Opoona - Review

[After a little more than a week of anticipation, MyWiiNews is back with our in-depth review of Opoona, the latest (and first) RPG to hit the Wii this year. After almost two weeks with the game, what's our final verdict? Read on to find out!]

As any RPG fan knows, the Wii hasn’t exactly been this generation’s leader when it comes to games of the role-playing variety. Sure, we have our action RPG’s, a few solid ports and even a tactical adventure or two, but where is the good ol’ traditional Japanese RPG goodness? Much like other third-party titles, they’ve been lacking as of late; making many a RPG enthusiast out there wonder if anything good was ever going to make its way over to the system. Out of the blue last year came Opoona for Japan, a decidedly quirky game with an even weirder art style that instantly polarized the few that found out about its existence. Even though Opoona certainly stumbles a bit in his self-titled journey, his adventure is worth looking into for anyone looking for a solid third-party RPG outing for their Nintendo Wii

Throughout Opoona, your task is to lead the game’s eponymous hero throughout his quest to reunite with his family who were seriously injured and lampooned after crash landing on planet Landroll. Opoona and his family are Tizians (from the planet Tizia); a legendary people that have fought as Cosmo Guards and protected the universe for centuries. Instead of using traditional swords and staves, Opoona and his family use their ever-present (and bouncy) Energy BonBons to help cast spells and deal damage to enemy Rogues throughout the universe. After awaking from his slumber, Opoona is chosen by higher-ups on planet Landroll to become a ranger - a protector of the many domes, caverns, and pastoral areas that make up Planet Landroll - and such begins his tireless journey.

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The majority of Opoona’s deeper story is kept under wraps for the bulk the adventure, with only tidbits of information leaked out or subtly hinted to you along the way. Even though its story is relatively solid with bits of humor thrown in for good measure, Opoona does adhere to a few JRPG stereotypes and plot expectations that come to fruition in the latter part of the adventure. For those looking for production values and storylines similar to the Final Fantasies and Dragon Quests, you might want to look elsewhere, as Opoona tends to focus more on exploration of Landroll’s beautiful surroundings than trying to tell an epic story.

Opoona bills itself as a “lifestyle RPG,” which is a rather curious choice of words for Koei, but makes more sense as Opoona unfolds. The majority of the game revolves around Opoona completing various side-quests and missions to advance his rank as a Ranger and make his mark on society on a whole. Along the way, Opoona can pick up optional side-jobs that can trigger storyline events, garner him new items and money, and even increase friendship levels with his fellow Landrollians (which become increasingly important towards the end of the game).

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Prospective players looking for a job system similar to those found in tactical RPG’s should likely look elsewhere, as the bulk of Opoona’s jobs are merely optional side-quests that can be completed at the player’s leisure. While four or five jobs may be required for the story to progress, the majority are simply fun diversions that provide Opoona with new opportunities if you’re so inclined. Even though the game could probably be plowed through in about 20 hours, most players will find themselves spending somewhere between 25-35 leveling up, building friendships, completing missions, and otherwise exploring Landroll before the inevitable final throwdown takes place. Completists could find themselves investing almost twice as much time, as there is quite a good amount of secrets and quests to uncover towards the end of the adventure.

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.