Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous - Enhanced Edition

I loved Kingmaker, up until the memory leak which Owlcat never fixed rendered it unplayable. So I was a bit hesitant about picking this up. Luckily, it seems that this one has fixed the memory leak issue and the saves no longer take up several gigabytes, and the game was fairly stable. During the close to 500 hours that I played it only crashed twice. I really enjoyed the story, and I especially enjoyed the build variety that the game offered. I can't think of any other RPG that gives you this much freedom in how you want to build your hero. Only Kingmaker and Baldur's Gate 3 come even close. My only complaint is the game's strong point and weakness. The amount of content. As I mentioned, it took me nearly 500 hours to get through a single completion (Main + all DLC). At the end it started to feel a bit grindy, the game could be only half as long and still feel satisfying. As it stands, playing through this game again as another Mythic path seems quite daunting. But otherwise it was a very satisfying experience. 4/5

This game is so badly optimized it overheats the CPU even when reduced to 4 cores. Cyberpunk 2077 runs without any heating problems on 6 cores.

The graphics are good. It has an interesting story. The characters are entertaining. The introductory part of the game is very fun. But as soon as you're given the army to command, the fun goes right out the window. The travel fatigue when moving from one location to another makes it feel like you're struggling to slog through the game. The time limit on quests makes it feel like the game designers are trying to rush you through the game and penalizing you for wanting to explore the world they built. The army battles are just meh. The game was advertised as this grand warfare experience, but you're basically just moving icons around a grid. Overall it is disappointing.

I loved Kingmaker despite its flaws; played it twice. Wanted to like this but finally gave up on it. The few pros: great music, fun if unbalanced combat, fun mythic system. Now the cons. Yes, the game is annoyingly, cringily woke. Could be worse, but still pretty bad, as others have covered. Uncritically reproduces the currently culturally hegemonic morality as presupposed orthodoxy (multiculturalism, internationalism/globalism, pro-LGBTQIABCD+, etc.). Only the gay romance option triggered for me; no way to say "I'm straight". Almost all fighter/tank NPCs female. Etc. Main issue here: how heavy-handed and forced it all feels. Tons of bugs, which might improve over time. None were game-breaking for me, and I didn't experience any crashes, but I only made it about halfway before finally losing interest. *Very* poorly written. Immersion-breaking language like "getting wasted"; where Tolkien wrote "As you wish, I care not", this would read "Okay, I don't care". Nurah hates the PC and blames them for her whole life even though she just met you... would at least make some sense if it were Galfrey. No realistic reaction to Woljiff's betrayal available. Etc.: I could go on all day. Unbalanced af. Highly customizable difficulty just ends up meaning you'll either find fights too easy or too hard. The worst of postmodernist literary conventions (subversion for subversion's sake). Demons that are good, Aasimar that are evil, etc. Literally why even have angels and demons if you're going to do this? Alignment system feels like a joke. Writers' understanding of morality reeks of the superficial pseudo-profundity of the eternal graduate student who's read one or two books by Nietzsche and never progressed further. "Lawful" might as well be evil half the time. A thousand other small things-e.g., "Do you want to meet with the traveling merchant?" + only option is "continue"- but I'm out of words. TL;DR a huge disappointment. Worst of all, lacks the charm of Kingmaker.

I really wanted to like this game but there are so many developer decisions that just ruin it. First, just like kingmaker they thrust you into a role you dont want and one thats not fun. Second, they actually script you losing fights so even if you give it your all, it doesnt matter you die anyways....so fun. Third, they script you into defeating bad guys so that someone else can come in and actually kill them....so fun. I dont recommend this game for those resons. Taking away player agency isnt something any game should do