Topic: Underrated DS RPGs?

I second the motion. It had the potential to be a great ARPG but many factors in the game were mostly broken and the dungeon designs were dull and uninspiring.

Here are more RPG's, though some not underrated (underrated due to unavailability in the West), that will never leave japan (maybe):

• A.S.H. - First game to use the 4 gig cart from what I recall and features some of the best pre-rendered battle animation for the DS IMO. Here's what to expect from this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaKnU_VdLHU&feature=related
• Soma Bringer - From what I've seen, the feedback is positive for this A-RPG.
• Tales of series (Temptest, Innocence & Hearts) - Would love to try them out ( _{& the psp games too} ).
• Tales of Keroro RPG

Oh yeah I was pretty pumped about A.S.H. until I found out it wasn't being released in the west. Watching the video now it looks kind of clunky though. The animations are pretty low frame rate too.

Oh yeah I've heard great things about Soma Bringer! Just did a quick search - there's an almost complete fan translation into English. I'll be checking it out for sure.

Glad someone agrees with me about GoH. It's not underrated, it's just bad lol

ASH was pretty disappointing. Like HolyMackeral said, the animations are just slow and clunky, and otherwise it's not all that unique or interesting.

Soma Bringer's pretty cool, though. Wish we got an official release. Same with the Tales of games, though I've only played Tales of Innocence, and I'm hoping to pick up Tales of the Heart once (if) I get done with that.

Contact was pretty fun despite some wasted potential and half of the game being the very worst of level grinding. They announced Contact 2 like ASAP so I'm hoping it will be awesome.

Avalon Code too. If they just made the book system more useable and didn't rush when creating the entire last third of the game it would have been great.

It's not bad, it's just not as good as some other games. So long as there's someone that likes it, that's reason enough to give it a mention, and I already know of at least two people who said they liked it. That's more attention than some games ever get.

It seems Mistwalker actually agreed as Nintendo had a fully translated and rated version of the game but both parties decided against publishing it. A lot of people were mad at Nintendo for backing out but Mistwalker made it clear that they had no desire to release the localised version.

ASH isn't bad. I picked it up while I was in Japan, and it's interesting enough to play through. The fact my partner enjoyed it too proves its a pretty accessible, and interesting RPG, if not wholy original or brilliant.

Another Japan-only RPG I thoroughly enjoyed was Shining Force Feather (if it was translated, it was never released in Australia). Nanashi no Game is a horror game from Square Enix, but basically revolves around a haunted RPG in the game, which is kinda cool, in a Ring style.

Also, Chocobo Dungeon DS is freaking awesome.

It's Japan-only unfortunately. I know it was made by Flight-Plan, whom are a pretty talented bunch, so I was really looking forward to it. Almost 2 years since it was released in Japan, and still no word on a localization.

Nanashi no Game is the sort of game no one but Atlus would release in the west. I knew it was never going to happen, but I'm still highly intrigued by it.

It's actually one of Square Enix' better handheld efforts. Good, tight plotting, looks good, is genuinely creepy in places. I haven't seen a better horror experience on the DS.

It's a very, very funny game. Great sense of humour.

If you have a working knowledge of Japanese, I recommend both. Otherwise I don't recommend you go anywhere near either.

There's a sequel that came out last year. I also think there's another Chocobo Dungeon on the DS, not sure if it's an enhanced version or not though.

Yeah, I know Nanashi no Game is S-E's, which is why I knew it wouldn't be released in the west. Such a shame. Maybe there will be an eventual fan translation.

S-E tries to tailor its recent efforts in the FF series to western sensibilities but generally fails at that, and then they withhold titles which could do fairly well in English-speaking countries. Sure, Nanashi no Game and Blood of Bahamut won't have mass appeal, but the niche demand for these sorts of titles is sizable enough. Sometimes I wonder what goes on in the minds of the people behind S-E.

And if all else fails, slap the FF label on the game and it'll sell in droves. Problem solved.

Glory of Heracles. It was really good!

@HolyMackerel: It seems oddly to apply to their DS games though(although they are the most numerous), they've failed to localise a whole bunch of games(including Cross Treasures :[) and the ones they have localised went months before they were announced for localisation. Contrast that to their PSP games which have nearly all(if not all) been localised and most were announced for localisation shortly after Japanese announcement... which is kind of annoying.... and weird.

Sonic Chronicles. Still waiting on the sequel BioWare.

@Oregano Agreed. What's more, the DS doesn't have the "casuals-only" stigma that the Wii does, so it really doesn't make sense. It's pretty much the device for RPGs this generation.

I hadn't heard of Cross Treasures and I just looked it up. Diablo 2 on the DS? Fantastic! Apparently it sold less than 10,000 units due to bad promotion in Japan. :/ There's a fan translation with most of the utility text in English, but I'd prefer for the script to be fully translated. Oh well.

It suffered the same issue that Blood of Bahamut did(which Japanese retailers pointed out in the case of BoB) in that they released right next to SE's biggest titles, DQIX and FFXIII respectively. In the case of Cross Treasures it's a real pity too because the cross promotion stuff went to waste and it could have been a good new franchise.

The even weirder and concerning thing is that DQVI and Dragon Quest Monster: Joker 2 are in localisation limbo(as is Battle Road Victory for the Wii) when this is about the time to be telling the new DQIX fans that more is on the way(although they're not even advertising past releases which is dumb!). For all the talk of westernisation SE need to sort their western branches out.(as do Nintendo and Namco!)

There's a sequel that came out last year. I also think there's another Chocobo Dungeon on the DS, not sure if it's an enhanced version or not though.

There's three Chocobo games on the DS - there's Final Fantasy Fables Chocobo - which was released in English, a sequel, which wasn't (and has a very different gameplay system to the first), and then Chocobo Dungeon, which is almost the same as the Wii Chocobo Dungeon, with extra levels where you play as Cid.

All three are good value, but the two that were released in Japan only are better.

Also, I meant to say Nanashi No Game 2. I haven't played the original.

Ahh cool. So it was Chocobo Tales that got a sequel.... shame it wasn't localised... I enjoyed the first one even if I thought it was a tad too difficult considering it seemed to be an expanded audience title.