Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback BG3 vs Solasta

Not to mention that we'll mainly (or even only) get the subclasses from the PHB, which drastically limits the subclass choices that are available. Some of them also would make little sense in EA, since we're limited to level 4. Take the third subclass for Fighter, for example... the only feature he'd get at this point is increased critical range (19-20). Hardly something that requires testing in EA. Sure, they could add the missing caster subclasses (which admittedly would make sense), but aside from them most classes have just 2-3 subclasses in the PHB.

Did we really need to necro this thread? But on the other hand...


Holy crap, you made me realize the real reason I keep dropping new playthroughs of the EA quickly. It wasn't the combat itself failing to hold my attention, it was a lot of minor annoyances building up to that feeling. Wrestling with the chain system, all the freaking pointless containers, literally every NPC getting a cinematic when you talk to them for whatever reason, having to hit the jump button literally every single time we want to cross a gap or a cliff that's otherwise too high, and so on.

I mention the latter because I don't see why the game doesn't let us automatically jump gaps and ledges outside of combat if we can safely do so without risking damage. The other party members following us already do that to begin with.

Larian thinks they're actually making an interactive group superhero movie. When you realise this everything else makes sense.

Except all the barrels and boxes...

Not to say that it isn't a good interactive superhero movie, I expect it'll be the best going around.

I still have party members making jumps that hurt them when landing. Maybe it’s a bug on my end, but I could see the autojump leading to the whole party jumping off a cliff because of a misclick.

+1

Combat is one thing, there are many others.
For example items juggling because of the trading system gets annoying fast.

BG3 has a bigger budget, better graphics, better story and so on.

But regarding game mechanics (especially using the DnD rules in combat) and user interface Solasta is miles ahead.

I´d rather have several pop ups for reactions than not having full control over what my chars are doing.
And the ready action is often good when you cannot reach the enemy on your turn.

Eh, somewhat true, somewhat debatable. Not even a comparison that makes that much sense to begin with, if not when limited to specific segments of both games.

On one hand there's no doubt that BG3 will be a far bigger, visually more impressive, narratively more engaging and technically more ambitious game. How could it be otherwise? You could fund the entire Solasta sequel with the budget Larian spent on the BG3 cinematic trailer in 2019.

That said, it doesn't make any less impressive that Solasta managed to do few things so remarkably better in some specific area, especially given their massive gap in production value.
Solasta has a very solid reaction system, a very faithful implementation of the rules (that doesn't forget to be entertaining in the process, quite the opposite), a competent rest and attunement system, an UI that doesn't induce cancer in small animals, etc.


I know that it may seem I'm specifically trying to give you a hard time, but once again... By your own admission you never played a single minute of Solasta ("and you never will" if I remember your words correctly) so I'm genuinely not sure of why you insist on expressing opinions about it.

Because sure, anyone has right to hold into an opinion, but the uninformed ones are still not worth a damn.

Because they are Larian's earning they keep. 😤

So I played (and completed in ~3 days) Solasta. And well it turns out it simply is a better game than BG3 (I can add "is now" but I feel like it's copium at this point) which really surprised my. I simply enjoyed playing it (not fighting it). Too bad it has some cheaper verison of the license or something and the setting itself is new to me (I'd prefer Forgotten Realms). And it clearly has a very good construction set, it can be expected to have many more campaigns in the future.
Now imagine Solasta with Larian's budget and full license. Oh well.

Well, I am just about to agree with you 100% there. All of the examples you gave are basically things that would GREATLY enhance BG3 and essentially thrust it into eternity as best RPG ever essentially... well... at least potentially. They could certainly learn a lot from Solasta.

Thankfully I did not play Solasta in EA.

I had fun from the start, but the Boss fight with Aksha was the point I was hooked into the story.

That was an epic D&D Boss fight! The combat stays challenging with even better Boss fights, and its true to 5e.


I also found the "companions" refreshing...far better manners...no shouting...no yelling (that I can recall)....very medieval overall.


BG3 has come along way. It is definitely improved greatly from some small adjustments. I am looking forward to full release.

Solasta is a theme Park ride, and BG3 is open world. BG3 has cinematics and is overall more with the times and offers the frills that go along with big budget.


I would recommend both games, and I am sure Solasta has effected BG3's development, which says a lot.

I found Solasta repetitive, and the narrative is sometimes hilariously bad, but mostly just bad.

The mechanics of combat are functional, and as a dungeon crawler is decent to a point. It quickly becomes repetitive though, and a lot of the other systems - travel, etc - are not good.

Outside of some of the combat interpretations and implementation Solasta (reactions, etc) has I don't think there's anything in it that BG3 should look at.

Noted that I've not played Solasta in over a year. And have no desire to go down their DLC path to play it again.

Your points are understandable.

Other things that BG3 could copy:

Flying beasts .... they nailed it!

Walking on walls and ceilings....Larian could one up that one. If only we could look up to something creepy staring down at us from the ceiling...maybe they are there now :O.

Bosses with epic actions ... nailed it! That would include Dragons and Spectators...as they wind up for their nasty attacks.

A module maker...Sell it as an extra.

+ 1000

Flying alone is much better then jump.
And Astarion could prove he´s a vampire by running up walls.

Never played solesta because it looks like a festering pile of trash. Graphics are important for the younger audiences such as myself who can no longer tolerate Vega64 graphics. I can tell you with 500% confidence I never would have bought BG3 if not the graphics.

Having good play is good and all. But 95% of players won’t see more then 50% of the game. D&D gameplay can be good even great but if it’s only good at the end- NO ONE WILL PLAY IT. BG3 is consistently good, it may be worse then solesta but being overall more approachable and easier on the eyes is more important for a successful game.

I know I am not the only one. Regardless of how much Larian may claim they do it out of love, they are trying to make MONEY. Hence their approach is better, and hence BG3 is a better game.

Yeah, thank you for your opinion on the topic then.
Good bye.

Vega64 was the pinnacle of gaming you philistine

Ah, yes, the graphics over gameplay argument. I wondered how long it would take before your kind showed up.

But then again, I guess this also explains a lot of the ire I've observed from the general cRPG fanbase towards Larian fans in general, because of bad takes like this. It almost makes me ashamed to admit that I actually got into cRPGs through DOS2, only to realize over the years just how badly imbalanced the latter half of that game was.

That's not even a real argument, incidentally.
Surely not a relevant one, in any case.

Yeah, sure, BG3 looks incomparably better. So what?
It's not like anyone was arguing in favor of BG3 borrowing Solasta's graphics as reference, so not sure what would even be the point of arguing its superiority in that area.