I'm going to buy myself a 3DS

Exactly what it says on the title. After a long time of procrastination I finally decided to buy a Nintendo DS, and since it's out I'm going to buy the 3DS. The question is: what game should I buy first?

If you have suggestions for me kindly write them here. The game can even be from the old DS, it supports them too anyway.

 

Link between Worlds, Gunvolt, Kirby, Pokemonz.

 

Etrian Odyssey (Any of them, I prefered IV but Untold isn't a bad starting point. Much like FF there's no need to play earlier games.)
The game's a dungeon crawler with a custom built party of adventurers starting as a bunch of random thugs and building themselves into a legend as they explore an uncharted labyrinth. Untold has a more normal RPG mode with pregenned characters but a lot of the game's fun for me lay in being able to craft my own story around the characters.

The gameplay itself is fun as well, particularly the FOEs


Shin Megami Tensei IV
SMT on the DS, what more need be said?

Are the two that come to mind right away.

 

If you never played The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the Nintendo 64 then the 3DS rerelease should be your first purchase. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is also worth a look. Fire Emblem Awakening is probably the best turn-based strategy game on any of the current systems. I've heard good things about Kid Icarus: Uprising, but never had a chance to try it. Pokemon X/Y is pretty good, but whatever you do don't use the EXP Share item, it makes the game way too easy.

 

Disgaea DS, Chrono Trigger, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, Harvest Moon (Any or all of them), Dragon Quest (Any of all of them), Pokemon (Any or all of them), Scribblenauts, and Final Fantasy 4.

 

Old school RPG. My hand to eye coordination isn't that great, so I appreciate games where I have more than one second to decide my next move.

 

How much grim are we talking about?

I don't have a problem with action games. I own Dynasty Warriors after all. But I have a problem with elaborate combos, so I tend to avoid games where, to receive a great rank, you need to execute complicate buttons combination.

 

I don't have a DS, myself, but I've always wanted to play one of those zany giant robo crossover games. 2nd Super Robot Wars Z (if you like Gurren Lagan, Code Geass and Mazinger, among many others), or Super Robot Wars L and/or UX (if you like Evangelion and a bunch of other shows I've never heard of).

 

My bad, I read "grim" instead of "grind".

Well, those are a lot of interesting titles. Thanks guys. I'll give a look on youtube and see what catch my fancy.

 

Shame about the reflexes bit, because the Castlevania games Aria and Dawn of Sorrow are some of my favorite games, although probably hard to find these days and only Dawn of Sorrow is on the DS. Aria is GBA.

Gameplay's not what I'd consider complicated (like DMC or Bayonetta) so you may be fine though. Mostly. Dawn, unfortunately, requires you to use the little pen to trace out patterns to seal away bosses. That may be a problem late game.

Although if you've never heard of either, do not go researching Dawn of Sorrow's plot. Or Aria to be honest. Dawn is pretty casual about Aria's main plot twist, both have been out for a while, so it's pretty easy to stumble across.

I know that's a lot of disclaimers for a rec, but they're pretty much my favorite games in the Castlevania series.

 

Watched trailers on YouTube. Impressions:

Etrian Odyssey: looks good, even if First Person's POV isn't at the top of my list. I always had a problem with high customization however.

Shin Megami Tensei IV: the only problem is that I heard Atlus made some "questionable" choices of re-design.

Spoiler

Christ Louis, I don't care if you assume the form of a Gal girl in your free time, but your Demon Lord form. Oh God. And let's not talk about the Four Archangels!!!

Fire Emblem Awakening: nice that when characters fight the field become 3-dimensional ;D
Bravely Default: I somehow find it nostalgic...must be the graphic.
Kid Icarus Uprising: uhm, no. Not my thing.
Aria of Sorrow: I played it. Even beat it. Good memories. Are those end-game patters very complicated?

So many choices...

 

Alright, I decided to prove Etrian Odyssey first. But which one? EO 4 or EO Untold?

 

It's a shame you don't like action-ey games, because I'd recommend Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, and probably the upcoming 3DS version of Monster Hunter 4. They're pretty fun and can give you a lot of playtime. I've got about 120+ hours played in MH3U, and I'm just a little more than halfway through the high-rank missions.

 

Dawn of Sorrow? Been a while since I played and I'm honestly not sure how to quantify it.

For what it's worth, you can practice all the patterns before boss battles so it's not randomized or anything. It gave me some trouble and I generally think I'm pretty decent at this kind of stuff, good reflexes. Honestly, the worst of it is memorizing the pattern, getting that pen out of the DS, and then tracing it right.

 

Borrowed my friend's copy of Link Between Worlds, and it's fantastic.

The graphics are surprisingly good, and the gameplay is fluid and great.

 

Upon further considerations (and a look on the prices) I decided to switch to Fire Emblem Awakening, with the reasoning that "classic are classic because they work" 8)

 

There are look great, but personally I am a sucker for games with great plots. And with numerous safe-points but that's beside the point.