Non-MMO RPGs WITH FRIENDS!

[Emonzaemon]

Co-op RPG's.  More should be made!  How many RPGs are co-op, online or otherwise?
In the case of games like Tales of symphonia/vesperia and Eternal Sonata.  Having someone to fight things with, or be your chauffeur when you don't want to walk across the world map, get fetch quest number infinity, (My friend won't stop making fun of my 30 minute usage of stores in vesperia) is great.  If we can enjoy either the combat or the story, (God Forbid Both)  then it's perfect.

Isn't it easier to do then say, Split screen?  Is the balancing for a human controlled player more of a challenge then balancing for 3 extra AI party members? Even if it's like deathspank, where the 2nd player can't level or anything, that's better then nothing at all.  I mean if you already have a game with more then one party member, or multiple interchangeable party members, that does not shoot bullets which necessitates split-screen, why not let controller two have drop in drop out functionality.

What's wrong with couch co-op Dragon Age?  Co-op Final Fantasy?  Co-op makes everything better right?  Work on this Japan!  If you create another Star Ocean, give me some Co-Op. 

For the record, I've only played Torchlight, So while I would Imagine Diablo falls into this category somewhere, I don't know where.  Huzzah!

[Eusis]

Co-op makes everything better right?

Resident Evil 5 indicates NO. However, the issue there is mainly doing it smartly, some game types don't work well with co-op, or at least co-op through the entire game, RE would be fine with it as a secondary mode or something, or even keeping it exclusive to the Mercenaries game type. Plus sometimes there's good potential only for it to be squandered, co-op Dragon Age probably would be fine given it was done in Baldur's Gate, but the rumored online for DA3 sounds like forced in nonsense (though that could've been for a seperate game if true).

Still, something like Star Ocean could work given it's good for the Tales series, and Final Fantasy... It might actually be a really good idea for FFXIII's battle system, unless latency would screw that up (probably not) given it's too fast to issue individual orders.

[Andrew]

Co-op makes everything worse. Especially when it's introduced into a series that hasn't had it in the past. Well, that's a bit of a generalisation, but it's how I tend to feel.

Actually, some Tales games DO havea  form of co-op. Well, in battles you can have another person control another character. Nothing outside of battle though. Regardless, I'm very opposed to co-op in RPGs. Maybe I'd just old-fashioned, but RPGs are THE go-to genre for an awesome single-player experience. If I want co-op, I'll play a different genre.

[Tooker]

Diablo II is anything you want it to be.  Completely solo, playing with just your friend, or playing with everyone else.  That's part of why people love it so much - it's a satisfying experience no matter which of those ways you like to play.

[Maxximum]

Co-op means AI controlled party members when you want to play solo, that alone means I don't want it in an RPG because I HATE AI controlled party members.

[Eusis]

Co-op means AI controlled party members when you want to play solo, that alone means I don't want it in an RPG because I HATE AI controlled party members.

It's why it didn't make RE5 better at all. There were also several necessary design concessions to be a co-op game, like wrecking inventory, cutting out backtracking (not that RE4 had a lot of that to begin with)... the structure was a lot more stage based than it originally was.

[Tooker]

Not necessarily, Max.  In many cases, playing solo means no party members.

[Maxximum]

Not necessarily, Max.  In many cases, playing solo means no party members.

True though Id say that an AI controlled party is more common these days, especially in games that are more RPG than action adventure.

[Klyde Chroma]

I adored playing Secret of Mana and Seiken Densetsu 3 "couch co-op".... The best I ever think I got along with my longest standing girlfriend of 6 years or so was during a co-op playthrough of FF5 as well.... The "Tales" co-op is cool if your first player.... too much down-time for your buddies playing along with you though unless they really dig the story.

As for how it is implemented I like how they did it with the older FF titles.... No A.I, just set controller settings to 1 or 2.... simple.... To be honest I never really understood why they didn't just do this for my standard turn based titles. I mean how difficult is it really to incorporate  controller settings option for active party slots?

[Agent D.]

Pso offline with buddies was the pinnacle of coop gaming for me. Nothing beat it. I played for nearly 3 months every day with 2-3 friends on our one little gamecube with our little home made book of drops and drop rates and 3 different memory cards. Every action rpg needs to have a mode like that. I wish white knight chronicles 2 had that, as it would be so much more awesome

[Fred Flintstone]

^ PSO was amazing. I miss the DC.

Carcassonne for the iPhone is asynchronous online gaming at its best. Basically, it's the best board game ever made. /fact