It's no secret that the Nintendo 64 was less commercially successful than Sony's PlayStation, its main competitor at the time of its release in 1996. Despite the lower sales numbers, the N64 was still responsible for producing some of the most innovative titles of its day with games like Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and GoldenEye 007 pioneering their respective genres. While these games helped to shape the future of the 3D platformer, action-adventure, and FPS genres respectively, the N64 was surprisingly lacking in genre-defining RPGs.
Prior to the N64, Nintendo was the king of home console RPGs with games like Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 6, Secret of Mana, and more filling the library of the SNES a generation prior. However, Nintendo lost out to Sony when it came to many of these games' sequels with Final Fantasy 7 and Chrono Cross launching exclusively on the PlayStation. Although there were some notable RPGs released for the N64, it lacked the sheer volume of entries in the genre that past generations of Nintendo consoles had enjoyed.
The PlayStation's Superior Disc Drive Made it the Go-To Console for RPGs
The fifth console generation was a pivotal point in gaming history as it saw the transition from 2D to 3D gaming. With developers trying to innovate upon available technology, the rise of CD-roms made for an appealing alternative to the cartridge-based games of the past with their ability to store far more data than ever before. This allowed RPG developers to create much longer, more intricate games with all the space afforded to them by CDs and was the primary reason why the PlayStation was the better console for RPGs; the cartridges of the N64 were far too limited in their storage space when compared to the discs of the PlayStation, despite offering faster load times.
Ironically, the PlayStation started out as a collaboration between Nintendo and Sony to develop hybrid console compatible with both cartridges and discs. However, due to differences over Nintendo's IP licenses, the project was scrapped and would lead Sony to create the PlayStation independently. Since Nintendo stuck to its cartridge format for the N64's games, Sony was able to nab the exclusivity of series like Final Fantasy from Nintendo with the appeal of its disc-based format for PlayStation games. This move would ultimately cost Nintendo access to some big RPG titles for the N64 and shaped the course of several franchises on future consoles.
Despite its Limitations, the N64 Still Had a Few Notable RPGs
Losing out on those major RPG franchises to Sony was a big blow to Nintendo and the N64, though the company was able to still able to secure a few notable titles for the console to give RPG fans a reason jump onboard the system. One such game was Ogre Battle 64, a tactical RPGs published as an N64 exclusive by Atlus in 2000, quite late into the console's life. As the third game in the series, Ogre Battle 64 was unique in that its predecessor, Tactics Ogre, was exclusive to PlayStation in North America when it released just two years prior. This may be a rare example for the time of a PlayStation game receiving a sequel on the N64, instead of the other way around.
Nintendo also created their own exclusive RPG late into the N64's life with the release of Paper Mario in 2000. Developed by Intelligent Systems, the studio responsible for the Fire Emblem series, Paper Mario was a spiritual successor to Super Mario RPG from the SNES. The two games share similar RPG elements, but Paper Mario developed its own identity by leaning into the paper aspect of the game in its look and feel. While not as successful as a game like Final Fantasy 7, Paper Mario was popular enough to spawn its own series of spin-off titles featuring Nintendo's mascot over the course of future console generations.
