I think I’ve narrowed it down to three choices unless there are some I’m missing but the contenders seem to be:
-The World Ends With You
-Chronotrigger
-Final Fantasy III
background: My experience with RPGs is limited. The last real RPG I’ve played were the two Golden Suns for Gameboy. Other than that I’ve played everything Zelda and loved the Advance Wars games.
I’ve never played a single Final Fantasy game on any system and have never played the original Chronotrigger.
Kingdom Hearts looked interesting but I’ve read that unless you’ve played the original or other FF games you will have no idea what’s going on.
The World Ends With You is my favorite game on DS. It’s not really a standard RPG, the combat is unique and requires some action game skills. It’s not hard, but it is more involved than picking “Black Mage > Lightning Bolt > Angry Imp” out of a menu tree."
It’s an odd game but it’s very very good. If you do buy it be prepared to really hate the main character for a bit. He’s whiny and annoying as hell for a while but he mellows out later on.
Those are all amazing games. But my vote is for Chrono Trigger. Since it’s release, it’s my favorite game of all time. It’s a landmark RPG and definitely one to play if you’re new to the genre (as is FFVI). The characters are colorful, the plot and time-travel aspect is awesome, the battles are fun, the special techniques are cool, the graphics are charming, there are hidden sidequests, 10+ endings to find and it’s not overlong (I’d estimate 30-40 hours of play time). Plus if you’re playing the DS version you get a retranslation and some new features I believe.
Honestly I think you should play all those games. Basically everything I said about Chrono Trigger, you could also say about FFVI (well, except for the time-travel stuff and the multiple endings), though I personally prefer CT. The World Ends With You is the odd one out as it’s much more recent and a completely different style of game (CT and FFVI are probably the quintessential mid-90s JRPGS, and are quite similar in a lot of ways). But the aesthetic is really nice and the battle system is cool, albeit a bit hectic. So yeah, play all of them, but I’d start with CT.
I’m not familiar with The World Ends With You, though it is very well regarded. I would perceive Chrono Trigger as being a more…approachable RPG than FF3/6.
It also happens that I deeply enjoyed Chrono Trigger, but was unable to ever get into FF6.
Final Fantasy VI is not on DS. III on DS is III. VI is available on GBA. Oddly, IV is the only game available on both.
The FF games on DS are III remake, IV remake, XII - Revenant Wings, Crystal Chronicles - The Rings of Fate, CC - Echoes of Time, Tactics A2, and Chocobo Tales.
Anyway, I’d say play all 3. But if you’re only going to play one, or want advice on where to start…
Depends what you want…
Accessibility of story? Go with FFIII - it’s a straightforward Save the World plot, and the whole thing’s discoverable on one play-through.
Ease of controls? Chrono Trigger - FFIIIDS has some map issues that take some time to get used to, and TWEWY has complex, and ever-changing controls.
If you’re not looking for an easy beginners’ game, or a one-run story, I’d recommend TWEWY…the story is much more interesting than either of the other two, especially on the second or third time through once you’ve started unlocking the background material, and the controls are a lot of fun.
I don’t know if Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days NEEDS the rest of the series, having played both PS2 games, and not having a problem grasping the stuff that comes from Chain of Memories, but it would deaden a lot of the emotional impact only having these characters in the one game.
I’ve never played the World Ends With You so I can’t comment on it, but as for the other two I’d recommend Chrono Trigger hands down.
Final Fantasy 3 is an old game. It’s been remade, but it’s still old, and unless you’re very familiar with old FF games it’s not terribly approachable, requires a good amount of grind, and the job class is a bit annoying if you want to master it (there’s a certain order to go through the jobs for certain character types in order to make them the best. For instance it’s good to keep magic characters as white mages even if you don’t plan on having them be the healer, as white mages level up their HP much faster. Screw up the order and you can end up with a powerful mage with very very low HP) You can go through the game just fine without this knowledge, just warning you that there are problems with the system.
Chrono Trigger is easily one of the most popular RPGs from what can be considered the golden age of jRPGs. If you’ve never played it, I’d definitely go for it. There are multiple endings (though the first time through there’s only one ending, then you can go back and play with New Game + which lets you start with all your stats/items from teh previous game) and the story is great. Definitely get CT
Chrono Trigger all the way. Easily one of the best games ever. Final Fantasy III is decent, but not on the same level. You might consider getting the DS version of Final Fantasy IV, though. Great remake of a great game. (But even it isn’t as good as CT. You can’t praise that game enough!)
That’s the one problem I have with TWEWY - the ‘kinda’ part that is.
For a game where Fashion is a GAME MECHANIC, the fact that the sprites don’t change when you put the clothes on the characters is terribly disappointing. (I totally wanted an EGL Joshua and punked out Shiki.)
YEah, I wanted a loligoth shiki too. And a loligoth Neku. And a crossdressed loligoth Joshua.
I guess what I like about it is that it’s different. It’s not just another jrpg or just another rpg, every bit of the game is new, from the story to the battle system to the outfits to the modern vibe, it’s all refreshingly new.
Getting the chronoship and flying around was new in 1990, but now it kinda feels like been there, done that. Same with the turn menu based battle system. If you like it, by all means, chronology trigger is a GREAT game. I love it. But I wouldn’t demand that someone play it, because they’ve probably played something very similar before. But TEWEY, that’s a completely new experience, and if you like jrpgs you completely owe it to yourself to play this game.
I STILL play Chrono Trigger now and then. I got it for the SNES, and then for the Playstation (along with a Final Fantasy game that I never bothered to really get into). With Chrono Trigger, you can replay it, and I love trying to get all the techs, especially the Double and Triple Techs.
