Solasta: Crown Of the Magister Review – Dungeons and Dragons Meets the Playstation 5

Having recently made its way onto the PlayStation 5, Solasta: Crown of the Magister looks like a game that’s seemingly average at a glance. Although it does have its popularity and fanbase, let’s take a look at the finer details and see where this isometric RPG experience excels and where it falls short.

Introduction – Classic RPG Action

Solasta: Crown of the Magister is really a solid title in the RPG genre. Having originally released for desktop in 2021, it has made its way onto the PS5 toting a relatively good story and decent gameplay. With all of the fantastical elements of dungeons and dragons, like dice rolls and different character races and classes, the game should be a top tier title, but unfortunately it does come in short on the replay and visual scale. The flaws drop what could have been a solid game down to a more average experience.

Story – Pretty Fun, But Short

The story is pretty good, all things considered. As the player, you take control of a group of characters that set out to rummage the ruins of an Elven empire for jewels that power an ancient artifact. Using the 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons rules, the group of pre-made or player-made characters battle evil creatures in epic tabletop fashion. The story is relatively short, but it stays linear and to-the-point throughout the roughly 25 hours that it takes to finish the game.

While a lot of the story specifics are conversation based, and can drag out at times, the action and adventure in between make the game stand out for what it is. The best part about Solasta: Crown of the Magister is that the story leaves room for plenty of unique character interactions, while the gameplay keeps you sucked into a rather interesting combination of tabletop nostalgia and turn-based combat.

Perhaps the worst part of the story is the overall length of play. Though it’s not ridiculously short, I think they could have expanded more in certain places to make it feel fuller. A few extra missions and a small elaboration in some areas of the story could have went a long way.

Gameplay: D&D Fans, Rejoice!

The first thing I would like to mention here is this game bases all of its foundation on very specific Dungeon & Dragons rules, and that makes for quite a confusing introduction for a player who may not know all that much about D&D. Solasta has an array of races and classes to chose from when making your character party, leading into awesome character design and story potential.

Though the game does provide a fairly fleshed out intro that helps you get into the how’s and why’s of Solasta, it is a bit of a pain to learn at first. Once you get the hang of all of the abilities, movements, spells, and more that come with each individual class and design, the game kicks into gear as a steadfast turn-based RPG title. Dungeon & Dragons fans would definitely like this game, and it could even serve as a decent introduction to anyone looking to get into tabletop D&D.

Thankfully, you don’t have to actually roll your own dice, or leave the majority of the game to your own vivid imagination like you would play a “real” game of Dungeons & Dragons. Solasta does a great job at keeping their game interesting and entertaining with many battles and environments to get through. The actual gameplay mechanics were enough to keep me hooked and helped me look past the specifc flaws that dropped its rating in my eyes.

Graphics and Sound: The Weakest Link

The worst part about Solasta: Crown of the Magister is undoubtedly its graphics. The visuals aren’t the worst thing I’ve ever seen, but when considering the year this was released, it really could be a whole lot better. While the character classes and creation is cool, the graphical qualities of the actual character designs greatly lack in comparison.

The face models of each race seem to all be based off the same exact design, just configured slightly to fit each specifically. The bodies are clunky and weird, and any clothing or armor pieces have sort of a “modern day Runescape” vibe to them, and to me it really took a lot from the game overall.

A game can be fun and look bad simultaneously, and Solasta is proof. The gameplay, mechanics and D&D relativity save what overall is a pretty weak delivery on the visuals. The sounds of the game aren’t much better either. Its not uncommon for RPGs to have low-quality voice acting as there are usually tons of NPCs that need voiced, but Solasta doesn’t have a single memorable character voice in my honest opinion.

On top of that, a lot of battle and spell sounds seem to be pulled from early versions of other RPGs like World of Warcraft and such. There’s just not much to the graphics or the sounds of Solasta and it truly hurt its overall rating.

Replay Value? It’s Not There, Unfortunately

While I did not hate the initial playthrough of Solasta: Crown of the Magister, I also don’t really see myself going back to it for more than just once, because the game just doesn’t offer a compelling reason for you to go back into it, unlike others of its genre.

Now, I’ve never played any tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons, but I’m no stranger to it. Having such an iconic game in console form is awesome. Still, I think there could have been a lot more done to give the game some solid replay value. Maybe a sequel or some really awesome DLCs could help this game take a step in the right direction, but as is I would say the replay value hurt nearly as bad as the visuals and sound did.

Conclusion – A Middling Experience

Solasta: Crown of the Magister is not a bad game in my honest opinion. It’s more that the game simply falls short in areas that make it stand up to any real RPG mega-title. The good thing about Solasta is you get a great D&D experience on console for only $30. If you get into it and can find replay value in it then it’s more than worthwhile. Those who find the same flaws with it as I did will probably not want to buy this game at full price however and may want to wait for a good sale to give it a try.