I?ve got seriously mixed feelings about the roguelike genre. On the one hand, one of its central tenets is losing progress when you fail ? something I generally despise in video games. On the other hand, I?ve always loved levels that construct themselves randomly or procedurally, and I appreciate that so many roguelike games ?play fair,? forcing you to learn their mechanics and not letting you win through a tedious war of attrition. Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate frustrated me, but I also had too much fun with it not to give it a solid recommendation. If you?re a fan of the Mystery Dungeon games, you?ll feel right at home here; if you?ve never touched one before, a helpful set of playable tutorials will ease you into the mayhem that later ensues. Shiren doesn?t have a story so much as it has a list of excuses for you to trek into its myriad dungeons. The titular MacGuffins (the Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate) are at the center of the ?plot,? and there are plenty of NPCs to chat with and help out, but things are kept pretty light on the story front. That shouldn?t be a problem for the majority of folks who play it, of course, who will be itching to dive into the dungeons in search of money and loot. I did find several of the characters endearing and memorable despite a lack of strong emphasis on narrative, including Koppa (the eponymous silent protagonist?s easily-excited talking ferret) and Tao (a quirky girl who wears a panda suit an...