Roguelikes

[GreyICE]

Second Dungeons of Dredmor. Very well done game.

[MTD]

Well, yeah NetHack is a classic, everyone needs to play that

[Chevre]

I think if you like Pokemon, the Blue/Red Rescue Team and Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky titles for DS are really good roguelike RPGs and have what I find to be some of the most extremely captivating stories in videogaming. Gates to Infiinity for the 3DS falls short, I hear.

[Natirasha]

Time/Darkness/Sky are actually amazing.

Like, I've thought a lot about this but they're probably the objective Best RPGs on the DS, possibly the best games on the system. I might write a longer review, but if you like RPGs or good stories in games, you owe it to yourself to play through one of them(Sky is an updated rerelease of T/D, so choose that one)--it's literally one of like three games to ever make me cry. Even if you don't like Pokemon, it's hardly a pokemon game--it's thematic content and gameplay style are way different.

[Chevre]

I'm so glad you agree. I think the game's biggest problem is that certain mechanics (Monster Houses, moves which hit all enemies in the room) combined with the randomness can be frustrating at times, but everything was challenging but not impossible. Also the post-game content in both generations of the game is amazing, especially TDS's optional resource dungeons during the main story. I was pretty bummed to hear that GtI was bad because the one thing I want is a game incorporating Gen V mechanics (and VI too, I guess now).

[Natirasha]

I hold out hope that the next mystery dungeon moves back towards TDS than GtI. I think part of the problem is modelling all the 'mons now--which is why they pared down the cast for GtI.

Not to say GtI is a bad game, but it takes waaaaay longer to get good and never hits the same highs.