Topic: Good 3DS RPG's For Short Bursts "Under 1 hour per session"?

The Denpa Men games are made with this purpose in mind. They're pretty great, cheap and perfect for playing just for a few minutes or an hour here or there.

From my experience Etrian Odyssey IV is good for short bursts, and nothing's wrong with a quick map in Fire Emblem: Awakening.

This. During my 100-plus-hour-playtime of that game, I always randomly found twenty minutes time to work a bit on my skills at one of the occupations.

It's a lovely game, you won't regret it.

Has no-one mentioned Bravely Default or Tales of The Abyss yet? Those!

Tales of the Abyss is a fantastic RPG, but I would really not recommend playing it in short bursts. There's no quick save option, and story is given in large, meaty chunks as opposed to bite-sized pieces.

For something that hasn't been mentioned, Legend of the River King? It's pretty unique for an RPG (the heavy emphasis on fishing & all), and being a VC game, it simply automatically saves it's place when you need to put it down.

Also, the TC (in a later post) mentioned that they already have TotA (and since they played it on PS2 first, they knew exactly how to plan their gametime with it).

I dunno if I agree with that. Ok so the actual breaking up of the story is into long sections of cutscenes and narrative, sure. But the OP did say 1 hour, not 10 minutes. Whilst Tales of the Abyss is still structured like a console game, nearly all of the Tales games have fairly light stories. You know, there aren't 10 different strands of narrative you need to remember each time you pick them up. There aren't particularly heavy subjects being dealt with that require a slow breaking-in. I guess it ultimately comes down to how each individual experiences a particular game but personally, I find Tales games far easier to play in small chunks than something like Final Fantasy or Xenoblade Chronicles. Those really do need a few hours at a time.

I have to agree with Tales of the Abyss. My 3DSXL says that my average play session for that game was about 55 minutes, so it sounds perfect for what you're looking for. It's also a great RPG and one of my favourites in the Tales series.

The only 3DS RPG I can recommend with complete confidence is Etrian Odyssey IV.

Can it be played in short bursts? Yes, I'd say so. Each time you head is like a little mission. You frequently have to return to town to sell off your items and make new equipment become available anyway, so I'd say it fits the bill.

Bravely Default- usually you can find save points in a dungeon within an hour of each other.
Fire Emblem Awakening- You can save it anytime mid battle, but even so usually one map takes about an hour so it's perfect.
Mario & Luigi Dream Team- Generous save points make this a perfect candidate.

That's my two cents.

Finally getting around to playing this now, and it's awesome. Yeah, the handholding is a little much, but I fell in love with this series after Bowser's Inside Story. So good. The goofiness of the Bros. really does make me smile. Awesome game.

It will take me to Codename S.T.E.A.M., as I doubt I could start and finish another game before it's release date. Still need to really get into SMTIV...but I kinda want to play Persona Q.