1. The title of this game is so long that it has just got to be some kind of joke. Calling it Shiren the Wanderer doesn't differentiate from its predecessors and The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate is still too much. I am going to call it Tower of Fortune from here on out. I don't have time for this shit.
2. For some reason, I feel compelled to pretend to enjoy games that
stick w/ the unforgiving mechanics of traditional Roguelikes. Any you
know what? I will pretend to enjoy Tower of Fortune.
It is a role playing game after all. I will play the roll of blog-based
game reviewer who enjoys traditional Roguelikes. It's 2019; we've all
given up on having friends anyway.
3. The reason I feel compelled to pretend to like it is because it's hard and if I don't like it, it means I give up easily--and I don't want to be the kind of person who gives up easily. When you go online to look up tips though, you find all sorts of forum denizens complaining it's too easy. These forum denizens can pound sand.
4. Really, difficulty is the chief appeal of Tower of Fortune, specifically difficulty by way of complexity. If you don't lose, you don't get to get to start one more hour plus long run five minutes before you meant to go to bed. Whether I'm pretending to like it or not, it is a serious time sink.
5. This is the kind of game that will get frequently described as not holding your hand but there is actually an optional tutorial dungeon that is probably one of the most massive tutorial sections in the grand history of gaming. The tutorial here is longer than most games and thoroughly covers all of its myriad of mechanics if you are willing to stick around for the whole thing. I reckon it doesn't make you hold its hand but it will hold your hand a damn lot if you want it to.
6. Realistically, most people will do what I did, which is play a few rounds of the tutorial dungeon after each death before trying again. There are occasional a-ha! moments that will help your through sticking points in your progress and each level of the tutorial grants you useful items for your next try, making it is doubly rewarding to put some time into it.
7. While we are at it, there's actually even more otpional content that's longer than most games. There is a super hard bonus dungeon that's longer than most games. There is a dungeon which is a Rogue-ified version of Minesweeper that's longer than most games. If your main criteria for selecting a game is how many hours it will give you, you've found yourself a winner in Tower of Fortune. Like I said, a serious time sink.
8. When you first start playing the main game, you will find yourself cursing all the cheap deaths, little things that get you that are just bad luck. It's infuriating. After you learn all the millions of little tricks you can do to keep yourself ready for any situation, the cheap deaths stop happening. Obviously, the RNG gods smile upon those who are persistent. Or, maybe it is that game-length tutorial dungeon coming into play and your earlier deaths could have been avoided through skillful play.
9. If you try to just hack through, you will fail. Enemies respawn so you could try to grind up your character and then breeze through but there is a hunger system and limited food on each level so doing this will also cause you to fail. There are methods for keeping some of your gear after you die but even w/ the best gear, you need to pay attention to detail or you will fail.
10. "Losing is fun," as any Dwarf Fortress fan will tell you.
11. The one huge downside of having procedurally generated gameplay such as in this or any Roguelike is that, sometimes, when you have a best ever run or even when you win, you cannot help but feel like maybe you got some help from good luck. You pretty much have to beat it multiple times to prove you've mastered it. It is, indeed, a serious time sink.
12. As far as music and graphics, Tower of Fortune has them. Given that the game this genre is named after is just a bunch of ASCII characters on a black background, this makes it considerably more accessible that many similar things. It looks like a bit-era RPG w/ rather pretty pixel graphics and all the game's systems are effectively communicated visibly. I don't really think you get into something like this if you are looking for a cinematic masterpiece so that's good enough. The music happens to be excellent though.
13. I am not entirely joking about pretending to like this. Tower of Fortune is initially impenetrable and can seem endless, the game equivalent of picking up Finnegan's Wake. I'd only recommend to someone who has expressed some interest in it or who has said they like something similar. Given this fits in such a niche genre, that is actually something of a high compliment. It is for people who like things that are often considered negatives. It is obtuse and frustrating. You can put hours into it and get nowhere. Game designers generally bend over backwards to prevent their games from having these qualities which gives a game designed specifically to have them a certain infection old-timey charm.
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