A buddy of mine has just made it through the remake of FFIII in a little under 40 hours. This does not live up to the epic-ness for which that rpg-shaped wad in his soul longs. He would just pick up the GBA port of FFVI, but he'd rather have a DS game, that it might justify his decision to buy a DS in the first place. I think he's looking for something at least >60 hours with scads of side-quests. And definitely turn-based.

There's a GBA port of FF I and II on the same cartridge--that should give him 60 (tedious) hours.

As for a traditional RPG of that length for the DS, he'll probably have to wait until Dragon Quest IX, which is coming out for the DS (and not the PS2--shocker).

Yeah, we're both looking forward to Dragon Quest. And I bought the only copy of FFI and II we could find. At least, at our local retailers. So those are my 60 tedius hours! Ha! (It was used, and, apparantly, the last person who owned it made a party of all white mages.)