In many ways Kingmaker was the modern Baldur's Gate, a faithful, ambitious, and rough implementation of tabletop roleplaying into a video game setting. Wrath of the Righteous is the modern Baldur's Gate 2, with much sharper writing, many gameplay tweaks, and an amazing reactive plot that weighs every decision and path you take meaningfully, allowing for a true role playing experience.
Starting off with the negatives, I don't love the encounter design in this game, admittedly there's a high chance im not utilising the mechanics at play to their fullest with every encounter (for reference I played a slightly modified normal difficulty) but there was a high occurrence of just turning a corner and finding your frontliner suddenly getting obliterated by some jackoff throwing 8 axes at the start of battle with a high initiative. Loot is also a bit inconsistent, there's a high amount of unique great loot, but as someone that focused purely on my MC using a dueling sword I legitimately could not find one come the penultimate act, leaving them relying mostly on the fact that they are the MC to carry that weight.
This game at its present state is also buggy, unsurprising given their last game, but still I ran into many bugs including not being able to ride my giant centipede, even though it was my mount which still devastates me to think about. As of the time of this writing, I can't even see the credits since it crashes upon them triggering for me. If bugs annoy you, I do recommend waiting down the line for a more polished experience like its predecessor.
The biggest and most glaring narrative has to be the crusade portion, or more specifically the crusade battles which take the form of a Heroes of Might and Magic rip off but there's no real strategy here, its all in the numbers and it takes a decade and honestly the actual battles themselves aren't worth your time, especially come chapter 5 where the game has the audacity to reset your armies. This portion isn't all bad though, decision making with the council is even stronger than Kingmaker's iteration, where there are more people contributing to discussion and potential solutions, it feels impactful with some strong storylines running throughout each council's major discussions. I would say don't turn on the Crusade auto mode however since it bars you from something as important as creating fast travel points, I do recommend downloading the mod Combat Relief to skip the battles but still engage with Crusade mode as the auto mode bars you off from certain Mythic Paths and other such important parts. I won't lie, crusade mode does pad your playtime out, and it is a drag so let's talk the best part of the game, the companions.
The companions in this game are fantastic, the writing quality for them is very strong and they are all fleshed out well with fantastic conclusions to every companion questline I finished. Riding off the main criticism of Kingmaker, the companions here regularly interact with each other, giving a proper idea of the relationships between party members. Western RPGs are normally pretty terrible at inter-party relationships, normally opting for an orbiting around the main character which WotR does not suffer from. Companion comments on events are normally further commented on by another, resulting in a back and forth mid conversation without involving the main character while adhering to character relationships, and it adds a crazy amount of personality to everyone. Yes, CRPGs have had ambient conversations between party members before like Dragon Age, but Wrath of the Righteous conversations being interspersed between every conversation gives them much more life than most western RPGs can claim.
Owlcat Games have also outdone themselves on the adaptational front, taking a malleable set of books intended for every Dungeon Master to put their own spin on to craft an excellent narrative that takes significant creative license where they could to completely overhaul the villains to function as an excellent story in it's own right, 10 excellent stories really since every mythic path (the system that sees your player character becoming unto a god) sees significant changes in main character identity and ambition, with a significant mythic questline to follow for each path boasting a different ending, and possibly a different final boss battle too in some cases. For this playthrough I played an aeon, an arbiter of cosmic space-time law thinking I'd be some sort of time cop, where I kinda am, but also my character frequently debated within themselves about the true nature of justice, impartiality and what it truly means to be a being with that kind of power. The aeon itself boasts several different endings depending on how your character combats this question, and I have to say the one I got for achieving what my mirror reflection decided was a true judge of cosmic law was an impressively bittersweet affair with significant gravitas and emotion behind what I had to do.
Highly recommend this game to any CRPG enthusiasts, this is one that should be remembered down the line along with the greats, and an incredible follow-up to Kingmaker.
Starting off with the negatives, I don't love the encounter design in this game, admittedly there's a high chance im not utilising the mechanics at play to their fullest with every encounter (for reference I played a slightly modified normal difficulty) but there was a high occurrence of just turning a corner and finding your frontliner suddenly getting obliterated by some jackoff throwing 8 axes at the start of battle with a high initiative. Loot is also a bit inconsistent, there's a high amount of unique great loot, but as someone that focused purely on my MC using a dueling sword I legitimately could not find one come the penultimate act, leaving them relying mostly on the fact that they are the MC to carry that weight.
This game at its present state is also buggy, unsurprising given their last game, but still I ran into many bugs including not being able to ride my giant centipede, even though it was my mount which still devastates me to think about. As of the time of this writing, I can't even see the credits since it crashes upon them triggering for me. If bugs annoy you, I do recommend waiting down the line for a more polished experience like its predecessor.
The biggest and most glaring narrative has to be the crusade portion, or more specifically the crusade battles which take the form of a Heroes of Might and Magic rip off but there's no real strategy here, its all in the numbers and it takes a decade and honestly the actual battles themselves aren't worth your time, especially come chapter 5 where the game has the audacity to reset your armies. This portion isn't all bad though, decision making with the council is even stronger than Kingmaker's iteration, where there are more people contributing to discussion and potential solutions, it feels impactful with some strong storylines running throughout each council's major discussions. I would say don't turn on the Crusade auto mode however since it bars you from something as important as creating fast travel points, I do recommend downloading the mod Combat Relief to skip the battles but still engage with Crusade mode as the auto mode bars you off from certain Mythic Paths and other such important parts. I won't lie, crusade mode does pad your playtime out, and it is a drag so let's talk the best part of the game, the companions.
The companions in this game are fantastic, the writing quality for them is very strong and they are all fleshed out well with fantastic conclusions to every companion questline I finished. Riding off the main criticism of Kingmaker, the companions here regularly interact with each other, giving a proper idea of the relationships between party members. Western RPGs are normally pretty terrible at inter-party relationships, normally opting for an orbiting around the main character which WotR does not suffer from. Companion comments on events are normally further commented on by another, resulting in a back and forth mid conversation without involving the main character while adhering to character relationships, and it adds a crazy amount of personality to everyone. Yes, CRPGs have had ambient conversations between party members before like Dragon Age, but Wrath of the Righteous conversations being interspersed between every conversation gives them much more life than most western RPGs can claim.
Owlcat Games have also outdone themselves on the adaptational front, taking a malleable set of books intended for every Dungeon Master to put their own spin on to craft an excellent narrative that takes significant creative license where they could to completely overhaul the villains to function as an excellent story in it's own right, 10 excellent stories really since every mythic path (the system that sees your player character becoming unto a god) sees significant changes in main character identity and ambition, with a significant mythic questline to follow for each path boasting a different ending, and possibly a different final boss battle too in some cases. For this playthrough I played an aeon, an arbiter of cosmic space-time law thinking I'd be some sort of time cop, where I kinda am, but also my character frequently debated within themselves about the true nature of justice, impartiality and what it truly means to be a being with that kind of power. The aeon itself boasts several different endings depending on how your character combats this question, and I have to say the one I got for achieving what my mirror reflection decided was a true judge of cosmic law was an impressively bittersweet affair with significant gravitas and emotion behind what I had to do.
Highly recommend this game to any CRPG enthusiasts, this is one that should be remembered down the line along with the greats, and an incredible follow-up to Kingmaker.
The power of the Pathfinder series that all the ratings (so far) are positive, accompanied by written reviews about how unpleasant the game currently is to actually play. I was relieved when credits rolled - I also know I'll inevitably play it again.
It's Kingmaker but bigger and better...
Sadly still quite buggy and the crusader mode is somehow WORSE than Kingdom Management.
Sadly still quite buggy and the crusader mode is somehow WORSE than Kingdom Management.
Fantastic stuff.
The game is definitely getting better with every patch, and is already much better than kingmaker was initially. There are still some rough patches, though, and I don't think anything can fix the crusade mode, which is a good idea that lacks both consequence to the story and interesting gameplay outside of being a money dump.
The plot seems like your typical fantasy affair, and it is at it's core, but Mid Act 3 and on the game starts to bare its true scale, and it becomes engrossing to follow. The setting is a little overwritten still considering it's tabletop parentage, but mostly all what you need to know is kept within the confines of the worldwound and you, so it doesn't feel overindulgent.
The gameplay, if you're a fan of slower paced stuff, is rewarding to get the hang of, especially if you're someone who loves to pour over rpg mechanics and make builds for something. There is a rather large problem in that it can take a ton of time, every single encounter, to prepare every single buff you're going to want to do. It's a sad bit of busywork that plagues the game, again, because of its tabletop origins. I hope theres a solution to it, maybe in a patch in the future or (if there is going to be one) their next installment.
Either way, good stuff, one of my favorite CRPG's as of now.
The game is definitely getting better with every patch, and is already much better than kingmaker was initially. There are still some rough patches, though, and I don't think anything can fix the crusade mode, which is a good idea that lacks both consequence to the story and interesting gameplay outside of being a money dump.
The plot seems like your typical fantasy affair, and it is at it's core, but Mid Act 3 and on the game starts to bare its true scale, and it becomes engrossing to follow. The setting is a little overwritten still considering it's tabletop parentage, but mostly all what you need to know is kept within the confines of the worldwound and you, so it doesn't feel overindulgent.
The gameplay, if you're a fan of slower paced stuff, is rewarding to get the hang of, especially if you're someone who loves to pour over rpg mechanics and make builds for something. There is a rather large problem in that it can take a ton of time, every single encounter, to prepare every single buff you're going to want to do. It's a sad bit of busywork that plagues the game, again, because of its tabletop origins. I hope theres a solution to it, maybe in a patch in the future or (if there is going to be one) their next installment.
Either way, good stuff, one of my favorite CRPG's as of now.
A really great cRPG... that is perhaps a bit too long and of course the last chapter is a hot mess.
I hope I'll get around to writing a proper review one day.
I hope I'll get around to writing a proper review one day.
Nocticula: gaslights, gatekeeps, girlboss
My Azata Protag: haha slay queen!
Ember: nonono, don't gaslight and gatekeep, only girlboss
Protag: hmmmm, maybe she's right.
Nocticula: hahaha, get out of here you stupid child
Ember and Protag leave
Nocticula: hmmmm, maybe she's right.
My Azata Protag: haha slay queen!
Ember: nonono, don't gaslight and gatekeep, only girlboss
Protag: hmmmm, maybe she's right.
Nocticula: hahaha, get out of here you stupid child
Ember and Protag leave
Nocticula: hmmmm, maybe she's right.
All of the bad elements of Kingmaker have been maximized, and any possible streamlining has been thrown to the wind. The puzzles are bad, for some godforsaken reason the combat log is harder to scroll through now, the companions are even more shallow than Kingmaker's, and the new timewasting minigame wastes even MORE time than Kingmaker's (congrats on that one, Owlcat). But hey, respecing characters is free now, and the score is pretty kickass! These are small comforts in the grand scheme of things, as the horribly balanced encounters and tedious overworld traveling inspire no excitement. Remember how in Kingmaker travel speed would increase as you conquered territories and established optimal travel routes? Well, you can forget about that, cause there are maybe two ways to get anywhere, and traveling has one speed: molasses! Bugs plague the game almost a year into release, as the turn based mode breaks cutscenes often, along with dialogue boxes spasming out during crusade events. You'd think Owlcat would've learned from Kingmaker's release, but I suppose not. Possible buyers will just have to wait for three years until the game's in a stable state like last time.
The upshot is that the story and mythic quests are well thought out and intriguing, providing a variety of options for the player in their quest to seal the worldwound. This is something that works DESPITE the dialogue system, which only offers caricatured responses to situations: expect to see '(Good) I will help you!' and '(Lawful) You should be arrested!' a lot with no leeway in-between. It's a pity that the polish in the story leaks into no other facet in this game: it's all number crunching and no soul. The aforementioned minigame this time around is managing a crusade, which has some rudimentary combat inspired by HoMM. The strategy is nil, as the only way to win is to pick a mage general or stack silly numbers of units to gib your enemy. No roleplaying, just yawn-worthy optimization. People loved crying about Kingdom Management, but it provided some insight into one's character and consequences to the ending: here, your ending slide has an arbitrary good/bad result based on how many blank armies you slaughtered, along with how many times you autoclicked the recruit armies option. To call this garbage bland and forgettable is being kind.
Conclusion: trash fire with an excellent OST.
The upshot is that the story and mythic quests are well thought out and intriguing, providing a variety of options for the player in their quest to seal the worldwound. This is something that works DESPITE the dialogue system, which only offers caricatured responses to situations: expect to see '(Good) I will help you!' and '(Lawful) You should be arrested!' a lot with no leeway in-between. It's a pity that the polish in the story leaks into no other facet in this game: it's all number crunching and no soul. The aforementioned minigame this time around is managing a crusade, which has some rudimentary combat inspired by HoMM. The strategy is nil, as the only way to win is to pick a mage general or stack silly numbers of units to gib your enemy. No roleplaying, just yawn-worthy optimization. People loved crying about Kingdom Management, but it provided some insight into one's character and consequences to the ending: here, your ending slide has an arbitrary good/bad result based on how many blank armies you slaughtered, along with how many times you autoclicked the recruit armies option. To call this garbage bland and forgettable is being kind.
Conclusion: trash fire with an excellent OST.
Turns out slapping a turn-based battle system on to a real time with pause game doesn't entirely work! Also the writing is mostly bad! I wish RPG writers could move past the "being evil just means being a giant asshole" thing! It sucked in KOTOR and it sucks here!
Abandoned after 200h in, just couldn't be arsed to keep playing.
i loved this game. i think the tragedy of my first knight commander's story is something that'll stick with me for a very long time. the writing is mostly very good and a lot of the combat is fun. the endgame gets a little tedious but that's more to do with the pf1e system than the game itself imo.
the crusade stuff isn't the worst but there's definitely too much of it. is honestly probably my goty.
the crusade stuff isn't the worst but there's definitely too much of it. is honestly probably my goty.
fairly sure i'm not even 1/3 through my first time through this game and i'm like 150 hours in (though i did restart once after like 20 hours lol). i have a feeling i'll have more to say later on; consider this a "first impressions" kinda thing, silly as that may seem after so much time with it.
getting some complaints out of the way, it's a pretty flawed game in terms of bugs and some extremely fucked balance (playing it on easier difficulty settings is highly recommended until you really know the game (and i still don't feel i do)) and moments of frustrating writing clashing with the roleplaying possibilities of its pnp systems (e.g. you can't always rescue someone from their fate due to a curse placed on them despite there being a spell called remove curse available and stuff like that feels... kinda bad, sometimes). that's pretty much it, i guess? i could probably complain about the overwhelming timesink crusade system introduced in the second act, but i switched that shit to automated/story mode so i could focus on the baldur's gate-style adventuring and such. the half-star i docked from my rating could probably be a bigger mark down, but, see...
what makes wrath of the righteous so compelling to me, aside from the incredibly deep character-building, is its campaign and setting: a realm torn asunder by the worldwound, a vast fracture in the planet's surface from which the abyss emerges - a place where gods and demons rally their forces in a game of chess... where they literally can't intervene too much because the conflict would simply obliterate this domain over which they struggle for power and influence. and this is where you come in: chosen by the good gods, granted the power to choose your path - even with the freedom to become a devil or a swarm-that-walks or whatever...! power fantasy to the extreme.
and this is what sets wrathfinder apart from its ilk: it features a variety of mythic paths for you to choose as you progress (angel, lich, demon, azata, trickster, legend, and several more) and a pretty large cast of possible companions - to the point that it feels more properly inspired by bg2 than most of these "new wave of oldschool crpg" games in terms of the sheer possibilities. for my first time through it, i'm going azata: chaotic good butterfly-winged friendship is magic superhero bard romancing a succubus who wants to be a good girl after being touched by the goddess of dreams and made aware of her sins. (you can either help her with this or decide to be a total fucker and corrupt her, destroying her newfound ability to love.) game's absolutely enormous and i'm likely to be playing it all year (irl circumstances willing (not to be overly cryptic, but my mental illness is catching up with me again)).
uh, anyway... yeah, game rules. also i love the very bg-styled music, all that Epic Brass Blaring Mightily.
getting some complaints out of the way, it's a pretty flawed game in terms of bugs and some extremely fucked balance (playing it on easier difficulty settings is highly recommended until you really know the game (and i still don't feel i do)) and moments of frustrating writing clashing with the roleplaying possibilities of its pnp systems (e.g. you can't always rescue someone from their fate due to a curse placed on them despite there being a spell called remove curse available and stuff like that feels... kinda bad, sometimes). that's pretty much it, i guess? i could probably complain about the overwhelming timesink crusade system introduced in the second act, but i switched that shit to automated/story mode so i could focus on the baldur's gate-style adventuring and such. the half-star i docked from my rating could probably be a bigger mark down, but, see...
what makes wrath of the righteous so compelling to me, aside from the incredibly deep character-building, is its campaign and setting: a realm torn asunder by the worldwound, a vast fracture in the planet's surface from which the abyss emerges - a place where gods and demons rally their forces in a game of chess... where they literally can't intervene too much because the conflict would simply obliterate this domain over which they struggle for power and influence. and this is where you come in: chosen by the good gods, granted the power to choose your path - even with the freedom to become a devil or a swarm-that-walks or whatever...! power fantasy to the extreme.
and this is what sets wrathfinder apart from its ilk: it features a variety of mythic paths for you to choose as you progress (angel, lich, demon, azata, trickster, legend, and several more) and a pretty large cast of possible companions - to the point that it feels more properly inspired by bg2 than most of these "new wave of oldschool crpg" games in terms of the sheer possibilities. for my first time through it, i'm going azata: chaotic good butterfly-winged friendship is magic superhero bard romancing a succubus who wants to be a good girl after being touched by the goddess of dreams and made aware of her sins. (you can either help her with this or decide to be a total fucker and corrupt her, destroying her newfound ability to love.) game's absolutely enormous and i'm likely to be playing it all year (irl circumstances willing (not to be overly cryptic, but my mental illness is catching up with me again)).
uh, anyway... yeah, game rules. also i love the very bg-styled music, all that Epic Brass Blaring Mightily.
I realized about 30 hours in i didn't care about literally anything that was going on and the gameplay wasn't carrying anything so i dropped it
Fun take on the pathfinder system, performance was bit of an issue but other than that pretty sweet game.
I still refuse to learn min maxing in pathfinder
I feel a little conflicted with this game. Here I am, literally giving it a 4.5 but I don't feel like talking about what makes this game good. It's what it's missing here or straight up broken which frustrates me.
On one hand, a game that kept me entertained for 100+ hours is automatically a great game. Any piece of media that can get that kind of commitment out of me is special because I'm the kind of person who never sinks too many hours into one game. On the other hand, this game tries its best to keep you from having fun with its questionable design choices and how fucking broken it is as of the latest patch.
Instead of simply letting me go on an adventure with a lovable cast of characters in this cool world filled with interesting lore and do some of the most insane shit you can do in a CRPG like turning into a goddamn golden dragon that actually makes you feel powerful, I'm forced to play the awful Crusader Mode which is a poorly put together Might and Magic clone where you also make decisions about various issues happening around your periphery. That sounds cool on paper but when the outcome of these decisions ultimately, only really affect Crusader Mode, NOT the actual fun part of the game, like exploring and fighting etc.
The army battles in this mode require no strategy whatsoever and it's absolutely broken. A level 3 mage general can decimate a demon army while a level 6 knight general can do jack shit. Luckily, you can disable this mode entirely, the catch is, you'll miss a good portion of the side content and the game will make some decisions for you. Honestly, the less said about this mode the better, so if you value your sanity get the Combat Relief mod.
Another source of frustration is the lack of QoL and shitty interface. Why can't I stack items on my belt? why can't I open more than one window at once, turning comparing items into a chore? why is there no fast travel? why is the A.I. so retarded and you can't give even your companions basic commands like "fight defensively"? Just meaningless annoyances that makes me doubt they even play tested this thing, otherwise they would've realised how infuriating these mechanics (or lack thereof) are. And I'm not even gonna talk about the technical aspect, it's a whole new can of worms that isn't something new or shocking for anyone who has played Kingmaker.
This is a great game, but you should give it 6 months to get patched up, and then get the Combat Relief mod and enjoy one of the best CRPGs ever.
On one hand, a game that kept me entertained for 100+ hours is automatically a great game. Any piece of media that can get that kind of commitment out of me is special because I'm the kind of person who never sinks too many hours into one game. On the other hand, this game tries its best to keep you from having fun with its questionable design choices and how fucking broken it is as of the latest patch.
Instead of simply letting me go on an adventure with a lovable cast of characters in this cool world filled with interesting lore and do some of the most insane shit you can do in a CRPG like turning into a goddamn golden dragon that actually makes you feel powerful, I'm forced to play the awful Crusader Mode which is a poorly put together Might and Magic clone where you also make decisions about various issues happening around your periphery. That sounds cool on paper but when the outcome of these decisions ultimately, only really affect Crusader Mode, NOT the actual fun part of the game, like exploring and fighting etc.
The army battles in this mode require no strategy whatsoever and it's absolutely broken. A level 3 mage general can decimate a demon army while a level 6 knight general can do jack shit. Luckily, you can disable this mode entirely, the catch is, you'll miss a good portion of the side content and the game will make some decisions for you. Honestly, the less said about this mode the better, so if you value your sanity get the Combat Relief mod.
Another source of frustration is the lack of QoL and shitty interface. Why can't I stack items on my belt? why can't I open more than one window at once, turning comparing items into a chore? why is there no fast travel? why is the A.I. so retarded and you can't give even your companions basic commands like "fight defensively"? Just meaningless annoyances that makes me doubt they even play tested this thing, otherwise they would've realised how infuriating these mechanics (or lack thereof) are. And I'm not even gonna talk about the technical aspect, it's a whole new can of worms that isn't something new or shocking for anyone who has played Kingmaker.
This is a great game, but you should give it 6 months to get patched up, and then get the Combat Relief mod and enjoy one of the best CRPGs ever.
eyy almost a mastapeace if it wasnt so buggy
woah
This game was a love letter to the original Pathfinder adventure path. That's what I believe. The game must have been made with a sort of reverence to the AP. There's just so much here, it would take me an hour to even describe all the systems in this game, all the dialogue choices, how deep everything really is. It's an incredibly faithful adaptation of Pathfinder's tabletop mechanics, and that isn't even the most impressive part of this game. The thing that really blew me away, that actually surprised me, the thing I've really not seen in another CRPG like this, is the depths to which you could roleplay your character, and how much your roleplay actually mattered. Who you are, what you say, what you do, the world reacts to it all. Dialogue changes, events change. I was consistently impressed by how the game acknowledged and respected who my character was. There was never a choice that I remember (long ass game btw), where I thought to myself, "I don't have a way of expressing my character here".
This game is nothing short of Impressive. And yet I have to wonder what Owlcat are going to do next. The Pathfinder system has PROBLEMS, especially when you get to high level play (this stuff is documented elsewhere, I don't want to write a freaking dissertation on a 12 year old TTRPG system). The last act of this game definitely suffered from the Pathfinder system. The other issue is with the encounters. I have to compare this game to Divinity Original Sin 2 (that's how good this game is!!). Encounters in DOS2 all feel handcrafted - the same cannot be said about this game. You will fight trash mob after trash mob, as the resource grind is necessary to make boss encounters difficult (or is it?). It's a limitation of the Pathfinder system. You grind the PCs down, then they fight the boss. It's how it Works. Except this isn't very engaging for a video game. In fact, at times, it's boring. It makes me wonder what Owlcat does from here. They clearly have the chops to produce these amazing ports of tabletop APs, but I can't help but feel like they're sort of trapped. Do they continue to port these games faithfully, or do they start designing fixes? I'm not sure, but I'm excited to see what they do next. I so want these games to be something I can recommend to people in the same way I can recommend DOS2. Like, this game deserves to have a million billion fans, it's amazing. BUT! There are so many issues inherent to it that I can't.
So, for now, I'll remember fondly the time I spent with Wrath of the Righteous. I'll meet it where it's at. I'll praise it for what it is, flaws and all. And, at the end, maybe one day, Owlcat will figure out a way to make the perfect game.
This game was a love letter to the original Pathfinder adventure path. That's what I believe. The game must have been made with a sort of reverence to the AP. There's just so much here, it would take me an hour to even describe all the systems in this game, all the dialogue choices, how deep everything really is. It's an incredibly faithful adaptation of Pathfinder's tabletop mechanics, and that isn't even the most impressive part of this game. The thing that really blew me away, that actually surprised me, the thing I've really not seen in another CRPG like this, is the depths to which you could roleplay your character, and how much your roleplay actually mattered. Who you are, what you say, what you do, the world reacts to it all. Dialogue changes, events change. I was consistently impressed by how the game acknowledged and respected who my character was. There was never a choice that I remember (long ass game btw), where I thought to myself, "I don't have a way of expressing my character here".
This game is nothing short of Impressive. And yet I have to wonder what Owlcat are going to do next. The Pathfinder system has PROBLEMS, especially when you get to high level play (this stuff is documented elsewhere, I don't want to write a freaking dissertation on a 12 year old TTRPG system). The last act of this game definitely suffered from the Pathfinder system. The other issue is with the encounters. I have to compare this game to Divinity Original Sin 2 (that's how good this game is!!). Encounters in DOS2 all feel handcrafted - the same cannot be said about this game. You will fight trash mob after trash mob, as the resource grind is necessary to make boss encounters difficult (or is it?). It's a limitation of the Pathfinder system. You grind the PCs down, then they fight the boss. It's how it Works. Except this isn't very engaging for a video game. In fact, at times, it's boring. It makes me wonder what Owlcat does from here. They clearly have the chops to produce these amazing ports of tabletop APs, but I can't help but feel like they're sort of trapped. Do they continue to port these games faithfully, or do they start designing fixes? I'm not sure, but I'm excited to see what they do next. I so want these games to be something I can recommend to people in the same way I can recommend DOS2. Like, this game deserves to have a million billion fans, it's amazing. BUT! There are so many issues inherent to it that I can't.
So, for now, I'll remember fondly the time I spent with Wrath of the Righteous. I'll meet it where it's at. I'll praise it for what it is, flaws and all. And, at the end, maybe one day, Owlcat will figure out a way to make the perfect game.
Jeu incroyable
WotR is everything Kingmaker wishes it was, and a little bit more. it is not perfect by any means, many of the storylines (main quests, side quests and companion quests alike) fall flat and the mythic paths are very unbalanced in terms of content and narrative. that said, it was consistently engaging and the crusade management rocks soooo hard in comparison to the Kingmaker kingdom management system. art and graphics are beautiful and the 360 camera has been integrated fantastically, allowing for amazing map designs with depth and interaction on another level. the story is pretty standard stuff, but the mythic path system gives it great flair and replayability, though I found it hard to deviate from my first one (azata main 4life <3), which still remains my favorite. all in all a great game!
Abandoned: Sept 7 2021
Time: 11 Hours
Platform: Mac
I really wanted to like this game, I really did. Pathfinder Kingmaker is a game I'd considered playing many times during my last month or two of CRPG-binging, but one I'd stayed away from, mostly due to its daunting length and reputation for being a little stilted on the writing front. With this new one coming out though, and a promise to be more reigned in and a much greater focus on writing, I thought I'd give it a go.
Once I messed around with the settings enough to get it running smoothly on my machine, I hopped into character creation and whaddya know, it's literally just Pathfinder! If you don't know, Pathfinder is a tabletop role playing game heavily based on an older version of D&D, seeking to preserve some of the number-crunchyness that got left by the wayside in more recent editions. Anyways, this is probably the most faithful and expansive conversion of a ttrpg to CRPG I've seen since Neverwinter Nights 2, with a huuuge variety of classes and races and build options to choose from. Plus, the game has an option to operate either in real-time mode, a la Baldur's Gate and Pillars of Eternity, or turn-based mode, which is how Pathfinder on a tabletop is actually played. So if you want to be able to play Pathfinder by yourself, you'd be hard pressed to find a more polished and complete way to do it.
All that is great, and by all accounts improved from Kingmaker. But it's not really what I play these games for. I'm much more interested in the way tabletop mechanics interact with a story, especially with the way they allow you to fully explore a character's internal world when done best, and the way they can build a world that's believable as a bustling city, or a lonely hill in a forest. On this I'm kind of split with this game. The story is great, one of the better paced stories in a game like this that I've played, and the way it explores the mythology of Pathfinder and the world it takes place in is truly stellar, truly on par with the best. What I don't like, however, is the writing.
Now, I haven't played Kingmaker, so I'm not sure if it's any better than in that game, but what's here should be fun and full of character, and while it certainly is trying to be all of that, it just falls so short of any kind of naturalism or believability. The dialogue reads like it was copied out of a prebuilt D&D module. It's technically witty and telling about whoever's speaking it, but reading it in a game like this leaves me parched. There's an emphasis on dialogue, but no work to make it interesting to actually read that dialogue, outside of making the subject of what they're talking about interesting. But even with that it just feels like I'm reading a saltine cracker most of the time.
And that's not even mentioning the way alignment is implemented in the dialogue system!! Pathfinder has the same morality system as D&D, Good/Neutral/Evil and Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic, with any combination of the two axes providing a certain alignment (such as Chaotic Good, the Batman morality, or Lawful Evil, the morality of demons who need you to sign contracts before they take your soul). The way the game uses these, it treats them as two seperate axes. You can choose Chaotic choices in conversation, you can choose Good choices in conversation, but you can't choose a Chaotic Good option. That might not sound like a big deal, but the writing between the Chaotic option and the Good option sound like completely different characters. Same with Evil and Lawful. It's less liek you're role-playing a character with a certain morality to them, and more like you're choosing the good or chaotic options because your character is good and chaotic. A subtle difference, to be sure, but one that infects every part of the game, even the companion writing.
On top of THAT, there's this... crusade system. You see, you end up leading an army against the invading demon army. It governs the way you cross the world map, with demon encampments blocking your traversal until you build an army and deal with them, and it's just, like, boring and slow and all kinds of underbaked. Recruiting units is tedious and expensive, and battles feel like they have random outcomes. As a small, optional minigame in a much larger CRPG it'd be fine, forgettable, but not worth talking about. As not only a mandatory part of the game, but a sizeable chunk of the way you even get from point A to point B on the map? It's at best annoying and at worst utterly detestable, and it's what killed my motivation to continue the game.
It's not a bad game, not in the slightest, and if you're looking to play a ttrpg on a computer you could do much worse, but if you're looking for something with the quality of a Bioware RPG, or an Obsidian RPG, or hell even an InXile RPG you should keep looking.
Time: 11 Hours
Platform: Mac
I really wanted to like this game, I really did. Pathfinder Kingmaker is a game I'd considered playing many times during my last month or two of CRPG-binging, but one I'd stayed away from, mostly due to its daunting length and reputation for being a little stilted on the writing front. With this new one coming out though, and a promise to be more reigned in and a much greater focus on writing, I thought I'd give it a go.
Once I messed around with the settings enough to get it running smoothly on my machine, I hopped into character creation and whaddya know, it's literally just Pathfinder! If you don't know, Pathfinder is a tabletop role playing game heavily based on an older version of D&D, seeking to preserve some of the number-crunchyness that got left by the wayside in more recent editions. Anyways, this is probably the most faithful and expansive conversion of a ttrpg to CRPG I've seen since Neverwinter Nights 2, with a huuuge variety of classes and races and build options to choose from. Plus, the game has an option to operate either in real-time mode, a la Baldur's Gate and Pillars of Eternity, or turn-based mode, which is how Pathfinder on a tabletop is actually played. So if you want to be able to play Pathfinder by yourself, you'd be hard pressed to find a more polished and complete way to do it.
All that is great, and by all accounts improved from Kingmaker. But it's not really what I play these games for. I'm much more interested in the way tabletop mechanics interact with a story, especially with the way they allow you to fully explore a character's internal world when done best, and the way they can build a world that's believable as a bustling city, or a lonely hill in a forest. On this I'm kind of split with this game. The story is great, one of the better paced stories in a game like this that I've played, and the way it explores the mythology of Pathfinder and the world it takes place in is truly stellar, truly on par with the best. What I don't like, however, is the writing.
Now, I haven't played Kingmaker, so I'm not sure if it's any better than in that game, but what's here should be fun and full of character, and while it certainly is trying to be all of that, it just falls so short of any kind of naturalism or believability. The dialogue reads like it was copied out of a prebuilt D&D module. It's technically witty and telling about whoever's speaking it, but reading it in a game like this leaves me parched. There's an emphasis on dialogue, but no work to make it interesting to actually read that dialogue, outside of making the subject of what they're talking about interesting. But even with that it just feels like I'm reading a saltine cracker most of the time.
And that's not even mentioning the way alignment is implemented in the dialogue system!! Pathfinder has the same morality system as D&D, Good/Neutral/Evil and Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic, with any combination of the two axes providing a certain alignment (such as Chaotic Good, the Batman morality, or Lawful Evil, the morality of demons who need you to sign contracts before they take your soul). The way the game uses these, it treats them as two seperate axes. You can choose Chaotic choices in conversation, you can choose Good choices in conversation, but you can't choose a Chaotic Good option. That might not sound like a big deal, but the writing between the Chaotic option and the Good option sound like completely different characters. Same with Evil and Lawful. It's less liek you're role-playing a character with a certain morality to them, and more like you're choosing the good or chaotic options because your character is good and chaotic. A subtle difference, to be sure, but one that infects every part of the game, even the companion writing.
On top of THAT, there's this... crusade system. You see, you end up leading an army against the invading demon army. It governs the way you cross the world map, with demon encampments blocking your traversal until you build an army and deal with them, and it's just, like, boring and slow and all kinds of underbaked. Recruiting units is tedious and expensive, and battles feel like they have random outcomes. As a small, optional minigame in a much larger CRPG it'd be fine, forgettable, but not worth talking about. As not only a mandatory part of the game, but a sizeable chunk of the way you even get from point A to point B on the map? It's at best annoying and at worst utterly detestable, and it's what killed my motivation to continue the game.
It's not a bad game, not in the slightest, and if you're looking to play a ttrpg on a computer you could do much worse, but if you're looking for something with the quality of a Bioware RPG, or an Obsidian RPG, or hell even an InXile RPG you should keep looking.
Arueshalae is in this
Better than Kingmaker, which is damning with faint praise. The terrible, mandatory kingdom management 4X game has been replaced with terrible, mandatory, dollar-store Might & Magic crusade management. Every single companion has an insipid "What if [TTRPG Class Stereotype], but flipped on its head?" narrative going on, and the puzzle and quest design are as tedious as ever. There's a whole major hub zone that takes up about a third of the game where you have to constantly rotate the camera to reveal paths, and it is a truly miserable experience.
The Mythic Path stuff has potential, but the way it's implemented as part of the story makes little thematic sense. I'm left how I felt after Kingmaker, where I'm just waiting for them to take the engine and make something that isn't so tightly bound to standard cliche.
The Mythic Path stuff has potential, but the way it's implemented as part of the story makes little thematic sense. I'm left how I felt after Kingmaker, where I'm just waiting for them to take the engine and make something that isn't so tightly bound to standard cliche.
Yeah lemme just find 1000 spare hours to finish all the mythic paths and then I will get back to you...
One of the best CRPG's of all time
I have not played too many crpgs to completion, but f**k me, this is an amazing experience. There are a lot of complaints about the game that I find truth in, the ridiculous power spikes, the sometimes weird dialogue choices, etc. However, despite all these flaws, I really think this is one of the best crpgs out right now, period. Each major character feels real, each decision feels impactful, and the fact there are 9 more paths for me to play, plus a secret ending, baffles me. I think what I find the worst about this game is just trying to learn the Pathfinder system as a whole, even as a D&D5e DM it was hard to adapt fully. It really carries the double-edged sword of being a gameplay challenge (where you can pick between turn-based or RTWP amazingly) and an invigorating story where companions and characters CARE about your decisions. It's an amazing experience, after I get the secret ending I'll decide if it's a 5/5 or not.
This game is currently in the Humble Choice for February 2023, this is part of my coverage of the bundle. If you are interested in the game and it's before March 7th, 2023, consider picking up the game as part of the current monthly bundle.
A massive RPG and story.
Pathfinder is back again on Humble Choice, and just like Pathfinder: Kingmaker this is another meaty adventure. Already in the first hour, we have a huge demon horde attack a town we’re recuperating in, finding a heavenly blade, and a woman who turns into a giant dragon as you are seeing. This just feels like a large epic world, and I love this. You feel like you’re playing a tabletop campaign instead of a video game. The fact most of the main story is voice-acted adds to that feeling.
On the other hand, this is real roleplaying, which means a lot of dialogue, and that’s not going to appeal to everyone. The combat so far is pretty easy, but maybe I’m still in a long tutorial. I did see some morality here, but it’s really obvious when you’re making an alignment choice, though it does look like it supports both evil and chaotic characters as well as lawful good. Also, there are a lot of menus and inventories, but again that’s kind of the point of a CRPG.
Pick this up if you like anything from D&D, Balder’s gate, Neverwinter nights, or tabletop RPGs. This is still a CRPG, but this also is really fun, deep, and massive. Howlongtobeat.com says just the main story is 50 hours, and full playthroughs are closer to 130 hours, so this is not a quick game.
If you enjoyed this review or want to know what I think of other games in the bundle, check out the full review on or subscribe to my Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/PPQRKDSakk4
A massive RPG and story.
Pathfinder is back again on Humble Choice, and just like Pathfinder: Kingmaker this is another meaty adventure. Already in the first hour, we have a huge demon horde attack a town we’re recuperating in, finding a heavenly blade, and a woman who turns into a giant dragon as you are seeing. This just feels like a large epic world, and I love this. You feel like you’re playing a tabletop campaign instead of a video game. The fact most of the main story is voice-acted adds to that feeling.
On the other hand, this is real roleplaying, which means a lot of dialogue, and that’s not going to appeal to everyone. The combat so far is pretty easy, but maybe I’m still in a long tutorial. I did see some morality here, but it’s really obvious when you’re making an alignment choice, though it does look like it supports both evil and chaotic characters as well as lawful good. Also, there are a lot of menus and inventories, but again that’s kind of the point of a CRPG.
Pick this up if you like anything from D&D, Balder’s gate, Neverwinter nights, or tabletop RPGs. This is still a CRPG, but this also is really fun, deep, and massive. Howlongtobeat.com says just the main story is 50 hours, and full playthroughs are closer to 130 hours, so this is not a quick game.
If you enjoyed this review or want to know what I think of other games in the bundle, check out the full review on or subscribe to my Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/PPQRKDSakk4
Managed to get me into another replay despite mixed feelings.
This game, in a way, made the same mistakes that its predecessor, but also had the same things I liked.
+ very nice and memorable NPCs
+ some romance options, a couple pretty convoluted (Daeran and Sosiel?)
+ different unique classes
+ a plethora of quests and locations and ways to resolve stuff
+ choices really do matter
+ beautiful small easter eggs for Pathfinder Kingmaker players
+ different mythic classes, they have unique powers and gameplay
- The crusade is even worse than running a kingdom in the first installment, and running on auto locks you out of a lot of shit
- Your companions already have classes and abilities assigned to them which often suck, and some of them you meet so late in the game that they will always be subpar to any mercenary :( I hope Owlcats will finally enable to retrain everyone without mods! Please, please!
- It's very uneven again, after getting send to THE PLACE (to avoid spoilers) in act 3 or 4 you are playing a clanky 3d-ish location and all the stuff you did beforehand in the crusade doesn't really matter because you start with a blank slate after that event again... like whyyyyyy
This game, in a way, made the same mistakes that its predecessor, but also had the same things I liked.
+ very nice and memorable NPCs
+ some romance options, a couple pretty convoluted (Daeran and Sosiel?)
+ different unique classes
+ a plethora of quests and locations and ways to resolve stuff
+ choices really do matter
+ beautiful small easter eggs for Pathfinder Kingmaker players
+ different mythic classes, they have unique powers and gameplay
- The crusade is even worse than running a kingdom in the first installment, and running on auto locks you out of a lot of shit
- Your companions already have classes and abilities assigned to them which often suck, and some of them you meet so late in the game that they will always be subpar to any mercenary :( I hope Owlcats will finally enable to retrain everyone without mods! Please, please!
- It's very uneven again, after getting send to THE PLACE (to avoid spoilers) in act 3 or 4 you are playing a clanky 3d-ish location and all the stuff you did beforehand in the crusade doesn't really matter because you start with a blank slate after that event again... like whyyyyyy
It's amazing how much depth this game's character develop system can have, and it's equally, if not more, amazing how TERRIBLE its encounter design can become later in the playthrough.
medio q me aburrio pero estuvo entrete para distraerme un ratito