Well, these aren't character-developing RPGs. Not really. You gain a few levels and you find stuff. That hardly counts in my book. Yeah, you can lose equipment you may have spent some time developing by storing it in warehouses and upgrading it over the course of several games, but if you're actually smart enough to go to that much trouble (and do it properly), chances are you're good enough to beat the game and have played it enough times to become familiar with what you need where.
And again, the original Rogue and games of its ilk weren't about "winning". Shiren was the first roguelike I ever heard of that had anything resembling a story or an ending (since before that I had played nothing beyond ASCII-graphics roguelikes or things not far evolved from that), and I think it's great. It keeps things fresh and gives you further incentive to want to get deeper in the dungeon, beyond just reaching the high score, but it isn't some hugely deep story where it's absolutely imperative to your enjoyment that you "find out what happens" or whatever. Plus it does get a little easier as you go, because nearly every time you adventure out you gain new options or people who can help you out. Combine that with progressing knowledge of what the game throws at you, and the playing field becomes quite fair.
I fully contest nick's assertion because of this. Nearly every single death I've had in the game has been 100% my own fault. Sure, it's possible to get boned, but that happens very rarely once you've been through the dungeons a couple times. You learn what monsters are there, what equipment you need to defend against the particularly nasty circumstances, and how to get the hell out if you don't have enough protection against something. I think I've died maybe 11 or 12 times in Shiren since I picked up the DS version, and I only felt like 1 of those was cheap. Every other death I saw exactly what I did wrong and why I was stupid to have overlooked what would have saved my ass. Yeah, it's a challenge, and you definitely have to pay a lot of attention and eventually get to the point where you know what the hell you're doing, but I think most players will tell you that 90% of user deaths are because of user error.
I know why you guys don't like it, and don't think I'm telling you you're wrong. These games definitely aren't for everybody. Like Cobra, you compare this to how GTAIV makes you repeat stuff you've done already, and that's frustrating, but that isn't the point with Shiren. These games are really about having fun in dungeons and seeing how far you can get, and your early stages should never be looked at as "Oh no, I have to repeat this, how boring". You should be wide awake in the midst of the early levels plotting your adventure's development, learning which items to save and which to use, and leveling up and getting money as much as possible while making preparations for the later stages, adapting your play style to whatever stuff you're finding. Just like any other roguelike. The whole fun is in going through the dungeon just because it's fun to go through a dungeon to see how far you get, and if the first thing you do after dying in a roguelike is "Oh man, I have to play level 1 again?" then you're definitely off course and playing a game that just wasn't made for you. But again, to me that's like saying "Shit, back to level 1?" when you die in Space Invaders. It's only slightly different with Shiren because some crazy Japanese dudes decided to get more involved in its setting and stuff. But since you *have* to die *many multiple* times in order to even *solve* most of the side quests, it's simply a reason to keep you coming back for more when you inevitably fail, and even once you "beat" the game there's still an eternal (or nearly so) dungeon awaiting you at the end so you can continue on and on and on to get higher and higher scores.
EDIT - Well, idol said most of what I did, just shorter, and he posted first... but uh... yeah.
