Famed Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto had plans once for a touch screen RPG for the DS, according to a filed patent.

The game was planned before the DS was even finalized, however, so it doesn't seem likely the game will ever see fruition, which is a shame, as no RPGs come to mind that use the DS' touch screen capabilities in this exact way.

In either case, it's cool to see the planning stages for a video game from one of the greatest minds in the video game industry.

In battles players poke monsters with a finger or stylus to attack them. Touch the monster and you hurt it. Miss and it, well, you miss. Monsters move in patterns so battles require more eye-hand coordination than selecting fight. The neat thing about this system is you deal more damage if you hit the monster in a weak spot, like its face in this example, than its torso. Hit the shield and you deal less damage. The proposed system draws ideas from first person shooter or light gun games and adapts them for a turn based RPG.

chautemoc via siliconera.com »