10 Most Infuriating Wii JRPGs

As a diehard Nintendo fan, of course, I enjoyed the novelty of the Wii console. Sure, sometimes it was annoying needing to stand while playing most games, thrusting my Wiimotes like a madman. But it sometimes worked surprisingly well, and there were a bunch of great games on the system.

Hard as it is to say, there weren't very many incredible JRPGs on the console. In fact, there were many more that were downright infuriating. Which isn't to say these games did nothing right. Instead, it means that their high points are held back by inexplicable and often irritating design flaws. You might still enjoy them, and I did for several, it's just harder to recommend them to everyone.

The list of JRPGs included here is pretty diverse, ranging from well-known series like Final Fantasy and Fire Emblem to more eclectic and perplexing fare that really stretched the limits, as well as the tolerance of fans. As for the order, it's dictated by overall reception as well as my own annoyances with the games. But you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs, so let's find the good in this infuriating feast of JRPG adventures.

10 Super Paper Mario

The Beginning of the Decline

Listen, I'm as big a fan of Mario as the next gamer, and I loved games like Super Mario RPG and the Mario & Luigi series. And while the first Paper Mario game was great, it started to go downhill with Super Paper Mario. In large part, that was because it marked the end of a traditional JRPG with turn-based combat, and instead made it more of a platformer hybrid.

Yes, flipping between dimensions and puzzle solving was fun, and there were even some zany boss battles and a humorous plot. But nevertheless, this was the first game that started to play around with the series actually being a JRPG, with later entries taking that trend to unfortunate levels, and even removing experience and leveling up from the equation.

If you're looking for an experimental adventure with Mario and friends, then Super Paper Mario is your game. But if you're looking for something that's a more traditional and engaging JRPG journey, then you might want to avoid the paper cuts this is sure to cause.

9 The Last Story

The Other Oprainfall Adventure

As someone who spent their formative years in the industry working for Operation Rainfall (oprainfall for short), it's fair to say I have pretty strong feelings about the trilogy they helped convince Nintendo to bring to the West. And while I adore the likes of Xenoblade Chronicles and Pandora's Tower, I have more mixed emotions about The Last Story.

While I admire the ambition on display by Mistwalker, I also feel it wasn't as successful as it could have been. Though it has memorable characters and a novel combat system that mixes stealth and tactics in a form more reminiscent of XCOM than Final Fantasy, it's also a bit annoying controlling one character and letting your AI party members do their thing.

More annoying, though, was the game's plot. For a title with such great characters, the plot was very bland, and the writing was often downright tedious. So while I'm glad The Last Story didn't just stay in Japan, I wish that it had gotten a lot more polish before coming to our shores.

8 Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn

Burning Light

As much as I enjoyed the handheld Fire Emblem games that came before it, I really wasn't a fan of Radiant Dawn. I'd go even further, and say both of the Radiant games took a winning formula and muddled it with insane difficulty curves and brutal enemy intelligence. So even though the story and characters are as enjoyable as you'd expect from the series, the combat bogs it down.

While the later console entries did a good job of balancing things with accessibility options like rewinding the clock, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn starts beating you in the face early on. Even if you consider yourself a master tactician, the brutal RNG can still take you down, and hard. Especially when you factor in that this was one of the games that featured permadeath by default.

Even though I enjoy characters like Micaiah and Sothe, and found the Dawn Brigade's adventures thrilling, it's hard to get fully invested in a game that has so little respect for its players.

7 Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon

Rogue-like Bird Hero

I grew up with Final Fantasy, so I love the monsters that inhabit the series. But I'm not sure who thought we needed to take the bird mounts with zero personality and give them their own game series. I mean, sure, we have a billion Minions movies, but at least they're crazy and entertaining. The most I can say about Chocobo is that they're colorful and say "Kweh".

That's a bit of an exaggeration, but it's still peculiar that the Wii got a game called Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon. It was a rogue-like JRPG set in a town where every toll of a clock tower wiped everyone's memories. It also featured a classic Job system and various mini games to lighten things up.

Though Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon isn't all horrible, featuring cute graphics and whimsy, it's also incredibly repetitive. So if you don't enjoy the game after a couple of hours with it, this will be an utterly nightmarish adventure in a rogue-like world.

6 Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

The Joys of Emil

Imagine following the heroics of someone, only to have them do something utterly horrible to you. And then imagine you're constantly told that you're wrong, and must have misunderstood what happened. That's the basic arc of the main character, Emil, in Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. He's terrified of the monster that is Lloyd Irving, aka the hero of the previous game.

If you're confused, you're not alone. There are some sneaky revelations the plot has, which would normally be enjoyable. But in this particular game, the plot is so poorly handled that it all comes across as an unfortunate, forgettable entry in an otherwise popular series. When you throw in some utterly wretched voice acting, then it all starts to come crashing down.

Perhaps the worst part about the game, though, is how unlikable Emil is. He's either a victim or an edgy idiot, but either way, he's not a hero you ever want to root for. Which is an unfortunate reality of this JRPG.

5 Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon

Ghosts in an Apocalypse

We've all heard of "style over substance", but it's also a fact that visual flair is often the first thing that draws me to a game. You don't know going in if the gameplay complements the artwork, but you can always hope. Unfortunately, with Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon, the eerie style is about the only memorable part of this clumsy adventure.

The game is set in a post-apocalyptic ruin of Tokyo beset by ghosts and various robotic threats. You play Seto, a young boy who has to navigate this dangerous world, searching for fellow survivors and following cryptic clues. If it weren't for all the story beats and surprising character revelations, I would almost consider this more of a survival horror or even an ARPG game, but together it does feel more like a JRPG.

The problem is, actually playing Fragile Dreams is a nightmare. It's all about using the Wiimote and nunchuck to do everything from hiding to holding a flashlight. Which could have been fun, but again, it's not handled well at all. If you're really patient, you might enjoy this ghostly adventure, but most gamers will lose interest very early on.

4 Opoona

Family First

Take a look at the picture above, and then consider that Opoona was made by some of the people behind Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. Staggering, isn't it? If anything, the game looks more like some sort of free 3DS eShop title. But looks can be deceiving, and there were some charming aspects of this weird little JRPG.

Opoona is all about finding and reuniting with your family after getting separated on a space vacation. What's really wild about it, though, is that you can play the entire game one-handed, which I swear isn't some clumsy innuendo. The game is just odd, and you only need the Nunchuk to do everything, along with tweaking your trajectory.

Unfortunately, though, the game fails in one key aspect. It's very shallow and feels unnecessarily stretched out. Meaning that while it looks fresh and fun at first, it will start to weigh on most gamers after 20+ hours. Still, points for creativity, I suppose.

3 Spectrobes: Origins

The Wrath of Genki

I might be in the minority, but I really enjoyed the first two Spectrobes games. They were like a new take on Pokémon, with you finding and cleaning up fossils which then get transformed into breathing monsters. Which might sound strange, but I found the whole process highly engaging, even if the combat was a bit more basic.

Still, it managed to work pretty well on handhelds, until they made the foolish decision to bring the series to consoles in Spectrobes: Origins. Maybe it was the new developer, Genki, instead of Jupiter, but something didn't work, despite how pretty the game looked on the Wii. In large part, that's probably because you had to use the Wiimote to issue commands to your team, which was a mess.

Perhaps the game hit me so hard because I was such a fan of the originals, and felt they didn't do the series justice here. But regardless, this is one JRPG monster collector adventure you should probably avoid.

2 Arc Rise Fantasia

Imageepoch's Error

As a big fan of series like Luminous Arc, I was really excited when I found they had a Wii JRPG called Arc Rise Fantasia. Sure, I had heard that the voice acting was bad, but usually I can just ignore that sort of thing. I simply wasn't prepared for just how horrific it was in this particular game.

Even if you can look past that huge issue, Arc Rise Fantasia has another problem — it's one of the most brutally challenging games I've ever played. One where grinding is mandatory, and even a great strategy in battle won't guarantee your success. Lastly, and this is mostly a me issue, I was really frustrated that this game featured real-time combat instead of turn-based strategy.

I've enjoyed nearly every single game I've played made by Imageepoch. But Arc Rise Fantasia is basically the black sheep. But it's not quite so hard to recommend as our final entry.

1 Baroque

Absolute Insanity

I consider myself pretty good at JRPGs, but I have a friend who is amazing at the hardest examples of the genre. But even for him, Baroque is sort of a black box. It's so absurd, so brutal and so perplexing that even he won't touch it. Which is why it had to take the gold for this particular JRPG list.

Angels, devils and horrific distortion are all part and parcel of this dungeon-crawling nightmare. The Neuro Tower is one that is quite harrowing to explore, even with the rogue-like features like the consciousness orb. And while the third-person perspective of this version of the game helps make the process less infuriating, the whole adventure is still quite demanding.

When you also add the way the story is told, Baroque becomes a very hard pill to swallow. Even if you're amazing at rogue-likes and JRPGs, this dungeon crawler will have you crying on the floor. Which is why I hope it never makes its way to more modern consoles.