Best story in 3ds rpg?

Which rpg's have the best stories on 3ds? I'm looking at Shin Megami Tensei IV and Fire Emblem (though I'm terrible at strategy in general usually). Story is important to me, I want to be drawn in. What have you guys found with the best stories so far?

I preferred Fire Emblem's story.

Shin Megami Tensei IV's story is much more complex and philosophical, but it doesn't have the emotion of Fire Emblem's story. One big flaw SMT4 has is how uninteresting its main characters are. They are like cardboard cutouts and doesn't hold a good connection with the player, unlike Fire Emblem's characters. SMT4 does have story-changing choices to make and multiple endings, but those weren't enough to keep me interested for long play sessions.

I heard Bravely Default was good, but not exactly sure how good its story is compared to Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei IV. I currently do not own that game.

Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward and Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies... although they're not RPG's, but rather visual novel / adventure games.

As far as RPG's go, Bravely Detault, Shin Megami Tensei IV and Fire Emblem: Awakening look like they might have interesting stories.

Thank you both for your input. Jag, I'll look into those.

I'm intrigued by bravely default, but worry about people's complaints for the grueling grind, but I'll check out the demo. I think I'm sold on Fire Emblem at this point, and SMT sounds compelling enough to check out.

Both Fire emblem and Shin Megami tensei Iv are games that have a good story in some respects, but they still aren't great. fire Emblem makes you care about the characters you use, but that's about it. Apart from that the story is pretty standard for JRPGs. SMTIV is a bit darker and more complex, but a lot of it is poorly explained and the characters aren't very well developed. Both are truly great games, but not because of their stories.

If you play Bravely Default on Normal you shouldn't have to grind too much. I'm 25 hours in and most grinding has been because I wanted to, not because I needed to.

Gotta be Soul Hackers, although I wish the battle system wasn't that archaic so I could finish it.

@bbkkristian: Is the story actually that good in Soul Hackers?

After playing SMTIV, I'm pretty interested in Soul Hackers. although IDK if I want to now that you say it's archaic to a fault... One of the great things of SMTIV is that it felt modern despite its decidedly old school mechanics.

@turtlethetaffer: it is unforgiving to say the least. It discourages you from having multiple demons in your party by making you pay macca per step for each one you have summoned. Your demons don't level up either, so you have to be fusing frequently and forfeiting the demons you like. and has a more card game battle system: each side chooses their actions then it plays out. You can't gain turns like you can in recent SMT games. So, if you miss the classic (although archaic) SMT games or enjoy a challenging JRPG, Soul Hackers is for you.

@bbkkristian: That sounds kinda discouraging, I have to say.

@turtlethetaffer: yeah, that's another way of saying that the series has come a long way. :)

Tales of the Abyss has a really good story, so you might want to give that one a try. Devil Survivor: Overclocked is another good one if you're up for a bit of a challenge.

@Ryagan: I second Tales of the Abyss. I can't believe I almost forgot about it.

If you do play it, TC, know that it takes a while to get rolling. It's slow in the beginning, but once it picks up its awesome. Plus it has some of the most well written characters I've seen in a JRPG.

@turtlethetaffer:

Soul Hackers has a lot more character to the game than SMT:IV. Each stage has a direct purpose to an individual, and it's story is really ahead of it's time, considering it was made mid-90's when internet was merely text...yet still it feels relevant.

The macca($)-per step has a bypass option, should you equip it into your gauntlet. And the battle system has a flow, a natural progression to upgrading demons...plus they get moody & either love or leave you (it's not as bad as it sounds). I don't know how much the game sells for now, but it really is a unique game worth giving a shot.

SMT can't go wrong...one has large scale, full blown moral dilemmas, with gray areas-choices & styles; while the other is about a few hacker-kids who find out too much.

I'd also second "Tales" .......but I've been playing "/ of Xillia" more-so, with the notion of getting back to "Abyss".

Oh yeah thanks, I'll get Tales too.

I just downloaded the demo for Etrian Odyssey Untold. Surprised no one has mentioned that. I've seen is name come up a few times elsewhere, and I was intrigued by the mapping thing. Hopefully this has a good story to go with it.

I'm a few hours into Untold and the story is decent enough. The characters are charming, too.

The thing about Bravely Default, is there are a few options to dramatically reduce the time spent grinding.

Battle Speed: You can double or quadruple the speed at which battles play out.
Encounter Rate: You can increase the frequency of random encounters to the point where you get into combat every few steps.
Auto Battle: Turning on auto battle will cause your characters to perform the actions they took on the previous turn. If you perform actions that take out all enemies within one turn and then turn on auto battle, you won't need to enter in commands for any of the battles while grinding. Just don't forget to turn it off when moving onto something new.

Since the left shoulder button also acts as the confirm button, you can technically do your leveling up with one hand! There is also an item, an expensive one at that, that doubles experience and JP.

To be honest, I haven't heard any complaints regarding grinding. The only complaint I've really heard with Bravely Default is that Chapter 5 and 6 are really repetitive. I honestly can't disagree with that.

Anyone who says that Bravely Default has a good story has disgusting taste in games

The game is great and everything else covers up the fact that the story is tripe but if you're looking for pure story look elsewhere.

I'm a few hours into Bravely and it hasn't really won me over yet. Despite the slow pace of etrian odyssey, I found myself enjoying that more. I'm not won over on story for either of these yet though. Where has all the good writing gone? :(

@Ryagan: tales of the abyss all the way! i love this game so much. especially the story is deep and troubling and captivating :')

thrilled to hear that about tales, must get it :D

I wish I could tell you about Shin Megami Tensei IV but it still hasn't been released in Europe. :(

If story is that important, I would recommend checking out some of the adventure games the DS / 3DS has to offer instead. I personally find the story in most video games to be uninteresting. The best stories for me have come from adventure games. Like a previous poster said, I would recommend the Zero Escape series, which is made up of 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors and Virtues Last Reward.

I'm surprised by Bravely Default. I'm like 55 hours in and I'm enjoying the story a lot more than I thought I would because of all the characters and time it takes to develop the (admittedly generic) world. It actually makes me give a damn, which is saying something considering it's literally using the oldest JRPG story as its set up.

A good idea is to read entries as they are updated in D's journal. It gives characters more depth than they have any right to have.