Since I’m taking a break from Ask Junko! (for my own good, it’s not permanently going away, but this plot arc is making me depressed) I decided to share with you my thoughts on five must-play DS J-RPGs you might enjoy. Keep in mind these are only ones I have personally played, so I guess you’ll be a little confused if some of them seem older than you might expect. Keep in mind in Australia games come out less often and are more expensive.

5: Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon

This game is an awesome reconstruction of the Harvest Moon series, in that it adds gameplay elements from J-RPGs and levelling up experience rather than just straight out farming. It’s a lot better than the first DS outing of Harvest Moon, titled Harvest Moon DS, which was basically a rehash of Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town for Game Boy Advance. You feel like you’re contributing a lot more than just produce to your little town, and there’s actually something different you can do to farming, you can go into caves and hunt monsters, or even capture them and make them work on your farm. It’s Fantasy Farming, but instead of the “Fantasy Football” approach there’s a lot more fantasy and a lot less football. I don’t know if that analogy works though.

People who aren’t already Harvest Moon fans might overlook this title, but it really is worth a try. If you didn’t like Harvest Moon DS but want a new kind of Harvest Moon, buy this game, you won’t regret it. As for Harvest Moon newcomers… ehhhh… who knows, Harvest Moon doesn’t appeal to everybody.

4: Final Fantasy IV

This is one of the first Final Fantasy games I ever played. Final Fantasy III, a much more punishing Final Fantasy title, is not that accessible to newcomers and the story is kind of weak. Final Fantasy IV was one of the first Final Fantasy games to have a truly developed story, and it’s kind of outdated graphically now, but in terms of gameplay and story, Final Fantasy IV is one of the better ones, especially in Final Fantasy DS remake terms.

Haven’t played this one in a while, but I can tell you, back in the day Squaresoft certainly knew how to shock you with its plot twists.

3: Advance Wars: Dual Strike

While more of a Turn-Based Strategy game than a J-RPG, technically Rune Factory isn’t a J-RPG for DS either. But Advance Wars: Dual Strike certainly delivers a strong turn based strategy game with a strong storyline about the coming invasion of an old enemy into allied territory in a parallel world where the Allied Nations battle against agressors.

You have a very customisable multiplayer mode that can be played on a single DS handheld, so if your friend doesn’t have a DS, they can play it by passing around the DS and taking turns. This has always been a strong element of Advance Wars games, you were able to play multiplayer without the other person needing a Game Boy Advance to battle you, and now, the same feature has been brought to the DS version of the game. The campaign mode is tricky and challenging, and once you’ve finished the Campaign you can get lots of value out of the multiplayer modes.

2: Etrian Odyssey

You get what you pay for with this J-RPG from Atlus, a punishing traditional RPG game which makes no apologies from being brutal. Seriously, the premise of this game could easily have been a Scandinavian Death Metal concept album, you dive to the depths of the Labyrinth in the forest in order to defeat the Overlord of the Labyrinth, yet nobody has survived the climb down…

I haven’t gotten past the first level of this game it’s so hard, but I had so much fun with the gameplay it deserves its #2 position. But the #1 position goes to…

1: The World Ends With You

If there’s one thing Square-Enix does better than otaku pandering, it’s making its products fashionable. That’s probably why The World Ends With You revolves around fashion so much, it’s a new style of J-RPG from what you’re used to, gone are the usual high fantasy settings and you have a straight-urban-fantasy setting on the real life streets of Shibuya, Japan’s fashion district. You have seven days to complete The Reaper’s Challenge, and while it sounds like a bad Blue Oyster Cult rip off, there are times in the game where it’s wise to follow BOC’s advice: Don’t Fear The Reaper.

Out of all the Square-Enix games I have played I like this one the best. I haven’t played Chrono Trigger yet so that didn’t get on my list, but maybe one day it will. I hope you enjoyed this list, and I sure liked making it.