Incline Codex's Best DS RPGs

[felipepepe]

So Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest ansd 99% of the jRPGs are blobbers now?

 

[Jasede]

I think mon games like that should have their own jRPG subgenre tag. DQ: Monsters, Digimon games, Pokemon mainline games are distinct from typical jRPGs and (j-)blobbers for sure.

 

[TigerKnee]

So Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest ansd 99% of the jRPGs are blobbers now?

We don't usually categorize them that, but they generally don't have tactical combat, do they? Combat-wise, they're blobbers.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

What is a blobber?

 

[Damned Registrations]

I've always though that equating grid movement with tactical combat was pretty retarded. There's nothing tactical about combat in Fallout. You control one fucking unit, and most fights don't just boil down to, but consist entirely of either outranging your enemies (the whole stabbing a scorpion then backing away far enough it can't hit you back thing is fucking retarded) or focusing down whoever has the biggest gun. It's not the same as something like X-Com where you have considerations like not knowing where enemies are, line of sight, civilians, trying to capture tech or prisoners, use of ammunition... those things require tactics. And a lot of those things have little to do with the movement anyways, and more to do with things like weapon selection and allocation of AP, which comes into play in games without grid movement as well. Something like SMT: Nocturne is certainly more tactical than FO2.

I guess it's just one of those naming conventions that made sense at the time (gold box is certainly more tactical than wizardry, for example) and is now just an unfortunate anachronism.

 

[Dreaad]

Well if my list mattered it would be.

1.) SMT: Devil Survivor
2.) SRW W
3.) Pokemon Soul Silver/Heart Gold
4.) Front Mission
5.) Luminous Arc 1/2 (yes yes highly easy, but charming enough)

Has anyone here played through Sands of Destruction? Worth it?

 

[felipepepe]

Okay, 14 votes down. I'll wait for Anthony Davis and see if we can reach 20, otherwise 15 would be cool already.

 

[Siveon]

Well if my list mattered it would be.

1.) SMT: Devil Survivor
2.) SRW W
3.) Pokemon Soul Silver/Heart Gold
4.) Front Mission
5.) Luminous Arc 1/2 (yes yes highly easy, but charming enough)

Has anyone here played through Sands of Destruction? Worth it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMdh91lye2I

Looks worthy enough for a...demo. The voice acting is terrible though. I say play with caution utter fear, who knows how shitty it may be.

 

[TigerKnee]

I've always heard that SoD was "interesting concept, dropped the ball on execution"

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I've always though that equating grid movement with tactical combat was pretty retarded. There's nothing tactical about combat in Fallout. You control one fucking unit, and most fights don't just boil down to, but consist entirely of either outranging your enemies (the whole stabbing a scorpion then backing away far enough it can't hit you back thing is fucking retarded) or focusing down whoever has the biggest gun. It's not the same as something like X-Com where you have considerations like not knowing where enemies are, line of sight, civilians, trying to capture tech or prisoners, use of ammunition... those things require tactics. And a lot of those things have little to do with the movement anyways, and more to do with things like weapon selection and allocation of AP, which comes into play in games without grid movement as well. Something like SMT: Nocturne is certainly more tactical than FO2.

I guess it's just one of those naming conventions that made sense at the time (gold box is certainly more tactical than wizardry, for example) and is now just an unfortunate anachronism.

JRPG board proves again that it's the best thing the Codex has ever produced.

On a somewhat related subject, I'm in the process of replaying Final Fantasy 7 after over ten years since the last time, and one thing is definately certain as I go: The combat is miles ahead of Fallout 1 & 2, Infinity engine games, and a whole bunch of other games, and for me at least I was extremely positively surprised by it given my much more disparaging recollections of it.

 

[TigerKnee]

Is that a much better term to use than "Tactical combat" though?

Speaking of which, when did the term "blobber" first arise anyway?

 

[felipepepe]

I remember reading it when I first started in the Codex and asking about it, so its at least 6-7 years old...

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

1) Dark Spire
2) SMT: Strange Journey
3) Etrian Odyssey
4) Devil Survivor
5) LOLIdontknow

 

[thaquoth]

Has anyone here played through Sands of Destruction? Worth it?

Played it. Not worth it.

The battle system is straight up fucking broken. I'm all for being able to exploit stuff once you're really familiar with a game's intricacies, but in SoD you can figure that shit out in like the first hour and then proceed to steamroll everything. Other than that the game is just nothing special. Inoffensive, but the definition of unremarkable.

My favourites on DS:

1) SMT: Strange Journey
2) Dark Spire
3) SMT: Devil Survivor
4) Front Mission DS

 

[Desktop Commander]

1) The Dark Spire
2) Infinite Space (Expected a cringeworthy plot made bearable by fun ship customization and space exploration - got the complete opposite; can't complain though.)
3) Jagged Alliance DS (It might be a shoddy port but it's still JA.)
4) Etrian Odyssey
5) SaGa 3

 

[SCO]

I wasn't aware of front mission ds, interesting. I've played the aeon genesis snes translation so i'll probably not redo it, but it has another campaign apparently

 

[Crooked Bee]

I see Anthony Davis hasn't voted yet

 

[Anthony Davis]

There are sooooo many good DS and 3DS games out there. Heck, I even still play some GBA games too, like Tactics Ogre.

As mentioned about, Front Mission is super good. You can sink 50+ hours into that game. I would say that Front Mission is a hidden gem because it is hard to find and many people didn't know it came out on the DS.
Etrian Odyessy, the whole series, is pretty darn good - if a tad unforgiving. Though they added some easier modes in the later games.
Most of the Final Fantasy games and Final Fantasy Tactics games are pretty solid. I personally enjoy the tactics games more and I still play Final Fantasy Tactics for the GBA and Final Fantasy Tactics A2 for the DS.
Most of SMT games are good. I'm currently playing SMT4 for the 3DS.
For the waifu fans, or if you are like my wife - farming fans, the Rune Factory games are fun trip.
I know people either love or hate them, but I really enjoy Fire Emblem.

I played and beat Orcs and Elves in about 8 hours. I bought the game for 9$ so I consider that a good investment. It had a certain charm to it.
Dark Spire was pretty good, but is even more punishing than EO series.

I need to think about it some more...

 

[Crooked Bee]

There are sooooo many good DS and 3DS games out there. Heck, I even still play some GBA games too, like Tactics Ogre.

As mentioned about, Front Mission is super good. You can sink 50+ hours into that game. I would say that Front Mission is a hidden gem because it is hard to find and many people didn't know it came out on the DS.
Etrian Odyessy, the whole series, is pretty darn good - if a tad unforgiving. Though they added some easier modes in the later games.
Most of the Final Fantasy games and Final Fantasy Tactics games are pretty solid. I personally enjoy the tactics games more and I still play Final Fantasy Tactics for the GBA and Final Fantasy Tactics A2 for the DS.
Most of SMT games are good. I'm currently playing SMT4 for the 3DS.
For the waifu fans, or if you are like my wife - farming fans, the Rune Factory games are fun trip.
I know people either love or hate them, but I really enjoy Fire Emblem.

I played and beat Orcs and Elves in about 8 hours. I bought the game for 9$ so I consider that a good investment. It had a certain charm to it.
Dark Spire was pretty good, but is even more punishing than EO series.

I need to think about it some more...

You were just supposed to do a top 5 DS RPG list, Anthony

 

[Anthony Davis]

There are sooooo many good DS and 3DS games out there. Heck, I even still play some GBA games too, like Tactics Ogre.

As mentioned about, Front Mission is super good. You can sink 50+ hours into that game. I would say that Front Mission is a hidden gem because it is hard to find and many people didn't know it came out on the DS.
Etrian Odyessy, the whole series, is pretty darn good - if a tad unforgiving. Though they added some easier modes in the later games.
Most of the Final Fantasy games and Final Fantasy Tactics games are pretty solid. I personally enjoy the tactics games more and I still play Final Fantasy Tactics for the GBA and Final Fantasy Tactics A2 for the DS.
Most of SMT games are good. I'm currently playing SMT4 for the 3DS.
For the waifu fans, or if you are like my wife - farming fans, the Rune Factory games are fun trip.
I know people either love or hate them, but I really enjoy Fire Emblem.

I played and beat Orcs and Elves in about 8 hours. I bought the game for 9$ so I consider that a good investment. It had a certain charm to it.
Dark Spire was pretty good, but is even more punishing than EO series.

I need to think about it some more...

You were just supposed to do a top 5 DS RPG list, Anthony

Man... I didn't get any sleep last night.

Just DS games... ok.

EDIT: IMMA CHANGIN MY VOTE!

1. Front Mission
2. Radiant Historia (Final Fantasy gets plenty of lovin elsewhere, we don't need to do it here).
3. Dragon Quest VI (I cant remember if these are Dragon Quest or Dragon Warrior, I'd have to go dig'em out)
4. Dragon Quest IX (I cant remember if these are Dragon Quest or Dragon Warrior, I'd have to go dig'em out)
and...
5. Etrian Odyessy

 

[felipepepe]

Ok, here are the current results:

So, what we do with this now? Since we are 18 voters, I suggest that games n° 2-10 get a short paragraph review by two people each, and then everyone that voted for Devil Survivor writes a short paragraph about it as well. What you think, Crooked Bee ?

EDIT: Changed Ligthbane's votes.

EDIT 2: Changed Anthony Davis votes.

 

[Anthony Davis]

AGH! I forgot about Radiant Historia! I loved that game!

 

[lightbane]

lightbane bro, you can't vote for 8 games, with 3 of them tied on first place... please just rank 5.

Jeez, okay. I have edited my choices.

 

[felipepepe]

AGH! I forgot about Radiant Historia! I loved that game!

If you want to change your vote to include it, I'm cool.

Would help me even, since SOMEONE only voted for 3 games, and only Devil Survivor got in the Top 10, so there's no other game for him to write about...

 

[SCO]

I love you too felipe.

Devil Survivor 1:
caveat: This game has a enhanced version on the 3DS, which includes most of the interface enhancements of Devil Survivor 2, such as a demon compendium to save special demons, voice acting, a new 'day' that serves as a epilogue of whichever of the multiple endings of the game you choose and a newgame+ point system that unlocks various bonuses such as harder difficulties, special demons etc.
This is basically a megami tensei series game, with demon summoning, demon fusion, abilities equipping and standard MT blob combat.
But it also has a tactical movement phase of multiple teams of summoner+demons in between combat turns. You can do what you'd expect during the tactical phase, such as various forms of buffing, dismissing and summoning demons, movement tricks, attack+move abilities etc.
Which quite frankly is a breath of fresh air on the positively mummified megami tensei series. In between battles, the game takes the social element of the persona series, which as mentioned affect party availability and endings. The fusion interface was revamped to be accessible, which means no more FAQ checking or if you're insane, memorization of the crossbreeding matrix. Now, you can set conditions for the final demons such as 'ancestors only from owned demons', or the race of it, which makes fusion manipulation easy. Since i always thought that the SMT games semi-random fusion minigame was pathetic i welcome the decline here. I won't deny it makes it quite easy to target a ability to savescum into your team (and some later combat rewards give the ability to 'clear' demon abilities set, or inherit a particular one that the ancestors didn't have, giving almost total flexibility to the build), but the old style mechanics infuriated me too many times for me to care (for instance ancestor level affects the resulting demon on the megami tensei series).
Later stages have enemy reinforcements, area hazards and immune to almost everything bosses, although as usual, you can build your team the same.

Radiant Historia:
A jrpg that feels like a puzzle game. The game uses a time/dimension travel mechanic for narrative advancement and exploration of alternatives; similar to Chrono Trigger. Unlike Chrono Trigger, it is unfortunately strictly linear, requiring you to progress to the game 'ultimate ending' to see a proper ending that is not a text-box synopsis - there are quite a lot dead end synopsis and some would make interesting exploration but the game cuts off the branches at the decision point without mercy, except on one or two cases where it allows you to move on one or two steps before the hatchet comes down. This is never confusing (or surprising) because the interface includes a map that shows the branchings, and completed sidequests and allows you to move to any part of the double timeline at wiil (which is the major puzzle element). Puzzles follow the pattern of doing something on timeline A to affect something on timeline B, which really doesn't make sense, but you roll with it.
As for plot, it starts of with a conflict of two powers, that turns into a personal conflict, jrpg style. A shame since the start was unusual among console games and the ending is typical. No random encounters, just 'touch' encounters and standard tb jrpg combat system with knockbacks which increase damage and allow single strikes to hit multiple enemies - it becomes quite repetitive since that is the best strategy. There are some challenge bosses in the end game that push the system to its limits, but nothing exceptional.