RPGs are better on portable systems for a few good reasons. They allow players to multitask while they grind for levels and theNintendo DSis certainly home to many a great RPG. There are some Nintendo classic franchises such as the variousPokemontitles along with Mario’s RPG adventures.
Then there were more unique titles that took advantage of the system’s touchscreen like The World Ends With You. For every AAA game like those examples, there was also something on the lower end. The DS received a lot of RPGs in its early years and some remain completely forgotten to time. That doesn’t mean they are necessarily bad though as we will see.
There have been many attempts from developers over the years to make a spiritual sequel toEarthBound. Before the indie scene took off withgames likeUndertale,Contactwas here. It began with a professor and his dog inside a spaceship before they landed on Earth.
They took a young child inside who fell off the ship in transit and landed on an island. The gameplay mostly resemblesan action RPGand players could level up in a typical fashion. Interactions with the professor and and his dog often broke the fourth wall though, creating a truly bizarre experience with some relatively clever uses of the DS at the time. It’s a bit of an Isekai too.
Deep Labyrinthis a betterexample of an Isekaisince it has an anime opening and everything. It began with a young boy driving to a mansion with his parents. Once he got inside, a portal swallowed him up and transported him to a mysterious and colorful new land.
He meets a god-like platypus that gives him powers and tasks him with going through a series of dungeons to escape. It’s a first-person dungeon crawler with action combat. Players could swing weapons, protect themselves with a shield, or cast spells by tracing patterns with the Stylus on the DS’ bottom screen. It was a fine dungeon crawler experience, but there were certainly better ones on the system later likeEtrian Odyssey.
TheLunarseries began in 1992 as a Sega CD exclusive. It got a sequel along with a litany of ports between the two games for years. Eventually, there was a push to make another sequel viaLunar: Dragon Songin 2005. It’s actually a prequel, set a thousand years before the first game and it stars a young delivery boy named Jian and his friend Lucia.
The battle system, in terms of gameplay and aesthetics, looks a lot liketheSuikodengames. However, leveling up is far different. Players can choose to swap between two modes. One will grant players items in battle and the other will give characters EXP to level up. This branching battle system is a good reason why perhaps this RPG didn’t pick up a lot of steam on DS.
Mage Knight: Destiny’s Soldieris an RPG that puts gameplay over story. Players can begin as one of five characters including Marcus, Deroc, Serio, Hangart, and Andiron. They all had classes and specialties. Marcus was basically a Ranger as he was skilled with bow combat.
At various places in towns, players could hire recruits to follow their main character into battle. Characters could be slid around maps like ina tactical RPGand take actions depending on dice rolls. Virtually everything in the game was handled with the Stylus, making it a very active experience.
Magical Starsignwas a game developed by Brownie Brown who worked on some oftheManagameslikeSword of Manaon Game Boy Advance. Speaking of the GBA,Magical Starsignis a sequel toMagical Vacationwhich was a GBA RPG never released outside of Japan. This makes the whole series obscure which is a shame because both games are delightful, lighthearted RPGs even though the scores are lower.
LikeMage Knight: Destiny’s Soldier, almost everything is controlled via the Stylus even the dialogue prompts. Battles are typical turn-based affairs although the character limit was big and all heroes could perform a wide range of moves. Also, at the start, players could choose between a male or female avatar along with aligning themselves with either Dark or Light magic.
Scurge: Hiveis a hidden gem on two systems as it launched on both the DS and GBA in 2006. That was late for the GBA and both games are virtually the same both graphically and in terms of gameplay. The biggest advantage of the DS is the map at the bottom of the screen.
The game begins aboard a ship run by Jenosa, which gets overtaken by an alien parasite. After fighting the aliens off, the ship crash lands on a nearby planet andthe Metroidvania adventurebegins. Jenosa could level up by defeating enemies in action combat, starting with a basic blaster but more weapons, abilities, and gadgets would unlock along the way. Of the games in this list, Scurge: Hive is the one that should get the most attention.
