Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous - Enhanced Edition

Like the previous game this one thinks "game balance" is a PR term and "quality of life" is a stat modifier. You might find an enjoyable RPG with Pathfinder flavour in this purchase, but you will not find a Pathfinder CRPG. If you thought Kingmaker needed some polish, this is not it.

There's a lot I can hold my nose through, but this game's writing is beyond a joke. There's a limit to what I can say without running afoul of the guidelines, so I can't be too specific, but sufficient to say, once you leave the tutorial dungeon and start to meet the characters, it just gets worse and worse with how two dimensional and disgusting they are. The city you are defending in Act 1, which you're given no real reason to defend other than that you're there, is basically fantasy Sodom, filled with edgy, unlikeable people and general weirdos. The companions are much the same, with paper-thin backstories and disgusting quirks. There's constant edgy shock content, like eating feces, orgies, cabalism and worse. You might think this would be entertaining if you like such shock content, but it's written so poorly as to be unenjoyable even then. Combat is marred by constant trash mobs (in a turn based game this is torture), and bugs. The fights are overtuned like crazy. Lower difficulties are basically a cheat mode that let you win any fight easily, but even if you were to only fight enjoyable fights on the harder difficulties, you'll run into bugs in the combat that will make it frustrating. Then there's the class system they bragged about. Tons of classes, except half of them are just retreads of other classes, and the other half didn't even work at launch. It's Pathfinder, so you need a spreadsheet to build out a a character. You might like this if numbers really turn you on, but the fact that the game lacks a decent world or characters made me question why I should care about any of the numbers. The only people who could really get something out of it are people who want a power fantasy, but even then, the power fantasy content doesn't start until the late game, and many of the late game classes and quests are buggy. 1/5, I'd rate it lower if I could.

There are good mechanics in this game but there are too many problems with the game, the game design, and the bugs to give it a good review. To start, there is still spyware. That alone is a major issue. The game design is bad. Infinitely spawning enemies in a crpg is a terrible idea. Punishing the player for having a strategy is bad. I constantly have to reload saves due to bugs. I will get stuck in fights unable to do anything but exit out or reload. Walls don't exist for enemies and the phase through them. If Owlcat had any intention to put out a good game they could, all the foundation for one is there. But nothing good is built on that foundation.

I bought the Mythic edition, supposing it contained all DLCs. It was not. The Last Sarkorians is a DLC, but it is outside the season pass: that makes a Season pass, in my opinion, pointless. Buyer, beware.

So what's improved from Kingmaker? - You finally have the ability to dispel your own spells. Yay! No more having to go off and make a cup of tea while you wait for your druid's spike stones or sorcerer's web spell to wear off. - The graphics look a bit less cartoony and there are more options to customise your character, plus more classes and races to choose from. - The game is more noob-friendly, with more tutorials, in-game explanation of the Pathfinder rules, and a somewhat more forgiving early game experience. What's not improved from Kingmaker? - Enemy AI is still awful. Enemies will often focus either on your main character or one of your companions at the back, and they will make a beeline for their target via the most direct route, happily wading straight into your AOE spells or getting themselves killed by attacks of opportunity as they just walk nonchalantly past your party members. While it can be amusing to watch enemies self destruct like this, it's annoying when your summoned monsters and non-controllable allies do exactly the same thing. - The UI still doesn't display the in-game date and time, and you still can't make notes on the map. - There are still no hotkeys for stealth mode or switching weapon sets. You still have to mouse over to the fiddly little icons near the bottom right and click on them each time. - RNG still seems to be wonky. You will constantly roll natural 1s on your attack rolls, skill checks and saving throws, while the enemies seem to hardly ever get below 10 on their rolls. - Game still seems to be aimed at the power gamer types, with bloated enemy stats all over the place, and crazy difficulty spikes at various points in the game. - Random encounters are still as dopey as ever. A lone minor demon or a couple of low level cultists will still attack your heavily armed party of 6 characters, bravely fighting to the death each and every time. Would have given this 4/5, but docked a point because of these issues.