Baldur's Gate 3 vs. Pathfinder vs. Solasta (CRPGs of 2021)

currently we have three crpgs all of which are in early access well one of them is technically in beta to choose from in 2021 so i think it's a great time to make a video explaining what these games are what they offer and what to expect by the end of this video you should have a decent idea as to which of these games you might want to play yourself but keep in mind that all of these games are still in development so many things are subject to change and now is not the time for any official reviews or anything like that but before we get into it i'd like to introduce you to today's video sponsor i want to show you guys the world's first browser designed specifically for us gamers opera gx and it's completely free the download link will be below the first thing i'll mention besides how cool it looks is that this browser will especially benefit pc gamers because of a neat feature called gx control if you want to enhance performance on your pc while gaming and having browser tabs open 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easily see which of your favorite streamers are online and with a simple click you're watching them the discord integration is also great it makes life much easier there really is a lot to this browser the download link will be below in the video description as well as in the top comment download it try it out you got nothing to lose and you will be seeing me use opera gx during my live streams join the club i'm going to start off this video with selasta crown of the magister this is the lowest budget game out of the three not a bad thing though with the smallest and newest company considering that most people don't make it all the way through videos i want to make sure that this game gets the attention that it deserves selasta is an upcoming turn-based tactical rpg being developed by a studio by the name of tactical adventures this is the company's first game and they are self-publishing it to play early access as well as the full game when it comes out it currently costs 34.99 on steam i think that's a very fair price for this game selasta is a turn-based game where you will control a party of four and it's based on 5th edition dungeons and dragons but in a more limited fashion when it comes to game rules and mechanics selasta is actually the closest adaptation to the tabletop that you're going to get in a video game today but the lore and things of that nature are going to be a completely new experience in early access players currently can choose from 6 classes which are five e classes cleric fighter paladin ranger rogue and wizard and sorcerer might be coming in the future early access level cap is currently six and they say it's around 10 hours of content but i personally spent way more time than that on my playthrough the first thing that i actually noticed while playing is the humor in the dialogue believe it or not this game actually does have voiced cinematics it's certainly not a triple a 2021 imax movie theater experience but it definitely has personality depending on your alignment and personality choices and character creation your characters will voice different types of dialogue and some of it's quite entertaining to say the least your dialogue in this game is not really going to affect how the story actually turns out though there's only going to be one overarching story but to make up for this and stay within the budget this company seemingly has honed in on individual character personalities which adds some fun to the dialogue even though the end result seemed to be mostly the same this was a huge plus in the game for myself and i was always excited to engage in dialogue even if it was a little ugly to look at and i knew that my choices didn't really matter much in terms of the overall story it's probably lacking a bit when compared to pathfinder and balder's gate and don't expect a deep backstory for the companions but it's certainly not bad i don't think people are going to be obsessing over the lore like they would with dnd nor do i think the company even expects that combat has actually been very enjoyable overall and the close adaptation to fifth edition mechanics i think is a huge plus here it's challenging at times it doesn't hold your hands and after getting through a tough fight i do actually feel that sense of accomplishment that i personally look for and thrive off of when playing games there's a unique fast travel system in the game random encounters a ration system a reputation system and much more all of which seems to be fairly well done before we move on i want to quickly touch on the budget thing for a second because this game obviously is working with much less of a budget than pathfinder and of course baldur's gate 3. some of my personal favorite games of all time were created with rather low budgets while some of my most hated games to ever come into existence had insanely large budgets solasta is a small company and working with a smaller budget yet they have created an ambitious project while staying within the limits of what they are capable of they have focused on creating a game that works from the ground up as opposed to working from the top down and starting with visuals some companies have a way of doing this thing where the lower quality visuals can actually add to the experience it's kind of hard to explain but it's a bit nostalgic in a way and you can almost feel the passion behind the game many other companies like to try the crazy visual marketing look that pulls people in only for them to find out that the frame rates are horrible or the game just sucks in general not with silasta this is a homemade type feeling crpg that's a bit more on the hardcore side in terms of mechanics and staying true to fifth edition definitely keep an eye on this gem and support it if you like it this company is off to a great start now on to pathfinder wrath of the righteous wrath of the righteous is the second game in the pathfinder video game series many of you guys might have played or heard of pathfinder king maker which came out in 2018 wrath of the righteous is an indirect sequel so if you haven't played king maker no worries you can still jump right in it's kind of like baldur's gate 3 with baldur's gate 1 and 2. that might make some people mad oops i hate to be the bearer of this news but to participate in the beta you have to be backing the game at the 114 dollar price level which does come with various other goodies the game does not actually cost that much you can currently pre-order the full game on the company's website for the very respectable price of 33 i'm not sure if this will be the final price but i can promise you there's definitely way more than 33 dollars worth of content and character creation alone wrath of the righteous is being developed by a company called owlcat games which has been around since 2016 and they raised over 2 million dollars for the kickstarter that should tell you something right there this game is of course a crpg but the catch is that it's real time with pause and or turn based you can literally swap between the two combat styles while in combat i think that this is really great and the market is in need of a good crpg that offers the classic real time with pause style i'm a huge turn-based fan but i have been running real-time with paws for about 90 percent of my early access playthrough it just feels right with this game it's also great to be able to take a break from baldur's gate 3 in celasta and switch over to a game in the same genre but with a totally different style if you so choose another great thing about pathfinder is that you'll be controlling a party of six so real time with paws and a party with six i know some of you guys are jumping out of your shoes the companions that i've come across have for the most part also been very interesting all of them seemingly have a deep backstory side quests and most of them seem to intermingle with the main story making it even more interesting pathfinder is not based on 5th edition d and d but you will see some similarities this game is actually based on the tabletop game called pathfinder which was originally some forum or adaptation of dnd 3.5 let me tell you right now that this game has depth and with that comes some complexity this can be a great thing for many crpg lovers in character creation you can choose from 25 classes most of which have three to five subclasses each and then there's even more classes when you get into the prestigious classes there's also an insane amount of feats abilities and spells to choose from for your characters you got mythic paths that bring in their own set of abilities it's actually pretty crazy if you're into this type of versatility and in-depth character building this will be a fun game for yourself now the character creation in terms of visuals isn't much at this time it'll probably get better when the game comes out but once again you have a game that is focusing from the ground up by adding true sustenance to their game and then bringing in visuals over the top i do actually enjoy the overall aesthetics of the game it almost has a bit of a cartoony world of warcraft type vibe which might not be for everyone but it's not really over the top in my opinion and when you see the particle effects from spells and various other things in the game it actually starts to become fairly visually stunning in terms of the story and dialogue there is a lot of player agency and i find myself wondering what would happen if i choose a different path alignment comes into play your mythic path comes into play and you can even become a lich so i'm pretty happy with the story overall the companions and the player agency now there's not really much in terms of cinematics going on in this game most of the scenes seem to stay right in the typical camera view but this is also okay because it's a different type of experience and hey we got baldur's gate 3 to satisfy our cinematic needs i am told that there will be much more voice acting in the game when it actually comes out i don't want to comment too much on this but i will say even with that said you should be prepared to do quite a lot of reading in this game that's great for some and maybe not so great for others seeking a more laid back experience pathfinder is not really laid back and if you're new to this series or tabletop games in general you've got to be prepared to be a student for a while it can be a bit overwhelming and i did feel this feeling myself but it's not really a bad overwhelming feeling i just really hope that the company makes sure that when they release the game they offer the correct tutorials and ways to help out new players get into the game combat so far has shown to be easy average and extremely challenging all in one i feel like you gotta experience it because this game certainly makes you use your brains in terms of understanding your opponents and their weaknesses in the beta you can play four chapters of the game which is a lot of content easily 50 plus hours of gameplay especially for a beginner to this franchise and the full game was last said to be coming out in june of this year i do certainly have my share of things in the game that i'm not 100 enjoying just yet most of this seems to stem from the fast travel system i'm not really used to it i'm not sure if i'm really into it yet but overall i think that this is going to be a great game that will offer a different experience than many of the other crpgs we've seen in recent history it's got my thumbs up in the moment no one's been waiting for because most of you guys already know what baldur's gate 3 is and most of you guys know my thoughts on the game baldur's gate 3 is also in early access but it's likely a lot further away from launch than these other two titles you can purchase early access on steam gog and google stadia for the full games price of 60 dollars baldur's gate 3 is an upcoming turn-based crpg that takes place in the forgotten realms d d setting in terms of lore this is a dnd nerd's wet dream and yes that includes me this game is turn based only and like celesto you'll be controlling a party of four and early access so far has been rather an open world type of setting this is the only game of the three that has multiplayer there's currently six classes in early access but likely seven by the time some of you guys watch this video cleric fighter ranger rogue warlock wizard and the druid which is supposed to come out this week larian studios has basically confirmed that all 12 classes from the player's handbook will be in the game on its official launch there's so much that's still going to be added to this game it's pretty crazy now those of you who are 5th edition players will obviously spot the differences in the rules and mechanics between this game and 5e and some people don't necessarily like this i encourage those of you who feel this way to definitely check out solasta but keep an eye on baldur's gate 3 as well because there's still a lot to go in its development in an overall sense baldur's gate 3 is very similar to 5e but there are some notable adaptations in homebrew type of rules that larian has added or changed such as gaining advantage and disadvantage i really don't want to comment on this too much because like i said the game is still early in its early access and we're going to see many more changes and probably even additions to the game in relation to 5e i myself personally kind of stand in the middle on this subject there's some things that i really want to be more strict in relation to 5e while others that i think are better done in the style that larian has chosen but let's move on from that that's like talking politics the amount of work going into this game is almost hard to digest we're not only getting a crazy visual cinematic experience but this game is also going to come along with perhaps the most player agency you've ever seen in a game to date that goes for story choices and combat alike i've played over 300 hours so far and in early access this is only act one and i still discover new things and new ways to handle situations in every single playthrough if you want your choices to matter and you want this presented to you in a movie-like experience this is the game for you basically every single npc that you talk to literally is fully voice acted and comes with a cinematic experience the story so far is a huge plus in my opinion for this game and if you have any prior d d world knowledge you'll probably get sucked right into the plot there's too many plot elements to even count on one hand and although there are good theories out there no one really has any true idea where the story is going to go it's very much a page turner type of book that can be read in many different ways in terms of actual gameplay the visuals are of course fantastic the underdark being my favorite but the game also feels smooth at least on my rig it does combat has been great but i do think that some things need to be tweaked and balanced a little better keep in mind that this game in terms of its overall development seems to be in a much earlier stage than the other two so i'm expecting to see many things improve over the course of early access even if you're not a huge fan of the combat at this point it's hard to deny how crazy the player agency can be there's so many different ways that you can handle a combat encounter from using fire barrels to one shotting the hag with lazel's elite powers to sneaking onto high ground to attempting the world record for most enemies thunder waved and so on the companions that you run into that join your party i personally have enjoyed them all there are some complaints in the community here but with the addition of more companions and our companion stories being able to develop beyond act 1 i think this will all sort itself out dialogue in the game is incredibly well done and this is another area where i think this game separates itself from most others it can get really intense with the dice rolls and then you've got the visuals backing it up this type of experience is not offered in solasta or pathfinder and it makes sense because it takes millions and millions of dollars to pull this off baldur's gate 3 is less hardcore in terms of rules and mechanics than celosta and pathfinder though which makes it easier to understand and that can be a good and bad thing depending on who you're talking to in terms of difficulty i think when early access is sorted out and multiple difficulty levels are offered it should provide players with the type of experience they personally want to engage in i honestly believe that this crpg in particular is going to raise the bar for all crpgs in the future so there you have it celasta pathfinder and baldur's gate 3. if you're like me then you're excited for them all and life is pretty good the great thing about these three is that they are all very different from each other and each offer their own unique experiences let me know your thoughts below in the comments and thanks for watching

Channel: WolfheartFPS

Views: 309,469

Keywords: Baldur's Gate 3, Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous, Solasta Crown of the Magister, baldurs gate 3 gameplay, pathfinder gameplay, solasta gameplay, bg3, early access, beta, pathfinder wotr, baldurs gate 3 review, solasta review, pathfinder review, review, gameplay, crpg 2021, upcoming rpgs, classes, races, wolfheartfps, larian studios, owlcat games, tactical adventures, dungeons and dragons

Id: y01ZufCsQb8

Length: 17min 44sec (1064 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 25 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Remwaldo1]

I’m playing them all !

[u/Alilatias]

Speaking as someone actively involved in the EA/Betas for all three games...

Solasta: Crown of the Magister (Currently 50+ hours, a single playthrough right now will probably clock in about 15-20 hours.)

Solasta is super all-in on the combat. The devs have made it very clear that their focus is on the gameplay, and even outright said in a recent interview that they don't plan to compete with BG3 in the narrative department. The UI is quite possibly the cleanest out of any cRPG I've ever played, to the point where I think a complete newcomer to DnD could pick it up and easily understand everything that's happening. They recently announced a dungeon maker tool that will be included in the next patch, along with adding a bunch of sidequests and a level cap increase from 6 to 8.

The interview in question: https://wccftech.com/solasta-crown-of-the-magister-qa-making-dungeons-with-dd-5ths-ruleset/

I personally have some footage of a late game Solasta boss fight showing off a couple things notably currently missing from BG3, like player-controlled reactions. The existence of player controlled reactions, ready actions, and the dodge action pretty much means that wasted turns (moving forward and doing nothing at all) are super rare in Solasta.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6ZMwzWchAs

(I had a triple opportunity attack at one point, and I was surprised to see the game ask me if I want to use my reaction with all three characters at once. The first reaction from my Paladin is from the Protection fighting style, which requires a shield equipped and uses his reaction to impose disadvantage on an attack directed at a nearby party member. Something like that would be super neat to have in BG3 for tactical variety.

Also, my Wizard had +11 to hit with bow shots, but missed basically every attack except for the Fireball and the last bow shot, which he made at disadvantage. DnD X-COM, baby!)

Ironically, even though Solasta has the most faithful rendition of DnD 5E combat thus far, it also has a fair amount of homebrew in it, since it's using the base SRD. But the homebrew is pretty interesting overall, and meant as a compromise for the team not having the budget to implement certain things like multiclassing and several of the base classes.

For example, all three of the Wizard archetypes are homebrewed, and one of them is called the Greenmage. It comes with the Archery fighting style and Light Armor/Shortbow proficiency, along with access to some Ranger and Druid spells like Hunter's Mark and Goodberry, on top of their standard Wizard spells. So now you have a very competent archer that has full Wizard spell progression along with a couple bonus spells. It's not the strongest Wizard archetype in terms of raw damage and falls off later on because they don't get double attack like the true martial archers, but the sheer utility and the ability to swap between bow shots and spellcasting makes it pretty fun to play.

(Solasta currently does not have Barbarian, Bard, Druid, Monk, Sorcerer, and Warlock. Sorcerer is stated to be free DLC after the full release, and the developers have been namedropping Bard quite a bit recently, which makes me think that Bard could be added after that. It is incredibly likely that the archetypes for Sorcerer and Bard would have to be homebrewed too.)

The recently announced Dungeon Maker tool seems to indicate that the devs intend for Solasta to go for an Icewind Dale/Temple of Elemental Evil feel instead of anything close to BG2. It seems very easy to use and great for extending the game's lifespan by a ton. Interestingly enough, the Solasta devs basically denied that they were ever working on such a thing until they officially announced this.

The Solasta discord is also pretty wholesome. It's a small community, but one of the lead developers talks daily in there like any other normal person, instead of acting as a company mouthpiece. I mean occasionally there's some Solasta VS BG3 warmongering in there, but the dev tends to shut that down pretty quick with very normal statements. Well worth poking around in there even if you don't plan to pick up Solasta. Oh, and they preface their update notes with pictures of their pets. :P

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/810002093250838551/822993910363848744/unknown.png

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/810002093250838551/822994234557595648/unknown.png

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/810002093250838551/822994494630658118/unknown.png

Discord link for those interested: https://discord.com/invite/uu8utaF

Next patch for Solasta: March 25th. Prior saves will be incompatible. There will be a price discount between March 25th and March 30th (exact discount not known yet), after which there will be a price increase from the base $35 -> $40 USD anticipation for the full launch (due to some Steam rule regarding launch discounts, indicating that full launch may be happening sometime in May/June)

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Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous (currently 220+ hours, a single playthrough right now will probably clock in about 45-60 hours)

Honestly, the overall combat isn't that much different from Kingmaker. But everything else is a massive improvement from Owlcat's previous game, and they've clearly learned a lot since then. The companions have far more party banter and are far better optimized, and the story and gameplay is much better paced. Encounters are a lot more varied with many optional bosses using special abilities or positioning to trip up your party, and the difficulty curve is far better balanced (though WotR is on average a harder game than Kingmaker, it's for tactical reasons rather than stat-based frustration, you don't run into stat drain shenanigans until well after your companions should have counters to them for one). The crusade management is also something you do while adventuring from anywhere on the world map, instead of something you have to drop everything to shuffle through a bunch of menus to keep track of.

The writing is pretty good too, but it could be hit or miss depending on what people are looking for. It's not as light-hearted as Kingmaker, but I'd say it's presented as well as it could be, given the setting and plot. Sadly, a lot of what makes WotR so good happens to veer into spoiler/Beta NDA territory though. Soundtrack possibly included - I've noted like 9-10 different combat themes and 3 different world map themes, all based on location/progress in the story.

Quite frankly, WotR is actually a very serious contender for RPG of the year. It is most definitely shaping up to be the best RTwP game I've ever played thus far, and it does let you swap to turn-based and back to RTwP on the fly too. I'd even go as far as to say that WotR could definitely stand up to BG3 (though I don't think BG3 is going to release in 2021 to begin with).

Next patch for WotR: Estimated to be end of April for Beta testers, and is said to include all content until the end of Chapter 5, which would include the late-game mythic paths and possibly encompass about 3/4ths of the game. Note that to get into the Beta to begin with, you needed to have kickstarted at the $99+ tiers, or $114 in the post-Kickstarter portal. The devs are targeting Summer 2021 for full release (specifically June), but honestly I wouldn't be surprised if it got delayed to September for polish and bugfixing reasons (and that it'd be almost exactly 3 years since Kingmaker was released by then).

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Baldur's Gate 3 (Currently 40+ hours)

I don't really need to explain here, plus BG3 is likely to be releasing next year (you guys really, REALLY shouldn't be praying for a 2021 release unless you want a major bug-filled experience that makes Kingmaker's launch look stable).

[u/JackofTears]

Solasta is looking pretty promising, it's much more of a crpg than the demo lead me to believe. I would compare it most to 'Sword Coast Legends' - a game which sadly vanished before its time.

[u/_TheBeardedDan_]

Ive tried a few times to get into pathfinder kingmaker but struggled. There's definitely some things I like about the game, maybe I'll give it another go sometime.

Things I disliked:

• Travel taking such a long time. Often longer than the actual quest

• Random huge difficulty spikes

• Lack of enemy information

Does anyone know if wotr fixes any of these?

[u/N3ckbone]

I hated Pathfinder. I'm learning to love BG3, and I LOVE SOLASTA

[u/dude_bro_wtf]

I honestly can't play Solasta because the characters just look horrid. They seriously look like piles of clay that a toddler molded into something resembling a humanoid.

I'd love to play Pathfinder, as I massively prefer 3.5 to 5e and I've heard it more comparable to 3.5, but again, it just doesn't look good.

Also, Larian is an incredible studio and BG3 has been a godsend for me. I hope they sell obscene amounts of copies and are able to make BG4 even better, as soon as they can without sacrificing quality.

[u/Vorkosagin]

WolfheartFPS has great videos... I'll be playing all of these ... the least excited for Pathfinder though.

[u/fakiresky]

Thanks for sharing. I almost never watch YouTube content except for studies, but WolfHeart makes really good stuff.

[u/[deleted]]

Is this a sequel to Kingmaker I see?