Developer: Tactical Adventures
Publisher: Tactical Adventures
Platform: PC, Mac
Tested on: PC
Solasta: Crown of the Magister – Preview
Solasta: Crown of the Magister is a Turn-based RPG based on Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition, and is perfect for people who’d like to experience playing Dungeons & Dragons. You’ll get acquainted with character creation, the ruleset of D&D and how it would function in-game, and the story you play through is a nice typical fantasy story. This game has been developed and published by Tactical Adventures. Solasta: Crown of the Magister is currently in Early Access, and is planned to be released in 2021.
In the world of Solasta, there was once a glorious Elven empire named Manacalon. However, this empire was destroyed due to a cataclysm, and the area where it once stood, is now known as the Badlands. Recently, mysterious things are happening in the Badlands, and adventurers who go there, never come back.
Solasta features a typical fantasy story, where your party of adventurers will first meet at an inn, and then go on an adventure which will lead them further and further away from familiar territories, while encountering mysterious monsters and gradually exploring the mystical lore of the world. The story isn’t all too unique, but it’s told well and gives good reasons why this group of characters should be involved.
The story is mainly told by cutscenes, triggered at specific areas your characters reach as they achieve their missions. There are also some objects in the world which you can inspect, but they generally don’t give much more information other than a brief description.
The graphics are simple but adequate for a modern game of this genre. The characters don’t look super realistic or fancy, but they don’t need to. Although for role-playing purposes, it would be nice if you’d have some more customization options for your character’s look. However, you are able to customize the look of the dice which you’ll actually see rolling on the screen when you attack or make checks!
The areas you’ll explore are pretty detailed, are well designed and fitting to the feel of the environment you’d expect. Combat maps are nice and diverse, with lots of barriers to use for cover and height differences. The same combat map will get used more than once for random encounters, but that’s not a problem.
The animation of the characters looks really good! Both spellcasting and climbing around the environments look good and the movements are fluid. Spellcasting is pretty flashy and colorful. Sometimes the game zooms in on the action of one of the characters, making them look pretty impressive, especially if they are casting a spell.
The soundtrack is pretty epic and fits the fantasy style well. The characters are fully voiced; both the characters in your party and the NPCs you meet. During character creation, you can choose between a few voices to match the personality you imagined for your character. Different races have different styles of voices. During gameplay you won’t only hear your character during conversations, but also during fights or when walking around. Generally, characters make sounds when hit or while climbing, and when they slay an enemy. This makes the fights nice and lively, but the sounds while climbing sound a bit exaggerated at times.
Solasta: Crown of the Magister is a turn-based tactical RPG. The game is based on the ruleset of Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition, and really stays true to those rules. For all actions you take during combat, and quite a few actions outside of combat, whether or not these actions are successful or fail is determined by dice rolls. You actually see the dice rolls happening on the screen, with colorful animated dice (which you can even customize!).
The character creation is well designed, with lots of options for race, class and skills. For people unfamiliar with Dungeons & Dragons, it might be quite a lot to choose from, but for people familiar with D&D it’s easy to see how you could create a perfect caster or fighter. The character creator lets you decide on several races; like Elf, Human, Dwarf and Halfling, which are even divided into sub-races. Afterward, you’ll be able to choose a class, and even a crude background for your character, like spymaster or acolyte. Last, you’ll define your character’s alignment (good or evil, law-abiding or not) and some personality traits which stem from both their background and their alignment. These stats will have an effect on dialogue options in the game. Later in the game, you’ll have the option to further define your character’s class as they level up, by selecting specializations.
After you build your team of four characters (or choose from the pre-made ones), you’re good to go! Of course, your characters will meet each other at an inn, waiting to go on an adventure. They’ll all tell their tales on their journey towards the city they are in, and you’ll be able to play through their journey. This serves as the tutorial of the game; playing through these stories learns you how to navigate the lands, how to fight, how to sneak and how to rest; basically all you need to get into the game.
You’ll walk around using point & click movement, and you’ll view the world from a top-down perspective. Circles indicate where your characters are walking to, and you can move your party as a group or individuals. If you encounter enemies, you’ll generally spot them walking around before they see you. However, sometimes the enemies spot you first, and you’ll enter combat. As soon as combat starts, your characters won’t be able to walk around freely anymore but they will move on a grid. Combat is really well executed in this game and feels true to the Dungeons & Dragons ruleset. Combat is turn-based, with just a few actions each character can perform during their turn. Fights are really challenging; a few bad decisions can make you lose the fight, but if you reload the game, the fight could go entirely different, based on your strategic decisions. In combat, vertical position and light really make a difference. You really have to work with your environment as you’ll have an advantage when you have the higher ground, and when your targets are well lit.
You’ll have dialogue options at several points during the game, but generally, those choices are not impactful for the story, and you’ll just ask an NPC for a bit more information in four different ways; ask in a different tone, or ask a question linked to a certain skill which has a chance of getting a favorable answer. Dialogue options do not shape and define the personality of one character doing the talking, but each dialogue option will be coupled with one member of your party, so it’s the corresponding party member who will ask that question. Therefore, the role-playing aspect of this game stays confined to the storyline, involving the whole party as pre-determined decision-makers, with little room for the player to develop their own characters’ personalities through dialogue and interactions.
Traveling from location to location is done via an overworld map. Before traveling, you’ll need to make sure your party has enough food to take care of themselves during the journey. When you’ve initiated a long journey, the party will travel automatically, foraging and resting along the way. Sometimes they’ll encounter enemies, which will either initiate a fight, or –if a party member spotted the enemies before the enemies engaged them- lets you choose whether you want to fight or go around the enemies.
Conclusion
Even in its Early Access stage, this is a well-crafted Dungeons & Dragons game. The fights are really engaging and challenging, and the story is interesting and fun. The graphics are nice, especially the design of the maps you’ll walk around on while exploring an area. The music and voice acting are good as well. If you like strategic turn-based RPGs like Baldur’s Gate, be sure to look into Solasta: Crown of the Magister as well!
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[…] on Dungeons & Dragons’ 5th edition, but with a unique setting and storyline. We’ve previewed this game in its Early Access phase, when it was limited to the main campaign, with several factions not yet unlocked. This release […]