Nintendo Wii after 1 year - Where are the RPGs?

[esquire]

The Nintendo Wii is more than a year into its lifespan and still we have seen no new (not counting VC re-releases) true RPGs released, except for some obscure title, Code Lyoko: Quest for Infinity, which does not at all look enticing to me. Sure there's Marvel Ultimate Alliance (action RPG) and Fire Emblem (strategy RPG), but these aren't true RPGs in the mold such as the FF, DQ, or Mana series.

The 360 caught a lot of flack for not having any genuine RPGs in its first year, yet we hear no grumblings likewise for the Wii. To me, this is really unacceptable since the Big N is after all a Japan-based company, a place where RPGs flourish. The big excuse for Microsoft was that the 360 was not selling in Japan and the American consumer base was more interested in action titles and FPS. I believe there is or will be a Tales of Symphonia release in Japan, but where are the rest?

[7th lutz]

There is one coming in March called Baroque. That is only true rpg I am aware of for the Wii at this time.

[carlcarlson]

Paper Mario doesn't count? And what did you expect, look at the Gamecube. I can't think of more than 10 rpgs for it. Sony has been where it's at for rpgs for the last two generations, and I would expect it to be the same for this one.

[Snapple]

US Wii RPGs

Released:
Alien Syndrome
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
Super Paper Mario


Yet to be released:
Baroque (3/18/08)
Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon (TBA)
Dragon Quest Swords (2/26/08)
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: the Crystal Bearers (TBA 2008)
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Young King and the Promised Land (TBA)
Opoona (TBA)
Pokemon Farm (TBA)
Project O (Working title) (TBA)
Tales of Symphonia: Knight of Ratatosk (TBA)


carlcarlson says look at the Gamecube. Look at the N64 for that matter. Nintendo let go of trying to please RPGers a decade ago with the end of the SNES.

[incubus421]

I believe there is also a Harvest Moon game or two in the works for the wii as well.

Nintendo has proven that they can go without much of an RPG genre with the N64 and Gamecube. It's not much of surprise that the RPG genre is showing little and next to nothing at this point in the Wii's life. It looks to get a bit better throughout the course of the year. As far as big franchise RPGs go, you're better off just banking on your PS2/3.

and for the record, I can't wait for the release of Dragon Quest Swords, looks quite promising.

[7th lutz]

US Wii RPGs

carlcarlson says look at the Gamecube. Look at the N64 for that matter. Nintendo let go of trying to please RPGers a decade ago with the end of the SNES.

Part of that was caused by Nintendo refusing to make the N64 a cd format game console Square left Nintendo for a while due to that. That caused the main games of the Final Fantasy franchise to be released on a sony game console.

Square and Enix were the main two companies that did rpg's for Nintendo system back in the 8 bit and 16 bit era.

Nintendo is not much of a rpg developer. Nintendo develops rpgs once in a while, but they don't release a big amount during a game console's lifetime. Nintendo depended on 3rd parties a lot to make them. The N64 and the Gamecube didn't have a lot of 3rd parties compared to the Nes and the Snes did.

[scooterb23]

I just can't imagine wanting to sit there for 40-50+ hours pointing a Wiimote at a screen...

[Snapple]

I'm sure Square and Enix leaving were a huge factor in leaving RPGs, as was the lack of CDs for N64. No doubt about it.

I never saw the lack of Nintendo RPGs the past couple generations as a problem though, because even though I love RPGs, I've never "just" had an N64, because I had a PS1. I didn't "just" have a Gamecube, because I had a PS2. Now granted, I don't have a PS3, but I've still gotten plenty of RPGs the past couple years on my PS2 and DS. I'm not feeling the hurt of not having a next-gen RPG yet. I could still appreciate my N64, Gamecube, and Wii for the games that they did give me, and I just got an RPG fix somewhere else.

I plan on getting all of the Wii RPGs eventually. There are so few of them that I think it wouldn't be too hard to make a mini-collection out of it and just get them all. Opoona looks like it could be good. Supposedly, it's entirely controlled with the nunchuk and doesn't use the Wiimote at all. Kind of like how Earthbound could be played entirely with the left hand. And I DID play Earthbound for certain stretches with one hand, because that's how lazy I am.

[FantasiaWHT]

How often in the first year of ANY console's life are there major RPG's? Precious few... RPG's tend to have significantly longer development times than most other genres.

[Streetball 21]

I'm not very surprised that there are not many RPG's for the Wii. However, it would be interesting to see how people would "accept" using the Wii remote for an RPG...

[carlcarlson]

How often in the first year of ANY console's life are there major RPG's? Precious few... RPG's tend to have significantly longer development times than most other genres.

For arguments sake, Oblivion for the 360 is one of the biggest rpgs to date, and it was almost a launch title. But yeah, you are right, rpgs usually don't start to come out frequently until a little while into a system's life. Not that I think that will matter for the Wii, I would expect less than 20 rpgs for it, and probably less than 10 that are decent if the Gamecube and N64 are any indicator.

[calthaer]

I highly doubt - and early comments by their staff indicate as much - that Nintendo designed the Wii with deep, lengthy gameplay in mind. They wanted to make a console that was very accessible to people with easy-to-learn, short games. I wouldn't expect much in the way of RPGs for the Wii - they just didn't design with it in mind.

[Daniel Thomas]

Where are the RPG's? Hell...where are the Nintendo Wii's?

Does Nintendo even make these things anymore? I'm pretty sure I'll find a Nintendo Wii someday...in that same military hangar that's hiding the Roswell spacecraft, Elvis Presley, and all those Atari ET cartridges.