Current Events > The RPG catalog for Nintendo DS was insane

(+) Yeah! (+)

started reminiscing about the DS days and now Im itching to get one again just so I can replay some of the RPGs that were available for it. Dragon Quest 9, TWEWY, all of the pokemon/mystery dungeon games, ports of FF4 and Chrono trigger, remake of the original fire emblem, etc. Such a killer lineup

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You mention Dragon Quest 9, but not 4-6?

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Jeff AKA Snoopy posted...

You mention Dragon Quest 9, but not 4-6?

I actually never played 4-6! I absolutely loved 9. Im thinking Ill try and snag a used DS here in the near future so Ill try and get copies of those too

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Lunar Dragon Song sucks. Avoid.

Conflict posted...

There's also Radiant Historia although the 3DS version is arguably better

it's not arguable, it is better

Dragon Quest 4-6 are fucking dope, especially 4 and 5.

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disgaea ds was on that thing
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Mentioning DS and RPGs in the same sentence without naming Radiant Historia should be punishable by death.

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HagenEx posted...

Mentioning DS and RPGs in the same sentence without naming Radiant Historia should be punishable by death.

aw jeez..

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Try_Another___ posted...

remake of the original fire emblem

Shadow Dragon gets way too much flak considering it does have actual good writing, even if it's a little bit sparse. Also it has the best written version of Marth, change my mind. Spoiler: you can't.
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Kircheis posted...

Shadow Dragon gets way too much flak considering it does have actual good writing, even if it's a little bit sparse. Also it has the best written version of Marth, change my mind. Spoiler: you can't.

I dug it just for the fact that it sort of allowed american audiences to contextualize the fire emblem series a little more, considering that most westerners probably never played the original

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Try_Another___ posted...

I dug it just for the fact that it sort of allowed american audiences to contextualize the fire emblem series a little more, considering that most westerners probably never played the original

That is also a fair point. I started playing Mystery of the Emblem recently and even that game still has kind of a jank translation, so I can pretty confidently say that Shadow Dragon is the best way to experience "FE1".
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Kircheis posted...

That is also a fair point. I started playing Mystery of the Emblem recently and even that game still has kind of a jank translation, so I can pretty confidently say that Shadow Dragon is the best way to experience "FE1".

hard disagree, I enjoyed fe3's book 1 more than fe11 but I would concede that some of the supports in fe11 were a nice addition

Kircheis posted...

Shadow Dragon gets way too much flak considering it does have actual good writing, even if it's a little bit sparse. Also it has the best written version of Marth, change my mind. Spoiler: you can't.

Shadow Dragon is definitely a good game

Though from what I hear its version of Marth that people (myself included) like is mostly an invention of the localization team and his dialogue is much blander in the original script

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Reis posted...

hard disagree, I enjoyed fe3's book 1 more than fe11 but I would concede that some of the supports in fe11 were a nice addition

I will give the qualifier that I haven't actually played that much of it yet. Kind of hilarious how Caeda/Shiida has good enough weapon level to use the Silver Lance at base, I pretty much immediately went mad with power. Kinda thinking of skipping to Book 2 though, I've heard that part of the game actually has a good story. Especially since it'll be my first time seeing that story without Kris and all the shitty filler in FE12. Like, I enjoy playing that game, but I hate it so much at the same time.

Panthera posted...

Shadow Dragon is definitely a good game

Though from what I hear its version of Marth that people (myself included) like is mostly an invention of the localization team and his dialogue is much blander in the original script

Score 1 for the localization if that's true lol, Shadow Dragon Marth was a sassy little shit at times. Much better character than the whiny bitchbaby who gets casually shittalked by his sister in FE12.
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DS was right around the beginning of the "AAA" push, if I remember correctly.
Your options as a developer were to devote your budget on a bunch of games for DS and spread the risk, or blow a huge pile of money on "big boy" console game and probably go bankrupt if it flopped.

You could literally still play GBA Pokemon games on the DS and port those shits over to the DS games. That was probably the best era for Pokemon games.

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Panthera posted...

Shadow Dragon is definitely a good game

Though from what I hear its version of Marth that people (myself included) like is mostly an invention of the localization team and his dialogue is much blander in the original script

Probably for the better though, considering that the famicoms hardware capabilities were most likely a limiting factor in the dialogue too.

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I remember really liking Contact. Game was a super weird RPG but very creative.
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Contact was legit. There's also the Digimon games, which were pretty good. And I think we could count the Castlevania games since they had RPG elements. Those were also fantastic.

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Kircheis posted...

Score 1 for the localization if that's true lol, Shadow Dragon Marth was a sassy little shit at times.

Yeah for sure, I love the writing style in Shadow Dragon's English script. Just pointing out it's probably not quite what the writers actually intended (hence why it's such a jarring shift to see any other Marth appearance)

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I remember how much I was looking forward to Golden Sun Dark Dawn, and then it killed the series
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Infinite Space is a fantastic RPG for the DS. Didn't see it mentioned yet.

AvlButtslam posted...

I remember how much I was looking forward to Golden Sun Dark Dawn, and then it killed the series

The game sucked hard.

TiamatNM posted...

Infinite Space is a fantastic RPG for the DS.

I dunno.
It seems grossly overpriced and vastly overrated for a space-themed rock/paper/scissors simulator.

I never understood any love for DQ9. It felt boring. The characters had no soul and the story felt meh. Like its a fun game but definitely not even close to being some of the top rpgs.

XI was better with characters and story. I love 8 for that very reason. All the small stories with every town made it feel like I was in an anime.

dameon_reaper posted...

I never understood any love for DQ9.

It's a job system game. The player happens to the plot, instead of the other way around.

3DS was no slouch either, but the DS definitely killed it with the RPGs.

Also helped get me deeper into the Shin Megami Tensei games, since the DS line had quite a few of them.

ffmasterjose posted...

You could literally still play GBA Pokemon games on the DS and port those shits over to the DS games. That was probably the best era for Pokemon games.

Yep. Gens 3 thru 5 definitely had the best Pokemon games yet (Emerald, Platinum, HGSS, BW2).

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SerperiorThanU posted...

The one bad thing about the DS was how prone to breaking the system was, especially the shoulder buttons and theyd eventually stop reading the cartridges (although that might be influenced by action replay usage) I went through around 4 DSes.

the shoulder buttons were a huge problem for me on my DS lite and DSi.

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DS eventually ended up having a pretty solid library when it was all said and done. Definitely a haven for RPGs.

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