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).
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.
They’re quite dated now, but Neverwinter Nights 1&2 have a pretty robust multiplayer element.
Best description I could find is from this steam post reply by DrLoboto:
AFAIK, there are three different possibilities to play multiplayer:
- You and your friend play through the official campaign and/or and the first expansion Shadows of Undrentide, or a user-made adventure that specifically allows for multiplayer (not all of them do). The second expansion Hordes of the Underdark might be possible to play through in multiplayer, too, but I heard there are some issues. Of the DLC, I think only Pirates of the Sword Coast and Infinite Dungeons officially support multiplayer.
- You and your friend log onto a so called Persistant World (PW), which is like a mini MMO, an online world created and hosted by users which is usually accessible to everyone, so you might run into and interact with other players. Some of these are more action-oriented with pre-scripted quests, others are strictly roleplay, meaning you are meant to stay in character and not talk about meta stuff while playing. Sometimes administrators may take on the role of NPCs or monsters and entertain you.
- You and your friend either join another group or run your own game in which one of the users assumes the role of a dungeon master, taking control of NPCs and monsters and creating an adventure for the other player(s).
The more common options would be 1. and 2. In those case, you will both control your own character and you can form a party and fight together, but theoretically you can also split up whenever you want to (even while remaining in the same party) and explore on your own. In case 1. one of you will open an online game and host it for the other player to join (anyone who owns NWN can do this, you don’t need anything else or any particular knowledge), in case 2. you will both join the server of the according PW team. Note that in case 1. the pre-written adventures will often assume that the NPCs are always talking to the same character as the hero of the story; it’s not perfect but it works if you agree that one of you is the main character doing most of the talking for the main quests, or if you can live with the occasional confusion now and then. ;)
