Review – Solasta: Crown of the Magister

Solasta: Crown of the Magister is a Dungeons and Dragons-inspired game that was developed by Tactical Adventures and published by them. The game adheres rather closely to the 5E ruleset of Dungeons and Dragons. Despite being the developers’ first game, Solasta has won numerous awards in game design.

Content Guide

Spiritual Content: Solasta is based on Dungeons and Dragons which means that some enemies are spirits, evil entities such as skeletons or vampires, and dark magic practitioners such as necromancers or cultists. A background in the game called Occultist is included in the Inner Strength DLC. This is just a background that gives players more skills related to magic from the start. There was no occultism being practiced by the characters that were pictured. There is also a warlock along with a wizard and a druid which all heavily utilize incantations and magic both light and dark. The game features the species of tieflings which are the descendants of humans who made pacts with devils or evil spirits. Multiple fictitious religions are present in the game and gods are mentioned frequently as well.

Violence: Solasta: Crown of the Magister is a mostly combat-based game due to it being a quest to save a world against evil. Some instances of blood exist when fighting certain enemies and blood in vials for certain crafting recipes. There are also instances of death and remains are mostly skeletal. The enemies killed however turn into puffs of smoke or fall on the ground and disappear after the encounter. Violence in the game is normally targeted at villains or enemies and in the playtime of the game, no instances of being able to harm innocent characters were encountered.

Language: The game contains numerous instances of swearing such as a**, d**n, s**t, and some other crude humor throughout.

Sexual Content: There are some outfits for female characters that reveal some cleavage, and barbarians who are part of one of the DLCs only wear two straps of leather over their chest making them almost shirtless if they are male and have a kama mixed with a loin cloth for their lower body.

Drugs and Alcohol Use: The game is set in a medieval fantasy world so much like real life water wasn’t abundantly clean for drinking so most of the time characters are seen drinking ale, beer, or wine. Characters also can talk about wanting a drink after a hard fight and sometimes mention missing it while in dungeons.

Other Negative Content: Characters in the game are made by the player which can lead to characters aligning with evil and greedy personalities which can sometimes suggest selfish or heartless courses of action in campaigns. There are also user-created campaigns that feature a variety of text and situations that are not rated by the ESRB or PEGI.

Solasta: Crown of the Magister is rated T for Teens and PEGI 16.

Review

Solasta: Crown of the Magister wears its inspiration on its sleeve. The layouts of dungeons and landscape look much like a digital version of maps from Dungeons and Dragons campaigns. Combat is very much like pen-and-paper games with dice rolls dictating hits or other skill checks. The game has multiple different difficulty modes to help ease players into the formula if they are newer with tabletop games or if they want an overall less rng-based experience. Combat has a good amount of variety as different enemies require different strategies which encourages players to not rely on one type of tactic for each fight. The game also has many different combinations of classes and races which can create unique experiences each time a campaign is played. The game offers the ability to create a wholly unique character made by the player or if they would rather, they can use a pre-built character with pre-assigned stats and classes made by the developers. It is worth noting that some classes are locked behind DLC expansions.

The game’s main narrative is not particularly engrossing for those looking for a deep and memorable story, it is clear that at the time the focus was more on gameplay than storytelling. The narrative follows a group of player-controlled characters who are seeking a variety of goals through the employment of the joint government. Some of the characters depending on their backstories will have sub-stories throughout the main narrative that add depth to the party. The subsequent DLCs all offer much better-written scenarios that have greatly improved plots. The gameplay more than makes up for the main lackluster story though and there are still some well-written moments to be experienced in the main campaign.

Solasta: Crown of the Magister does struggle when it comes to its graphical presentation. The environments of the game all look rather well done and the foliage and environmental effects all do a great job of adding immersion to the various areas. The main struggle area is character graphics. The game unfortunately looks very rough around the edges when it comes to characters, whether it is their hair, faces, or other details there is much left to be desired. The characters look almost out of place when focused on the world due to their lack of detail and generally generic appearances which translates over into gear worn too. The gear for characters is very much homogenous in design with many of them either blending or just being recolorations of earlier versions of the armor. The character models are not terrible as far as models go but they looked and felt outdated for a game released in 2021. The developers have taken note of this however and have greatly improved character designs and models in the upcoming sequel. The UI of the game however was incredibly polished and very modern-looking.

The audio of the game is lackluster. The effects are decent and voice acting isn’t terrible for an indie game but it leaves much to be desired. The weakest element of the voice acting comes down to the limited choices for character voices in the game as there are only two unique voices for each gender and one gender-neutral voice for both. The game also suffers from some voice actors seeming to be amateurs when it comes to video game character voicing. It is most notable in certain NPCs that the player is not supposed to interact with frequently.  The sound effects are decent and offer immersive experiences. These issues can be attributed to it being the first game by new indie developers which will most likely be remedied in the sequel due to having a bigger team and more experience. The soundtrack suffers from sounding generic, especially the battle music, there is little variety and the tracks tend to blend. The game’s score isn’t unpleasant just unfortunately not very noteworthy.

Solasta is not a bad game however it is very rough around the edges. The game is a perfect alternative for those looking for a less objectionable game akin to Baldur’s Gate 3. The combat in particular was very well crafted and the elements taken from Dungeons and Dragons were implemented authentically and solidly. While not discussed in the review at length the creative tools the developers give the players for making their campaigns should also be commended. There is a myriad of ways to make a digital campaign for Dungeons and Dragons-styled gameplay that can be a great substitute for in-person pen-and-paper sessions. The game did toy with factions however for the most part they were negligible when it came to gameplay since it was simple to keep them all happy and not influence the story outside of the factions in one of the DLCs. Another element of the game that was negative was locking key base races in the game behind the DLCs while there is still variety the missing classes and races in the base game were a bit of a blow especially when staple classes were missing from it such as bards and barbarians. Overall, Solasta is an enjoyable game, and while it does struggle with questionable monetization. This could be chalked up to help fund the company for future endeavors which is understandable however it felt like it could’ve been better handled.  The developers have a passion for making games that will offer a rich and enjoyable Dungeons and Dragons experience in the video game space which is seen in their frequent communications to fans about their sequel in progress and connecting with their community through live streams. Solasta: Crown of the Magister offers tabletop enthusiasts an enjoyable video game experience that is worth experiencing for those who can look past the game’s flaws along with the promise of a vastly improved sequel.