REVIEW : Solasta: Crown of the Magister (PC)
Talking about role-playing is talking about Dragons and Dungeons, the most classic of the classics and on which hundreds of medieval fantasy games that have come later are based. Many of them have derived directly from D&D like Baldurs Gate and others have been inspired like Divinity: Original Sin. Solasta: Crown of the Magister is one of the second, a straightforward turn-based RPG that is directly based on the fifth edition rules of D&D. It is the first game from Tactical Adventures, a French studio that launched the game first on Kickstarter, where it was a success, and is now finally coming out of Steam Early Access after 7 months of polishing.
Let’s start at the beginning, the creation of characters. In Solasta: Crown of the Magister our team consists of four heroes, who can choose between characters created by ourselves or with one of the six existing ones. The grace is in creating the complete team to have a more personalized adventure since each character must have a race, a class and an origin. Depending on how we choose each one we will have predominant traits, we will also have more options to choose as a God to worship. There are six options for each one, although as we have already said there are subclasses and sub-races that can greatly modify the way each adventurer plays. A cleric for example can dedicate himself to have healing spells or forget about them to do damage as if he were a wizard.
But the thing is not here, the creation goes through the last process, modify the appearance? Of course, but not only that. Anyone who has spent an afternoon role-playing knows that their character has statistics for each of their attributes. Anyone who has played a classic role knows that these numbers are not fixed, let’s not forget the maxim of board RPGs, what the dice give you, the dice take away from you. The last part of creation is something so essential that if we do it wrong we will get a useless adventurer for the whole game, dice are rolled and these values are assigned to attributes. A rookie punisher where we have all fallen at one time or another. In general, Solasta has a fairly complete character creation and allows the title to be replayed several times without always using the same thing, however some more classes and some races are missed.
Choose violence or not, it doesn’t matter
With the team already formed, it only remains to play. We start in the classic tavern, how could it be otherwise, where the characters are introduced while waiting for the person who has hired them. From here the gameplay will be divided into two parts. The exploration and dialogues will allow us to move around the locations and start conversations with which to discover the world that surrounds us. This aspect, together with the combat, is very at odds with the attributes and traits that we have unlocked, being able to access specific objects or situations depending on our capacity for dialogue or what we can feel, both in the environment and in people. This is where Solasta’s limit is most noticeable and what differentiates it from the reality of a role.
Dungeon action
All the action happens in the different zones of the game and the dungeons that are in them. They are maps of medium size in general and with secondary roads where you can explore and find optional missions. The trip between these areas is done automatically, we see a map and our group travel it on a line, while we can order objects to be created through the crafting system and we will have surprise encounters, some avoidable and others in which we will be caught off guard. The fights are inevitable in many cases so we will always have to take into account the areas where to take a long rest to recover spell holes, life and others.
Light cataclysm
The world where the title is set is Solasta, ravaged by a cataclysm long ago that destroyed an elven empire and brought humans from another world. There is a great variety of environments, with quite open scenarios and with many tactical possibilities with vertical movements. They are quite rich in detail and that helps that tactical aspect. You can see that fantastic world full of magic, also the effect of the cataclysm with many ruins and labyrinthine towers. The effects when a character casts a spell, enchanted weapon, or special arrow are fantastic but not very diverse.
