Solasta: Crown of the Magister, a D&D-inspired game that closely follows the rules of the tabletop game’s fifth edition, evidently released too soon. The 2021 RPG released to favorable reviews but didn’t break into the mainstream. But now we live in a post-Baldur’s Gate 3 world, which rocked the gaming industry (GameSpot named it our Game of the Year in 2023), and dice-based games are getting a spotlight they previously didn’t have. Solasta II is launching into a far more favorable position than its predecessor, and feels like it could be a great game for folks who enjoyed Baldur’s Gate 3 but now want a game that more closely aligns with the experience of playing Dungeons & Dragons.
I played about an hour of Solasta II and the most striking part of the demo was how closely the game more strictly sticks to the parameters of D&D 5e in comparison to a game like Baldur’s Gate 3. You can’t, for example, drink a health potion and melee attack on the same turn. Baldur’s Gate 3 adopts the commonly homebrewed rule (and now official rule in the latest edition of D&D) that considers drinking a health potion to be a bonus action and not an action, so you could reserve your action to attack and then use your bonus action to heal on the same turn. That’s not how it works in the rules for D&D 5e, so that’s not how it works in Solasta II. This parallel seems to extend across Solasta II and although I appreciate the accuracy, it does highlight some of the problems with D&D 5e that games like Baldur’s Gate 3 have already circumnavigated by outright changing how they work.
Ignoring the comparisons to Baldur’s Gate 3, the combat otherwise feels great. Figuring out when to use my Rogue’s unique cunning action ability to bonus action dash so I can save her main action to attack an enemy being flanked by the Fighter (a scenario that lets me add sneak attack damage!) felt awesome. I was repeatedly rewarded for thinking things through before engaging a target. Knowing when and how to use resources is paramount as Solasta II tracks ammunition (so I had to keep count of how many arrows my short bow-wielding sorcerer had on him, for example), and there even seems to be a risk-versus-reward consideration tied to the rest mechanic, as the first time I tried to camp to regain health and recharge the party’s abilities, one of the members of the party cryptically warned that doing so might cause enough time to pass, meaning I’d potentially miss out on future storylines. That added a sense of urgency to what seemed to be an optional quest in the demo, but I’m curious to see if this same feeling is applied to portions of the main storyline as well and how often resting might cause a player to miss out on a quest.
The critical path sees you take control of four adventurers–a dwarf, elf, human, and gnome–who are adoptive siblings. These brothers and sisters are traveling together as part of some sort of quest connected to their adopted family name and the legacy they’ve all inherited, which brings them into conflict with an ancient threat. It all seems like your traditional fantasy affair, but I only saw a snippet of this plot play out in the demo. The voice acting sounds great, and though face models sometimes descend into the uncanny valley, they’re more often expressive and help bring added emotion to the scene that you, as a player, can pick up even if the four protagonists all failed their Insight checks.
I’m most curious to see how the full game will handle the roleplaying side of things. Unlike other RPGs in which you build a party of characters with different strengths and weaknesses, but only one member of the team talks during conversations, all four members of the adventuring party in Solasta II are fully voiced and contribute to every conversation. The game lists all the available dialogue options for each party member and which bonuses each one adds to the dice roll–you can see how the dwarf Paladin’s high Persuasion makes him more adept at convincing someone to help you while the human Fighter’s high Insight lets her be the better choice to tell whether the person you’re talking to is lying.
That’s really cool and feels like it has the potential to replicate the essence of being a group, as opposed to a talented spokesperson at the head of a squad, like Mass Effect’s Shepard or Baldur’s Gate 3’s Tav. The demo didn’t offer an opportunity to see how the effects of conversations could steamroll into consequences, stopping me from definitively proclaiming that this is the type of squad-focused, choice-driven dialogue I’ve wanted in my fantasy RPGs. But I see the potential vision and I’m excited to see how it pans out in the full game.
Each of the four characters can also be controlled as a group or independently with the keyboard instead of mouse clicks outside of battle, making it easier to guide them in comparison to similar RPGs. This makes stealth and thievery a viable strategy, which is rare in games like this, as the more precise movements ensure getting around enemy vision cones isn’t a frustrating ordeal.
I’m still undecided on Solasta II. On one hand, it follows D&D 5e’s original rules to the letter, a 2014 tabletop system that has been iterated, expanded, and improved upon in the past 10 years. And keeping to rules without taking steps to change it might make for a game that is ultimately frustrating for players who have appreciated the efforts made by other developers in recent years. But the game takes strides in areas outside of combat that feel like vast improvements, like giving the player more precise control over how the protagonists move and bringing the full party into each conversation instead of having only one hero be the go-to voice. This is certainly a game I want to play more of, but I’ll need more time with it before deciding where I land on it.
Solasta II is set to launch for PC. No release window has been announced but there’s a free demo on Steam if you want to try it out for yourself.
