pokemon shouldn’t be too long, I think black/white and black/white 2 have the best story amongst all pokemon game

Pokemon is a good choice, especially if you use an emulator that allows cheats so you can customize the grind you want to do. There’s also tons of romhack versions if you want a difficult challenge.

Zelda games are good choices, they are action, but don’t generally need that tight of control. The Mario and Luigi series should also be good, Bowers inside story was fun. They are somewhat action like, but combat is mostly turn based.

There’s also Fire Emblem, Bravely default, more final fantasy.

“Shorter than Persona 4” is an awful lot of JRPGs. But it sounds like you specifically want something with a fast pace or more action.

Chrono Trigger got a DS port. Ignore the monster arena minigame and the “Lost Sanctum” dungeon. Both were added to the DS port and are bad. The “Dimensional Vortex” dungeons were also added to this version but they’re well enough done to not warn against.

Final Fantasy IV had a PSP port and that’s a short, fast-paced game.

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga is an option if you can stretch to GBA games. I liked it a little more than Bowser’s Inside Story because it has more exploration but you might like it less for the same reason.

For phone gaming may I suggest the PSP game Z.H.P: Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman.

Given it’s a rogue-like there is a bit of grind to it, but it’s a short game. What makes it a great portable game is that it is action, but turn-based, so you can think through your next move, and don’t have to struggle with quick inputs on imprecise controls.

Edit: Oh, and since you like Suikoden, maybe try PSX title Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete. More story driven than combat, and the PSX version is the 2nd remake with many features added aimed at enhancing the story telling more than anything.

I’ve really enjoyed Danganronpa on PSP - it’s a murder mystery visual novel, so it may not be something you’re interested in, but I enjoyed it even though I’m not really that much of a VN fan.

it’s from gamemaker instead of one of the emulated consoles you mentioned, but pokemon infinite fusion is a blast especially on randomized modes. totally refreshes the pokemon formula. if you tweak the randomization in the right way you can get a playthrough with minimal grinding too

Try the Mario & Luigi RPG series on GBA/NDS.

Also the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series (specifically Explorers of Sky)

Not exactly a turn-based RPG, but I used to enjoy Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony on the PSP back in the day. It’s probably pretty dated by today’s standards, but I remember playing through the game a bunch of times.

There are three distinct character classes that branch off into specialisations as you level up. There’s usually a “good” and an “evil” upgrade path involved there.

Combat is similar to something like Diablo - or, well, the even older Dungeon Siege games - and is played from an isometric point of view.

Chrono Trigger and Terranigma (emulate the SNES versions on the PSP or PS2)

OMORI (PC game, but it will run on a potato)

All three are some of the best games I have ever played, all for different reasons.

Hello fellow Tactics fan!

If you’re looking for a much lighter version of it, both in gameplay and story, I’d recommend Battle Hunter (PS1).

And now that I’ve been reminded of it, I’m gonna entertain the idea of porting it over to a tabletop board game, cause that’s how mechanics-lite it is.

There are some “The Sims” games on these consoles. You can pause time so controls shouldn’t be an issue.

If you can do PS2, then you can likely do GameCube. I’ve beaten “X-Men Legends” on my phone through Dolphin, the GameCube emulator. Technically an action game, but the controls are pretty simple. “Marvel Ultimate Alliance” is a game in the same engine with the same gameplay, more or less. It’s on PSP as well as GameCube, I believe. Has Avengers characters and Spider-Man, so a bit broader appeal than X-Men.