Enjoyable JRPG's for the DS

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alwaysbebombing

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#1  Edited By alwaysbebombing

Hey everyone,

I was wondering if people here had good ideas of JRPG's to play. Due to my job, I'm not in a place where I can play a console very much, so buying a PS4 or Xbox One seemed like a waster to me. Instead, I bought a 3DS. So far I've bought and played The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Solatorobo: Red the Hunter. I really enjoyed both very much, but I liked Solatorobo better because it was much easier to collect all the additional music, pictures, ect than in OoT. Any ideas would be much appreciated. I work as a translator, so games in other languages aren't a problem for me.

Thanks!

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deactivated-60dda8699e35a

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Radiant Historia is a good one, and there's also Chrono Trigger. Also, while they're not necessarily JRPGs, Devil Survivor and Fire Emblem: Awakening are both fantastic games as well.

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Guesty_01

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#3  Edited By Guesty_01

Pokemon? Bravely Default?

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deactivated-59123fe38ab28

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You know, I've heard a lot of great things about Strange Journey.

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alwaysbebombing

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@random45 said:

Radiant Historia is a good one, and there's also Chrono Trigger. Also, while they're not necessarily JRPGs, Devil Survivor and Fire Emblem: Awakening are both fantastic games as well.

I'd play Fire Emblem. I just heard that once people are dead, they are dead forver. Not video game dead. Which must be rough.

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fattony12000

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neoepoch

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I'd like to add SMT IV to this list.

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afabs515

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@random45 said:

Radiant Historia is a good one, and there's also Chrono Trigger. Also, while they're not necessarily JRPGs, Devil Survivor and Fire Emblem: Awakening are both fantastic games as well.

I'd play Fire Emblem. I just heard that once people are dead, they are dead forver. Not video game dead. Which must be rough.

You can turn that off in this one. If permadeath isn't your thing, you should definitely do that and play this game. My personal GOTY.

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Jeust

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Also:

  • Disgaea
  • Contact
  • Pokemon
  • Sands of Destruction
  • Final Fantasy IV
  • Infinite Space
  • Dragon Quest IV, Dragon Quest V, Dragon Quest VI and Dragon Quest IX
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Guesty_01

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Etrian Odyssey?

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Oscar__Explosion

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#11  Edited By Oscar__Explosion

Chrono Trigger, Pokemon X/Y, Dragon Quest IX

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penguindust

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DS or 3DS? For the DS, I really loved the Dragon Quest games. Oh, and The World Ends With You.

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Zeik

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#13  Edited By Zeik

Of the games I've played:

DS:

  • Etrian Odyssey 3
  • Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey
  • Radiant Historia
  • Devil Survivor (Also available on 3DS)
  • Dragon Quest 5 and 9
  • The World Ends with You
  • Suikoden Tierkreis
  • Chrono Trigger

3DS:

  • Shin Megami Tensei IV
  • Etrian Odyssey 4
  • Fire: Emblem Awakening

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ervonymous

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Radiant Historia is my favorite DS JRPG and it isn't far off from the top of my all-time greats list.

Etrian Odyssey 1-4 or SMT Strange Journey if you want to strafe facing a wall at all times in search of hidden doors.

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Canteu

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#15  Edited By Canteu

Bravely Default just came out. It's pretty good.

Radiant Historia is probably the best JRPG to come out in the past 10 years.

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Flappy

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#16  Edited By Flappy

Don't know if anyone mentioned Radiant Historia yet, buuuuuuuuuuut you should play Radiant Historia. It easily has one of the better MCs in recent memory.

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Dixavd

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First I'd recommend 4 heroes of Light, a Final Fantasy spin-off game from a couple years ago on the DS when they basically made another game in the FFI-III style of job system and world set-up. If you like those kinds of games (and have probably played the main Final Fantasy games) then I highly recommend it as the first game that I liked the use of the job system. That said, going by reviews etc..., Bravely Default seems to be another reboot/spin-off of that style on the 3DS so you might want to play that for the better use of the 3DS's power.

It's at this point, that I would like to mention a Kingdom Hearts game as I think they make good handheld JRPG's: but, I can't seriously recommend any of the DS handheld ones when compared to the PSP's Birth By Sleep. 358/2 Days is kind of boring (I honestly think it was held back too much on the DS). Re:Coded just isn't very good, being very obvious how it was a pre-smart phone game. And 3D/Dream Drop Distance relies too much on setting up for the future of the series - it isn't paced very well and feels like half a game. Birth By Sleep is comparatively elegant, being my favourite handheld game of all time. It has a self-contained story (which, in the grand schemes of the series is fucking crazy - but within itself, is just another JRPG narrative). The three playable characters feel meaningfully different. And the battle system is divine: from normal attacks/dodging/etc..., to command moves and magic, to "shotlock" abilities, to special finishing moves, and command styles. It's actually crazy to me how many different ways of fighting there are and all of them are useful. The best thing about it though, is that the game is actually challenging at points - it even allows a player with good enough control of all of these mechanics the ability to defeat enemies that completely out-level them. It's a fantastic game, so if you have access to a PSP then I highly recommend you play it. But if you are limited to 3DS/DS games, I don't recommend those games at all (I still enjoyed playing them, I just can't recommend them).

Since you liked Zelda, I'd also recommend Okamiden. I think it is a truly fantastic game (I put it as number 6 on my 2011 GOTY top 10 list). My main problem with the game stems from how it was clearly aiming to be like Okami but was stuck with the power of the DS and so has very tiny zones to be in (meaning lots of very tiny loads) - that was the same problem Ryan had when he Quick Looked it; along with it having a fairly slow start. But since you also like proper JRPG's, I think you wouldn't find those to be that annoying.

...Wow, sorry for the long post: I just wanted to explain my 3 picks and may have gone overboard.

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audioBusting

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#18  Edited By audioBusting

If language isn't a problem, try out Soma Bringer. It's a bit more action-oriented but it's really neat.

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Daneian

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Chrono Trigger

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story

Dragon Quest 4

Dragon Quest 5

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Pokemon and Fire Emblem for sure. Even I liked Fire Emblem and I'm not big on strategy RPGs. Tales of the Abyss was rereleased on the 3DS. It's still holds up decently, the middle section of the game over stays it's welcome though. The Mario and Luigi RPGs are really good, try one of those. I would also say Kingdom Hearts 3D, but only if you're already a fan of the series and have played most of the games. It's a fun game, but there's no real point to jumping in to Kingdom Hearts for the first time with that game because of how bat shit crazy and convoluted the story is.

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yesac2004

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#21  Edited By yesac2004

@canteu said:

Bravely Default just came out. It's pretty good.

Not in North America :(

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Aegon

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@canteu said:

Bravely Default just came out. It's pretty good.

Not in North America :(

Why does bravely default look like crap to me? I'm not a hater of the JRPGs. In fact I like quite a few of them.

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Canteu

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@aegon: I don't know, why does it look like crap to you?

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Aegon

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@canteu said:

@aegon: I don't know, why does it look like crap to you?

Something about the environment assets. Looks low quality for some reason and beyond that I don't know. Usually you know when a game grabs you and this one hasn't really done it.

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Canteu

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@aegon: The environment art is one of my favourite things about it. It's grabbed me in a way a JRPG hasn't since FFXIII and Radiant Historia.

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@canteu said:

@aegon: The environment art is one of my favourite things about it. It's grabbed me in a way a JRPG hasn't since FFXIII and Radiant Historia.

Radiant Historia did have a nice art style and it had a cool and different gameplay mechanic and that time gimmick. Enjoyed the story as well. Maybe there's something about the gameplay or story in BD that could be enjoyable. What can you say about those two things?

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Canteu

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#27  Edited By Canteu

@aegon: It's just nice to go back to pure turn based, but with a very small twist that adds a good amount of strategy. I'm playing it on hard and you really need to manage your BP to do well. Story is whatever so far, but I don't really play games for the story, I'm a mechanics mang.

Also, Jobs.

edit: shit went bold for no reason

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#28  Edited By gla55jAw
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Knights in the Knightmare

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I'm fixing to get Crimson Shroud from the Nintendo store, it's only like 7 bucks. Worth it? It looks really cool.

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#32  Edited By Poonz

Getting a DS for Christmas I'm thinking bravely default & fire emblem. Both look amazing.

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#33  Edited By JZ

Since when is zelda a jrpg?

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#34  Edited By L33T_HAXOR

Devil survivor was tha shit. I didn't quite beat it, but I loved every minute I spent with it.

I liked Radiant Historia, though not quite as much. I got a little less than halfway through.

Some people swear by the world ends with you but it didn't really click with me.