I’m looking for RPGs to play with friends where each player has different roles and you need to cooperate to progress.
We tried playing MMOs but my friends won’t play on their own so they don’t work (especially with ffxiv as the msq is not at all “coopable”); the subscription would also be a dealbreaker. Do you know of anything with similar gameplay that is playable entirely in coop?
We enjoyed Monster Hunter World (but not Rise), although there’s not much actual cooperation as there are few interactions in combat.
The only game I found that seems it might be what I’m looking for is the original Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, but we can’t get it to work online (dolphin randomly freezes with netplay).
Trine series
Wildermyth
Monaco is 80% off right now. May be worth a look.
Guild wars 2! Giant map to explore and alright story in the free to play part.
Even if you pick different backrounds and race you can port to the other starting maps and the story connects everything later on.
It also gets more difficult so dont think it is always easy like in the starter zones.
And it is one of the old school f2ps thats still good without paying if you wanna try it out.
But if you spend money on an expac you keep it and dont have to pay for a savegame like WoW.
One of the rare MMOs that values your time and money.
Guild Wars2 is very good.
It downscales your level if you go back to older areas, so you can play with lower level friends. (Though it’s still pretty generous, and the high level friends will be more effective). So if your friends aren’t playing much, you can still coop with them when they do play.
There’s a lot of content. Most of the maps have stuff just happening. There’s also instanced content for 5, 10, or … I think private convergences can go up to 20?
There’s not really a gear grind. When you hit max level (which is pretty easy) good-enough gear is very easy to get. A smidge better than that is a little expensive but still very feasible. The fanciest gear is numerically the same, but let’s you reskin and swap stats for free, which is nice.
Sea of Stars recently added coop I think
Checkout Moon Hunters
Secret of Mana and its remake are both co-op once you unlock the second character.
Mana series might be up your alley although a bit dated, up to 3 players. similar graphics to crystal chronicles. I’d recommend Secret of Mana (HD), I think you can recruit two party members before the first dungeon. it the voice acting is bad, you can switch to Japanese dub
This is a tricky one, RPG and co-op generally don’t mix. Larian games have attempted that a few times, though they’re a deep dive. I’d recommend Original Sin 2 from their selections.
Then there’s hack&slashes, I played Grim Dawn with co-op once, but that’s more of a damage competition than something you really need to think about to progress.
Cassette Beasts added co-op recently, but unfortunately I haven’t had time to try
Then there are games like Borderlands, Dying Light or Dead Island which are far more action-y but do have levelling up and skills to unlock
Baldur’s Gate 3. The default party size is 4. In single player it’s filled with NPCs. Might be a long commitment, but it’s a bloody good game. If you are more than 4 you can increase the party size with mods that can be installed from within the game. You could increase the difficulty to compensate.
Incidentally the first two games can be played in multiplayer as well, with up to 6 people. But although they are awesome as well they might be a little bit dated.
If you’re looking for F2P Path of Exile is one of the best. It’s an action RPG like Diablo (which is also great in multiplayer).
We did try BG3 when it came out, but were disappointed in how the coop interacted with dialogues and story events so we ended up dropping it. I kept playing it alone up to the start of act 2, but didn’t enjoy it so we never tried coop again. We are playing an actual DnD campaign tho.
I haven’t played PoE, but one issue I have with coop in action RPGs is that everyone is mostly doing their own thing independently of the other players and the classes are all damage dealers (which, side note, I feel like is the same in BG3 and DnD too). Does PoE have any options to play support roles? It does look fun tho so I might still try it, even if it’s not exactly what I’m looking for.
Star Wars: The Old Republic is great with dialogues. All players choose an answer and it randomly selects who actually gets to say what they want. And the Sith Warrior and Sith Magician (can’t remember the actual class names) synergise great in terms of story and quest locations. The corresponding Jedi classes might as well.
Used to play it with my wife, until some small human took up all our time. We got lucky with the classes. We had a lot of fun. Other classes all seem to have separate starting locations. But with all the subclasses available to Warrior and Magician you should be able to get a good spread.
Divinity original sin is from the same developers as Baldurs Gate and is an absolute banger. Given that the coop Aspekt in dialogues is the absolute same. But the games main focus is IMO the combat which is purely incredible and the build diversity is superb. Also synergies between different players and build is highly encouraged since classes differ greatly in their abilities.
How do dialogues work in coop in Larian RPGs and what makes them so disappointing? Thanks!
To add to what the other commenter has added. All characters in dialogue are frozen in place and poeple not in dialogue can manipulate them or their surrounding and they can’t react to any of it.
Only one character does the talking and you have to actively listen in to hear any of it.
I just remembered Star Wars: The Old Republic. There everyone could participate and it would select randomly who would say the next line. That was nice.
Tales of Vesperia was always a favorite couch co-op RPG of mine. With the Steam release, you can even play the game remotely with everyone via Steam Remote Play Together. It’s not an MMO, and the exploration is single player, but up to 4 players can control the party members in battle. The only major gripe I have with the Steam version (applies to all versions of the remaster) is that if playing in English, some of the voice work that was added in to the remaster is noticably inconsistent with the original dub, since there was about a 10 year gap between recordings. But if that’s not a deal breaker (can always opt for Japanese audio), I’d definitely suggest it.
I was actually playing it and had no idea it was playable in coop. Depending on how well remote play works it could be a good choice. Thanks.
