Index – Wii Retrospective

Welcome back to the Wii Retrospective! Last time, I covered the Wii’s strongest genre, the Best Wii U Platformers. RPGs were not as plentiful on the system, but there were some standouts both in quality and notoriety. One thing that has to be said upfront is that the Wii’s RPG offerings were definitely focused on Japanese RPGs. If there were any Western RPGs released on it, they certainly were not prominent, so this article will solely cover JRPGs. Despite this, there was still plenty of variety and we’ll see all kinds of genre hybrids in this article. You can’t mention RPGs on the Wii without seeing a certain elephant in the room, so let’s start with one of the biggest controversies in its lifespan.

Operation Rainfall Games:

Anyone on the Internet in the latter half of 2011 will know of the three games that made up \”Operation Rainfall.\” The first that will come to everyone’s mind is undoubtedly Xenoblade Chronicles. Given a quiet announcement at Nintendo’s 2009 E3 conference, the game would ironically become famous among fans in the next three years because Nintendo chose to ignore it. Those who played the game upon its 2010 Japanese release, as well as its European and Australian 2011 release, turned up the hype for it, but not much attention was given in the Western gaming media. This inattention highlighted the fact that Nintendo had no plans to release the game in North America, and thus, began several months of chaos where angry fans demanded the release of Xenoblade and a few other Japanese Wii games. How constructive the outcry was varied quite a bit, but ultimately, Xenoblade was given an American releases in 2012.

So how was the game itself? Even with the forbidden fruit factor that had pushed expectations among North American gamers to an absurd level, the game lived up to the hype. Having a truly massive world, fantastic story, fast-paced battle system, and modern conveniences JRPGs usually lacked, Xenoblade Chronicles is almost universally considered the best RPG on the Wii. In fact, it is widely considered the best console JRPG of the seventh generation. The game single-handedly turned Monolith Soft into one of Nintendo’s most highly regarded developers and is the best new IP (no, there isn’t any connection to Xenogears or Xenosaga besides being from the same studio) Nintendo has made in over a decade.

Xenoblade may have been the biggest and the best, but it was not the only Operation Rainfall game. The second in both attention and North American release was The Last Story, which was confirmed for release in the region shortly after Xenoblade Chronicles. Developed by Mistwalker, which was founded by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, The Last Story received a fair amount of attention during its development and Japanese release. While it didn’t set the world on fire the way Xenoblade did, the game was certainly interesting. A surprisingly linear action-RPG, the most unique feature in The Last Story was the inclusion of online cooperative play. This was something very rare on the Wii, but the co-op mode was limited to battles, which many found disappointing. The story was also considered underwhelming by some and the combat was fairly clunky, but the game definitely has its fans and is worth giving a chance.

While The Last Story’s reception certainly suffered from being in the shadow of Xenoblade, it at least didn’t get it anywhere near as bad as Pandora’s Tower. The last Operation Rainfall game to get a North American release, Pandora’s Tower’s April 2013 release made it the last significant Wii game in the region. Even Operation Rainfall didn’t seem to care very much — the general “mission accomplished” attitude when Xenoblade and The Last Story were confirmed for North America gave the impression that Pandora’s Tower had only been included because people like doing things in threes. With nearly a year having passed since The Last Story’s release announcement and the Wii U having been released, most had given up on Pandora’s Tower. Despite this, a miracle happened and Last Story publisher Xseed announced a North American release in January 2013.

It really is too bad that Pandora’s Tower got so little attention, because it is actually a great game. A dungeon-focused action RPG that makes great use of the Wii’s IR pointer for combat and puzzles, Pandora’s Tower plays more like a hybrid of Castlevania and Zelda than a normal RPG. With a surprisingly dark story and heavy dating sim elements, it was not what people expected after Xenoblade, but Pandora’s Tower is still something that all Wii owners should give a chance. One issue that must be mentioned with the North American release is a freezing glitch present in almost all copies, but it causes no permanent damage to save files. It is only an issue for a fraction of the game and there is plenty of documentation online of how to get around it. Despite this, Pandora’s Tower is one of the most underrated games on the Wii, RPG or not.

Other RPGs:

While the Operation Rainfall trilogy got a disproportionate amount of attention, there were several other RPGs on the Wii. One of the earliest and most controversial Super Paper Mario. A hybrid of the Paper Mario series and conventional Mario platformers, it played very differently from the previous Paper Mario games to the point where whether it counts as an RPG or a platformer is a toss-up. Despite the core gameplay being real-time platforming, there were still stats and a dialogue-filled story in the style of the previous Paper Mario games. The game is a mixed bag, with great writing and settings but disappointing use of the defining gimmick (Mario being able to switch the gameplay between 2D and 3D at will) and a lack of challenge in platforming and combat. Worth playing for Paper Mario fans, but it won’t be your favorite.

Another Nintendo staple with a Wii entry was Fire Emblem. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn was a strategy RPG and, like the other games in the series, it was well-received, aside from some debate over whether it was too difficult. The quirky Opoona was given little attention, but the traditional RPG gameplay mixed with an imaginative setting triggered fond memories of Earthbound for many players. Arc Rise Fantasia was another very traditional RPG that many fans of the genre enjoyed. Rune Factory Frontier was the first console installment of the Harvest Moon spin-off series that took the daily life-based gameplay into a more traditional fantasy setting and is considered one of the stronger games in the series.

Square-Enix may not have returned the mainline Final Fantasy games to the Wii U, but they gave the system respectable entries in the Chocobo Dungeon and Crystal Chronicles sub-series with Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo’s Dungeon and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time. Namco-Bandai gave the Wii a followup to Tales of Symphonia with Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. While considered underwhelming by many series fans, those who greatly enjoyed the original Symphonia often find it enjoyable.

Namco-Bandai and Square-Enix did release a couple of more prestigious RPGs on the Wii, but sadly, they did not make it out of Japan. Dragon Quest X took the series in a brand-new direction with an online focus and Tales of Graces is considered a solid entry in its series. Tales of Graces eventually received an American release on the PlayStation 3 and Dragon Quest X still has a possibility of an American Wii U release, but for English-speaking gamers, they won’t be playable on the Wii. One big RPG did get an American release on the Wii, however. Monster Hunter Tri caused quite an upset when it was switched from the PlayStation 3 to the Wii and a Western release with online play was more than many had dared hope for. Although the enhanced Wii U version makes it a little pointless to buy now, the team-based action RPG was one of the only games of its type on the Wii.

Conclusion:

While RPGs certainly weren’t the Wii’s strongest genre, its emphasis on JRPGs in a generation that was pretty bad for them gives the system a comfortable niche in the genre. While only a few RPGs on Wii truly stand out, there is quite a bit of variety among JRPGs. Xenoblade is clearly the standout, but if you look deeper, you’re likely to find at least a couple other games that have what you’re looking for. There isn’t much more to say about the genre on the Wii, but that’s okay. The point of this series is that games are what will define the system, not what is written about them. Stay tuned next time for a look at another genre and what the Wii can offer in it.