I've been wanting a portable action RPG, and since I already own a
DS, I looked there (having said that, though, there do seem to be
a lot more
of them for the PSP; maybe I should get one).

The dearth
of action RPGs for the DS is pretty amazing.
The World Ends
With You probably counts, but I'm really looking for a Diablo II
clone here. At this point, you could just *do Diablo II* for the
thing, FFS. But no. What we've got is mostly crap, and not much of
it. So here's me reviewing them as I try them out (yay gamefly!).
FWIW, I have high hopes for
Legacy Of Ys,
because Atlus rules all, but it's not out yet.

Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles - Ring of Fates

What It Is

An action-ish RPG with adorably cute 6 year olds or something as
protagonists.

Why I Sent It Back

The control scheme. OMFG, the control scheme. This is real time
combat, so monsters are rushing at you, OK? If you want to power up
a spell by having another party member cast it with you, you have to
(I'm not making this up) hold the right trigger, tap the spell, move
the spell target around with the arrow keys (note that both
hands are in use now), continue to hold down the right trigger,
tap the other character you want to cast the spell with you, and
move with the arrow keys again since by now the monster has moved, a
lot.

Holy fuckmonkeys do I wish I was making that up.

Dungeon Explorer: Warrior of the Ancient Arts

What It Is

A fairly decent dungeon crawl, with surprisingly well-rendered tits
for a DS game.

Why I Sent It Back

You have a "job" and a "class". You pick your class at the
beginning, mage in my case. I got 3 skills as a mage, none of which
were attack skills. I got 8 skills for my "job".

The job is randomly determined. Ewww. The game doesn't tell
you when you're getting your next skill in the tree. Eeeewww.
And all the skills I had gotten (something like 7 of them) but one
by the time I stopped playing sucked so badly I never used them. As
in, my basic attack was more effective.

Not what I'm looking for.