Just bought my first handheld system since the GB Color, whats worth getting?

[chainer1216]

Its a 3DS to be specific, and to be even more specific I'm looking at what RPGs are worth getting? anything from previous generations, that can be played on the 3DS?

[Ogremindes]

The device is compatible with original DS carts, and between DS and 3DS there's a lot out there. My favorites are the Shin Megami Tensei games: Strange Journey on the DS, SMT 4 on 3DS, Devil Survivor and Devil Survivor 2 on DS with 3DS remakes. SMT are modern, post apocalyptic occult-themed RPGs with monster collecting (SMT did it before Pokémon).

Rune Factory is another of my favorite series: RF3 on DS and RF4 on 3DS are the best of them IMO. These are a mix of Harvest Moon-style farming sim with ARPG, and it works well.

What else... Pokémon is consistently good, I played White Version 2 not long ago. The DS Castlevania games have substantial RPG elements and are also recommended. I haven't played The World Ends With You, but I know it's well regarded and strange, I also haven't played Bravely Default, but I hear it's a good, old school Final Fantasy essentially. The Etrian Oddessy games are good first-person dungeon crawlers (but the only game related to that series I've played all the way through is the Etrian-style Persona spin-off Persona Q).

A thing to keep in mind is that 3DS games are region locked, but original DS games are not.

[Ninja_Grand]

Also, Monster hunter 4 ultimate is amazing, but I recommend you try the free demo first, as its not for everyone. You hunt big monsters with a bunch of weapons, grind their parts, and make better weapons. Some folks dont like the grind, others dont like the combat. But get that demo, as its 3 full hunts.

[tonberrian]

The device is compatible with original DS carts, and between DS and 3DS there's a lot out there. My favorites are the Shin Megami Tensei games: Strange Journey on the DS, SMT 4 on 3DS, Devil Summoner and Devil Summoner 2 on DS with 3DS remakes. SMT are modern, post apocalyptic occult-themed RPGs with monster collecting (SMT did it before Pokémon).

Devil Survivor, not Summoner. Devil Summoner is a different subseries (though SMT: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers is available on 3DS).

---

I liked the DS remakes of Dragon Quest 4, 5, and 6, and 7 is getting a 3DS remake soon. I also liked Dragon Quest Monsters Joker (and Joker 2), which are monster-collecting games that focus on Dragon Quest monsters. Etrian Odyssey games are old-school map-making fun - 1 and 2 got remakes on the 3DS as The Millenium Girl and The Fafnir Knight respectively, with a story mode with set characters in addition to the traditional build your own party mode. EO 3 is available on DS, 4 is on 3DS, and 5 is on the way (can't speak for Mystery Dungeon). Fire Emblem Awakening and Fire Emblem Fates are both available on 3DS and are fun tactical rpgs.

[Hiro Protagonest]

I recommend Etrian Odyssey 4, Untold, and/or Untold 2. The Untold ones are remakes of the first two. They're greatly updated and also have a Story Mode, which I actually do not recommend, as the main draw is Classic Mode where you make your own heroes. There's a wide variety of classes for your heroes to be. It is a series of first-person RPGs where you draw a map of this huge mega-dungeon that is 99 floors and combat is similar to the old Wizardry series. EO4 does not actually have a mega-dungeon, instead being a bunch of caves and labyrinths that you reach by flying around in an airship.

Rune Factory 4 is the best offering of the Rune Factory series, with 3 coming in at a close second. They are essentially about being a hero who lives in a small town in a fantasy world. You're a strong warrior, but you also actually live in this town, and you have a frickin' job (you're a farmer), so the game does a lot to make the town great. The rest of the series isn't really worth looking into, being much clunkier in gameplay and/or shallower in writing (Frontier and Tides of Destiny might have good writing, but they're incredibly slow and kinda clunky. Also, they're not on the 3DS).

I'd also recommend looking into Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons, I haven't played those games myself.

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate is about gathering herbs and cooking steaks. Oh, and I guess you kill monsters too. I only spent way too much time killing Magalas to get those frickin' feelers and plates... sigh. The monsters are really resilient and can throw you for a loop on the first hunt of a new monster, the game is all about learning the monsters' patterns and knowing when to be aggressive. There's quite a variety of weapons at your disposal as well.

[JustPlayItLoud]

All the 3DS compatible Pokemon games are good, at least the main series games. Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, Black/White 1 & 2, and X & Y are all super fun. The Gold/Silver and Ruby/Sapphire remakes are good too. Bravely Default was pretty awesome. There are a bunch of Final Fantasy remakes/rereleases that are pretty good. The three DS Castelvania games were all really entertaining for a more action/RPG thing.

[Zevox]

As mentioned, there's a lot. A short list of my top recommendations would be:

3DS
Fire Emblem: Fates - This just came out and I'm playing it right now, and enjoying it immensely. The story isn't any better than usual for series, but the gameplay is excellent, even for this series. It made a fair few changes to the formula, all for the better I think. Well, aside from the part where there's three versions of it, but nothing you can do about that.

Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth - Only if you have played Persona 3 and 4, or never intend to do so, because it will spoil things about those amazing games. It's a crossover game between their two casts, very dungeon-crawling heavy, but a lot of fun just with how the characters interact as well. I was hesitant about picking it up and skipped it when it released because I wasn't sure if I'd take to the Etrian Odyssey gameplay style, but when I finally did play it, I loved it.

Tales of the Abyss - This is a remake of a game I actually played on the PS2, but it's one of my favorite Tales titles, so I have to mention it. No idea how easy or hard it is to find these days though.

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 1 & 2 - These were originally DS games, but got expanded remakes for the 3DS. I actually don't have the 3DS versions since I played the originals, but since the expanded versions exist now, no reason not to get them instead. I'd call them the best non-Persona SMT games, and say the first one is a little better than the second, but both are quite good.

Fire Emblem: Awakening - The predecessor to Fates, this game gave the franchise a significant popularity boost, and for good reason. It's darn fun. One warning though is that it has balance issues: the pair-up system that was introduced in this game was pretty broken (it got overhauled into something more balanced and interesting in Fates), and you were able to basically infinitely grind your characters if you wanted to since class-changing reset your level to 1 but didn't dock your stats, just changed them a bit based on what class you were from and into.

DS
The World Ends With You - IMO the last truly great game made by Square-Enix (ignoring remakes). The combat system is weird and heavily involves the touch screen, but you get used to it and it becomes a lot of fun, and the story is unique and engaging.

Radiant Historia - A game centering on time-travel between two timelines to manipulate history, which even incorporates time-travel into its combat by letting you affect turn order. Very unique and fun.

Others that I'd recommend:
The Mario & Luigi series (Partners in Time and Bowser's Inside story on DS, Dream Team on 3DS) - A comedic Mario RPG series that's simple and fun. There's also a new one on the 3DS which is a crossover with the Paper Mario series, Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, but I haven't played that because I actually didn't realize it came out until a couple of weeks after it did, at which point Fire Emblem was coming too quick for me to want to pick it up immediately.

The Dragon Quest series (4, 5, 6, and 9 on DS) - This is the old-school JRPG series, as classic as they come. 4-6 are remakes, 9 was originally created of the DS - though personally I'd recommend the older titles, especially 5 and 6, over 9. In addition there's a 3DS remake of 8 that is supposed to get released internationally this year, and personally I think that's the best game in the series, so assuming nothing got screwed up in moving it to the handheld system I'd highly recommend that one. Oh, and 11 is for some reason getting both a PS4 and 3DS version, but don't expect that anytime soon - it doesn't even have a release date in Japan yet, and the rest of the world always has to wait a while for Dragon Quest titles after Japan gets them, if we get them at all.

Other Shin Megami Tensei titles (Strange Journey on DS, 4 on 3DS) - These are basically main series SMT titles, with a post-apocalyptic world in the latter and something that could threaten an apocalypse in the former, and heavy dungeon crawling and difficult gameplay in both. I actually prefer Strange Journey to 4, but a large part of that is being burned on how ridiculous they made the requirements for the ending I wanted in 4. (I actually gave up on finishing the game because of how bad that was.)

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood - Yes, I actually recommend this. If you like Sonic and don't find the thought of him being in a turn-based game to be blasphemy, it's actually pretty fun. Not great by any means, but worth playing.

Non-RPG titles I recommend:
3DS
Kid Icarus: Uprising - Early in the system's life, this was the reason to own a 3DS. Everything about it is very fun, gameplay and writing. It's a wonderful example of how to revive and modernize an old series.

Super Smash Brothers - Do I need to say anything besides the title? If you know what this is, you know whether you're interested or not already. Still has to be mentioned, though.

The Legend of Zelda - There's remakes of Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, plus the 3DS-original A Link Between Worlds. Oh, and on the DS there's Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks (I think the former is better than the latter). Like with Smash, what besides the title do I really need to say?

DS
The Ace Attorney series - Most of the series is on the DS, with the newest title, Dual Destinies, being a download-only 3DS title. It's comedic courtroom drama that is just a ton of fun.

The Zero Escape series - Actually two games with one on each system. The first is 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors on the DS, the second is Virtue's Last Reward on the 3DS. Basically a series of visual novels where the gameplay is all puzzle-solving, but the plot is... well, kind of nuts, but pretty well-written generally. I can honestly say that I do not know whether the ending of the second game is brilliant or total BS, but either way the game was damn entertaining, and honestly I think the first one is probably even a bit better than the second.

The Advance Wars series - You have Dual Strike as the final entry in the classic version of the series, and Days of Ruin as the more serious reboot. Dual Strike is probably the more well-regarded game, but has some definite balance issues which Days of Ruin does a good job of reigning in. But Days of Ruin trades in the entire cast and style for ones that aren't as fun, and does make at least one major gameplay change I can say I dislike. I'd say try Dual Strike first, and give Days of Ruin a shot if you like it.

Mega Man Zero Collection, ZX, and ZX Advent - Yes, there are Mega Man games here! And they're pretty darn good. The Zero Collection is actually four GBA games in one DS cartridge, which makes it great value, while the ZX games are DS originals.

[OracleofWuffing]

Seconding two titles that have been mentioned previously, Bravely Default (3DS) and The World Ends With You (DS). Bravely Default is a turn-based Japanese or Console RPG that plays very similarly to Final Fantasy 5, which means your characters collect classes and abilities as you play which you mix and match to customize your combat play. There is a point in the title where things intentionally get repetitive, however, at any point in the game you can turn off random monster encounters to ease the boredom. Back in the day, it had a free demo on the eShop, which will give you the ability to experience the combat mechanics before you buy it.

Bravely Default is also getting a sequel, Bravely Second, in the near future. Unfortunately, it sounds like the localization team will be making significant changes in its storyline in releases outside of Japan, because it is the year 2016 and that is still a thing.

The World Ends With You is not a traditional RPG- in fact, almost nothing in the game should be described as traditional- but the heavy mechanics of buying gear and attacks which can be levelled up through certain ways and utilizing said gear and attacks in conjunction with each other in synergistic ways should appeal regardless. Battles are done in real-time on a closed map that you have open movement on, with attacks you do based on stylus gestures, while simultaneously occurring on the top screen where your partner has limited mobility and attacks with control pad inputs in a pseudo-not-really-turn-based-matter. I know that sounds a like a bit of a head scratcher, but you can also just set your partner to be controlled by AI which does a fairly OK job and focus only on the touchscreen battles.

And if we're gonna suggest non-traditional RPGs, I'm throwing Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime on the pile. It's a goofy Secret of Mana/Zelda-ish type game where you're a slime that stretches and snaps himself into things to throw around, and the things you throw around can be collected and used to build a "deck" that determines ammunition for a tank that is used for boss battles. Disclaimer: Contains really bad puns.

Chrono Trigger also had a DS port, if you didn't get around to it on the SNES. It has fewer endings than the original, but more material otherwise.

I've heard good things about a 3DS game called Legend of Legacy, which also has a free demo out. Unfortunately, haven't had the time to give it a try.

[Winthur]

The Ace Attorney series - Most of the series is on the DS, with the newest title, Dual Destinies, being a download-only 3DS title. It's comedic courtroom drama that is just a ton of fun.

I don't think this description does the series full justice (heh). AA plays like a detective/investigative game with point'n'click adventure elements and logic-based puzzles. Yes, it is a ton of fun, especially if you like crime shows/novels. Has a good, pump-me-up soundtrack.

In the same vein, there's Ghost Trick, also for DS, made by the brains behind AA, which is pretty fun if you like adventures of its kind.

[Gnoman]

The Final Fantasy IV remake was nearly perfect, and the Final Fantasy III one wasn't too bad.



Chrono Trigger also had a DS port, if you didn't get around to it on the SNES. It has fewer endings than the original, but more material otherwise.


It's also been retranslated, and the added content is pretty bad. I'd suggest a pass unless the OP literally never got around to playing it before.



I'd also recommend looking into Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons, I haven't played those games myself.


Note that Story of Seasons is the continuation of the original Harvest Moon games - the developer switched NA publishers and had to change the name (to a translation of the Japanese original) because Natsume owned the "Harvest Moon" name. Natsume has developed at least one Harvest Moon entirely independently.

[Zevox]

I don't think this description does the series full justice (heh). AA plays like a detective/investigative game with point'n'click adventure elements and logic-based puzzles. Yes, it is a ton of fun, especially if you like crime shows/novels. Has a good, pump-me-up soundtrack.
Eh, there were so many games I was listing that I was keeping the descriptions short where I could.

Definitely right (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wq1jknZp0ic) about (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpTQ7fr2yeM) the soundtrack (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUwJfVn9Nq4) I'd say.