tips for surviving your dungeon trip -- like how to decrease your chances of starving to death! Even if you aren't a
Shiren fan yet, here's an opportunity for you to become one! Hit the "Read" link below for John's in-depth piece.
If our constant championing of the genre has you ready and willing to try out a 
We're aware that we write about the 
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