I think both games could learn from some mechanics from each other, but I do not think you could compare both. Not only because of the budget but because they have a fundamentally different game conception:
BG3 has a lot of exploration but it´s a story-driven game. Solasta is more of a 5e dungeon crawler where you create your entire party yourself.
To make a comparison, one is Baldur´s gate, the other is Icewind Dale. You can pick things from each other about UI, combat, etc, but they require a different approach to everything else.
If the existence of this game is news from any RPG fan, I encourage you to check it. It´s a entertaining indie game (with the usual flaws of an indie game made by 17 people) and you can feel the devs of tactical adventures really care about the game.
I don't think it's fair to compare Solasta to Icewind Dale actually. It's closer to BG2 in terms of party banter and discussion.
In fact, having played more Solasta, im continually impressed with the approach to party dialogue. Whilst the actual voice acting isn't as good as BG3, the backgrounds for each character and the personality traits chosen result in unique options and dialogue for each character... which is frankly better than BG3 manages - remembering that BG3 doesn't have any true NPCs, it has a bunch of player options that double up as non-editable PCs with set (always the same) stories. The inter-party dialogue as your progress with Solasta definitely makes me feel far more like I'm playing a tabletop game with actual people than BG3 has managed to do.
BG3 has better player to NPC dialogue. But Solasta does a much better job of inter-party. It's a majority dungeon crawler (which BG1 was as well tbh) with a relatively linear story path though.
Never even heard of Solasta till now, just like i'm sure their are other games from small developers I don't even know about. I also think majority of people have never heard of the developer or this game Solasta. Yet of course like any game it will have followers and people who play it.
To be fair, it was a game that got kickstartered (much like the original sin games), but has an even smaller team (just 17 people), as far as "the majority of people never heard of Solasta" I doubt that's true even now, chances are that a good proportion of people interested in D&D based RPGs were aware of Solasta, not all clearly, but probably a good proportion, and if they weren't there's a good chance they will be quickly as many people are going to compare the two D&D5e Early access games that came out and will probably release at similar times. Also seems like both studios are aware and promoting eachother a bit too based on twitter and forums.
Interesting so are the extra two here followers?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeG11CsZuNwGranted I just clicked around and didn't watch begging to end. Around 16:00 you see 6 slots for party but only 4 portraits . . .
You make 4 PCs, pretty standard D&D 5e character creation with the addition of you getting casual, formal or slang speech style based on backgrounds (actually changes dialogues) and personality traits based on alignment and background, so each of the 4 PCs has more "built in" personality than many games, that said, you lose the ability to choose multiple dialogue options for a single character in favour of each character potentially being able to approach the same situation in multiple ways based on personality and skills.
When you get 2 NPC companions, you control them, but dont level them up etc, their two portraits show as mini ones below the main 4.
Not actually, they are more like two kinds of apple.
There is nothing subjective about about better combat being a good thing. Solasta adresses most of the negative feedback about BG3's combat.
I agree with this sentiment, you can definitely compare them, they're both ultimately games trying to do the same thing (create a CRPG based on D&D 5e ruleset with a party of 4 characters). The actual story may be different but they're so close in terms of what they are they can absolutely be compared,
