3 Nintendo DS RPGs That Are Still 10/10 Masterpieces

Published Sep 17, 2026, 6:00 PM EDT Ben Brosofsky has been writing for Screen Rant since 2022 and editing since 2024. He graduated from Vanderbilt University with a Bachelor's in Cinema & Media Arts. Writing serves as a much-needed distraction from tackling a backlog of Steam games that will never be surmounted. Discussions about the greatest RPGs often focus on home console games, but some of the best of all time came out on handheld systems, especially the Nintendo DS. From ports of classic titles to entirely new adventures, the DS packed plenty of fantastic journeys into its dual-screen format. Of course, not every title was a hit. Most notoriously, the library contains some disappointing entries in long-running series, like Children of Mana and Lunar: Dragon Song. If you focus on the best of the best, though, you'll almost certainly avoid any disappointment when venturing into the world of DS RPGs. The World Ends With You It's tough to include just three DS RPGs, and games like Radiant Historia and Bowser's Inside Story could just as easily make a list of the best. If any DS RPG truly feels fresh, though, it's The World Ends with You, a game that takes full advantage of the hardware's unique strengths to deliver an innovative experience. Rather than telling a fantasy or sci-fi story in the typical flavor, The World Ends with You takes players on a romp through Tokyo's Shibuya district, rendered in a vibrant art style that works perfectly within the technical limitations of the system. Each character has unmistakable visual flair, and they all offer enough unique personality and complexity to live up to their designs. Every aspect of the game taps into the setting, with aspects of Shibuya commerce and culture replacing elements of more traditional RPG formulas. The combat is the true star of the show, making use of the dual-screen setup and touchscreen controls to break away from familiar tropes of RPG battles. The World Ends with You has since been resurrected on the Nintendo Switch, but there's no true way to recreate the original experience without picking up a Nintendo DS and a (thankfully affordable) copy of the game. Chrono Trigger Does Chrono Trigger truly count as a DS RPG? Perhaps not, but it's difficult to talk about the system's RPG library without mentioning one of the best to ever do it. Chrono Trigger is a genre-defining classic for a reason, setting a gold standard for RPGs that many titles still cite as a major source of inspiration. Designed by Square's "Dream Team" of Hironobu Sakaguchi, Yuji Horii, and Akira Toriyama, the quality of the pedigree involved is obvious in the end product. Luckily, the DS version loses none of Chrono Trigger's strengths. The passage of time hasn't taken away any of the appeal of Chrono Trigger's story, characters, and gameplay, which refine ideas established in the Final Fantasy franchise and elsewhere to perfection. The gorgeous pixel art translates perfectly to the small screen of the DS, and none of the problems that infected early versions of later ports (smeared art, inferior UI design, etc.) appear here. The best Chono Trigger translation is ultimately a matter of preference. The DS version is considered more accurate to the original script than the SNES translation, but it arguably loses some of the charm. Add in some positive changes made to the DS version, and this might very well be the definitive way to play Chrono Trigger to this day. The UI takes advantage of the dual-screen format, cutscenes added for the PlayStation version of the game are included, and some new content is added. Unfortunately, it can be a pricy game on the secondhand market today, but Chrono Trigger DS might just be worth it. Dragon Quest 9 Dragon Quest 9 had an unenviable task from the start. The PlayStation 2 entry Dragon Quest 8 finally brought the series to a true 3D format, delivering an instant classic that brought in plenty of new fans worldwide. In moving to a handheld system, Dragon Quest 9 took a step back in presentation, although its graphics still managed to include plenty of detail by DS standards. Anyone who thought the game would cut corners in other regards, however, was deeply mistaken. A thorough playthrough of the game is just as long as Dragon Quest 8, and a completionist run is significantly (and terrifyingly) longer. While it doesn't have the most immediately exciting story that Dragon Quest has ever offered, an unprecedented amount of party customization makes it feel like the journey is truly your own. Fans of Dragon Quest are spoiled for choice on the DS, as several older games in the franchise also received impressive remakes for the DS. Dragon Quest 5 is another great choice, with a compelling story that spans a lifetime and reinterprets genre tropes in a refreshing way. All the same, Dragon Quest 9 has to take the cake as the only original mainline entry on the console, and it still remains a shining example of the scope that could be brought to a Nintendo DS game. Brand Nintendo Original Release Date November 21, 2004 Original MSRP (USD) $149.99 Hardware Versions Nintendo DS Weight 9.7 oz