Recent reviews by ashton.

I didn't get kicked down a hole in this game.. unlike the others. 10/10 major improvement.

TL:DR I thought this game was really fun but it isn't without its flaws. If you enjoy the DnD format and tile-based combat then you'll likely enjoy this game.

Solasta: Crown of the Magister was one of my first DnD 5e format experiences. I'm not sure how true to the 5e ruleset it is, but I understand the gamification of these rules means that sometimes things need to be changed to better suit the video game medium. That said, learning the systems was a fun experience for me. I played with a mostly "good" aligned party of Paladin, Cleric, Archer, and Wizard. I played through nearly every side quest and, up until the last few quests, did everything I absolutely could.

Combat : The combat is great for anyone who enjoys turn-based tile combat. All the classes I played felt unique and had multiple playstyles that evolved as I went through the game. A LOT of spells are available to learn and can be applied in many situations. The environments played a great role in adding depth to each combat encounter. For criticisms, I found certain spells to be underwhelming while others felt a tad overtuned. For example, the conjure minor elementals spell that allows me to summon 4 wind snakes felt more powerful then the other options and even felt better than the major elemental by simply adding 4 units to the board with a somewhat high health pool. The Z axis played a role in the combat encounters and, especially for NPCs with displacement effects, it felt very jarring at times.

Story : The story of this game very much revolves around the crown. Without providing spoilers, as you progress through the story each section felt unique and was awesome to explore. None of the maps felt copy-pasted. However, it feels unfinished. It gets to the point where the ending feels a bit rushed. As if they ran out of funding to finish development of the story and found a way to bring it all to a close in a way that sort of makes sense. With all that said, the dialogue tended to be pretty good and I enjoyed the banter the characters all provided based on their personalities.

Graphics : Although the graphics up close during cutscenes aren't anything to write home about, the other elements of the game are very visually pleasing. The spell effects all look really nice and the environments are really beautifully made. One of my favorite features is the loading screens. Each loading screen acts as a segue for the area or action you are performing.

All in all, I'd say Solasta: Crown of the Magister is worth its value at full price. There is a lot of gameplay to explore here in the main campaign and there's also a dungeon maker feature which is really cool as well. I'll be looking forward to the next game from these developers. If I could speak to them, I'd let them know that they've got something really good going here it just needs a bit more polishing. You'll never escape bugs all together, but I found some that affected gameplay a non-irregular amount. One entire encounter it appeared that one of the enemies was stuck in an animation loop of climbing that caused their turn to last much much longer. A personal preference of mine (something that may or may not be on par with the DnD world/5e ruleset) is that I would have liked to see more variety of items/weapons--instead of robustness this, sharpness that. A few "unique" items. I'll also be looking forward to another game like this with multiplayer.

Hope this helps someone.

Day 1: There's a giant monster that sits on me... I haven't even gotten to name my character yet...
Day 2: The main city has a giant hole in it. Falling down ended up being a bad idea. ALSO WHY ARE THE PIGGIES KILLING ME.
Day 3: I need to see my doctor about my blood pressure.