Solasta: Crown of the Magister

To start off... this game is amazing and it deserves more attention. is it absolutely perfect? No, no game is. This is as parallel to playing real D&D that you can get, but digitally. The story of the main campaign is wonderful, has some good twists and interesting moments and the adventure is incredibly interesting. 5/5 for the story (not the most unique story arch ever, but the twist on it is very refreshing and kept me interested, and I wanted to keep chasing the story, just to see where it lead me to, new power? new treasure? maybe both?) 3/5 for the dialogue (the voice acting is nothing amazing, and there are some moments of awkward speech. This is a small piece of what the game is about so it's easy to move past and accept it, imo) 5/5 for the combat, this is straight and true to D&D combat, roll initiative take your turn and so on, it makes this part much faster 5/5 for visuals (spell effects are fantastic, character movement is very smooth and fluid 5/5 for class design (there are some unique concepts for subclasses that make it just fun to build characters and level them up to see what they get, I have easily spent 25+ hours just theory crafting character builds) 4/5 for Technical Mechanics (I give this a 4 as sometimes there are de-sync issues or it will lock up and you'll have to load an autosave) I can't think of anything else at time of the review, but this is a wonderful game and excessively fun, and for sure addicting. All I ask is to give it a shot, this developer truly cares about the project and hope they get recognized for their efforts on this title. Again, it isn't perfect, but there is so much heart and soul poured into this it shows through cracks.

I loved the combat in this game. It was fun and the verticality of the maps and the use of terrain were top notch. Spells felt great. Lots of opportunities to control the battlefield with AOEs. Summons were smart and attacked effectively. AI enemies seemed to prioritize attacking summons over PCs which was great and bought me some time but it felt almost too easy. While the crafting system was pretty detailed, I didn't feel like I needed it for the most part at Normal dificulty. I think I'd crank it up a notch on dificulty next time. By the time you can even get the good stuff the story is practically over. And the story, while basic is fine. I don't mind a straightforward quest. I do, however, mind NPCs stealing my thunder on the final battle. I had that battle and if a DM ever pulled that on Tabletop I'd pick up my dice and leave the table or divorce them. I dunno, is that grounds? Someone's sleeping on the couch tonight at the very least.

I dig the tactical combat, for the most part other than the strict adhereance to things like somatic components and spell focuses that most games don't require. T I don't like that we had to buy two DLCs for all the classes. Furthermore the experience is really reminicent of Neverwinter Nights (Which was released 20 years ago) . The characters are wooden and the writing is downright bad. And if there was a choice to be made in the game that mattered I didn't see it (again felt alot like the NWN2 basic campaign with the severe railroading) I understand retro gaming but you'd think they'd have some improvements. I'm hoping for some Mods and fan made content to fix some of these major shortcomings.

Bought the base game and Lost Valley + Primal Calling a while back when they were heavily discounted and was pleasantly surprised by the experience. Enjoyed it enough that I bought the rest of the DLC as they released without waiting for sales because this Indie studio deserves to be supported. I avoided this game on release due to all the reports of bugs but in 2023 this game is solid. There are still some glitches and the latest updates have introduced more bugs but nothing on the scale of Bugthesda. Don't expect big budget graphics or voice acting since this is from an Indie studio, they are decent but far from AAA quality. Not that important to me anyway since D&D is primarily a game of imagination. The tactical combat is rock solid, story/world building are pretty good (refreshing change from the WotC licensed settings) and there is a wide amount of variety when building characters. While there are difficulty settings to tailor the experience, it is possible to end up with bad builds. Look up some build guides if necessary. Could also do with more backgrounds during character creation, there are only 12 at the moment (7 of which have side quests) if you have all DLC. Some of the subclasses could do with a balance pass (*cough* Spellblade *cough*). Still a great game overall. Finally, to correct some misinformation: Lightbringers Edition does indeed include all the DLC to date (Primal Calling as well).

I find Solasta pleasantly utilitarian. It's focused on showcasing the Dnd 5e rule set as polished as possible with a strong eye toward facilitating future user made content ala Neverwinter Nights or old school Unlimited Adventures. Considering the popularity of 5e, that seems a good idea to me. And it delivers, particularly through combat. I've never found 5e combat so easy to understand as here and I find the UI masterfully designed. You'll have fun fighting things in this game and you'll know you are playing dnd while doing it. There are sacrifices for that, though, at this point. Character models are rough. There isn't a ton to do that doesn't involve combat. Storyline is solid, but undetailed. The game sorta feels like a movie set where at the right angle it looks like everything that makes a detailed world is in place but if you change your stance you can see the shallowness of the façade, challenging your immersion. No doubt, a lot of the polish of many RPG video games you've played isn't there. But, after acknowledging that, I have to say that it kinda works for Solasta. This lack of details makes it feel much to me like playing a tabletop campaign with friends. The DM usually only has so many details to give and provides enough to make it look like a functioning world, making it up while going along. Solasta gives me that same feeling, which has charm. As a video game, Solasta is lacking compared to the best, but as a tabletop game that showcases dnd, it feels right. And I gotta admit I don't miss the mindless padding of innumerous fetch quests, talking to a million NPC's to not miss a quest, and a bunch of mindless running around. Solasta is a combat heavy but at least it gets to the point. A strong 4 for me. Notes: glad to have a different campaign setting than Forgotten Realms - been doing that for 40 years and it's time for something new; designing 4 PC's is great fun; user created content is gonna be huge for this game.