I said a while back that I was going to make a gigantic post about why I love my DS--the absolutely ridiculous number of good looking and interesting RPGs that people here might have missed, or don't know about.
Then I realized that there are WAY TOO MANY good looking DS games coming out soon. And I found
this forum, which did my job for me.
That said, some of them still stand head and shoulders above the crowd and deserve a mention.
First off:
Dragon Quest IX. Looks amazing. Originally, it was going to be an action RPG, because SE wanted to try it out, but a sudden storm of threatening letters made them decide to stick to turn based. The cel-shading looks gorgeous, and while no plot details are forthcoming, I feel confident that the story will be interesting. It's Dragon Quest, by law it can't be anything else.
Next up:
Suikoden Tierkreis. Yes, the next Suikoden game is on the DS. Yes, the combat characters look somewhat-chibi like. And yes *raises flameshield* they're setting the game in an alternate universe. No True Runes, no Jeanne, no enormous backstory... *dives under couch* Sorry GH.
Still, game looks to have an interesting plot. Parallel worlds, interesting multiplayer interaction, the 108 Stars of Destiny, political intrigue, 104 of the Stars of Destiny getting slaughtered in the games opening... wait, what?
After that:
Valkyrie Profile: The Accursed One: Yes, the next VP is on the DS. This game is pretty interesting. You play as a kid who's father was made into an Einherjar, which led his family to poverty and his sister to death by malnutrition. He blames Lenneth Valkyrie (stupid kid. Her>>>You.) and vows revenge. He gets his chance when Hel (!!!) offers him an artifact: one of Lenneth Valkyrie's feathers. By using it, any party member can get a truly ridiculous stat boost, but DIE at the end of battle.
*sigh* Oh Valkyrie Profile, why do you always have us make hard decisions?
Hm... what next? Aha!
Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days tells the story of Organization XIII's Roxas, Key of Destiny. Exactly what happened to him during the year he spent apart from Sora? What led him to leave the Organization, and fight against Riku, and to the Twilight Town simulation? And who the hell is this fourteenth member? Time to find out. This game's major highlight is Kingdom Hearts multiplayer. A number of missions in the game have been made into multiplayer stages, and supposedly we'll be free to use any member of Organization XIII in them.
My Luxord vs. your Axel, NGD. :snigger:
Phantasy Star for the longest time was the second most popular RPG series on the planet. Unlike Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy, it hasn't aged well. It's last remake was bland, to say the least. They could've done *so* much better. But I digress.
Phantasy Star Zero looks like it's going to be a direct prequel to the much loved late Phantasy Star Online. And yes, this is still a DS game. Like the original Phantasy Star Online, PS0 has three races and fourteen distinct classes. Unlike the original, the characters, classes and races are being designed by Toshiyuki Kubooka, the man who designed the characters in Lunar. Expect more fantasy-esque gear.
SMT: Devil Survivor is the next Megami Tensei game... and it's on the DS. Oh yes. You're a high school kid who's unlucky enough to be stuck in Tokyo right when the freaky shit starts to go down. Classic SMT--Tokyo demon apocalypse. Anyway, you've got a weird little game device that functions as your comp, allowing you to make demon contracts and all that. Like I said, classic SMT--we're hitting SNES era old-school.
And yes, there is a new Tales game for DS.
Tales of Hearts is the third DS Tales game in about three years, which I think is a record. In fact, if this keeps up, there will be more DS Tales games than PS(2) games, and that's just ridiculous. Anyway, this one doesn't jump out at me in any way, but it has the old school 2D battle system, which I've always liked. Plotwise, a dream devouring monster has recently attacked the continent ruling empire. Much like Heartless, these "Zerom" attack a person and invade their heart (called Spira in-game). (Dear God, Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy X and Kingdom Hearts at the same time! Good show Namco!) People's hearts have created "mazes" of sorts to guard themselves from these creatures, and only people with the power of "Soma" (oh, come on, Soma Bringer too!?!) can enter these mazes.
... Wow. Namco, you guys have balls to try and rip off of Square-Enix that badly.
Jokes aside, this game looks somewhat interesting, not the least because two versions of the game are being released: one with CGI cutscenes, and one with the traditional Tales anime cutscenes.
Ninokuni is a game I know nothing about but will get anyway. I'll import the thing if I have to. Why? Two words: STUDIO (FREAKING) GHIBLI. Yes, this is the first game that Ghibli is helping with. Part of Level-5's anniversary releases, Ninokuni is about a kid with a magic book, who enters another world to find a cure for his mother's sickness. Cute, right? Here's the catch: the book is real. Every copy of hte game (in Japan) ships with a copy of the same magic book in the game, and in your book are the shapes you need to draw in order to cast spells.
Lastly, there's
Infinite Space, made by Platinum Games. What, never heard of them? Let me ask you this: does the word "Clover Studios" mean anything to you? Yes, they're still working on games (thank God!). Anyway, Infinite Space is based on
Childhood's End.
I'll give you a moment to process that.
Arthur C. Clarke has inspired a videogame. We are approaching Kamina levels of awesome.
This game features over 150 ship designs, a similar number of NPC crewmembers (recruitable), 3D spaceship combat, a main campaign stretching across two in game galaxies and a multiplayer head-to-head mode.
I think we left Kamina in the dust. The only thing that could be more awesome would be if the game had Wi-Fi PvP combat.
I found a link to the game's anime cutscene
trailer, if that's your thing. Looks good.
Is it just me, or are there significantly more DS RPGs to look forward to than all kinds of console games? And has anyone noticed exactly how many awesome RPG series are headed for the DS? I am in awe.
