AWKWARD ZOMBIE

The Witcher 2.

Xenoblade Chronicals if you haven't played it yet and have a Wii and/or WiiU.
Also any of the Mario and Luigi games. Only the second and third are on the DS, but they're all good. If you could only play one, I would suggest the third one (Bowser's Inside Story)

Also there's that Ni No Kumi that came out recently, but it is a PS3 exclusive, s o .

Maybe I'll check out the mario one.
I'm getting Ni No Kuni in the mail so I'll be playing that when it gets in.

Something I should say about the Mario RPGs in general is that they aren't particularly traditional. Their what you might call a "Small numbers RPG," in that you aren't going to be dealing or taking more then 100 hp at any point with any one attack. They also have a big emphasis on timing, as your damage and your dodges (you're supposed to dodge attacks, BTW) are based around proper timing. Their very unique experiences.

To that end, Paper Mario 1 and 2 are both good also and you should play them if you haven't already. Paper Mario 2 is probably in my top RPGs list.

All the Mario RPGs are great because they essentially design themselves around the question "well what if we made JRPGs FUN to play?"

So what are the Mario RPGs like? I know nothing about them other than that they exist.

They all have top-notch writing, and pretty much are consistently hilarious.

Very active battle system, so if you just treat it as turn-based you will lose. Badly.

I don't think you can call it top-notch writing when no character evolves over the course of the plot and said plot is paper thin. Maybe they've got some good lines, but that's more joke/comedy material than actual writing.

As simple as it is, playing poker in The Witcher is pretty fun. The game probably rigs the odds against you when playing against "tougher" opponents though, considering how the game's based around luck.

Eh, poker is a numbers game in the long run, it'd be pretty easy to get a bot to play optimally. They still could have rigged it of course.

Far Cry 3 poke was so dumb.
I had to play for like, 30 minutes, just to finish some gay side mission, and after 30 minutes of trying I lost. So the next try I just put all my cheddar in on the first hand and so did everbody else and I just won.
Gey

Dunno why I wrote poker there, it's actually dice poker though the idea is the same - get pairs, straight hands etc. You have two rounds plus each round you get a chance to reroll while increasing your bet. I just played against a more advanced opponent and she seemed to get far better hands than I did, though I eventually beat her after a bit of save-loading.

I'm not going to get into an argument in the writing of a Mario RPG of all things, but I just want say that you do get character development here and there, and also that good writing doesn't necessarily need to involve drama and development and twists and turns: sometimes a story can be weighed on how it can make you laugh. Just because the Mario RPGs are Saturday Morning Cartoons in video game form doesn't mean that they aren't well written.

Oh come ON! Did the Princess get kidnapped AGAIN? Thats like the third time this month! -_-

Mario, get the shotgun and manacles. Put the hammer away. Were bringing back the princess. For good this time.

The only Mario RPG I've played was Partners in Time, which was a ton of fun to play. The story wasn't anything deep, but that doesn't mean I didn't have a hell of a time playing through.