The prospect of 2 player co-op in "Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 4"

[Felidire]

Nothing new discussion-wise, but I absolutely love the PMD spinoffs and have wished that I could play them as a 2-player co-op game for years. The thought of being able to sit down next to the fire on a cold night with your partner, and not only play a Pokémon game together, but to be able to play it co-operatively instead of training up teams to repeatedly kick each other's butts? I dunno, it sounds so much more fun to me.

Anyway, I was wondering how many others felt the same way - and considering that we can't submit ideas and suggestions to the Pokémon company, discussing it on a forum is the next best thing. Perhaps someone of status might chance upon it.

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Issues with previous games:
- No option to evolve during storyline gameplay (only to stage 1).
- Limited range of starters/gender to choose from (I'd always AR a male Eevee starter for PMD:EoS, good games shouldn't require cheats to make them more enjoyable).
- Ditzy (but 10x stronger than you are) partner
- Extreme difficulty acquiring decent attacks.

What a 2-player co-op PMD game should include:
- Playable via Wi-Fi
- Voice chat (optional)
- Frequent auto-saves (during each cut scene).
-- Auto-synchronization (of game save) in the even of a crash/disconnect.
-- The most recently-saved data is uploaded to the other player.
- Separate backpacks.
-- The ability to trade items in/out dungeons by facing other player and pressing A.
- Have certain NPCs behave differently towards each player (friendly to P1, derisive to P2, etc.)
- Dungeons with 2-player puzzles (such as weight-switches to open doors).
- Multiple paths requiring the two players to temporarily split up, e.g...

-- Player 1 chooses to head left (with NPC Oshawott and Dunsparce) or right (with Virizion and Pikachu).
-- Player two heads in the opposite direction...

-- If player 1's team is knocked out while attempting dungeon X, then assuming player 2 has made it to point Z, they are given the option (forced, really) to backtrack and "rescue" player 1.
-- If one player completes their stretch first, they simply wait at point Z with a [Pending...] dialogue box.

- Instead of a personality test at the beginning of the game, each player's character could ask the other player questions throughout the game; your answers determining your character's "nature" and granting a stat (and/or other) bonus mid-game.

Points of interest:

- Considering the game is turn-based, players would actually have to take their time instead of holding down B and zipping around the dungeon floors. Movement wouldn't be a huge issue (should one player hold down B+A, then the other can move freely). A button to toggle 'auto-follow' on/off for either player would also be great.

- Actual strategy: Using Espeon & Umbreon as an example, player 2 could take the lead and absorb the attacks, while player 1 uses moves such as Quick-Attack and Morning Sun to support from behind.

- What I liked most about PMD2 was the character progression, bleak atmospheres, and difficulty (slow levelling made it a challenge); storyline was obviously good, and there was a sense of community/belonging. PMD1 lacked a lot of that, PMD3 included most but felt watered down in comparison. If they do make a PMD4, I hope they pay close attention to those aspects of the game.

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I see so much potential here, I dunno why they haven't already attempted this?

 

[Burritoburger]

I'd love to see a co-op choice in Mystery Dungeon. The only problem is that the way you put it, it's as if there'd have to be an entirely separate game just to support co-op. I think it should be more along the lines of "you can join someone else's game and play as a secondary Pokemon they have available" or something like that. Kinda similar to Kirby Superstar, where Player 2 is just a secondary player.

 

[Blueredemption]

I'd love to see a co-op choice in Mystery Dungeon. The only problem is that the way you put it, it's as if there'd have to be an entirely separate game just to support co-op. I think it should be more along the lines of "you can join someone else's game and play as a secondary Pokemon they have available" or something like that. Kinda similar to Kirby Superstar, where Player 2 is just a secondary player.

^ spot on. I have always wished for a co-op mystery dungeon game but haveing to buy two games just to play would be kinda inconvenient (not to mention very unappealing) it would be different if the two games came in bundle though.

And same as burrito said, i like everything else

 

[classiccartoonsftw]

While a co-op PMD would be interesting, the game should also be playable as a single player.

 

[«Chuckles»]

If anyones played an MMO with a party system then you know this already. Instead of 2 players make it 4, and there are special dungeons that can only be entered through the means of co-op. Say there are 20 dungeons in all and each of them are 100 floors. Every 25 floors have a boss and the final floor has the final boss which could bea legendary or a laser magikarp who knows now the final boss is very strong and can not be OHKO'd at level 100 it requires team work where say 3 people need to keep the boss occupied whilst one of the others triggers a switch that halves the boss's health or stuns him for x amount of time.

 

[Satoshi Ookami]

Since PMD is pretty much dungeon crawling, it's a good base for Co-op but since Pokemon games have always been single player based it would need different structure...
But yea, I would like to see MP PMD. Some special dungeons that only allow leader to participate =)

 

[Squirrel]

I really like the sound of a two player Mystery Dungeon game but I'm not sure it'd work with the extremely rapid turn-based play. I think it'd work great as co-op or even as racing to clear a dungeon before the other person, but it wouldn't be without its flaws. If both players are in the same dungeon at the same time and one's moving faster than the other, the enemies around the other player will be moving each time the first player moves and it'd make it all a huge mess. On the other hand, if each player is clearing the floors separately then would that not leave a lot of boring waiting between completions for the faster player? Unless a shop opened up between floors or a minigame or something for the faster player as a 'prize' for being faster, then their floors could be more difficult afterwards to let the other player get a prize or two, but now this is just rambling. Basically I think it's a great idea and I really want to see it happen, but I can't quite picturing it working without changing the gameplay completely haha. Not necessarily a bad thing though!