Topic: Still Playing 3DS in 2022?

@TommyTendo I agree. I never take my Switch out the house and it just doesn’t feel like a true handheld to me, not like the 3DS.

@Maximumbeans
Ahem...
There was Switch Lite with smaller size and lighter weight.
Also let's not forget PSP and PS Vita, handhelds by Sony in single screen.

3DS hands down my favorite console. Got it when I was prob 13 and the OG 3DS was still relatively new. Now I’m rockin’ a Lunala and Solgaleo themed N3DS XL that I got for Christmas. I’ve played 3DS regularly for over a decade and I’m still not tired of it. I take my 3DS with me whenever I know I’ll be out the house or stuck in the car for extended periods of time. I would list all of my favorite games on the system but I realized it would probably be longer than the post itself. For me this is handheld perfection, from the games right down to the system settings menu music. I adore the 3DS.

Yeah I respect what they were going for with the Lite, but for people like me it just didn't work. It wasn't enough to replace the 3DS as my go-to handheld and at the same time it lost a lot of what made the Switch what it is. Good choice for people who want a more portable Switch though.

It's so mad to me that the 3DS spans your life from 13 to 23 and you can still play the same modern games. For me to do the same thing would be like playing the GBA back when I was like 24, which I could have done but the GBA was considerably aged by then. The 3DS still feels so modern.
I know what I'm trying to say but I think I've butchered my point somewhere.

Agree 1000% the 3DS remains my favorite console of all time by far and nothing even comes remotely close, not even the Switch.
I play games on it daily and never get tired, there are still so many games on it I have yet to play and are on my backlog.
Hacking the console reignites it's lifespan and appreciation for it.

I don't think the Lite was supposed to be a replacement for the 3DS, the 3DS was well overshadowed by the time it came out. I'm pretty sure it was just supposed to be a more affordable version of the Switch that's more kid friendly like the 2DS was to the 3DS.
And of course it won't have the same level of portability that the 3DS did since it's much larger and doesn't have a clamshell design; it's a home console first and hybrid second.

No, I know all that - the reply I was responding to was arguing the existence of the Lite against my gripes with the Switch not feeling like a true handheld. I'm aware that Nintendo weren't necessarily angling for 3DS users.

Yeah, I'm still playing the 3DS after discovering the SMT universe through SMT Nocturne on my PC and SMT V on my Switch. My 3DS was initially bought for the sake of playing Animal Crossing: New Leaf during an earlier phase of my life when I was still into AC:NH, since I heard New Leaf is still the best AC game to date, but I never got around to it. Glad my 3DS still serves a purpose though, albeit for an entirely different franchise.

I'm surprised how many SMT games there were on the 3DS. Even the older titles that were on the DS like Devil Survivor got remade into 3DS format, so there's plenty of 3DS SMT content waiting for me since I pretty much bought them all off Amazon.

I think one reason why I'm in this current stage of my gaming life is also because it's still a console that's aged well enough compared to older consoles featuring other SMT titles. For example, I'm kinda reluctant to buy a PS2 to play Digital Devil Saga or Raidou vs King Abaddon because... PS2 graphics (plus, I heard DDS' combat is kinda clunky and didn't age well), whereas 3DS graphics has still aged well enough in 2022. The audio too; the voice acting, music and audio quality have all aged remarkably well too. Even if it's kinda soft sometimes, I just need to plug in my headphones.

I think the Switch is great, but unfortunately, it's a relatively new console and none of the titles gripped me as much as the SMT 3DS titles. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 was lackluster; Pokémon Snap felt tedious; Animal Crossing: New Horizons is boring playing alone (and lacking in features compared to New Leaf). I feel kinda cynical towards modern game development and just the entertainment industry as a whole, so that might contribute to my disinterest towards the Switch titles as well. I think the 3DS arrived at a time when game devs still cared about quality over profitability - they're often mutually exclusive in this day and age.

On the plus side, the Switch does come with its own convenience the 3DS can't provide, like featuring certain visual novel titles like Fata Morgana Special Edition and Chaos;Head Noah (already pre-ordered the latter, coming in October!). Whereas handheld platforms like Vita satisfied my visual novel interests, I can't really think off the top of my head any notable 3DS titles. But that's where the Switch comes in and fill that niched interest of mine. Now if only Nintendo would localize more of the VN titles that are available on Switch in Japan... I'm also looking forward to buying Fire Emblem: Three Houses someday. But I digress.

Where will I go next after finishing all my SMT titles on the 3DS? Will I put it in storage, never to play it again? Perhaps, but that won't happen until a very long time, as I have plenty of New Game+ waiting for me on each of these 3DS titles. Plus, I've barely started New Leaf yet, so there's that waiting for me.

@Maxenmus nice I just finished SMTIV this year, it was the first SMT mainline game I finished.

I’ve been playing through some Atlus games myself recently like Radiant Historia, I’m only two hours in, but the battle system is very fun and innovative so far. I’ve also been playing through PullBloxs I’m on puzzle 45 it’s a very fun game, intelligent systems where truly the masters of the 3DS

Nice. I've heard of RH; it's definitely one of those JRPGs people recommend when asked about the best JRPGs for newcomers to JRPGs. I might try to pick it up myself.

The combat system in DDS is the same as in Nocturne. It's press-turn combat. The main difference is that you learn different abilities through a license board of sorts instead of collecting and fusing demons.

The DDS games also have fairly strong voice acting in general.

Psst...
Don't tell anybody if i'm playing Yokai Watch 3 Tempura 3DS during my bedtime. 🤫

@Ralizah Ah, nice. So the games work fine with no game-breaking issues? If so, I might consider buying them someday. I'd have to see first though, if I have many games I want to play on a PS2. Buying a PS2 just for two SMT games seems a bit much.

@Maxenmus No game-breaking issues, no. I'm not a fan of the DDS duology for my own reasons, but I don't really want to bias you against them.

Do you have a semi-modern PC? You could always just buy the games, rip the ISOs, and then play them at a higher resolution on PCSX2.

@Ralizah That sounds like a solution. I do have a custom PC that's built to play a lot of modern games, so I think it should be fine. The ripping of the ISOs though does sound a bit tedious, especially when I've never ripped ISOs before. But again, I'll see. Given time, I might find some classic PS2 titles that interest me enough to warrant buying the console.

There's also the fact that I don't know how well PCSX2 runs anyway without issue, since emulators of any console more advanced than an NDS can (supposedly) face latency and other similar problems. Not an expert of emulators, so I might be wrong. And if it does have issues, then I would have to spend more time and effort working on those anyway instead of enjoying the game, so I might as well have bought a PS2 console. lol

@Maxenmus PCSX2 is pretty old at this point, so there's not really a lot of issues with it for most games. A few really demanding games like Shadow of the Colossus and Gran Turismo may or may not give you issues, but I've had no problems running JRPGs.

Any potential issues with a game will generally be covered in its PXSC2 Wiki page. Here's the one for DDS.

https://wiki.pcsx2.net/index.php/Shin_Megami_Tensei:_Digital_...

@Ralizah True. Thanks for the info. I guess that's an option if I don't find enough PS2 titles to warrant the console buy.

@Maxenmus I’m about 9 hours in and I’m really enjoying it so far, it’s a little like Chrono trigger as there are multiple timelines and a lot of the game involves time travelling to one timeline to do X which will affect the outcome in another timeline.

The combat system is interesting and not something I’ve come across before, I got it during an Eshop sale for about 7-8 pound as deep silver would regularly have fire sales on Atlus games, I think you would need to mortgage your house to buy it physically in the UK though

If you have access to a PS3 Atlus released most of the SMT series on the PS3 I as PS2 classics and a lot of them never got ported to the PS4.

Yep. Sounds about right. Every 3DS games I've tried to buy off Amazon are sold at about $100, cheapest. It's considered a vintage/retro console now, I guess, which might be why people are selling 3DS cartridges at such an exorbitant price.

Yeah, unfortunately, I only have the PS5. lol I might just have to bite the bullet and buy a PS3 if worse comes to worst.

@Maxenmus
Is there any game shop at Singapore still selling 3DS games?
I still lucky to get some 3DS games from my country Indonesia.

@Anti-Matter Unfortunately not. Singapore is a country that feeds off capitalism, so most retailers only chase after the trendiest and latest consoles and products. Vintage games and game consoles, especially those from western countries or Japan, are rarely found here in Singapore.

For the record, I did find a handful of 3DS physical games in a local game store I usually go to, but they're tucked away in some hidden corner, with maybe five or six obscure 3DS titles I've never heard of. Just about five to six 3DS games in total in the entire store, that's it (to be fair, it's not a very big store), and their cover almost look like they're in poor condition, with lots of tape and dust.