The Wii and Role-Playing Games

As part of their series of “state of the Wii” articles, Nintendojo examines the current crop of role-playing games available on the popular console system.

RPGs come in many styles but the three most common are probably traditional turn-based RPGs (the mainline Final Fantasy series), strategy RPGs (the Fire Emblem games), and action RPGs (the Fable franchise). In all three of these genres Wii’s cupboard has been pretty bare, serving up only a few titles. Worse still, most of the titles Wii has gotten have been middling affairs that hold up poorly to RPGs on other consoles. To date, Wii has nothing even remotely comparable to Mass Effect, Elder Scrolls: Oblivion or even Tales of Vesperia.

On the turn-based front you’ve got a few decent efforts, but none are really top-tier. Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World (which might also be classified as an action RPG) is the most polished of the bunch but it is also a deeply polarizing game, thanks to Pokémon-like monster-capturing that diverges deeply from its predecessor. Opoona has a really nifty gameplay mechanics and an addictive battle system, but it also suffers from low production values and pretty shoddy localization. Other titles like Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo’s Dungeon, Monster Lab, and Pokemon Battle Revolution all have their moments but ultimately fail to give RPGers a truly enduring traditional experience.

Strategy RPGs, to date, pretty much start and end with Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, a decent title that could easily have come out on GameCube. Not much else here.

Action RPGs on Wii have been largely mediocre. Launch title Marvel: Ultimate Alliance suffers from inconsistent controls, Alien Syndrome is bland and poorly designed, Dragon Quest Swords is basically a remake of a plug-and-play game, and Baroque is bizarre and frustrating. Rune Factory Frontier is probably the best of the action RPG bunch, but it is also a simulation hybrid that may not suit the palate of traditional RPGers.