Hey Dudiots (thought I would Ryckert the place up a little)

I have had trouble finding a decent RPG to play on the 3ds. This seems crazy to me, as I think it is the perfect system for a great RPG, but I just cant find one.

I bought Bravely Default... was gravely distraught. I felt it was too linear, the writing was bad and the story was unengaging. The combat was also teetering on the edge of being fun. I just could not have a good time with it.

I bought Shin Megami Tensai...sumthing sumthing. Cant remember the full title, but from the four or five hours I spent playing the game, I dont remember much as it bored me senseless. To me it felt like random bits of final fantasy tactics with a frankly bad anime story line.

I love Fire Emblem, but it is not really an RPG.. more a strategy game.

I really am lost. I just want a decent RPG. I don't mind random encounters if the game is good. I have sunk a couple of thousand hours into the final fantasy series, breath of fire, morrowind, skyrim, etc etc.

Any ideas On what I should try next? Or do you think I am crazy and just dont appreciate the RPG's that the 3ds offers?

Well, there's 3DS Mario and Luigi game. Although, I only half-heartedly recommend it - there's a lot of good stuff in there, but there's also some real shit too.

@splodge: Persona Q is coming out soon and I would hold out for that.

Although not role playing games, I would recommend either of the Zero Escape games: 999 or Virtues Last Reward.

I think bravely default is one the the best rpg's on the 3ds and one of the better final fantasy titles in awhile. The 3DS isn't as big on rpgs as you may think, the vita is better for that. Your big ones are Bravely Default, Fire Emblem, Pokemon X/Y, and Monster Hunter. Based on your description of your experiences of Bravely Default and Shin Megami Tensei, you'll probably have to dive into DS territory to find anything worth your while.

Etrian Odyssey IV. I liked the first one a lot. If IV is anything like the first one, it's very much like early CRPGs: first person, hard as fuck dungeon crawling with tacked on, superfluous story. Oh, and cool map-drawing stuff. I really like the map-drawing!

Shin Megami Tensei 4 is your ticket. Great story, interesting mechanics and actually challenging combat.

You bought Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor Overclocked, which actually gets pretty good but it takes a while to do so.

I agree with you that Bravely Default is garbage.

I like Etrian Odyssey, but those games are very much for a grognard-y type of audience, and SMT IV isn't much different. If you aren't into balls-hard old school RPGs, I'm actually at a bit of a loss here.

Tales of the Abyss has a 3DS version. It's actually a pretty decent port, and a good game if you like Tales RPGs.

Also, Rune Factory 4 is an utter delight. It might be a little bit too much farm management and not enough RPG, but it has fun characters,sweet story, weapons, fighting and leveling up... So thought I'd at least mention it :)

Tales of the Abyss, SMT 4, and even though it's not a RPG, Shovel Knight.

Etrian Odyssey IV and Untold are both very good; both have great combat and a fun map-making mechanic.

Crimson Shroud on the Eshop is also really fun. It has a very deliberate tabletop D&D aesthetic with dice rolling and everything. Also has an interesting NG+, which makes it worth going through a second time (the main game itself is relatively short).

I bought Shin Megami Tensai...sumthing sumthing. Cant remember the full title, but from the four or five hours I spent playing the game, I dont remember much as it bored me senseless. To me it felt like random bits of final fantasy tactics with a frankly bad anime story line.

There are several different Shin Megami Tensei's for the 3DS. The one you are looking for is simply "IV", it's probably closest to what you're looking for. Give it a shot, though to be honest I don't think it has a very good story. Its gameplay is a lot of fun and the game opens up a hell of a lot as you progress, so if mechanics and exploration are your bag then you won't do much better on the 3DS.

I've started to notice this as well. If you're looking for a more casual RPG experience on the 3DS (like Ni No Kuni or a Final Fantasy), then Bravely Default is the best option and that game is bland. Which is a shame, that game feels like it is just barely shy of fun. It's got a pretty sheen but once you pay attention, you realize that it's just an old school Final Fantasy game with boring characters and a boring story.

@corruptedevil: Fired up Devil Summoner about a month ago. Man even for a shin Megami tensei game that thing took forever to get going. I don't think I had access to the compendium till like 10 hours in. I had just assumed it wasn't a feature in it.

Atlus' Radiant Historia was great on the DS. They should do something along those lines for the 3DS as well.

And hey if Nomura ever completes any of his projects, maybe he can make another stand-alone handheld RPG for the 3DS, as he's proven that he's capable of delivering on that front (World Ends With You).

I feel like EO4 "moderned-up" just enough so you don't necessarily have to be hardcore into old-school RPGs to appreciate it, whlle still maintaining what made those games enjoyable. You have to be willing to accept the first person exploration and lighter story, but it never felt as grindy as the earlier games and I encountered a lot less random deaths. It's certainly not a casual RPG, but it's not that hardcore either.

All things considered, EO4 is probably my favorite RPG on the system, followed by SMT4. SMT4 is actually arguably the more hardcore of the two, especially early on, though it does have a stronger story.

POKÉMON POKÉMON POKÉ-FUCKING-MON

Also Shin Megami Tensei IV is coming to Europe's eShop in September for €19.99, so that's probably going to be worth trying out, especially for that price. And I've heard very good things about Tales of the Abyss. And hey, you can always just splash the cash on TWEWY and/or Chrono Trigger if you can't find anything for the 3DS itself

@fattony12000 said:

If VLR is an RPG, then I'm going to go ahead and recommend the 3DS Picross games...

The Dragon Quest: Hand of the Heavenly Bride remake for DS isn't technically a 3DS game but... I've been thinking about that game a lot lately and everyone should play it. Everyone.

Yeah, I know. But it has talking and choices in it so that pretty much makes it a RPG.

I think we should all just keep recommending good 3DS games to anyone and everyone forever.

From what I've played I highly recommend:

• Pokémon X/Y
• Bravely Default
• Dragon Quest VII
• Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked
• Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers
• Shin Megami Tensei IV
• Fire Emblem: Awakening
• Youkai Watch
• Youkai Watch 2

Probably will be buying Persona Q as soon as possible. There's also Devil Survivor 2 remake coming to the 3DS. The voicework made the game much better for me. I don't mind reading at all (I know I read the vast majority of books in Morrowind for instance) but brings a lot more personality to the characters. I heard there's no Japanese audio of overclocked on the american release so I don't know if the dub is good or not. Anyway, it's a great game and I find it more interesting than Fire Emblem: Awakening. There's also Bravely Second coming soon. I don't care much for the "tales of" series so I can't comment on those but there're a couple on the 3DS I reckon.

edit: Rune Factory IV is pretty fun too! Best in the series.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys! Especially linking the games, that was very helpful.

I definitely bought the wrong Shin Megami Tensei game. I will give IV a shot, thanks for the heads up.

Etrian Odyssey might be a goer too.

Persona Q? I did not even know it existed. That is on the top of the list.

Whats the deal with the Dragon Quest games? They seem a bit intimidating in terms of lore, etc. Are they penetrable for a newcomer?

Persona Q isn't out but it's made by the same people behind Etrian. Dragon Quest games are each their own confined story and aren't hard to get into. They basically feel like old school FF games with Akira Toriyama art. If you don't mind DS games I'd recommend grabbing DQ IX.

While I'll agree with you about the story and writing in Bravely Default being completely atrocious and unfit for human beings, I'm surprised the linearity was an issue for you. It's basically as linear as every other JRPG I can think of, which is to say that it's extremely linear. Bummer to hear that you were just barely having fun with its combat system, as I feel like that is really the standout aspect of the whole game.

Anyway, any games I could think to mention have already been mentioned by people. I'll throw in another vote for Crimson Shroud: I don't think its battle system is the greatest, but boy, I really like the way it tells its story, and gives you text descriptions of each area. It's just really evocative of a D&D game, not just because you use dice at random points. Unfortunately it's short enough that the entirety of its story amounts to little more than a cool short story, but still, I enjoyed my time with it.

There isn't much compared to the Vita which is to bad since the DS had a lot of RPG's. May come with time. The Vita didn't have much either at first and the PS3 is getting more JRPG's in its last years than it did in the first five. So hope is not lost for grat RPG's in the future.

Just to add something I will mention Conception II (not sure about how it is on the 3DS but seems the same but with worse graphics of course). I have the Vita version and it is basically a Persona type game with dungeon crawling and dating girls. You date them to raise your rank with them to create star babies that you use in battle. I've just played a bit and it is far from Persona 3/4 in terms of quality. So far all the battles I can win with the auto-battle function and the story seems generic. But if you are looking for something close to Persona even if the quality is worse than it is a decent game. it even has a school setting like the Persona games, but not a regular high school, it is an academy for creating people to fight monsters. It has a lot of fan service if that is your thing. Boobs that bounce as soon ar the girls talk for example.

I am usually ok with fanservice as long as it serves some comedic value. The closest I have really come to playing a dating game would be Persona 4, although I know that isn't quite the same thing. I have no interest in anything that is overly date-simmy, just not my thang. Thanks for the suggestion though! And yeah, I hope that the catalog of RPG titles on the 3DS continues to grow... to me it just makes perfect sense for that system. If they could port over the PSX Breath of Fire III game, I would be drowning in my own happy sauce.

It is not a dating sim. It is a dungeon crawler first and foremost. Just not with as good gameplay as Persona 4. It is no more a dating sim than Persona 4. The jokes are the usual anime jokes like accidentally bumping into a girl and she accuses the main character of grabbing her boobs as they collide and such.

In fact they best way to describe the game is imagine Persona 4 with a very easy setting for combat and Chie and Yukiko growing a couple of cup sizes but loosing some personality in the process. I'll give it a decent 3/5 stars.

I try to think of literally any other game but all of them have been mentioned already. Unless you start counting Zelda and Harvest Moon games I think this thread have covered all RPG's on the system. Guess we have to wait for Persona Q and hope that turns out good.