Yes, sadly I think that SRPG is too niche a genre for Nintendo to feel they could take a risk by revolutionizing Fire Emblem.
Remember that like the rest of us (John Lucas excepted), Nintendo couldn't be sure that the Wii would take off. They were prepared for a Gamecube-like reception from the start. Only their most reliable franchises, made by their top dev teams, could afford to push the limits. All of the supporting titles that Nintendo uses to broaden the scope of their games library had to be safe bets, because if the Wii had gone down the path of the GC, the sales would be pretty lean.
I'm hoping that the vast financial success which innovation has earned Nintendo in the past couple of years will lead to riskier and more ambitious games being developed. They can afford to go places that other developers don't have the money or the ingenuity to go, and I hope they'll take me with them. :)
"The worst part about these reviews is they are [subjective]--and their scores often depend on how drunk you got the media at a Street Fighter event." — Mona Hamilton, Capcom Senior VP of Marketing
*Image indefinitely borrowed from BrainBoxLtd without his consent.
