When the original Xenoblade came out for the Wii in Japan, there was a lot of doubt that the game would ever come out anywhere else. The reason was Nintendo's lack of confidence in the feasibility of the product on the global market. Thanks to the localization of the game by NoE and a publishing deal between GameStop and NoA, the game was released worldwide to massive critical acclaim. But more importantly, the sales far exceeded Nintendo's expectations as the game had even more success outside of Japan. This has obviously created a positive change in Nintendo's perception of the potential success high profile console JRPGs can achieve worldwide, which is reflected in Xenoblade Cronicles X higher budget and the fact that the game will release in EU and NA withing the same year. Nintendo, itself, is publishing the game on all markets.

The fact that Nintendo is having a more positive posture about big budget console JRPGs worldwide will mark the single biggest shift of the JRPG subgenre status in the console market. After all, Nintendo is getting serious about the genre, and when Nintendo gets serious about a genre, big things happen. This was evidenced earlier this year with the release of Splatoon and the massive success it had. Before Splatoon came out, I could confidently say that shooters are never becoming big in Japan. Or that a children friendly shooter had not commercial viability. Many people believed it had no chance against the likes of Halo 5. Yet the game is putting down a fight. It might loose at the end, but the fact that is even competing reflects a disruption in the market. Thing is, it shouldn't even be competing. It is a new IP and is not exclusively oriented towards a teenag… sorry, I meant mature audience. As many people have pointed out, it should had been murdered in sales. Yet it hasn't. Nintendo is changing the status quo of shooters, and it can do the same with RPGs. Now, is truth that Nintendo didn't put the same marketing effort into Xenoblade Chronicles X as it did with Splatoon and is clear they don't yet have the same confidence in the series, or JRPGs in general, as they have with other series since they opted to give the immensely important November slot to Mario Tennis instead. But, thanks to the original Xenoblade, the stage is set in, to have a more RPG supportive Nintendo if Xenoblade Chronicles X proves successful.

It is truth that success on one front, doesn't necessarily translate on another. And is perfectly understandable that some of you might want to play that card. After all, it is the best scapegoat argument if you don't want to accept that Nintendo can become one of the biggest players in the RPG genre, just like it did with the multiplayer shooter genre. I'm not saying that there is no merit to this argument, because it has and, at the risk of sounding self-defeating, I accept that it points out the obvious hole in my logic. But that hole only works against my claim if there was a chance that Nintendo couldn't make a game in the RPG genre as successful as Splatoon, assuming the same effort is being put into it. That, to me, makes the entire argument absurd because I have no doubt that Nintendo have more chances of hitting it big with a JRPG than they ever did with a multiplayer shooter. Of course, the same effort has to be put into it, but that's why the performance of Xenoblade Chronicle X worldwide is all the more important. Thing is that, if you don't want Nintendo to be a massive player in the console RPG front, you better pray that Xenoblade Chronicles X bombs really hard. Because, if it becomes a big success, gamers will notice, the industry will notice, SquareEnix will notice : ) and, more importantly, Nintendo will surely know.

Abridged version for the lazy:

Xenoblade is making Nintendo serious about the RPG genre.

Splatoon is proof of what happens when Nintendo gets serious about a genre.

Simple.

It's nice to see Nintendo supporting Xenoblade after all the shenannigans with the original.

I don't understand. (Especially because the abridged version doesn't match with OP's title, forcing to redirect ourselves to the whole text) The only thing I'm getting here is that you believe the JRPG market will experience some kind of trascendence because Nintendo is publishing one JRPG this month...and that trascendence can be evidenced by the fact that they made a great shooter that sold well. Am I getting this right?

I don't think Splatoon changed the status quo of anything; it proves that originality can pay off, but to alter the very foundations of the shooter panorama we're living today would mean a lot of things, includingeveryone copying Splatoon's success, which I don't picture unless the brand gets to grow as much as Mario has throughout these years. Bearing this in mind, and using the same connection you did, I can't picture Xenoblade being the "savior" of anything, as, again, it didn't shake the status quo of the JRPGs (though this is a much more volatile thing; you never know what to expect. Successful JRPGs might include games about a knight who dies a lot, then we switch over to some bunch of emo teenagers driving to meet some waifu); being successful in Japan with just one game doesn't really guarantee much (As history has proven, there are successful IPs in Japan that don't translate well overseas and viceversa, and thus japanese developers don't get interested enough in supporting this path).

I mean, nothing should be disregarded unless fully analized, but I think the very premise of your post is in shaky ground already.

Lets be honest a game about squids shooting ink wouldnt be nearly as well received as it was if it werent a Nintendo game. There is a bias and somewhat of an indoctrination on ppls head that whenever they read Nintendo they imediatly associate it with fun, this is a testament to what the company achieved along the years, but it is a fact that anyone that sits to play a Nintendo game does so with a mindset that helps them enjoy the product cause they are already conditioned to link Nintendo games with fun time.

Or maybe the game is just freaking good and some people just look for excuses.

Damn, i shouldnt have mentioned Splatoon in that thread. I had it coming i guess...

I don't think so and the reason is pretty simple. Online shooters are much easier to sell than Japanese RPGs about robots.

Come on dude, you honestly telling me a game about shooting ink at stuf and becoming a squid by any other company on the planet would have even half the hype this game had, sell remotly as well as it did and review even slightly as well ? If it werent Nintendo would you even have cared (honest question).

read this:

Y-E-S

Splatoon looks to me like the most fresh and addictive videogame in a long time, I actually think is the best thing Nintendo has done in several years (I´m not alone in this, even the Times magazine said that), that game is freaking amazing, pure unadulterated fun based on 100% quality of gameplay and game design, Splatoon is videgames on its best expression, some of you need big open worlds with top notch graphics to see greatness, but oh lord, that's so narrow minded.

And btw, the reason Splatoon has not a bigger score on Metacritic is because it was released with a 30% of the content it has right now, that was the onbly complain of critics, you see reviews like "The best shooter in years" 7/10, "The best online experience of the generation" 7/10, but if the game was released with all the free content that come later (now has 15 maps, +50 weapons, +150 pieces of gear, 4 online modes, 2 matchmaking options, and more coming) the game would be easily around the MK8 score (88), even IGN did a re-review and they gave it 7 points more this time. Not that metacritic scores are that important to beggin with, but this is why.

I want Nintendo to once again be a big player on console JRPGs, but the sole idea of them being similar to Xenoblade makes me puke. I've bought for my Wii U nearly all the RPGs available in the VC, plus indies like Citizens of Earth, Pier Solar and things like Alphadia Genesis, but after trying the first Xenoblade there is no way in hell I'm buying the second one.
In short, it's the exact opposite for me, if the formula of Xenoblade Chronicles is the one that proves to be succesful, then I'll probably stop playing RPGs altogether.