My initial thoughts of the DS, complete with its Nintendo Gimmick Stylus, was that it was a Junior Pokemon Power Ranger Machine (my affectionate nickname for the Wii that drives Jay up the wall). I had no desire to draw rainbows (for fear of pissing off these people) or successfully masturbate a virtual cat into ejaculation with a stylus, so the DS didn’t seem right for me. Of course, with a $200-ish pricetag and no games I like I didn’t seem like a PSP person either. I thought that my next generation future was the same as my high school prom future: bathroom abortion baby. Or more accurately, being date-less.
Then I started finding good RPG games on the DS. Etrian Odyssey (1 and 2), Chrono Trigger, Magical Starsign, Final Fantasy Tactics A2, Dragon Quest 4 (it gets a grudging “good” vote) and now Devil Survivor have all sucked me in. I had the desire to play nearly all of those games in my home, as opposed to on the go, which is the highest compliment a DS game can get from me–being the best available option in my house full of video game toys.
![](http://www.videolamer.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/dsrpg1.jpg)
When you think about it, RPGs, particularly tactical RPGs, are perfect for the DS. They almost always have deep gameplay, bite-sized battles, and make good use of the dual screens for displaying combat and party info. Beyond the occasional stupid mini-game, the stylus is largely used for directing your party and not childish exercises that accelerate the onset of carpal tunnel syndrome. The DS supports excellent 2-D graphics and even occasionally solid 3-D graphics (Avalon Code, for example) which is all an RPG really needs. The length of an RPG is another plus: with 20 hours of game play from most of these without sidequests, they are an exceptional value, even for marked up Square Enix games. That’s a lot of commuting hours per game.
So my nugget of Wisdom for today: keep the semi-adult RPGs coming on the DS. They’re perfectly suited for the console and more importantly, I like them.
You didn’t mention The World Ends With You so I took the liberty of making it the post’s image. And I think I hear Chris sprinting in here to write about Suikoden Tetris.
Suikoden Tierkreis and Black Sigil ;)
Overall, though, SMT Devil Survivor blows both out of the water. I’m glad to hear you’re playing it, because it’s a good game. Not only did I play it at home (like you said, high praise for a portable game), but I played it 2-3 hours a night too. Certainly kept my focus.