Three games like Diablo IV you can play with your kids!

Nine Parchments

Nine Parchments is a fantastic ARPG that a TON of people slept on.

Nine Parchments takes some of the best things from different youthful properties and combines them in new and exciting ways. Everything from Harry Potter to Pokemon has similar elements here.

Your characters are wizards going to a wizarding school that feels more like it was the kind created by Terry Pratchett and less like TERF-who-shall-not-be-named. One day a magic accident occurs and the pages of a spell book get blown out the castle walls and float across the landscape with you being tasked to collect them.

Up to four players pick a wizard from the cast of characters (who grow as you unlock more) and head out across the stages. One of the coolest things here is that unlike most games in which you need to be more concerned with damage output, like Pokemon, your big focus is making sure you have a lot of different types of magic. Here's where Nine Parchments really shines.

All enemies in the game come in a variety of six different hues, green, blue, red, white, yellow, and purple. Each corresponds with a particular element. Life, water, fire, ice, electricity, and poison. All characters have three different spells on them and if you have one that's the opposite of your enemy (fire against ice for example) you'll do a lot of extra damage. You can also harm enemies with other spells besides their weakness so don't worry about getting trapped. Just be careful because hitting an enemy with the same kind of spell as their type does absolutely nothing against it.

This creates a fun and easy thing where you and your teammates can think up who takes what spells into battle so you're able to survive many situations.

Another cool thing is that the spells can work together. If two spells that fire like a beam hit each other those beams will merge and create a beam from their connection point creating a "capital Y" shape. If two fire beams hit you have a larger, much more powerful fire beam to work with. If you hit fire and ice together, you'll actually create a beam of steam energy that does a lot of damage to certain enemies. It's fun to experiment and see how different spells play off each other.

An additional thing I like about Nine Parchments over Diablo is that it's colorful. Diablo thrives off spooky woods and haunted house vibes but Nine Parchments has a lot of stage types I've never seen in an ARPG. Bright beaches with rolling waves, caves filled with beautiful luminescent mushrooms, and a huge variety of colorful and bright environments never disappoint. Even the bosses are heavily detailed and super colorful.

So these are just some games that are great for playing with your kids and, honestly, I had a blast playing these on my own as WELL as with them which is great, especially for Minecraft Dungeons and Nine Parchments because if you have a leveled up character you can transfer into THEIR game, you have a powerful tank that can fall back, let your kid try things while you protect them. Give it a shot!