Solasta: Crown of The Magister, final thoughts after completion
I'm very late to this, but I finally beat COTM and both of its DLCs and I wanted a place to talk about it.
I ended up buying the game after beating BG3, with Solasta being one of the main games recommended to play after.
I love how it starts with your party literally meeting in a tavern, and while the voice acting isn't technically great, I think it has its own charm. My party was a Gnome Bard, Dragonborn Paladin, Half-Orc Fighter, & Dwarf Rogue.
The plot is mostly just there, but I think it has some nice twists & turns I didn't see coming and it's not bad. The Soraks are good villains, pretty difficult to fight if you're not in the light and their shapeshifting had me double guessing a lot of the NPCs. The final act ends with an appropriately epic bang.
Palace of Ice was a really fun sequel campaign, getting to play in an icy wasteland and with higher level spells. Demons were a nice additional threat, alongside the cold itself. I found the plot mostly the same, though I did enjoy it. I love the finale where you literally go to Hell to fight an Archdemon.
The Lost Valley was less enjoyable (I sequence-broke it something fierce, and got an ending that made little sense) but I still had fun. The setting was unique, the new enemies were fun, and I really liked the NPCs. I mixed up my party this time, using a Tiefling Warlock, Human Wizard, Halfling Druid, & Dwarf Cleric.
Graphics: characters don't look good, but I like the environments. Solasta 2 looks like it's a big leap forward graphically.
Soundtrack: it's a bit short, so a lot of the OST gets repeated, but it's genuinely great and I hope the same composers return for Solasta 2.
Enemies: I love the variety. Soraks are a cool original enemy, and while their designs are classic, I enjoyed getting to fight Orcs, Giants, Goblins, Trolls, Ogres, & Dragons.
I think I prefer the gameplay to BG3. Being able to ready actions is a major plus, as is flight actually letting you fly up into the air. Being grid based makes things easier to aim, both spells & arrows, and the somatic components of spells had me having too double think my original strategy.
Solasta 2 looks good so far, but I'll have to wait until it gets to console. In the meantime, stay in the light my friends.