This is Game Boy Advance erasure. It got ports of Final Fantasy VI and Mother 2 which hurts Super Nintendo even with Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG. I have really fond memories of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and Golden Sun. There are a bunch of options. For example, the Summon Night games are still exclusive to GBA (though I haven’t finished them yet). Mother 3 just recently got added to Nintendo Switch Online in Japan.
Out of the choices, it’s easily Switch. It has so many ports plus new RPGs.
the summon nights are so friggin good, I can't push the idea that them not being ported is STILL a crime.
i'm gonna be heretical- I recognize the switch has a shit ton of RPGs- I'm dragging the meaning of the OP to include ports, unless they saw multiple plats on release as opposed to later in their life. [Think NEO TWEWY [Released on EGS, Switch, and PS4 upon release], not TWEWY itself [Released on DS Exclusively, then ported to iOS, Switch] Also, yes, I will point a big [BEEEG] finger to Square's general laziness regarding their love for the cloud, but at the end of the day, the decision to make a cloud version is based upon the switch is due to the storage capacity of the console. Proprietary nintendo devices have long struggled with their internal memory being anything to write home about, and I genuinely think that's a problem when trying to place it at the top for me. Even if I can personally solve the issue for myself, I and pretty much any other consumer, lack a way to properly communicate this to Square or Nintendo, and Nintendo is very unlikely to ever 'Catch Up' to Sony and Microsoft in these regards.
On it's own merit, the best RPGs the switch has just simply don't interest me. There's ports of ones I love- Planescape Torment making it there is a miracle, never did I think that game would be on a nintendo console. Being able to play P5R, swap to undertale, and then close it out with some stardew valley or collection of mana is an RPG experience I can't cherish enough as a fan of the genre, but... Locking it to exclusives?
I don't like octopath or it's art style very much, Pokemon isn't for me any more, I'm sure one day I'll go through the Xenoblades, but I really couldn't care less about them given the time it takes to get into them. The Fire Emblem games on the console are pretty good, I think Three Houses is the meatiest experience of an RPG I've had on the switch that was for a game DEVELOPED for the switch. You're telling me second place for my most enjoyed RPG was Astral Chain, which barely counts, and besides that it's...Mario and Rabbids Kingdom Battle? [No shade, fantastic experience] And I want to emphasize- I'm no stranger when it comes to playing/finishing games not on their proprietary console. I am a big fan of emulation, and these days, I probably use my Retroid more than anything else, which, definitely effects how I view the switch, since any game before the GCN era can be easily played by something that's much more comfortable in my hands.
No, I look to using the hardware to it's limits, not shying away from it's weird gimmicks, and creating something that can ONLY be enjoyed on this console, for when I decide what RPGs take my heart.
SNES and 3DS both are good choices. SNES for it's raw library and some outliers which STILL haven't seen ports, providing the only game where I can get my Soul Blazer Trilogy fix. 3DS has some of my favorite remakes [which are totally distinct from ports, don't question me], and takes the time to really build up accessibilities and versions for games I wouldn't have experienced otherwise, like Dragon Quest 7.
But, I said, ONLY can be enjoyed on this console. My vote- DS.
Without making this post EVEN MORE DENSE, The World Ends With You could win this solo if it had to, no RPG is, and ever will be, quite like it. I refuse to see any other input method as good for this game as a DS. I've beaten every version of it there is by this point, and I won't be backing down for that being the best execution. Chrono Trigger DS is my favorite version of the game, though I'd say that does lean much more on port than remake, those touch screen controls don't REALLY add anything, but 1, easier menuing is always nice in those types of games, and 2, New friggin content baby. The DS has the 2 best generations for Pokemon, AND the best remakes. It has the best Mario and Luigi game. It has my favorite Dragon Quest, IX. It has Glory of Heracles, which is CRIMINALLY slept on. When it came out, KH358/2 was incredible, managing to shrink down a PS2 style combat system and have it translate halfway decently to DS was a feat in and of itself, and then they improved upon it with Coded. Children of Mana, Avalon Code, Magical Starsign, Friggin Izuna 1&2, Contact, Devil Survivor 1/2, Okamiden, FFTactics A2... I can't credit it enough. I weep for like, 7 or so games lost eternally on the SNES that we're not likely to see ported. The DS has an overstuffed graveyard, which has the added problem of the DS having such a condensed library to begin with. With Great Install Bases, comes great responsibility, and I can't cry hard enough.
...However, if we are to judge it not on being a 'Omakase' style experience, and instead a buffet, yeah switch wins, that's a lot of game
