Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous Review

Three years after Pathfinder: Kingmaker hit the scene, Owlcat Games has released Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. Is this module worth checking out, or should you wait for Baldur’s Gate 3 to release from Early Access?

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous Review

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is a CRPG that follows the Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous tabletop module, where you rise from a nobody to the commander of the crusade. It is up to you to push back the demons, or to rule them – your choice.

The game starts with an exhaustive character creator with over 50 classes and subclasses to make your character with. Anyone used to Dungeons & Dragons or Pathfinder won’t have much trouble here, but new players might find it overwhelming. If you are struggling, pick a fighter with a big weapon and just go from there. After your character is created, you wake up in Kenabres, the heart of the crusade. The city has a festival to boost morale, and you are healed up and allowed to take part. However, after a couple of events a massive demon appears, and everything goes downhill from there.

The city is sieged from all angles, and the defenders have to fight back. You quickly gather some allies and work your way through the tunnels back to the city. In these ancient tunnels, you find a secret power: a blinding light that represents Heaven. You can convert the power itself into demon energy, heavenly light, lich power, dragon energy, and other options later. For now though, the power proves that you can lead the defenders to take back the city. After taking back the city, you are put in charge of the crusade and have to manage your army and party to defend the realm from demons.

The combat itself can be done in turn-based or real-time. On normal difficulty, the real-time is fine for most fights, minus bosses and larger demons. Turn-based puts you in control of everything, but it also makes each battle about ten times longer. In a game like this, you always have something going on during a fight. Tanks have to be upfront and protecting the backline. Your spell casters need to be casting the right spells and not hitting allies. Finally, your healer needs to get the heal off before your tank dies. It all comes together to keep you busy in almost all the important fights. Interestingly enough, the pathfinding in a game called Pathfinder isn’t that great, so manual control is needed for movement.

After you clear out Kenabres, you are put on a world map with an army to control. The combat for the army is super simple: You are placed on a grid with the enemy, and you attack each other. Everyone gets their turn, and then the next guy goes. Your job is to pick the right commanders to lead these armies. Do you want the general who buffs troops, the trap setter, or the guy that lets you bring an extra unit? Since each army can only hold three soldier types at first, the choice is essential. On top of battling, you handle recruitment as well. The roster improves as you progress, but at first, it is mostly fodder. Eventually, you get some real firepower, but that takes a while. If you lose your armies and then your city, it is game over.

While military choices are important, story choices are just as important. Let’s take for example the option of bringing the queen with me on the crusades. I was told I was in charge and that my decisions would be final. I elected to try to use some demon bug juice to attack the enemy demons in a city I was retaking. It was an evil choice, and it would have killed some of my men, but the losses would have been small compared to rushing the city. Ole queeny there decided suddenly that I am not in charge and I can’t do that. I chose to bring her with me about six hours before this, which locked me out of a mythic path. Be warned: choices in this game have consequences.

The new addition to this game is the Mythic Path choice. With that power you got earlier in the game, you will eventually have to choose what type of god-like power you get. As you just read, some of these are missable, and you might not even know they exist. I think I had six options, with about three still locked when I got to choose the first time. You aren’t locked into one for the whole game, but eventually, you need to make a choice. Trying out the other Mythic Paths and Classes will be one of the major factors driving a replay.

One of the game’s weakest parts, in my opinion, come with your allies. Their stories, voice lines, and skills are fine. My problem was the classes they brought to the table. You can respec everyone, but I just ended up creating mercenaries for the classes I wanted. The problem with this is you don’t get as much chatter at camps or interactions between characters in conversations. Admittedly this is my fault; I knew what classes I wanted, or rather which ones I wanted to try. To be fair, the game gives you a tank, healer, DPS, and mages; just not the ones I wanted.

There are some technical issues in the game, though. I had some frame drops and a couple of crashes. Thankfully it autosaves pretty often, so I never lost a ton of progress. Some of the text is still missing or says -null- or whatever. Sometimes effects stay on for too long, so you might get the sound of exploding fireballs for a long time. These are all things that can be fixed, but just be ready for them.

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is a prime example of developers learning from the first game to improve upon the second. While there are still technical issues, it is a great game for Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder fans alike.

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