Recent reviews by Laggytoes

Short (but not too short!) and sweet (but not too sweet?). The writing is pitch perfect and the tactical puzzles are challenging and interesting without feeling impossible and frustrating. It's worth your time and money. This might be my top game of 2024?

Fun, short RPG with just enough mechanics and interesting plot to keep it sustained for the entire playthrough. Worth your time!

Rad Codex games are great. You should play all of them, particularly if you are a tactical RPG player who also enjoys discovery.

I have 683 hours in the game as of writing this review. What's more to say?

Is it perfect? Hard to call any game that, but is it one of the best games I've played in my 43 years of existence so far? Yes, it is. It might be THE best game I've ever played in the CRPG genre and I will be surprised if it's ever surpassed.

This game is just fantastic. It has the vibe of the kind of D&D campaign you've always wanted to play. Deep enough mechanics to be interesting, but not so deep you drown out story or get lost in a sea of stats. Story elements yield tangible mechanical benefits in game and also are legitimately moving at times. I've found myself picking the options a particular character would WANT to pick rather than what I think would be most optimal and enjoy doing it. Not many AAA games ever pull that off. If you like turned based RPGs, you MUST play this game.

I'm reviewing in early access, so your mileage may vary, but the game is quite stable and shows to have an enormously strong framework to build on, particularly, if you are looking for an old school D&D feel. I've seen a few complaints about wanting more classes, and while they come in time, it's important for game design this to really nail how the different core roles feel in a game like this and the designers were right to focus on those distinct roles first.

This is roughly based on D&D 5e, you'll recognize most of the spells, they've tweaked some cantrips or added some to make them more useful in a video game context. The combat is solid turn-based, grid, D&D combat. If you've played in that context before and enjoy it, you'll enjoy this.

I look forward to the Solasta team not only finishing this adventure, but also building further with the system they've created. Their are hints of interesting and deep lore here and it will be fun to explore it more deeply.

In short, for an Early Access game, this is a strong recommend. It's only going to get better from here.

This is an exceedingly good game and, for the aesthetic, deeper than you would think. If you like exploration and Final Fantasy Tactic type game, this is for you.

It's not a deep plot, but there is a quiet world building background to the game that's related to Alvora Tactics and Voidspire Tactics which are both earlier iterations of the class mechanics of this game. All worth playing in their own right since they all experiment with different game styles. So worth your time.

I'm an "old timer" who has been playing these kind of games since the late 80s and let me tell you this game is great. I haven't personally played Pathfinder tabletop, so I can't speak to that (though, D&D itself is a long time hobby) and this game captures pretty well the best of that genre, namely the world evolving over time based on your decisions (or in some cases indecisions). Is it perfect? No, but you can't totally replicate tabletop experience on a computer without a human DM, you just can't (not only now but probably not for a long time, if ever, I work in tech, I understand the limitations here). You can, however, make something that evokes similar feelings and they've done that hear. I care about the characters, I regularly find myself making what feels like the least optimal choices for mechnical reason in order to better roleplay, those choices spiral out in a variety of ways, etc., etc.

Bottom line: If you like Baldur's Gate type games, and don't deman total parity to a tabletop system, then this is a great game for you.

The bad:

Bugs, a lot of them. That said, they've gone a LONG way since release and there are regular patches. I haven't experienced any game breaking bugs since the first week, so don't let folks dissaude on that account. They also appear to be working hard to sort out issues post-release (again, I work in tech, I know how this goes and they are attentive). If you are reading this a month after release, I can only assume this will not be a substantive issue.

Loading screens, my god, the loading screens. They take forever sometimes and they are everywhere, a friend turned off the kingdom building because he just got sick of waiting to load that screen. If I had one wish that would make me recommend this game unequivically, I would say pre-fetching the Kingdom building on the overland map so you don't need to go through a loadscreen would be what would seal it for me. This shouldn't be a deal break for you, though, the game is good enough to be forgiven for this (and I have to imagine they plan on making improvements there).

If you are a turned-based XCOM fan, this game is for you. It's less RNG punishing than XCOM and more focused on magic the right strategic decisions in combat. A+ game that stands strong without the need for expansions. That said, there is room for this game to grow and I'm stoked to see what they may do with it.