Kojdog

@RockmanBionics: Clash of Heroes now ordered, Ghost Trick on consideration. In the 'More Serious' Advance Wars link you game me there are two titles. Days of Ruin and something else. Do you have a specific recommendation between the two?

@EnchantedEcho: Zelda ordered. 'Bought time to revisit that outside of highschool

@HandsomeDead: agreed

@JJOR64: Checking out the linked DS thread. Is DS:OC kind of a classic JRPG (super grindy, long, with ppl in schoolgirl outfits)? I appreciate those but I'm nut sure that's what I'm looking for as opposed to something a little more tactical.

I thought Valkyria Chronicles was the shit but it was because of the gameplay, not the anime junk in between (although it really helped to sell it without being the meat).

Thanks for the input. Any specific ideas if they're floating around on the top of your head beyond Devil Survivor? I really appreciate the expertise this board offers.

I've got a 6 hour layover in Detroit coming up so I decided to finally buy a DS. That DS turned into a DS lite as all the ones on Craigslist for less than $60 turned out to be gone. Then all the DS lites for less than $80 turned out to be gone. Then all the DSi's for less than $100 turned out to be gone.

So, I said f*ck it and bought a 3ds for $130.

Please help me very carefully select old DS or new 3DS games to help me not regret this purchase as little as possible (I'm pretty sure I'll regret it in the long run but would like to mitigate those feelings as much as possible).

I'm not in a position to ride a bus every day or something so I'll be laying this 45 min's or more at a time at airports or waiting for appointments. I love strategy and rpgs and pretty much anything with a sense of progression. Big supporter of Fallout: NV and Dead Island despite their flaws. Love Silent Storm and Baldur's Gate.

Greatly appreciate your help.

Aside from whenever they release the dev tools and a stable platform. But for Christ's fucking sake, this game has everything it needs but dinosaur models with flesh-ripping-off technology. They have rain forests with "coo coo coo" sounds, abandoned labs, and shock machetes.

I'm just sayin'...

I'll help if this engine turns out to be anything other than hot mess for extendability.

I too have only played this a few hours.  However, I've somehow had a wholly different impression of some of the points you seem to be getting at.  I'm not saying you're wrong but I don't quite get a couple of your points.  Make me see it your way (starting with your second paragraph/sentence) because I'm not completely blown away either but I wouldn't complain about some of the same things you are: 
 
1.  I don't really have a strong argument against this, but I do disagree based on my personal experience.  I've played as Hojo and Tokugawa... I felt that not only the first 20 but the next 30 turns past that have felt like once continuous campaign of aggression against my local neighbors.  The game seems to present you well with an immediate enemy, a secondary larger enemy, and at least 2 more on your event horizon.  I haven't gone past those two but it's definitely kept me busy on a land-locked two-front war against strong clans.  To clarify I'm playing on hard and not using autoresolve for anything but skirmishes.  The other possibility that may be our difference is the clan choices.  I don't know, something in me makes me absolutely NOT choose the first faction on the list.  I want to further clarify that I suck at the real-time element of these games but have compensated so far through superior production or positioning compared to the AI.   
 
2.  No real response.  Haven't had this problem at all.  Again, Hojo/Takeda vs the clans you've played? 
 
3.  Based on your last two issues I see how you could argue this case.  However, not really agreeing with your last two issues, I feel the smaller scope provides for a much more intense and focused campaign.  I barely ever played the real-time segments in the previous game (since Rome; the split for me was Medieval 2 where I stopped playing real-time).  However, the more focused nature of this campaign has me feeling like every fight really matters.   
 
4.  Every game since Empire has felt this way.  I don't really see this as a downfall but a conscious attempt at balancing.  For truly epic siege battles you need a worthy opponent and you will be forced to hold an army back against his potential onslaught.  This has not happened yet though I'm sure the game is capable of throwing this scenario at you.  On the other hand, based on your other points, I don't believe this is what you have at issue.  You appear to not believe you can properly defend yourself and be the aggresor at the same time.  Maybe you're playing on a very advanced difficulty?  If that's the case I don't have the answer for you (that you didn't expect) as I'm not a master at this game either.   
 
5.  Though I didn't know it before, playing the game I feel like this is the Total War game I was wanting.  This is peculiar considering Shogun 1 was easily my least favorite game in the series.  I hated the limited "campaign" features and innefectual archers and greatly enjoyed the tight-knit story and effective artillery Napolean.  I had no idea that I would find this game so much more engaging and gripping.  On the other hand, I quit out and found this post to reply to as opposed to getting lost in Civ 5 for days much like yourself.  Hell, I'm thinking of going and playing my Xbox copy of Dead Space 2 right now.  Maybe its not as great as my mind has led me to believe it is.  Either way, I see this as an interesting refocusing of the series and for better or worse this game makes me look forward to what they are going to do with an updated Medieval Total War 3.  However, I really wish they'd just find a way to roll the campaign map improvements into an updated Napolean game... which may mean I am just as not-impressed with this game as you are.