2024’s most underrated game turned me into a cheater

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Table of Contents Unforgiving Going forward

If there’s any video game genre that’s had as massive of an impact as the “soulslike” genre, it’s the roguelike genre. The gameplay loop of battling through procedurally generated dungeons, dying, and then starting over has such an engaging system that’s withstood the test of time. In 2024, there’s been plenty of fantastic roguelike games such as Hades 2, Balatro, and The Rogue Prince of Persia. But there’s one that stands out among the rest due to its relentless difficulty: Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island.

As far as technical terms go, popular games likeHades 2 are considered “roguelites” because players can retain some sort of progression after dying so that they start off a little bit stronger next time. Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island doesn’t offer that same generosity. It’s a pure roguelike. If you die, you lose everything and start off at the bottom of Mount Jatou.

In a year full of tough games, Shiren may just be the hardest of 2024 — an impressive accolade considering it launched in the same year as Elden Ring’s notoriously challenging Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. That made for one of 2024’s most niche triumphs and one that pushed me to do something I hadn’t done since I was a pre-teen with a Gameshark: cheat.

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Unforgiving

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island was actually the first game in the series that I played. As the sixth game in the Shiren the Wanderer series, I heard from fans that this year’s praised entry was worth trying out for roguelikes and dungeon crawlers. As a fan of both genres, the game was on my radar, but I quickly learned that my expectations were out of line.

Having played games like Slay