Yeach, I guess I should second that Chrono Trigger suggestion... they're right about that one and itshighly entertaining.

As many have said above, they're all repetitive to one extent or another. The lesser of a few eveils, one of the lesser repetitive I can think of is Rune Factory A fantasy Harvest Moon. Especially Rune Factory 2 , where there are many quests which drive the story, things to do, such as running errands finding things, helping people in various ways and so forth. It's true the farming aspect here is a bit repetitive but it seems so much less so (comparatively speaking)in this application than most other games.

I just suggest you pick one with a theme that appeals most to your preveious taste in games like the era or local the rpg takes place in.

Not to sounmd like a wise guy here but it won't affect your playing of your DS games against a DSi if that's what you're worried about... it MAY affect how you're accessing the net though, mihgt need a newer dongle or wireless router. The DSi will be upgraded through its firmware to take advantage of this newer 802.11i protocol. DSi is not the only piece of hardware out there that will be affected though.

Those contraptions (some cell phones and other gadgets) that are not upgradable through firmware will become dated quickly. The newer DSi games will be written with this in mind so that the old DS games will still be able to play against the DSi, and the newer DSi games that use this protocal will simply interact differently between cart, game and wireless router, not from DS to DSi though.

Does it shorten the interactivity between the DS and DSi, yes but not soon enough that you will notice. By the time they no longer interact, the next console will long be released and in your hands. But the days of games being useful (like the GBA carts are today) for years later, is gone. shortly after the Nintendo servers stops serving games via online servers, you'll losehalf the abilty that the cartwas bought for.

In other words, you ability and time limit in playing that 'online game' is limited by how long Nintendo want sto keep those servers running and service the older software. My guess is not long. We're all clammoring for games that have online, but those same games will be outdated much shorter time than the previous games from gameboy. The single player mode will be the only usable aspect of those games once NIntendo stops having the service available onine. That online for DSi games AND DS games is a double edge sword. With each new gaming trait(such as online potential)comes a deficit or method to control the life of that game. The more dependant it is for online support? via servers, the shorter the life of the game... period, as far as big N is concerned. The new games won't last forever like the GBA games are. That means more money and sales for them, rather than you reselling your games and them losing money, your games will simply have a limited life as far sa the online usage is concerned. IMO very limited.

Right now I'm playing games from 20 years ago, the game carts of today will lose half their usefulness in 10 years. The days of collecting older games and being able to use all of the games aspects are gone.

I haven't heard a bad one here yet, I guess they are all really different flavors.

Pokemon, with the repetitive catching of monsters is really no better than my favorites Advance Wars : Build armies, move toward enemy, shoot till dead repeat and as for Fire emblem? Equipt fighter, move toward enemy hit/shoot, stab, slash etc till dead, collect loot, repeat.

There's probably more variety with ones of a more comprehensive story line such as Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon (which I really enjoyed). The newer RPG's games are not much more different than the old days of paper and pencil RPG's: grinding through caves etc... except these days they throw in a puzzle or two and a larger boss battle for a real challenge or to slow you down until they [game writers] have thier next script changed enough so you will lack just enough recognition in it to buy it all over again under another name / edition / version.

My interest in all the RPG's came from the days of D&D in the late 60's & early 70's,all I did was mix it with my other favorite game, chess. Think about it...Choose moves, capture opponent,repeat, then add story line = RPG. It is this reason that I try and not be too hard on the game designers, after all they are out there doing it, making these, I'm not. If I really don't like it, and there are few I really don't I try and be understanding as to just how tough it is to come up with truely new material. I really get irked by these reveiwers that really get down on a franchise like Pokemon or Fire EMblem and beat them up for putting out a game for the newest console but not changing the formula much... so what I got MY favorite game on MY newest console (making it portable for me) why on earth would I beat them up for making few changes, especially when it's something that already works. Not only that, few who are complaining about changing a battle formula have any idea on what amount and type of coding is required to make the smallest change in what you are experiencing. I DO know.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for these guys and gals, especially the ones that do the same game for a different console, which often requires an ENTIRE re-write of the same old program. It would be like you re-writing a book you had written in your native tounge, You're re-writing it in another language you had to learn just for this book and may never need again.

I wrote programs (not spcifically for games though)for a company for a short time. It is dam hard when all you are doing is basically writing out what amount to math problems all day long, while someone else tests the results. It's not all fun and games that most players think it is, no pun intended.

They don't just pay you to sit around vid games. playing all day long, and those who are paid for that (beta testers)are not paid nearly as much, if at all,as the actual code writers anyway, not to mention they don't just play though but have to stop and detect which piece of code created the glitch and so forth, not much fun in the long haul.Then there are thegraphics department with texture creation/application (not that much fun, highly repetitive) and so forth, each only sees a smal part of the whole you are playing, and those really responsible for the largest part of the play have the most boring job of all writing hundreds of lines of code for hours and days, just compiling code. Good designers write thier own code to achieve a very specific result on the other hand, cheap, poor designers use code compilers and just reuse those someone else created, delivering a less than adequite effect from what they really intended.

So the next time you wanna' complain about how lame a game may initially seem, just think, one programmer/artists' probably spent more in coffee latte's in one afternoon than you paid for that whole game. Thier money went in seconds, your's at least takes hours. Give 'em a break huh.. Even the simplest game like Etrian Odssey requires a tremendous amout of code work to do the most direct and simple task.

Kudos guys [game writers/creators], even on the failed attempts. You have MY total unrestrictedrespect for all you efforts.

From tht list: GTA CHinatown Wars

otherwise Advance War Days of Ruin

or Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon.

are in the running for my top spot.

I would have to say, in this order;

1) Fire Emblem; Shadow Dragon

2) Advance Wars; Days of Ruin & AW Dual Strike (same makers as FE:SD)

3) Civilization Revolution DS

4) Age Of Empires Mythologies & reg AoE DS

and these are only if I could have no more.

Pretty good review actually! O_o

Anyway the online is okay, in my opinion. Reason I'm not a huge fan is because you use your units from the single-player. Turning the online into more of a contest of who has more time to uber level weapons/units in single-player, instead of straight up who has the better strategy better.