Hi all,

One of the things my gf is getting me for Christmas is a new DS game, and I'm in the market for an RPG (or similar) game; something fairly involved that will take me a while to beat. *But* I am looking for one that is suitable for short, 20-45 minute gameplay chunks. I don't have a ton of time for gaming, and I mainly play on public transit or in bed at night.

I've never played a MegaTen game before, and all of the reviews for this game have been really positive. This is the game I think I want the most as of right now. I know the game is deep and involved, which I want, but I am hoping it is playable in short chunks. Like, I loved Fallout 3 for 360, but that was a game where you could literally never get anything done unless you played for 2+ hours in a sitting.

If MegaTen DS is not a good RPG to meet my criteria, does anybody have any recommendations? I'm not really feeling Pokemon these days (so no Platinum), or any of the remakes/rereleases (i.e. the FF or DQ games... although I suppose if DQ V fit my criteria I could play that); other than that, I'm happy with any suggestions that people may have. Thanks for your help!    

Well... I'm not incredibly qualified to recommend DS RPGs because I'm unfamiliar with most of them, but I think that something like Mario and Luigi: Bowzer's Inside Story is light enough that you can play it in short chunks yet deep enough that it really is genuinely a good RPG rather than a silly action game.  Alternatively, a game like Retro Game Challenge might be worth a look, though it's not really strictly an RPG.  It's an amalgamation of several "retro-style" games including an RPG directly inspired by the Dragon Quest series.

Yeah, that seems reasonable.  I really liked Partners in Time, so BIS might be good, and I have been interested in Retro Game Challenge.  I think the thing is that I really want a game with a lot of depth.  My concern is simply with whether or not a) you can "do" substantive things in the game in less than 45 minutes (again, to refer back to Fallout, there was never any chance that you could complete a quest, level your character, clear out an area, etc., in that time frame) and b) if there are "towns" or checkpoints or other save-point-things that let you wrap things up as necessary in a short chunk of time.  Lots of times, even games that let you save anywhere drive you to "keep going" without a clean break for an hour or more, and I would prefer something with reasonably frequent "clean breaks".  But I *still* want a game with strong customization/depth/strategy.  Maybe I am asking for too much.

yea, Devil Survivor is the kinda game you can pick up for short periods of time and put down whenever (you can save during battles, it's called suspend but it's basically a save game option).
 
And i like it, i think it's an interesting Turn-Based Strategy Game, and i really enjoy it.

You can definitely play devil survivor in 30 min chunks and make significant progress in the game.  It's mostly made up of major story battles and then 5-10 minutes of talking to people/other story stuff before another major battle shows up.  The only bad thing I would say about it is that some of the story battles are pretty hard and you might have to do some grinding in meaningless battles before being able to beat them.  The battle system is pretty entertaining though so its not too bad.  Also fyi battles generally take between 10-20 minutes if they are story battles and probably between 5-10 for the grinding battles.

Y'know, I gave it a little more thought and there are two more games that might be worth checking out, though I haven't played either.  I heard that the new Kingdom Hearts game for DS is pretty easy to digest in small chunks, though the PS2 version was a little too unwieldy for me.  And secondly, this "Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes" has been getting some pretty darn positive buzz, especially for an unknown quantity with an undecipherable name.

Do consider Hotel Dusk: Room 215 also, that game is excellent for bursts of play.

I find it hard to play any RPG in "chunks" but Devil Survivor can defiantly be played like that. You just might end up playing longer then you expected though.
 
Also check out Might and Magic: Clash of Heros. It just came out and it's pretty damn good. Battles are short and can  defiantly be played in chunks.

Thanks for the thoughts, everyone.  Great advice.  I'll probably pick up Devil Survivor, and I will bear the other suggestions in mind!