RPGs for the DS

I could have sworn we had a thread about this, but it's at least 5 pages deep, so I'm going to start a new one.

Anyhoo, I'm looking for something to play during those times when the Wild Dogs have the computer tied up. I bought the Mrs a DS-XL a while back and figured I might borrow it for a bit when she's not looking. But what to play?

I remember Mike being very impressed with Etrian Odessey 1 and 2. I've been looking pretty hard for a used copy (might have to break down and get a new copy if that's available, but I'm trying to do this on the cheap since it's a "sideline" proposition anyway) with no luck. EO3 is on the shelves, being a new release, but I haven't heard anything about it and don't know whether it's important to play the first two first anyway.

I played and enjoyed M&M-Clash of Champions the last time the kids went on a PC-hogging binge. My parents bought me a Zelda game a couple years ago, which was OK but I never did finish it. That's pretty well the extent of it. I'm probably best off with something that's not overly involved since I'll still be running PC games whenever I can. Good game play would be, errr, good, but I don't know that an engrossing storyline will matter much.

What say ye, oh wisdoms?

The latest Etrian Odyssey was number 3 wasn't it? Whichever one the most recent one is, I'd highly recomend that you pick it up if you don't mind your games with a little bit of an old school feel.

Yep, the newest one is #3, Drowned City. As for old skool, I'm the board's official Chief Wiz8 Fanboi--yeah, I do old skool.

dteowner said:

Yep, the newest one is #3, Drowned City. As for old skool, I'm the board's official Chief Wiz8 Fanboi—yeah, I do old skool.

Click to expand...

Yeah so you should pick up Drowned City then. It's so old school that it comes with digital graph paper for you to make your maps with.

Dark Spire is a very old skool Wizardry clone.

A Few Suggestions

These are all first-person RPGs. They're not all turn based, but the first one is and I think Mazes is too.

1. The Dark Spire—really old school.

2. Mazes of Fate—also available on the GBA.

3. Orcs & Elves—A Remake of the Cell Phone Game.

4. Fighting Fantasy: Warlock of Silver Top Mountain.

5. Deep Labyrinth. Haven't played it but looks like its in the same vein as the others.

Also try these:

1) Riviera: The Promised Land
2) Chrono Trigger - advanced remake of the PSX and SNES famous game.

Some of the Dragon Quest games are quite good too, in general I like the newer ones the best just because they have the most complicated mechanics. Some of the older ones do have some good stories, but the mechanics are simpler and sometimes not as well thought out.

If you enjoy SRPGs, then I would highly recommend the Fire Emblem series (GBA/DS)

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey is quite good as dungeon crawlers go. It is certainly worth a look if you enjoyed the Etrian Odyssey series. I personally think it is a lot more balanced and has more interesting character development (though very different as it is dependent on monster recruitment).

For those who are unfamiliar with the SMT line of games, they are more designed for traditional hard core type rpg players, quite commonly focusing on turn based rpgs.

Scrav said:

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey is quite good as dungeon crawlers go. It is certainly worth a look if you enjoyed the Etrian Odyssey series. I personally think it is a lot more balanced and has more interesting character development (though very different as it is dependent on monster recruitment).

For those who are unfamiliar with the SMT line of games, they are more designed for traditional hard core type rpg players, quite commonly focusing on turn based rpgs.

Click to expand...

Rats! I almost forgot Shin Megami Tensei. There's also the Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner Overclocked(which is officially NOT coming to EU)... If you have 3DS.

The World Ends With You is excellent, but very action heavy.

I'm surprised txa1265 hasn't stopped by this thread yet. He's probably played just about every RPG that's been released for the DS.

I miss txa1265's Mobile Gaming articles.

I was hoping he would notice the thread. He does swing by the forums from time to time.

All the info you need:
http://www.rpgfan.com/reviews-ds.html

wolfing said:

All the info you need:
http://www.rpgfan.com/reviews-ds.html

Click to expand...

There are a lot of titles on that list that I would not remotely consider to be a RPG, and I'm pretty open minded about the definition of a RPG. Professor Layton and Pheonix Wright for example would not seem to be RPGs by even the loosest definition.

Tanno said:

Also try these:

1) Riviera: The Promised Land
2) Chrono Trigger - advanced remake of the PSX and SNES famous game.

Click to expand...

Chrono Trigger isn't a remake, just a port. It has the cut scenes in the PSX port and I believe an extra dungeon, but not much has been enhanced. Still, worth it though if you've never played it.

I recommend:

Final Fantasy IV remake. Fantastic game made better. Actually, THE best FF game for me. Great pacing, challenging, good balance of story and gameplay.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey - fantastic dungeon crawler.

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner - fantastic tactical RPG.

Any of the Dragon Quest IV - VI - great remakes of classic DQ games.

Orcs & Elves: Dungeon crawler by the same developer as Doom and using the same engine. I was suprised by this one. Got it used for $5 and didn't expect much, it being a port of a cell phone game, but although it was simplistic it was a lot of fun, very addictive.

Oops, forgot the Fire Emblem games. These are strategy RPGs. Pretty challenging and feature perma-death for your troops. You play one, you've played them all story and gameplay wise but that's not a bad thing with this series (actually, I guess you can say the same for many JRPG series, lol).

Relayer said:

Chrono Trigger isn't a remake, just a port. It has the cut scenes in the PSX port and I believe an extra dungeon, but not much has been enhanced. Still, worth it though if you've never played it.

Click to expand...

I have seen some reviews for this game and didn't see any differences to it. What they remade from it was the extra dungeon and the graphic details being a bit smoother(i noticed the differences from the pictures with the DS ones I played). And I think they included more endings.