Solasta: Crown of the Magister Review (PC)

Despite the many similarities to D&D 5th Edition, Solasta: Crown of the Magister did not license Wizards of the Coast’s tabletop system. It makes perfect sense considering that the project was crowdfunded on Kickstarter and the money developer Tactical Adventures asked for did not include a budget for licensing any official D&D material.

On the bright side, Solasta: Crown of the Magister feels very much like a more streamlined version of D&D 5th Edition. Although the game feels like the underdog in the competition with more popular cRPGs from Obsidian, inXile and Owlcat, I think it would be a mistake to disregard some of its qualities.

One of the most important parts of a cRPG is definitely the character creation screen. While Solasta: Crown of the Magister doesn’t offer as many options as Owlcat’s Pathfinder, its character creation system is quite solid for a D&D game that draws inspiration from Wizards of the Coast’s 5th Edition.

When it launched back in 2021, the game only had seven classes to choose from: cleric, fighter, paladin, ranger, rogue, sorcerer and wizard. After almost two years and a few DLCs, Solasta added five new classes: barbarian, bard, druid, monk, and warlock.

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As far as the races go, there are no surprises here. The base game features five races: dwarves, elves, halflings, half-elves, and humans. If you own the DLCs, you’ll be able choose from four additional races: dragonborn, gnome, half-orc, and tiefling. That’s a pretty stacked lineup of classes and races, in no way inferior to other cRPGs out there.

After creating a party of four characters, Solasta teaches you the basics by smartly implementing the tutorial into the story. Your party’s first mission is to discover what happened with an isolated outpost, which didn’t send reports for a few weeks.

Although the story starts slow, you’ll soon find yourself in the center of a plot of epic proportions. What makes Solasta even more interesting is the setting. Previously a world dominated by an elven empire, Solasta was hit by a cataclysmic event that not only destroyed the elven empire, but also brought humans to the realm, which weren’t previously present in the realm.

The story is set about 1,000 years after the Rift that destroyed the old High Elf empire, Manacalon, opened. The provinces that were farther from the Rift survived and prospered, but they live in political tension, as many factions vie for supremacy.

After one of the provinces finds a hidden pass that gives it easier access through the mountains that surround the Badlands where the Empire’s heart once stood. It’s a land where few adventure, and even fewer return with ancient treasures.

As new agents of the Legacy Council, an independent organization that was formed to avoid an all-out war and share the newfound path to Badlands with all eastern provinces, you are sent to find out what’s happening with one of the organization’s outposts.

What seems like a normal mission turns out to be just an epilogue to a much bigger plot that involves a mysterious race that was supposedly extinct. The Soraks are a lizard-like race that originates from the realm of humans and are pretty much the antagonist in Solasta.

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For my first run of Solasta, I decided to go with a classic party that includes an all-round decent tank, a healer, a spellcaster, and a damage dealer: paladin, cleric, ranger, and wizard. Combat is turn-based, just like in any other D&D-inspired game, and Solasta doesn’t really bring anything new to the table.

However, I think the game has one of the cleanest UIs out of all the cRPGs I’ve played. It offers all the necessary information you need, while remaining minimalistic at the same time. Worst case scenario let’s say that Solasta’s UI doesn’t clutter your screen with numbers, abilities, spells and other such content.

It’s probably not that important for many, but Solasta is one of the few cRPGs that doesn’t hide dice rolls. All dice rolls happen on the screen, so you don’t feel cheated. And yes, you can save scum away if you want to pass a certain check.

Most of time, you’ll be fighting more than four enemies, so figuring out what enemy is more dangerous and killing it first is usually the key to success, or at least the main way to make your fights easier. I found that having a decent armor value with all my characters seriously increases my party’s survivability. Having your cleric hitting enemies instead of casting healing spells can go a long way in clutch encounters.

There are a few very important combat aspects that few other cRPGs involve with. The first one is verticality, one of the combat parts that Solasta executes pretty well. You’ll encounter enemies that crawl on walls or fly in the air, so you’ll have to attune your strategy all the time.

Darkvision is another important aspect that’s been present in D&D since forever, but not many video games decided to include it. In Solasta, if you don’t run a party of characters that can see in dark areas (dwarves, elves, halflings), you’ll have to use light spells and torches to not fight at disadvantage.

Games like Solasta involve a lot of loot that must be carried if you want to make some money. Solasta solves this issue in a very elegant way. Among the many factions in the game, the Scavenger is probably one the most important because it will gather all the loot you left from a cleared location and sell it for you. They will get a percentage, but it’s a great deal, nevertheless. Not to mention that you can choose to not sell some of the items that the faction gathered from that location if you think it’s useful to your party.

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The Good

The Bad

Conclusion