"Roco Kingdom's Multiplayer Is What Other Creature Collectors Have Been Missing"
We have been waiting for a proper multiplayer Pokémon experience for a little over 25 years. And while plenty of creature collectors have tried to fill that gap, very few have managed to make playing together feel like an actual part of the experience.
Roco Kingdom might finally be getting it right. After spending more than 10 hours together during the QuackQuack beta, we were genuinely surprised by how much you can do with friends, how seamlessly you can join each other, and how many mechanics are designed specifically around multiplayer.
It is an MMO with a more personal approach, where you can explore, catch Jinies, fight battles, visit each other's homes and even ride your friends' creatures. There are limitations, of course, especially when it comes to individual progression and the main story. But there is considerably more to co-op here than simply visiting someone else's world and watching them play.
If you want the faster version with gameplay footage and all our impressions from playing the beta together, our full video covers that side of things. But if you would rather settle in with the written breakdown instead, you are exactly where you need to be.
Roco Kingdom is an MMO, but one that feels a little more personal. Think of something like Monster Hunter, without the complicated matchmaking and lobby systems.
You have a main story that you play solo, while the open world is mostly your own instance. You will occasionally encounter other players, but most people gather in shared hubs like towns, where around 10 to 30 players can be found at a time.
Getting together with friends is incredibly straightforward. After completing a short introductory quest of around 30 minutes, you can add friends using their user ID and instantly join their worlds. No lobby, no party formation and no need to meet up in a crowded hub. Simply press a button, sit through a short loading screen, and you are in their world.
Up to four players can explore together, catch Jinies, fight battles and visit each other's homes. You can also switch between playing together and going your separate ways without repeating the joining process.
Even when playing solo, you do not necessarily feel alone. You can leave helpful notes near puzzles, receive help from other players' notes, place flowers that restore health or energy, and even leave recordings of your character or music for others to discover. All optional, of course!
Holding Hands Changes How Co-op WorksOne of the more unusual mechanics is that you can literally hold hands with your friends. And no, it is not just a cute animation. Holding hands is how you actively team up for certain activities, including battles and Jini Blossoms.
When joining a friend, you are initially just visiting their world. You can walk alongside each other and interact with the environment independently, meaning you might see different Jinies or even different weather conditions.
Once you hold hands, however, both players enter the same version of the world, based on whoever initiated the connection. This allows you to encounter and fight the same creatures instead of everyone seeing their own separate encounters.
There is also a co-op stamina bonus when you are close to a friend, whether you are holding hands or not. This can make a surprisingly big difference when flying, as the additional stamina allows you to stay airborne for considerably longer. In some cases, you can practically fly forever.
You can also explore together and collect resources. Flowers and berries even give both players their own copy, so there is no need to fight over who gets to pick something up first.
There is one important distinction, though: quests, treasure chests and the main story are not properly shared while holding hands. The story remains a solo experience, including its dialogue. Interestingly, you can interact with these things when simply walking alongside your friend without holding hands.
So sometimes you actually have to let go. Nooooooo!
It took us a little while to understand this distinction, but switching between these states is quick and seamless. You can let go or even leave your friend's world without going through another lengthy joining process.
Compared to games like Aniimo, where joining friends can take ages and certain interactions with chests or NPCs are restricted, this is a massive convenience.
Catching Jinies TogetherWhen it comes to catching wild Jinies together, only one player can actually capture a creature from a shared encounter. The other player receives its value in gold through their mailbox as compensation. Particularly rare creatures also have some additional restrictions and can only be caught once per day in another player's world.
Fortunately, Roco Kingdom has a few systems that make cooperative collecting much more interesting.
One example is the Grand Owlstone Nests. You can place different lure items inside these locations to attract Jinies, which instantly respawn after being defeated or captured. This means everyone gets their own opportunity to catch them without competing for a single creature.
These nests are also personal, so your friends might have unlocked different ones or have access to different lure setups. Visiting each other's worlds can therefore be quite profitable.
For encounters where everyone wants to participate, there are the Jini Blossoms. These work a little like mini-raids, allowing multiple players to fight a special encounter together. Everyone gets their own capture opportunity and rewards.
There are also considerably tougher Alpha Jinies that you can tackle as a group, although these cannot be captured.
Even regular captures allow for some teamwork. One player can keep a creature under control using stuns, shields or reflects, while the other throws Buddy Pods to catch it. Very helpful, but also a little mean!
Ride Your Friends' JiniesOne of our favorite features is that you can actually interact with your friends' Jinies. You can pet them, ride them and even use them as mounts for your entire group, provided they are big enough.
With up to six Jinies out at a time, you can bring different mounts for everyone instead of having each player summon their own. And this works for riding, flying and swimming!
So yes, you can create a little Jini parade. Finally, we can roleplay as Greg the stable keeper!
Although the selection of creatures you can ride is sometimes rather questionable. That swan really has some leg strength going...
Smaller Jinies are simply held in your character's arms instead, which is honestly quite adorable. Although we would appreciate getting to our destination before sundown!
You can even specialize your collection around what your group needs. One player could bring Jinies suited for swimming, while another focuses on creatures better suited for riding or flying. Or just because they look cute. Everything has its purpose!
Team Battles And Competitive PvPCombat is another area where Roco Kingdom does things a little differently. Battles are turn-based, and when holding hands, both players get their own input. You simply wait for your partner to make their move before continuing.
But it is not just double the firepower. There is room for actual synergy between abilities. One player could make an enemy more vulnerable to magic, for example, while the other follows up with a magical attack.
It is not quite a Baldur's Gate-style system with elaborate environmental interactions, but coordinating your moves can still make a difference.
Another interesting difference from Pokémon is how vitality works. Instead of simply losing when all six of your creatures faint, your character has their own vitality. Every time one of your Jinies faints, you lose one point.
This makes switching creatures and managing your team considerably more important. If you run out of vitality during a shared battle, you respawn at the nearest teleporter while your teammates can continue fighting. Unfortunately, you cannot rejoin the encounter afterward, so try not to let your friends down twice!
There are no dedicated bosses that specifically require a group, but Jini Blossoms and Alpha encounters can be tackled together. Some particularly powerful creatures can also be more than ten levels above you, making them much easier to handle with a friend.
And if you manage to catch something particularly powerful, it might not obey you until you have increased your Mage Rank by beating the next arena. Sounds familiar? We know, and we love it!
If you prefer fighting your friends rather than fighting alongside them, you can challenge each other whenever you want. Jini levels are equalized to make things fairer, but differences in talents, skills, personalities and other attributes still leave plenty of room for team building.
There are also ranked PvP tournaments against other players. The main competitive format is one-versus-one, with indications of two-versus-two modes as well.
Later in the game, you can unlock your own cottage and farm, which you can decorate and use to grow crops. You can invite friends over or visit their homes, even when they are offline.
And apparently, you can also try to steal some of their mature crops each day. IF you manage to survive the guardian Jini they have assigned to protect them!
Somehow, this feels a little like Skyrim, where you sneak around trying to steal someone's sweetrolls. Adventurer!
Fortunately, visiting friends is not just about causing trouble. You can also help with farm work by watering crops, fertilizing plants and clearing pests.
It is not a full-fledged co-op farming sim, but you can decorate your cottage and garden, let your Jinies roam around and create a cozy little place to hang out together.
There is also a small helping-hand mechanic during difficult encounters. When another player loses vitality, that exact amount is captured in a flower. So if you are struggling to recover during a fight, look out for flowers with another player's name above them. They might contain exactly the help you need.
Individual Progression And Other LimitationsAs much as we enjoy the multiplayer, there are a few things that could be better. The biggest limitation is that the main story remains entirely individual. You can talk to the same NPCs as your friends, but dialogue and interactions are not synchronized.
Everyone also has their own progression, which means you can join friends who are much further ahead without major restrictions. They can help you with difficult encounters, but your own Mage Rank still determines how powerful your Jinies can become.
If you catch creatures that are too powerful for your current rank, they might simply refuse to obey you. So no cheesing your way through the entire progression by relying on a friend!
There is also a daily energy limit for certain activities. You currently have 120 energy per day, with Jini Blossoms costing 20 and Alpha encounters costing 40. You cannot endlessly farm these activities together, although you can theoretically recharge energy using a special currency earned through playing or purchased with real money.
And speaking of real-world money, lower your pitchforks and Greg, douse that torch: Roco Kingdom does not have gacha, at least not at the moment.
In its current state, the game offers purchasable outfits and cosmetics. You actually buy them instead of gambling for them through some random reward system. Which is exactly how we like it, so fingers crossed that things stay this way!
Is Roco Kingdom Worth Playing With Friends?After more than ten hours together, Roco Kingdom has been one of the most refreshing multiplayer experiences we have had in a creature-collecting game.
The biggest reason is simply how little friction there is. Joining friends takes seconds, loading screens are minimal, and you can actually do meaningful things together instead of just visiting someone else's world and watching them play.
We loved catching Jinies together, fighting side by side and exploring without constantly worrying about whether an activity counts for both players. The shared encounters, different mount options and little cooperative mechanics make multiplayer feel like a proper part of the game rather than an afterthought.
Of course, the individual main story progression is disappointing, and some mechanics could be explained better. But compared to games like Aniimo, where joining friends can be a lengthy process and interactions are heavily restricted, Roco Kingdom is pretty much the opposite.
Its approach might feel somewhat familiar if you have played Monster Hunter Wilds, but getting together is considerably less complicated. And we do not even need to make a 20-step tutorial video explaining how to join each other!
Even better, Roco Kingdom will feature crossplay between PC, consoles and mobile, so friends playing on different systems can still join each other.
Ultimately, the game does not force you to play together all the time. Instead, it gives you plenty of reasons to team up whenever you want, while still letting everyone progress at their own pace.
If you are looking for a creature collector that you can actually enjoy with friends, Roco Kingdom is absolutely worth keeping an eye on.