There are so many Wii games to look forward to this year, it’s hard to pick a few out and hold them up as shining examples of what I’m most hopeful to see before the holidays. But that’s exactly what I’m going to do. More to the point, I’m taking a look at the list and seeing lots of RPGs in the pipeline, and that makes me a happy gamer.

RPG gaming was abysmal on the GameCube. There were a couple of fantastic projects – Tales of Symphonia and Baten Kaitos stick out in my mind. But that was really all there was. If you’re a fan of RPGs, you really need to have a PS2 anymore.

But hopefully, that’s about to change. Opoona has just seen a US release. It doesn’t appear to be well liked, but I’ve heard from trusted sources that if you can get past its quirkiness, there is a genuinely fantastic game underneath a bit of overzealous clutter. I see Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World slated for a summer Japan release, followed closely by a potential holiday US release. Square Enix has reported that Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: the Crystal Bearers is still on track for 2008, though it will likely hit Japan first, and then the US sometime in early 2009. But before that hits, we’ll be treated to Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King on WiiWare in May. While not a true RPG experience, it will be close enough to keep me satisfied.

Also, Baroque should be hitting the US this month. I’m convinced that its poor review from Nintendo Power is more of a question of whether or not the reviewer acknowledges and understands rogue-like dungeon crawling RPGs, than it is a consensus of the game’s overall quality. I’m also looking forward to Namco Bandai’s Fragile that is still expected to come stateside in late 2008; though, admittedly, that’s a bit of an optimistic outlook since a Japan release date hasn’t been confirmed yet. And Cing’s King’s Story looks like it’s coming along nicely. Also not a true RPG, but still in the same vein as FFCC: MLaaK.

My hope is that there are other projects being worked on that haven’t been revealed yet that will make 2008 and 2009 more interesting for Wii owners looking for solid RPG experiences. Monolith can’t just be working on Disaster: Day of Crisis, can they? Surely they have another (potentially Baten Kaitos-esque) project on the table. That has to be the reason Nintendo bought them. And what of Sword of Legendia? Namco Bandia mentioned this title briefly prior to the Wii launch, and it has never been heard from again. Was that title a mask for the Tales of Symphonia sequel? Who knows? My hope is that it is a Wii remake of Tales of Legendia for the PS2. I have absolutely nothing upon which to ground that theory besides pure speculation. At this point, I’ll take what I can get.

2008 – the year of the Wii RPG? It’s definitely looking that way. And it can really only get better from here. Maybe 2009 will be the year of the Wii FPS.