Lack of Killer RPGs on the DS

[racketboy]

After putting together the Best GBA piece the other day, I realized there aren't a lot of top-notch RPGs on the DS when compared to the GBA.

The only grade-A ones are Mario & Luigi and Pokemon.
Final Fantasy III got mediocre scores.
Puzzle Quest looks great as long as you're ok with a puzzle game being your battle system.

Anybody know of any great ones on the horizon?

[kewlrabbit]

I've noticed this to. The only one i can think of would be Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2. Plus, Advance wars 2, and luminous arc are already out. It's too bad, the ds looks like the perfect system for rpgs.

[kinn]

I guess theres Zelda Phantom Hourglass.

I think theres also some Final Fantasy 12 spinoff on it too (not too sure on this).

But your right there Racketboy. Considering how big the DS userbase is, its suprising there are not that many RPGs.

The next Dragon Quest game is for the DS so that may quench the RPG thirst.

Make you wish (even more) that the rumours of a Skies of Arcadia sequel are true!

[Curlypaul]

Final fantasy 3 actually put me off RPGs. It was fun at first but required FAR to much level grinding at the end. In my opinion level grinding should be something that you can opt to do to make the game easier (and more boring) or you should be able to do the minimum and win the battles on tactical planning. Its even put me off getting Phantom Hourglass.

Has anyone played Contact? That got some good reviews

[Mozgus]

Final fantasy 3 actually put me off RPGs. It was fun at first but required FAR to much level grinding at the end. In my opinion level grinding should be something that you can opt to do to make the game easier (and more boring) or you should be able to do the minimum and win the battles on tactical planning. Its even put me off getting Phantom Hourglass.

The FF series is always a grind. There's never any real tactics to the games. There might be certain moves that can do 2x damage, but really there's no boss that cant be easily beaten by just holding X most of the time. But FFTactics, as you might imagine, has tactics. Grinding doesn't help you too much, seeing as how the random battle monsters grind with you. It can help in story battles but FFT is less focused on grinding because lvling up adds so little power. The game is so heavily focused on the right class for the right battle, along with the right secondary class ability set. Even if you're super strong, you can get raped in a story fight if you build an army of classes that dont complement each other.

[marurun]

The original FF 1 relied on tactical choices decently well, but they were simple choices. I do agree that the "classic" FF games have become largely strategy free, and to an extent a bit fun-free as well.

[fastbilly1]

A ff3 and the big rat. In the NES version that one boss fight turned so many people away from the game. My last character had four hit points left when I first beat it. Talk about a spike in difficulty, after that the game was a cakewalk until the final bosses.

As for DS rpgs:
Magical Starsign, followup to the amazing Magical Vacation GBA game - this one actually got a US release.
Runefactory would be good except for those really bad bugs. It is quite playable but the bugs can over power you really quickly and they are quite tempting.
Pokemon Diamond/Peal are not the best of the series, but they are quite fun and feature both online battles and voice chat. I have almost used mine more as a telephone than a game. But like all pokemon games, grinding makes perfect...
Dragon Quest Monster Joker seems to be getting favorable reviews, but I am more interested in Dragon Quest Wii...I may not be much of a Dragon Quest fan, but I do love the monster designs, so much so that I bought the Slime PS2 controller.

[Curlypaul]

I think I might give fftactics a try then. Its one of those games that I never got round to getting

[Leaf]

There's a few out now and loads planned for the future. In the end DS will kick GBA's ass for RPGs!

Dragon Quest

Rocket Slime,
Monsters: Joker,
IV,
V,
VI,
XI,
Itadaki Street.

Final Fantasy

III,
IV,
TA2,
Chocobo Tales,
Crystal Chronicles
XII Wings.

And others like the Mana games, Pokemon, Rune Factory, the Tales games, Fire Emblem and many more.

[Adderall]

I enjoyed Lost Magic for DS.

I guess it could be considered strategy or action.. but it really felt like an RPG to me..