The mid-2000s was the era when Square Enix excelled at portable gaming. Their console efforts were minimal comparatively, as they seemingly saw the potential in portable gaming and multiplayer on the go. The Nintendo DS was the portable gaming system to beat, which led to some innovative titles like The Word Ends With You.

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Players got to use both screens while in battle, which was tricky to master but fun to learn with. A less ambitious but still good RPG was Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift. These two titles and more are remembered well, but what about other Square Enix games on DS? Who remembers this handful of titles?

6 Dragon Quest Wars

Metacritic Score: 83

Dragon Quest Wars has to be the most obscure entry on the DS for Western fans. There are plenty of Japanese exclusives that would blow the minds of fans though. Dragon Quest Wars was made in collaboration with Intelligent Systems, which is most widely associated with Fire Emblem. Like that series, Dragon Quest Wars was a tactical RPG wherein players could command classic monsters like Slimes on small maps.

It was a good, albeit bite-sized, tactical RPG experience, even for the DS. It was a digital exclusive on the DSiWare store, which predated the Nintendo eShop. Now, it is lost to time thanks to the store’s closing. Square Enix does make a lot of remakes, remasters, and collections though, so maybe one day Dragon Quest Wars will no longer be obscure.

5 Final Fantasy 12: Revenant Wings

Metacritic Score: 81

Final Fantasy 12: Revenant Wings is a direct sequel to the events of the main game. Vaan and Penelo join Balthier and Fran on their adventures in the skies as pirates. The gameplay and tone are vastly different from the main game. It was an RTS rather than MMO-style RPG.

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Vaan and other main characters were hero units, and they could summon underlings to do their bidding. It’s a simple concept found in most RTS games. The cheerful nature of the experience was a nice improvement over some of the more dire moments in the original. However, the DS’ small screen made it hard to navigate units well, which made things harder than they needed to be.

4 Heroes Of Mana

Metacritic Score: 66

Square Enix experimented with not one, but two RTS games on the DS. Heroes of Mana played similarly to Final Fantasy 12: Revenant Wings except with a less involved story. It ran into the same problems too, as the DS’ screen was too small. If not for the DS’ limitations, these two games may have excelled on other platforms like PC or Switch, which allows for touch controls in handheld mode.

Maybe then they wouldn’t be as forgotten as they are. There was another game besides Heroes of Mana in the series that some may have missed as well: Children of Mana. Overall, the Mana series during this time was not fairing too well. Children of Mana was at least a more traditional experience as a dungeon crawler, but it still wasn’t a hit.

3 Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded

Metacritic Score: 66

Post Kingdom Hearts 2, Square Enix was getting experimental with the series in terms of platforms. There was Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep on PSP, which was a prequel to the first game. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days took place in between the first and second games and was about the villains, Organization 13.

Then there was the most obscure game at this time, Kingdom Hearts Coded. This was released exclusively in Japan as a phone game which saw Sora jump into digital recreations of the first game’s events. It was later remade for the DS as Kingdom Hearts Re:coded. Even diehard fans probably skipped this one as it retreaded too much territory and offered clunky controls with little revelations on the main plot.

2 Mario Hoops 3-On-3

Metacritic Score: 69

One of the greatest collaborations of all time was between Square Enix, Squaresoft at the time, and Nintendo. They developed Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars on SNES, which just got a remake on Switch. Years later, the two companies would work together again, but in an unexpected way, via a sports game.

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As the name might suggest, Mario Hoops 3-on-3 was a basketball game where players manage three characters against three opponents on small courts. It was an arcadey experience much like the NBA Jam games. There were classic Mario characters in it, such as Mario, Donkey Kong, and Princess Peach. There were also Final Fantasy-adjacent mascots such as Moogles, Black Mages, and Ninjas.

1 Valkyrie Profile: Covenant Of The Plume

Metacritic Score: 74

Even though it may seem like Square Enix fancied RTS games on DS, they made a lot more tactical RPGs. Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume was one of those games, which was a spinoff from the original that debuted on PS1 with Norse mythology still a major part of the narrative.

It was a typical grid-based setup with hero characters, classes, and abilities. It was extremely hard, though, at the level of Fire Emblem games at this time. Some players like a challenge and miss this series dearly, so it would be nice if this game got a port along with Square Enix’s other tactical RPGs on the DS. They could simply call it The Square Enix DS Tactical RPG Remastered Collection. A bit of a mouthful, but this is the publisher behind Kingdom Hearts, so that hasn't stopped them before.

Nintendo DS

Brand

Nintendo

Original Release Date

November 21, 2004

Original MSRP (USD)

$149.99