Opoona Bringing RPG Fun to All?

So I’m wandering around the internet, as I am wont to do, and I stumble across this little gem of a game over at IGN called Opoona (being developed by KOEI). Now you might look at the screenshot above and ask why is a bland looking, cutesy, RPG a gem of a game? Well there are two reasons. The first being that it’s an RPG, which, at the moment, the Wii is lacking. The second, and more importantly, is that the game is attempting to actaully bridge the gap between casual and hardcore gamers.

Since the launch of the Wii Nintendo has been proclaiming that the system is bringing in new gamers and that those new gamers will become interested in gaming and move over to more hardcore games once they see how fun gaming is. But the gap between Wii Sports and No More Heroes is massive and I’ve always wondered how new gamers were supposed to jump from one to the other. Now along comes Opoona offering a simplified yet full RPG experience for beginners and hardcore alike. The game doesn’t even use the Wiimote’s IR sensing or motion control. It is almost completely controlled by the nunchuck of all things and seems incredibly easy to pick up thanks to it’s battle mechanics and friendly style. But it still has enough depth to be called a serious RPG. Seems like the kind of game that could turn a casual gamer into a hardcore RPG fan, as long as it’s good.

You can check out some of the vidoes the IGN guys did during their hands on session with the game. Especially interesting is the one where fighting is explained as it’s seems that the games battles are a sort of a real time/turn based affair involving charging strategies and vicious jelly things. I can easily see how this game could fall flat as the gameplay in the videos could get incredibly boring through the length of a full RPG experience. However, more members join your team and there is a social aspect kind of like The Sims in the game which could keep things very interesting and attract even more of those elusive casual gamers.

So if you’ve seen your kid or significant other neck deep in Final Fantasy game but were too intimidated to try it out for yourself, this might be just the game for you. This is all of course dependent on the quality of the final game. Now I’m just wondering if it counts as being innovative to not use the innovations on the Wii controller.