We Need More Couch Co-op RPGs

When the girl joined the party in Secret of Mana, a whole new world opened up to me.

Bright-eyed, huddled close to our TV, a second SNES controller plugged into the little grey box, I didn’t just have to sit and wait my turn to play an RPG for once. I could play at the same time my mum could.

Secret of Mana was the first time I felt like I could play a game with someone. Co-op games absolutely existed before – just pick up any side-scrolling beat ‘em up or give Tails to your best friend in Sonic 2 – but for a genre that’s usually reserved for solitary play, Secret of Mana blew my mind. You mean I can be the healer? I can use the spear to skewer enemies, rather than watching my mum power her way through the game? I can be a part of the story too?

I fell in love with RPGs by watching as well as playing. Final Fantasy VII, VIII, Alundra, Vagrant Story, and even tangential RPGs like Ocarina of Time – I watched before I played. The idea of playing alongside someone else was completely alien to little me. But in the intervening years, I didn’t get many opportunities to relive those cosy co-op experiences.

Friends would gather around the GameCube to blast through a few dungeons in Tales of Symphonia. My brother and I saved up for Link Cables to play Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles together. I’d share command-giving duties to a Player Two in Final Fantasy IV – don’t play that game that way, trust me. I even replayed Secret of Mana with others. But as I grew up, friendships drifted apart, people’s interests shifted, and the opportunities for co-op RPGs melted away.

Nowadays, I have a very different problem: my partner and I both like RPGs, particularly Japanese-style RPGs. And, given how most of these are story-focused, single-player experiences, we can’t really play them together. Play is the key word here.

We have two options: one, either we both play through the game separately, meaning we sometimes have to experience a 40+ hour game twice – one of us will usually play something else on Switch or Steam Deck, or read, but still, the background noise is there.

The second option involves passing the controller back and forth, which is what we did for Metaphor: ReFantazio. But we both have different build and playstyles – one of us more experimental, the other focused on raw power. Ah.

Thank goodness for Tales of Graces f Remastered.

The Tales series has been a rare constant in the RPG space (at least until Arise) in that almost every entry can be played cooperatively. I’ve actually only played two of them co-op, and never the whole way through. This is also the first time I’ve played Graces since its PS3 release 13 years ago. Not only was I going to get to experience an old favourite in a new way, but I was also going to see my partner play the game for the very first time.

Life, movies, video games – it’s all about messing up, learning, and picking yourself back up again after you’ve failed.

That’s not the case for every co-op RPG, but for Graces f specifically, this is one of my favourite combat systems in any RPG; while I was used to playing as Asbel or Hubert 13 years ago, now I’m experimenting with Malik and Pascal and having an absolute blast. But my partner trying to learn the benefits of A Artes and B Artes, how to chain them, and how to dodge effectively.

Even early mobs like the bats and ghosts in the childhood arc or the wolf miniboss at the start of the adult arc, required the two of us to work together and formulate a plan. We’d focus on separate spell-casting ghosts, or work together to take down an enemy with high health. And one of us would need to be on healing duty, and that would fall to me – but even I screwed that up, letting my partner-controlled Asbel take the brunt of the damage while my Sophie is just a little too slow to get off a First Aid cast.

The thing is, when we mess up playing together, it’s actually funny, not frustrating. It’s not like we needed to rely on the computer AI to heal, and so next time, we adjust. Watch your health more, use this attack to break the boss’ guard, heal more often, and use free run. We’re learning and relearning together.

Things have been changing over the past few years, and there are more and more co-op RPGs out there – Diablo III is extremely friendly for co-op play; Divinity: Original Sin 2 lets both players build their own character and, importantly, feel like their own character, not just like a party member following Player One. And, sticking with Larian, there’s Baldur’s Gate 3, which has absolutely blown open the possibilities of both Western RPGs and co-op campaigns. You could let us have a taste of that on Switch 2, eh?

That latter example in particular gets down to the heart of this – RPGs, all the way back to Ultima and Wizardry, are rooted in tabletop RPGs and, crucially, Dungeons and Dragons. And D&D is a decidedly social experience; the magic of any given campaign isn’t necessarily the story or the characters, it’s about the failures. The times you and your friends died, or you managed to make it through a fight through the skin of your teeth with only one friend alive, or even one party member accidentally spending all of your money.

The problem-solving aspect of D&D isn’t as prominent in a JRPG like Tales of Graces, but failure and growth are still a key part of the experience. Plus, you get to learn something about the other person you’re playing with. It’s the same with other games and genres, too – slipping off of platforms or missing a big jump in Super Mario Bros. Wonder allowed us to rectify our mistakes, learn, or even just take over and teach the other how it’s done.

Life, movies, video games – it’s all about messing up, learning, and picking yourself back up again after you’ve failed. I absolutely caused a few deaths in Secret of Mana the first time through; that darn Tiger boss is the worst.

I know it’s not easy to implement co-op into most RPGs, particularly turn-based. For Octopath Traveler or the next Atlus RPG, I’m not sure what the solution is there, because plugging in a second controller and letting two people fight over the ATB system à la FFIV is not the answer.

There’s also the rise of online play, which we’ve seen almost everywhere over the last decade, but particularly in FromSoft’s Soulsborne games – most prominently, Elden Ring. Fighting a boss on your own is satisfying, sure, but calling on someone online to dive in and help is its own reward. It’s not quite co-op, but it fits the criteria; help someone, screw up together, learn together, etc.

And then there are younger kids who might love RPGs but find them intimidating. The Cat Quest series is perfect for that, and it’s something I can see myself playing with my own kids one day.

Not every RPG needs to be couch co-op. Sometimes, playing a video game is like curling up with a good book – a solitary, peaceful endeavour. Other times, it’s more fun to experience those same words – and that same gameplay – together. For a genre that’s so deeply rooted in tabletop experiences, it’s a shame we don’t see it more often.

We’re all just stumbling through life together anyway, making the best of what we have – why not do that in a virtual world where you’re out to save humankind with the people you care about the most?

Do you want to see more co-op modes in RPGs? Let us know in the comments and vote in our poll — the more we cooperate, the better we can be!