I voted awakening, but actually Pokemon might be your best bet since you can kinda just turn your brain off while you play it

I voted Pokemon because in my head that is always the ultimate road trip game since Red and Blue. 20+ hours will get you pretty far through the game. You will be making nice consistent progress and probably won't be hitting any road blocks.

My thoughts on the other games.

Bravely Default- It's a good game and that new one is coming out soon. However that game is mostly grinding out jobs so you can mix and match abilities to create cool strategies. It has many great quality of life features that make that grinding less painful but you might not want to spend a whole trip grinding.

SMT IV- It is also a very good game and you should really play through it. It is a slow burner. Being trapped in a car for 20+ hours might just be the incentive get through the slower beginning parts to get to the good meaty bits of that game. So this might be your best chance to start getting through that.

Fire Emblem Awakening- It is good game. I like to take my srpg in chunks rather than in big doses myself. You could probably get very far in it.

@ryuku_ryosake: Super useful post!

Your point on Fire Emblem is interesting since I feel somewhat similar. Constant SRPG playing for 20+ hours could really wear on the brain I suppose.

Pokemon seems like I just can't go wrong, but getting through the slow bits of SMT is tempting...

Thanks for the thoughts.

I'm going to say Fire Emblem Awakening. I'm tempted to say Bravely Default, because that game is pretty damn great right up until the last like 10%.

Pokemon.

I think Fire Emblem games are pretty easy to stop and start. So I say that one.

Never know when you are going to get interrupted on a road trip or where you might end up in the game when it finishes.

SMT IV is a really good game but the first few hours are particularly unfair. That game has a backwards difficulty curve and you're not prepared to deal with the stuff they throw at you at the beginning, you kinda just have to luck out. It's one of those games that turns into something really good after you've soldiered through the rough first bits.

My opinion on Bravely Default wavers back and forth a lot but, on the whole, I'll say it's a pretty good game. There are a lot of pretty cool classes to pick from and level up and you can change at any time, which you should do because if you don't, it gets boring. Change up those classes if you want to play this game!

I like Fire Emblem Awakening a lot more than I liked Fire Emblem Fates. Play Awakening if you're going to play a Fire Emblem game.

I don't have much experience with any Pokemon game. I didn't play them as a kid and I've never been able to get into them.

Honestly, for a road trip, I think Etrian Odyssey IV would be a way better game than any of those you've picked. It doesn't have much in the way of story, really, but let's be honest here - SMT IV and Bravely Default have terrible fucking stories. Awakening has some pretty good characters, but they're all one-off and you know pretty much everything about them after a couple of interactions and the story itself is an OK patchwork of overused tropes. Gameplay-wise, I found it much more satisfying than any of the other games listed.

They're all pretty good, though I'll always advocate for Fire Emblem first and foremost. I think the new one is pretty good, but if you already have Awakening that will do just fine for you as well.

I voted Shin Megami Tensei IV since that was the only one of those games where I just could not stop playing until I beat it (around 50 hours later).

It has a rough start and can feel too hard in spots, but overcoming a hardship was always awesome.