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Koei developing Wii RPG

Japanese publisher and Dragon Quest VII developers team up to bring the new game Opoona to Nintendo's console.

Opoona

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Though the Wii has become popular on the strength of its party, sports, and adventure titles, the console isn't exactly well-represented in the role-playing genre. This week, though, Koei announced its intention to change that--in Japan, anyway.

At a Tokyo press conference, the Dynasty Warriors publisher announced it had hired Arte Piazza, a studio founded by former staffers on the Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy series, to develop an all-new Wii RPG. Titled Opoona, the game is set to ship this summer in Japan, with releases elsewhere to be determined.

According to an English-language fact sheet issued by Koei, Opoona is a "lifestyle RPG" set on the fictional planet Landroll. It will require the player, as the titular character, to interact with non-player characters while holding down a job. Said profession will allow Opoona to explore the various colonies on Landroll in order to find his missing brother and sister and help his hospitalized parents. Images from the game indicate it will have a very Japanese, cartoonish visual style, with gameplay centering on "Active Bonbon Battles" that will have the hero pelt opponents with "Energy Bonbons."

GameSpot will have more details on Opoona as they become available.

106 Comments

  • Factor-Zer0

    Posted Apr 2, 2007 9:50 am GMT

    is this another pikman?

  • Colinllama

    Posted Mar 24, 2007 3:52 am GMT

    Opoona! Looks good!

  • jonzilla_basic

    Posted Mar 19, 2007 11:07 am GMT

    I want Dynasty Warriors for the wii but i will take whatever they can create. Koei is a great Game Dev company

  • wheeloftime24

    Posted Mar 19, 2007 8:18 am GMT

    I have all 3 systems. I have TP for wii, and that is the only title that remotely was good. I go to the store and all I see are garbage mimik games for wii, and this just seems to be another one of those titles. I know nintendo is all about the kiddsie cutesy fun thing, but it is lost its place in my heart. I want to play something with depth, something with a decent story. Something that I can sit down and play for hours and hours. I want a good decent RPG. I am not interested in cooking mama, or Wiidogs or whatever little gimmik title they are going to release. just doesn't interest me

  • WhiteSnake5000

    Posted Mar 18, 2007 9:56 am GMT

    Dragon Quest 7 developers...

  • doffythebest

    Posted Mar 18, 2007 7:43 am GMT

    Looks weird, but kind of interesting at the same time.

  • coolcole1

    Posted Mar 17, 2007 8:46 pm GMT

    dragon quest 8 is probably the best rpg ever so i will give it a shot

  • Hinduce

    Posted Mar 17, 2007 7:27 pm GMT

    Ok i read the whole thing and itook a look at the screens and i still don't know what the heck this thing is but hey....Nintendo being doin things right for over 20 years.

  • Grinder86

    Posted Mar 17, 2007 4:09 pm GMT

    if it is online,
    ill give it a chance

  • Brock_UK

    Posted Mar 17, 2007 2:36 pm GMT

    I agree with rexCo, give it a shot, you will be suprised how many Wii games are under-estimated!

  • rexCo

    Posted Mar 17, 2007 1:54 pm GMT

    Hey dcgames, have you played any yet? They're not all stupid or "ridiculous". Granted, many to date have been.. not that great, but there's some solid games out for the Wii, some great games (DBZBT2, Zelda), and the future looks bright.

  • dcgames

    Posted Mar 17, 2007 1:46 pm GMT

    Everyone rushes to get out games when a console first comes out and nine times out of ten they are crap games. This is one of the reasons I haven't even went looking for a Wii yet - let them get all the stupid, ridiculous games out of the way first.

  • lucas029

    Posted Mar 17, 2007 10:01 am GMT

    Is it online?

  • PrincessOvelia

    Posted Mar 17, 2007 3:53 am GMT

    The sole reason I'm interested in this game is the music composer, Hitoshi Sakimoto, of FFXII and FFTactics fame.

  • SephirothSyZtem

    Posted Mar 17, 2007 3:35 am GMT

    Well ya but.....Koei is one of the worst developers alive...

  • fantasyfacade

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 3:32 pm GMT

    I'm interested in this game. I like the artstyle in it. And I'm interested in the whole having to have a job thing.

    I also know that the battle system is completely controlled through by the sensors in the nunchuk. You basically throw the nunchuk for them to throw their energy bon bon.

  • kerensky287

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 2:06 pm GMT

    Energy Bonbons?

    ...

    Don't say that I'm judging a book by it's cover, but.... that single phrase has officially stopped me from ever considering this game for purchase.

  • lzorro

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 12:29 pm GMT

    With a game like DQVII under their belts this has the potential to be a great game

  • dragonfish09

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 10:48 am GMT

    Are japanese people crazy? Football with machine guns? Energy candy delights? What the crap?

  • Eliphs

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 7:48 am GMT

    I'm glad companies are trying something *new* as opposed to trying to rehash the same old tripe that's been created. Kudos to them.

    And those preliminary drawings are phenomenal.

  • kavadias1981

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 6:53 am GMT

    Good to see lots of healthy support for the Wii.

  • chrisdojo

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 6:16 am GMT

    man i LOVE those illustrations of the characters..... hope it turns out well!

  • GKBeetle

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 5:44 am GMT

    Art style for this game looks great. That alone makes me excited about this game. Hopefully it has some good gameplay.

  • KevComesRipping

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 4:51 am GMT

    Ugh, is the sword toting, black magic casting, turn based RPG style dead?

  • Gooper_Blooper

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 4:13 am GMT

    I find the phrase "Energy Bonbons" vastly amusing for some reason.

  • yukine

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 4:05 am GMT

    Sounds pretty unique, hopefully it ends up worth purchasing... and that they actually bring it the U.S.

  • DaPlopz

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 3:12 am GMT

    That's sounds kinda wierd.

  • AgileNate

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 2:46 am GMT

    Sweet its good to see Koei doing something new besides releasing the same game over and over with a different numeral next to it. I like Dynasty Warriors but I would like a difference between the sequels.

  • Lord_Daemon

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 2:14 am GMT

    It doesn't sound particularly compelling but then again neither did Animal Crossing and that ended up being the video game equivalent of crack.

  • her0carn

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 1:05 am GMT

    Great another kiddy adventure

  • Pumpkin-Head

    Posted Mar 16, 2007 12:27 am GMT

    Sounds kinda cool, Lets see what it develops into : )

  • osxgp

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 11:25 pm GMT

    Not sure about this one.

  • VengenceZero

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 9:57 pm GMT

    Sim Inspired. But oh, well? Whats new now a days?

  • LordGamer0001

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 8:28 pm GMT

    it looks kinda cool. i think i might wanna play it.

  • puppiemaster

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 7:52 pm GMT

    sounds a bit like the sims

  • interpolred

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 7:37 pm GMT

    Sounds interesting. Hope to see it shipping in other parts of the world as well.

  • aznixiboy

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 7:11 pm GMT

    Looks pretty cool, I'll check it out.

  • comthitnuong

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 6:38 pm GMT

    The game doesn't look that good...I mean just look at that screenshot.

  • infonesia

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 5:20 pm GMT

    Arte Piazza's Dragon Quest V Reprise for PS2 seemed awesome (a shame it never made it out of Japan), therefore I'm very much looking forward to seeing that same developer try out their own original concepts like they seem to be doing here with Opoona.

    Dragon Quest father Yuji Horii, although not involved with Opoona's development, was also at this press conference. Seems like Opoona was in the works before Arte Piazza found a publisher, not the other way around like this article suggests, and Horii managed to hook up his pals at Arte Piazza with Koei.

    Anyways, the conference video showed off some interesting stuff for the battles in this game, what with the way multiple enemy targeting and energy charging seem to be utilized together. Despite the initial awkward looking style, there seems to be more to this game than it appears...

  • glhx1rush

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 4:38 pm GMT

    oh god

  • cpaschal

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 4:32 pm GMT

    And again Gamespot is about 3 days late with info. On another, on topic note...this game doesnt impress me so far.

  • zxcvmnb

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 4:32 pm GMT

    If the writing is funny and the enemies and locations are varied enough, this could well be a success, at least with the Earthbound/Animal Crossing crowd.

    I'm more excited about this than all the other predictable RPG's on the horizon (Blue Dragon for one)

  • action_ramboXXX

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 4:28 pm GMT

    Did anybody find it wierd that the article had to specify that Landroll is a fictonal planet? I mean we should know that already, right?

  • nickythenewt21

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 4:22 pm GMT

    bonbons? BONBONS?!?! y bonbons?

  • Redsyrup

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 4:22 pm GMT

    I've also seen the youtube video and although its in Japanese it 'looks' to me to be merely conventional. I'm surprised Koei sponsored its dev.

  • cfamgcn

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 4:19 pm GMT

    Please, Square-Enix... give us a Final Fantasy...

  • jedipy

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 4:09 pm GMT

    bonbon battles? i have a feeling this one's not coming stateside.(that's probably a good thing)

  • coleorionjordan

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 4:08 pm GMT

    Gameplay centered around throwing bonbons at things?

    I'm in! (kind of...)

  • bubblepaul

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 3:47 pm GMT

    Im gonna have to wait and see how this one comes along, interesting concept, but its no Final Fantasy (obviously)

    Bring it on, along with Dragon Quest and FFCC

  • Outlawlaw

    Posted Mar 15, 2007 3:39 pm GMT

    I'd take an rpg for my wii from anybody but koei...

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