I’m just got an Xbox 360, and wanted a recommendations as to a Co-op RPG I could play with my wife. She’s seen me play a few PC RPGs and said they looked interesting. Now that I am getting a system that would allow us to play together I thought it would be worth a try.
I have the following requirements
Co-op with two players playing on one system
not too complicated (she’s new to gaming, doesn’t have the best hand eye-coordination, and can get frustrated easily)
The only co-op RPG I am aware of on the Xbox 360 is Tales of Vesperia, which isn’t bad. It certainly meets all your criteria:
#1: Multiplayer Co-op (technically up to 4) though only in battles. Admittedly, battles is a lot of the game, and I’m not really sure what they’d have multiple players doing the rest of the time. #2: It’s only as complicated as you want to make it. Different characters vary in complexity, but the semi-auto control mode means that it’s easy enough to play most characters by just running up and hitting things. You CAN do more complicated stuff, but especially on the default difficulty, it’s not necessary. (Difficulty can be adjusted anytime you’re not in battle.) #3: Rated T, rating says “Mild blood” but I don’t remember any. Maybe someone has a splash on them at some point. #4: The storyline isn’t bad, though it definitely could have been better. #5: Definitely fantasy
ToV is available for pretty cheap, since it’s not new, or if you’re in a hurry, you can get it for $30 from Games on demand.
The only other suggestion I can think of is like… Lego Lord of the Rings, which is hilarious, two player co-op, Lego Violence, easy to play, but isn’t really anything more than a button masher-action type game. Still pretty entertaining though. Try the demo, it’s free. The full game is new and will run you $60, however.
Co-op RPG is not a genre with very many games at all.
I did play a game called Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance on the PS2, I think it’s available for the 360 as well. New copies are now really expensive for some reason but a used copy should play just fine.
Whatever game you decide to buy look for gameplay videos in YouTube before buying to see if it looks like something you would both like. For example, search for: baldurs gate dark alliance gameplay
They’re not RPGs, but the various Lego games (they just came out with a Lord of the Rings edition) are kind of the gold standard for “co-op games that you can play with your SO, even though she’s not really a gamer” games.
Most RPG’s are single player, specially on consoles.
On the PC, I’d recommend a few, but none that would allow you to play on the same machine.
However, the Baldur’s Gate redux just went live. You could play the entire single-player storyline co-op. You on the PC, and she on an iPad or android tablet, if you have one.
I really enjoyed “The Simpsons Game”. Good story, more platforming than RPG, but goes on a good long time.
The “Marvel Ultimate Alliance” games are more Gauntlet-like than full-on open world RPG, but have a good story line and aren’t gory.
I second the Lego series. Fun to play, hilarious cut scenes, not terribly violent, and you can pick the movie series you like best - Harry Potter, Star Wars, Batman, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, or Lord of the Rings.
Not an RPG but amazingly good fun in co-op: Plants vs. Zombies. Also, as mentioned above, Portal2 - it was Game of the Year for a reason.
Since when? It was said to happen, back in early 2012, but the latest interviews say that work hasn’t even started on a port, they are NOT definitively putting it on consoles, there is a small team looking into the possibility. At this point Diablo 3 is looking more likely than this. And it’s an MMO… of course it has a co-op component… it’s all co-op!
Don’t seem to jive with what Arena Net is saying as recently as earlier this month:
All it takes is playing the game… the scope, the graphics… it’s just not something doable on current gen consoles. Not to mention the issues with dealing with the console online infrastructures - specially Microsoft’s. Maybe next gen.
Yup; Rita is also super easy to play. But oddly, my generally non-reflex-inclined wife really liked playing Judith, and did some pretty decent ground->air combo stuff with her.
So it’s a good, solid system for all levels of competency.
Rita is easy, but she couldn’t play her because I mained Rita because she was both my favorite character in the story, but also because I ALWAYS main the caster. (For ToG I mained Pascal).
I fail at Judith though, but she seems like she’d be fun if you’re willing to put in the time.
ETA: The thing I hate about Judith in co-op is that it takes a LOT of coordination to get her to work right. Judith is really obnoxious to have if your party if you’re not the one playing her because she tends to monopolize the field. Whenever I had Rita+Judith on the field hitting with spells that weren’t huge AOEs became nigh impossible. Judith does some serious combos, but she can trivialize the rest of the party if used right (or wrong, depending on your perspective). My ex tried Judith for a while, and most of what happened was that she couldn’t quite play her, so she didn’t do much useful damage or crowd control, but also had a habit of hitting the right enemy at just the right time to screw up my damage.
Did you try just…targetting different opponents? o.O
I actually really hate playing as Rita, because unless you’re abusing the hell out of overlimit, it seems like you spend 75% of your time running away and trying to get enough space to actually cast something, because the AI seems to think that “chase/attack player 1 75% of the time” is the way to go, and none of the melee characters have good enough space control to really disrupt more than 1 or MAYBE 2 opponents at a time.
The problem is that Rita’s spells have a casting time, so what starts out as targeting different opponents ends up with it getting interrupted by your teammates. It’s not ALWAYS Judith, though AI Judith is the worst about it primarily because her moves alter the field so much it just shoots any chances you had of hitting.
With my ex, it actually got better, but sometimes she wouldn’t notice who was targeting who, or the person I was targeting with a spell would be hitting her and she’d have to retaliate, and such and it generally just got frustrating.
I didn’t really have that problem. Yeah, sometimes I had to run away, but it generally wasn’t an issue. Generally I found the best team was Rita/Raven/Estelle/Yuri. The AI spent just as much time trying to get at Estelle and Raven, so I think the AI is actually programmed to attack the casters. Besides, you eventually learn how to use things like Bloody Howling or Tractor Beam that keep enemies rooted when you need them to.
So basically you’re saying that you need the other characters to attack the targets you’re attacking because otherwise they run up and hit you, and Judith has a tendancy to launch things skywards which messes up your spell?
Dunno; I definitely had the problem when playing as Estelle and I recall encountering it as Rita too (who has a slightly easier time since she runs faster). I never really played as Raven because I found the most effective way to play him to also be boring as hell. I don’t remember the AI particularly chasing the AI casters at all though.
