“Where has the horse gone?
Where the young warrior?
Where is the giver of treasure?
What has become of the feasting seats?
Where are the joys of the hall?”
–’The Wanderer’
Consoles have had some very good multiplayer action RPGs: Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance [1 & 2], Champions of Norrath, Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes, Gaunlet [and its sequels], Gladius, even the awful The Legend of Alon D’ar, not to mention the mmos Everquest Online Adventures , Final Fantasy XI and Phantasy Star.
Yet, what is suprising is the lack of good multiplayer RPGs, especially with online play, for the next gen. The 360 has a handful of multiplayer action RPGs:
- Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom [local & online coop]
- Eternal Sonata [local coop only]
- Two Worlds [online coop, 8 max]
I had a lot of hope for Two Worlds, which turned out to be an awful game. Kingdom is at best mediocre while Eternal Sonata is above average. There may be others that I have missed [especially because I don't keep up with the PS3 these days]. But with all the excellent FPS online multiplayer games, where is the online multiplayer RPG? Certainly, we have some to look forward to, like Fable 2. You can search for them yourself.
I guess after successes like Diablo and World of Warcraft [though an RPG], where are the really good RPGs that have online multiplayer features that compete with any of the next gen FPS?
Where is the online console RPG that lets you create a party with different classes?
Where is the online console RPG with dynamic or player-made maps?
Where is the online console RPG that lets you play first or third person?
Where is the online console RPG that isn’t linear?
I believe that such games have to be coming. At least I want to. I guess I’m just surprised we’re seen seeing them. I’d like to have a good RPG that would let me and three of my friend play together. Until then I guess we have to pick up our controllers and play games like Call of Duty 4.
Update: I completely missed Sacred 2 for the 360, which is due September 2008. Sacred was a pretty good Diablo-clone with some gameplay for the PC. Sacred 2 will support up to 16 players for the PC and 4 for the 360, so we are getting something rather soon to slake our hacking thirst.
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3 comments ↓
the stranger thing is that it was done on the dreamcast … i missed out on phantasy star online, (maybe because i was in australia and they didn`t have any oz servers? i forget why now) … but i really wanted to play that one … it was an action rpg, but still. perhaps there are others i don`t know about. so why isn`T it happening now?
perhaps the handhelds will be a space where someone experiments with this, smaller dev costs, more chance to take risks etc.
There was supposed to be a port of the MMO Maplestory to the DS, but it has gone silently into the night. But the report was that they were changing it to a single-player game.
Fire Emblem: New Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light is getting online multiplayer [vs., not coop].
Children of Mana supports local [not online] multiplayer coop.
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles also supports local [not online] multiplayer coop.
There is probably another or few DS games, but I can’t recall what they are.
i was curious about crystal chronicles, but i always balk at buying a pair of ds cartridges …
my girlfriend is currently playing shiren 3, a dungeon rpg, and every time i see her play, i think “where is my co-op” option? i SHOULD be playing as the side kick. there are a lot of AI settings for the sidekick, or even the option to switch characters. why not another player?
we keep on hearing the future is social gaming, but does that just mean we can play party games together?
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