There is a plethora of RPGs on the Nintendo DS. Few of them use the touch screen in a novel way. Way before the Nintendo DS was finalized luminary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto was tinkering with one.
A patent filed with Miyamoto credited as one of the inventors reveals the project. In this conceptual RPG players are randomly attacked by monsters. Old stuff, but the combat system is new.
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.
These flow charts explain the nitty gritty.
Not all patents are used. Not even all of Shigeru Miyamoto’s ideas are used. Should Nintendo use this?
