Advice needed GBA RPG/DS Games

Jimi-Spandex

Hey folks,

Investing in a DS very soon and am going to get a few games with it; Castlevania, Phoenix Wright and something else. This is where you come in. I wanted to get something a bit meatier, a bit more substantial, I was thinking an RPG.

I've done a bit of research and have narrowed, if that's what you can call it, down to the following gba rpgs

Mario & Luigi Superstar saga
TLOZ - The Minish Cap
TLOZ - A link to the past
Fire Emblem
Golden Sun
Tactics Ogre
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

So I was just wondering who has played these and what would you recommend? I know what to expect having played paper mario and numerous zelda games. I know Fire Emblem and Golden Sun are highly recommended, what are people's opinions of them here?

As for the last two, I understand that they will be tough as aul wellies but are they accessible? or just really bloody frustrating? Just how steep is that learning curve?

Also, I could save $30 by getting a ds second hand? Is this worth it? What kind of faults should I be on the look out for?

And if anyone has any other particular recommendations I would appreciate them, perhaps something light, was going in the direction of wario/feel the magic or some puzzle game that I can mess with on the train to work in the morning?

Appreciated lads.

Retr0gamer

Mario + Luigi Superstar Saga: Haven't played it but going by the 2 paper mario games amd the reviews it seems like a really light hearted and fun RPG.
TLOZ: LTTP: IMO the best of all the zelda games. Pure genius in a GBA cartridge. Really suits the GBA as well.
TLOZ: Minish Cap: An excellent zelda game that is unfortunately a little bit shorter than LTTP. Looks beautiful
Fire Emblem: Basically it's advance wars with a fantastic storyline and great characters. Highly recommended.
Golden Sun: Only played the first one but liked it a lot. It's very old school so don't expect an epic storyline. Puzzles are excellent and it's one of the best looking GBA games. A special mention to the sublime soundtrack.
Tactics Ogre: Haven't really played much of this series but it seems a lot more tactical than anything else you have mentioned. Got great reviews.
FF Tactics Advance: Really not very good at all. No story worth talking about, repetitive gameplay, abysmal menu system. It is however a massive game. Don't confuse this game with the completely different and far superior PS1 game. The PS1 game is one of the hardest games ever. The GBA game varies from piss easy to frustrating but never challenging.

My advice is if you like Zelda games get the two zelda games. You really need to experience LTTP if you haven't played it before. The next best bet would be fire emblem which mixes great strategy gameplay and story. Mario and Luigi would be the next choice. Stay away from FF Tactics Advance. It isn't a great game and it comes from the era after FFX when FF games really aren't FF games since the series creators departure from Square.

Faults to look out for are scratched touch screen and dead pixels. maybe check for faulty buttons but this isn't very common.

As for puzzle games don't go for either game you have mentioned. Both Wario and feel the magic are far too short to recommend. At the moment the daddy of puzzle games is meteos, probably the best puzzle game since tetris.

PS: tell me where the cheapest place to get pheonix wright is.

melekalikimaka

harvest moon, seen it second hand ieverywhere, good game tho

Jimi-Spandex

Retr0gamer wrote:

PS: tell me where the cheapest place to get pheonix wright is.

I'm in NY so no importing for me, I'll get it for $30, I've seen the import prices around are like $50 which is ****ty. I could probably pick it up around mail it over to you if you want, I'll check out mailing prices and stuff tomorrow if you like. See what it would actually cost.

As for what game I'm going for, I've seen mario & luigi and fire emblem going fairly cheap second hand so I'll probably compromise and get them both. I played through TLOZ - LTTP about three years ago so I think I'll give it a miss for the time being.

I've pretty much settled on Castlevania, Phoenix Wright, Meteos, Mario/Luigi and Fire Emblem.

honru

Retr0gamer wrote:

PS: tell me where the cheapest place to get pheonix wright is.

It's just about €33 on Video Games Plus including shipping. Think that's the lowest you're going to get unless CDWOW get ahold of it.

mp3guy

Harvest Moon, Golden Sun 1&2 and you're set.

evad_lhorg

well now you couldnt have picked a better time to be into RPGs and gettin a DS. there is an absolute tonne of DS rpgs comin. and then there are the final fantasy iv,v and vi remakes comin on GBA too.


out of the games you mentioned up there i have the first four. and all are amazing games. fire emblem is quite hard to find if you dont have a credit card to buy it online.

Aaron M

I'd recommend both of the Zelda games without question. Minish Cap is shorter but still top-quality. Link to the Past speaks for itself. If you've already played through it though it would probably be worth getting something else. I've heard nothing but good reviews and comments about Golden Sun, though I have not played it personally.

As for Meteos, I would not recommend this unless you are a definite fan of falling block games. The reviews seem somewhat biased given the fact that there is not currently much competition within this genre on the DS. In my opinion, it is not as good as people are making it out to be. Personally, I would suggest spending the money on either Mario 64 DS or Advance Wars, but it just comes down to personal preference at the end of the day.

Retr0gamer

Thanks freak scenery.

You could hang on until the FF3 (not FFVI) remake comes out. FF3 is one of the best FF games and was the first game with the class system seen in FFV and the FF Tactics games. I won't give FFX-2 any credit because the class system was handled woefully.