Solasta: Crown of the Magister

Game still experiencing game breaking (and save breaking) bugs. Something as simple as using disengage as a tutorial action, when the game prompts you, stops you being able to perform any further actions including movement (which the game is trying to get you to do following). Reloading, or closing and reopening, dont fix the issue. Broken save files are fun.

I honestly like this game more than Baldur Gate 3. Why ? because it follows the DnD rules very close, my DnD irl group switched to playing this game thx to its dungeon maker. Instead of DnD beyond. Is the story good ? I donno, tutoriel and starting city was fun. I played only custom campaings. Are the graphics nice ? Yes, I like them. very close to Baldur Gate 3 style. I like how every character talks in conversation, they dont feel like Bioware companions or Skyrim mercs. They all are main characters. Genius move, I wish all future RPGs had this conversation system. Its missing bard, monk and warlock classes, as well as maybe dragonborn, lizerdmen, gnomes and thiefling races. Its about as complete as Baldur Gate 3 is at the moment. Should you buy or wait for Baldur Gate 3 ? (I have both) I would say get this 1 if you want to play custom created content or make your own adventures for you or your friends, its the big seller in my opinion. Story is fun from what I played, characters act and talk realistic, places are believable. Combat is a huge seller, if you like DnD combat, this gives it to you in a elegant way. I honestly dont have any reason to recommend Baldur over this 1. Its better, more fun, have more content once you dive into custom stories.

Other reviewers have pointed out that the plot is not great, which in a RPG is problematic, but there's other issues too. Firstly the interface looks nice, but can be annoying. It's not completely clear what your actions will do, for example you can trigger attacks of opportunity without realizing very easily and immediately lose the battle. Secondly, the format of the campaign is too restrictive in your strategic options. BG let you back away from fights and re-equip, or to rest inside the dungeon if you had to. Also, making the combat not be a special interface meant you could do hit and run attacks or position yourself before or while engaging. None of that happens here. Stealth will never be useful, the maps are much smaller, all the fights are forced and once you're in a "quest", you're stuck there until the quest is done. Also you use food to rest and can't get food during a quest so if you run out you may have to restart from the beginning, hope you saved. Also, the fights are just annoying. Like, "why am I bothering" annoying. For example there are enemies that will cast fly, then move to somewhere where sight is limited, and then fire ranged attacks while you try to crossbow them down, these enemies also resist magic and reflexively dispel. Like, I know that it works as a strategy, but it's just tedious to deal with. In BG fights were quick and dirty, you either won or died, they didn't take ages and ages of whiffed rolls and slow animations while you chased the last enemy around the map.

console (Atari 2600) and PC since 1979 and TTRPG since 1985. I've played the VAST majority of the tactical (and real time) RPG titles to date and several TTRPG varieties including Shadowrun and D&D. It's literally my favorite genre due to it's creative storytelling and pause to think combat. Solasta is hands down the most FUN digital rendition of the D&D 5.x ruleset I've ever played. I feel like a kid again sitting around a table with all my other nerd pals rolling dice and talking mess. While the graphics and the voice acting leave a bit to be desired, and the camera frequently allows environment to get in the way and block your view (my biggest gripe actually) the overall gameplay, the creativity with the engine to make various environments look GREAT and the exciting combat make this game worth every penny of the MSRP. And I got lucky and scored it on a 50% off sale. I will be buying DLC for this without a doubt. I'm also very much looking forward to another run with various party builds. WELL DONE!

Solasta is a great game for CRPG fans with some flaws, I finished the game in about 30 or so hours, did every side quest and then finished the main story line, the game has a lot of positive aspects, it's balanced fairly well, the classes in the game feel fun to play, the story is good and the turn based combat works well. But there are also some minor negative things, it's a little buggy, mostly minor bugs that don't take away from the enjoyment of the game, the facial animations are a little weird in cutscenes and the lip sync looks really out of place in some of them as well, but I'd say for a game that was made on a smaller budget those things are neglectable. All in all this game is great for any fans of DnD 5th Edition or just CRPG fans in general.