Solasta Solasta II - coming to Early Access in 2025

[Grunker]

SKALD: Against the Black Priory is a much more indie game than Solasta, literally made by one guy.

Its "annoying immune enemies" area was the Tower of Ash, where enemies weren't actually fully immune to anything but were strongly resistant to most damage types.

It was really annoying to people, made combat a slog. If you're a studio that has mouths to feed, do you really want to deal with that shit? Is it really worth it?

I would say, only in optional out-of-the-way encounters.

The only reason we’re suddenly discussing immunities instead of encounter design is that it was Myzzrym ‘s own example of something that could make encounters more interesting.

As an example it’s very bad. This debate should be about how Blackguards is a much, much better game than Solasta despite being much more linear, being much more bare-bones in general, having worse itemization, and a much, much less interesting combat system/elevation design. Simply because it had great content (see: encounter design).

Solasta was a fantastic game on paper that failed in implementation. Now they’re apparently broadening the scope and feature list without talking about how they’re rectifying the things they failed at.

 

[Litmanen]

SKALD: Against the Black Priory is a much more indie game than Solasta, literally made by one guy.

Its "annoying immune enemies" area was the Tower of Ash, where enemies weren't actually fully immune to anything but were strongly resistant to most damage types.

It was really annoying to people, made combat a slog. If you're a studio that has mouths to feed, do you really want to deal with that shit? Is it really worth it?

I would say, only in optional out-of-the-way encounters.

The problem with Skald is that it offers few approaches to combat, and the most overpowered one was backstab. If you try to differentiate combat by simply giving enemies near-immunities, as Skald does, you’re not really doing a great job. Skald is a great game, but that choice only made combat longer, not more tactical, because there were already too few options to make fights truly dynamic.

Solasta, on the other hand, has a much broader range of approaches to combat and should focus on making higher-level encounters more tactical. Relying on 'near-immunities' or total immunities to make enemies harder just isn’t good enough. It’s absolutely unacceptable that they can’t come up with something better or more creative to increase difficulty.

 

[Blutwurstritter]

Immunities are only a problem if they come out of nowhere, or if there is only one way to deal with them.
For example, if you know that you're likely to face fire elementals, dealing with fire immunity shouldn't be problem. Or if you're going to enter a dragons lair, or a dungeon with golems etc. Just drop some hints in the game and its fine.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Honestly, given that in Solasta the permanent death of any party member or important NPC meant game over, it actually can be fairly lethal if you turn on the AI options and play ironman. Or even without ironman. You can also play with standard array. Some of the random encounters you can get are pretty brutal.

There's a difference between a tabletop feeling RPG like Solasta and a tactics game like Blackguards and leaning too hard that way, you end up with a glorified puzzle game. That would not be an improvement at all. If that's what you're looking for, you should just switch genres, imo.

 

[Artyoan]

https://www.solasta-game.com/news/183-dev-update-02-how-was-solasta-ii-created

Nice screenshot showcasing that some verticality for the area design is there.

Screenshot

 

[Roguey]

We thought about trying out a shorter, much more narrative Solasta spin-off with a set team of heroes shortly after the Cataclysm. We explored the idea of a sci-fi roguelite tactical RPG inside an ever-shifting derelict spaceship.

First one would have been a dud. I have no faith in this team in writing a compelling story and the combat-fans would have revolted. You guys called yourselves "Tactical Adventures" not "Narrative Adventures," can't downscope to a western jrpg without sparking anger. Second one's certainly riskier than a sequel.

Players didn’t like the character faces? Let’s work on that. The animations were stiff? Let’s try to do something there. Gamepad control didn’t feel good? Yea, we’re on it too. We were going down our long list of grievances checking off what we could and couldn’t change - because although the team had grown in the last few years, we were still no more than thirty five people. And… we like it that way. It keeps internal communication fluid and everyone feels informed and involved in the project. We just need to choose our battles!

While everyone's hopeful with the faces, I don't believe those other priorities are going to get much enthusiasm here.

(not to mention a wild Amelia Tyler dropping by to voice our grand villain!).

She's a fine actress and all, but jeez, is she going to be in everything now?

 

[notpl]

I don't really see the point of a Solasta 2. Its only advantage was being first to the table for 5e ruleset implementation, except it didn't actually get the real d&d 5e license, and a user-created campaign scene sadly never materialized. Who on earth cares about playing another campaign/storyline written by these people? I don't even mean that as an insult, really, it's just a plain fact that they have no particular talent for it.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.solasta-game.com/news/183-dev-update-02-how-was-solasta-ii-created

Nice screenshot showcasing that some verticality for the area design is there.

Screenshot

Dev Update #02 - How was Solasta II created?​

Heya there folks,

It’s getting a little cold, isn’t it? Hope you’re wearing warm clothes, or you’ll soon be rolling constitution saving throws to avoid all sorts of nasty conditions. It’s also time to start to follow the Solasta tradition again… and feature fluffy friends in the intro!

Life harsh and cold, cat bed soft and fluffy

Before we start, don't forget to wishlist Solasta II on Steam - it helps us a ton!

It was summer 2021...

Solasta: Crown of the Magister just launched in 1.0 on Steam with the free Sorcerer update in tow shortly after as promised during our Kickstarter. At that time, we were hard at work implementing the Barbarian and Druid classes for the Primal Calling DLC, meanwhile our level designers were already populating the dense jungles of Lost Valley. By the way, let me tell you that Druids were a real pain in the butt to implement with their Wild Shape. QA was finding new ways to break the game every day.

While the team was busy preparing the upcoming content, our leads were already starting to look ahead - what were we going to do next? Some of you may think that it was obviously going to be Solasta II, but did you know that we had several other ideas before that?

We thought about trying out a shorter, much more narrative Solasta spin-off with a set team of heroes shortly after the Cataclysm. We explored the idea of a sci-fi roguelite tactical RPG inside an ever-shifting derelict spaceship. Such ideas were shared with the rest of the team for discussion, debate, disagreements. At its core, one burning question - do we believe in the project?

---

It has to be Solasta II

Working on DLCs to complete our vision of Solasta - such as aiming to release all twelve classes, developing an online co-op mode and giving the community a more complete Dungeon Maker tool - gave us time to decide on our next endeavor. And that time pretty much sealed the deal when we saw Solasta’s popularity get a massive boost with both the Lost Valley free online co-op update and its release on XBOX Series, on top of its longevity thanks to ever more quality custom campaigns created by talent and passionate community members.

We had managed to release a successful game and gather a great community, and the more we thought about it the more we agreed that we wanted to grow upon the sturdy foundation of Solasta: Crown of the Magister. Through surveys and open communication with our players, we knew that switching to a new setting or a different genre would likely make it difficult to keep everyone happy.

Furthermore… We still wanted to do better with Solasta. While we are definitely proud of what we accomplished, the craftsmen we are kept on looking back thinking “couldn’t have we done this or that better”? And honestly? We can, and we will.

---

Enters Project Brimstone

At that time a lot of people in the industry were thinking about branching out from Unity, and so were we. Our engineers started making experiments on Unreal Engine 5, and soon we had a solid base. It was time to start anew, to build a better structure from the start - one that would solve many of the issues we had in our first game (that was built on layers upon layers of prototypes). We knew it was going to be painful, so we named the project Brimstone - a synonym for Sulfur… Soufre, in French. A word that’s very close to Souffrir, which means to suffer. So yea some people like to name their secret project after mythological figures, we named ours after a dad joke.

Players didn’t like the character faces? Let’s work on that. The animations were stiff? Let’s try to do something there. Gamepad control didn’t feel good? Yea, we’re on it too. We were going down our long list of grievances checking off what we could and couldn’t change - because although the team had grown in the last few years, we were still no more than thirty five people. And… we like it that way. It keeps internal communication fluid and everyone feels informed and involved in the project. We just need to choose our battles!

---

Give me a slice of that cake

Just like on Solasta: Crown of the… You know what, let’s call it Solasta I from now on. Just like on Solasta I, our first objective was to get a working prototype ready, using temporary assets that we lifted from our previous game, bits and pieces to make some features work… We soon had something that looked quite good for internal use!

Then came the vertical slice. For those who don’t know what that is, let’s oversimplify things a little for a moment and think of making a game as baking a layered cake. Normally, you’d prepare each layer separately and assemble everything at the end - but what if someone wanted to try it before it’s complete? If they only try the 1st layer, can they really imagine how the entire cake would taste?

That’s why we want to create a vertical slice of that cake. A much smaller piece requiring less ingredients - and in the case of a game, less time - to give people a taste of what the complete cake would be like. It also helps us find out if we have the ingredients in the right proportions. If the vertical slice tastes good, we can feel pretty confident about that cake! If it doesn’t, well it’s easier to rework it now than once we start baking the complete cake.

---

Time for the grand reveal

Combat, exploration, dialogs, quests, inventory, items, loot… Now that our vertical slice was starting to look good and we were feeling confident about it, it was time to prepare the reveal. Because yes, creating that slice isn’t all we were up to - at the same time, we were writing the story and building the world on paper, which in turn became a trailer thanks to the work of our talented partners UNIT Image, Fire Without Smoke and Maxime Herve (not to mention a wild Amelia Tyler dropping by to voice our grand villain!).

It was time. Time to show the world a glimpse of what we’ve been up to!



And now that you’re here, are you up to stay with us some more to see where we’re heading next?

Article by Tactical Myzzrym

 

[mediocrepoet]

I don't really see the point of a Solasta 2. Its only advantage was being first to the table for 5e ruleset implementation, except it didn't actually get the real d&d 5e license, and a user-created campaign scene sadly materialized. Who on earth cares about playing another campaign/storyline written by these people? I don't even mean that as an insult, really, it's just a plain fact that they have no particular talent for it.

They're about the only game that more or less nailed an actual tabletop feel and that's worth something in itself. If you play it like tabletop (ironman, all AI tweaks on), it plays fairly well and can and will kill your characters.

 

[Jinn]

I had a good time with Solasta. It was a fairly lackluster campaign in terms of setting, story, and player freedom. But as a tactical RPG with a little bit of exploration, it did its job pretty well. Throw in some unique mechanics for the genre and emphasis on terrain traversal and verticality, and you end up with a pretty solid first outing for a studio. The potential is there. They do just need to be open to the very reasonable criticism they've received here and elsewhere.

But beyond that, as a platform for excellent user made modules like Artyoan's, it's more than worth the money I paid. Really hope they keep the campaign editor as a priority.

 

[Artyoan]

I had a good time with Solasta. It was a fairly lackluster campaign in terms of setting, story, and player freedom. But as a tactical RPG with a little bit of exploration, it did its job pretty well. Throw in some unique mechanics for the genre and emphasis on terrain traversal and verticality, and you end up with a pretty solid first outing for a studio. The potential is there. They do just need to be open to the very reasonable criticism they've received here and elsewhere.

But beyond that, as a platform for excellent user made modules like Artyoan's, it's more than worth the money I paid. Really hope they keep the campaign editor as a priority.

I finished Crown of the Magister and then Lost Valley after my initial purchase. Thought it was a solid combat system but the rest was rough, even said so in my steam review. An 8/10 for me and enjoyable enough. That was about 70 hours worth of value.

Once I looked into the dungeon maker I decided to make and publish something. According to steam I'm now at 2597 hours played. For a game that I've spent maybe $50 or so on. So the difference between 70 hours and 2597 hours of value came from one feature. I can't determine TA's path but I'm going to lobby for that feature to make a return.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

SKALD: Against the Black Priory is a much more indie game than Solasta, literally made by one guy.

Its "annoying immune enemies" area was the Tower of Ash, where enemies weren't actually fully immune to anything but were strongly resistant to most damage types.

It was really annoying to people, made combat a slog. If you're a studio that has mouths to feed, do you really want to deal with that shit? Is it really worth it?

High resistance to every damage type is equivalent to bloated hit points, which is, unfortunately, an all-too-frequent problem in the RPG genre.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

High resistance to every damage type is equivalent to bloated hit points

Nix it's more multiplicative than additive

 

[Nortar]

Resists or any other challenge won't be a game stoppnig problem if there is more than one solution.

Have some oils or poisons for melee weapons to overcome resistances or play onto weaknesses.
Create enough enviromental hazards, to let fighters push damage immune enemies into bottoless pits or let rogues drop candelabras onto them.
Make narrow or covered areas to lure flying monsters inside in case there happen to be no ranged attackers in player party.

If you design your encounters so any group composition can beat them in the same manner by brute forcing through enemies' HP it's the reason why combat becomes samey and boring.

 

[lukaszek]

resists are not really an issue, encounter design is. What if player wants to play a party with 4 slow warriors? You can't shape battlefields into obstacle curse and place few archers/mages out of reach. Some issues will be solved by walking on walls/flying but... do we allow players to be that smart?

You need to draw the line somewhere and where it is now - it doesnt allow for fun combat. Mechanics of solasta are fun, but encounters are not. They are fun until you clear vampire castle.

For reference I was playing no magic parties but I did make sure that I have mobility options and can go ranged as needed. I felt quite cheated when it stopped being useful later on. I specced hard into shoving enemies off the walls/into pits but there were close to none as story progressed

 

[Grunker]

I don't really see the point of a Solasta 2. Its only advantage was being first to the table for 5e ruleset implementation, except it didn't actually get the real d&d 5e license, and a user-created campaign scene sadly materialized. Who on earth cares about playing another campaign/storyline written by these people? I don't even mean that as an insult, really, it's just a plain fact that they have no particular talent for it.

They're about the only game that more or less nailed an actual tabletop feel and that's worth something in itself.

Man, you guys play some shitty tabletop games

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I don't really see the point of a Solasta 2. Its only advantage was being first to the table for 5e ruleset implementation, except it didn't actually get the real d&d 5e license, and a user-created campaign scene sadly materialized. Who on earth cares about playing another campaign/storyline written by these people? I don't even mean that as an insult, really, it's just a plain fact that they have no particular talent for it.

They're about the only game that more or less nailed an actual tabletop feel and that's worth something in itself.

Man, you guys play some shitty tabletop games

Nah, just lousy dms.
My game masters were good though.

 

[scytheavatar]

resists are not really an issue, encounter design is. What if player wants to play a party with 4 slow warriors? You can't shape battlefields into obstacle curse and place few archers/mages out of reach. Some issues will be solved by walking on walls/flying but... do we allow players to be that smart?

You need to draw the line somewhere and where it is now - it doesnt allow for fun combat. Mechanics of solasta are fun, but encounters are not. They are fun until you clear vampire castle.

For reference I was playing no magic parties but I did make sure that I have mobility options and can go ranged as needed. I felt quite cheated when it stopped being useful later on. I specced hard into shoving enemies off the walls/into pits but there were close to none as story progressed

It is good design to punish players for specing into one dimensional parties. Always. Cause otherwise players have no reason to build balanced parties and change up their tactics.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I don't really see the point of a Solasta 2. Its only advantage was being first to the table for 5e ruleset implementation, except it didn't actually get the real d&d 5e license, and a user-created campaign scene sadly materialized. Who on earth cares about playing another campaign/storyline written by these people? I don't even mean that as an insult, really, it's just a plain fact that they have no particular talent for it.

They're about the only game that more or less nailed an actual tabletop feel and that's worth something in itself.

Man, you guys play some shitty tabletop games

I'm talking about the system implementation and framing, chargen and the like. You'd probably have understood that if you weren't grunking so hard.

The system implementation is the only thing that makes any of the content implementation, whether official or by modders, possible in the first place.

Other than that, in terms of content ideas, the introduction to the group in CotM where they're shooting the shit over a pint and talking about what happened as they got there which was also the tutorial was a good idea and a tabletop classic.

Just strikes me that people are edge posting so hard that they're ignoring why anyone cares at all: there were some really good ideas and features in Solasta in the first place.

 

[Nikanuur]

Nice screenshot showcasing...

I must say that whatever the game turns out to be, this graphical style is right up my alley.
The gritty-grainy look paired with just the right touch of mist and shadows. Enticing sense of exploration, indeed.
I also like how the portraits blend into the overall style instead of standing out too much. Something of a lesson well learned, I would say
Well done, Tactical Adventures. And thank you for bringing the news, Infinitron.

 

[Nikanuur]

...Just strikes me that people are edge posting so hard that they're ignoring why anyone cares at all: there were some really good ideas and features in Solasta in the first place....

So this is the proper term, good to know.
Anyway, yeah, I might not particularly enjoy a simple 'go there, kill everything, and report back' kind of RPG compared to something like Fallout 2 or Fallout: New Vegas (and its conversions). However, I appreciated Solasta's developers for sticking within their limits and delivering exactly that. It shows character. And now, with their new, more ambitious game, they're essentially standing on their own shoulders. That calls for more respect.

 

[duskvile]

The graphic quality and art design is so much improved, one could even swap Solasta 2 for a brand new IP.

 

[Harthwain]

resists are not really an issue, encounter design is. What if player wants to play a party with 4 slow warriors? You can't shape battlefields into obstacle curse and place few archers/mages out of reach.

I guess you can always do some barrel-o-mancy if that's the case....

 

[Pink Eye]

Now, in terms of difficulty this is more of a challenge to assess. You have to remember that due to the fact that we allow ANY party-composition, and that so far in Solasta we did not have respec'ing (because it made no sense in the story - but who knows maybe we'll add that to Solasta II), we could not make fights super optimized to avoid having players getting soft-locked.

Builds should have shortcomings. Parities should have weaknesses. This kind of friction in game design is what adds nuance to a system. It's what adds substance. It's what makes games replayable. It's how you get interesting compelling RPGs that aren't bland or popamole crap. Friction in game design, is how you craft meaningful experiences on a level that no other game can produce; for example Age of Decadence, Dungeon Rats, Colony Ship, Knights of the Chalice - these types of games are unique precisely because of their design which provides a refreshing experience.

Additionally, this is how you design memorable encounters that stick with the player long after completion - for instance, everyone remembers Durlag's Tower in Baldur's Gate because of how challenging the encounters were, there was also the mage encounters in Baldur's Gate 2 that required specific set ups to beat; this kind of stuff is what sticks with people.

Another thing is that friction forces the player to interact with the game on a deep level in order to solve an encounter in a interesting way.

It's all about nuance and complexity.

Imagine giving a boss complete immunity to slashing / bludgeoning / piercing damage to encourage players to use magic, only to have it face a party composed of a Ranger, Fighter, Rogue and Monk.

Which sounds very interesting to me; because now you have a party that needs to approach the encounter in a different way. In Chalice 2 you can use grapple with a monk to shut down an annoying spell caster. You can also use combat maneuvers in Chalice 2 to push enemies into the terrain so they die - that's an example of friction adding to a game.

Besides; what's wrong with restarting. It's great when a game is hard and forces me to go back to the drawing board and seriously think about my party composition. It's great when the game pushes back as it forces me to use *all* the mechanics to win. The essence of this is what makes me love games like AoD, DR, and Chalice - deep, compelling, RPGs with rulsets that have depth, nuance, and complexity.

 

[Reinhardt]

Imagine giving a boss complete immunity to slashing / bludgeoning / piercing damage to encourage players to use magic

gayest thing i've read today