168.5 hours played
Written 5 days ago
I picked up this game after completing Pathfinder: Kingmaker, that came well recommended by a friend. Not every part of that game was to my liking, but the story was good, and so I decided to give Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous a try, hoping that the more annoying parts of the previous one (i.e. a slew of missions requiring to reach a certain location within set timeframe) were removed. It turned out they were at least toned down, as there are still some time limits, but they are not as common to encounter. Wrath of the Righteous truly struck me as a great game. It has a group of interesting and often funny companions to take into your party and a great story that slowly unfolds throughout the game.
The writing in Wrath of the Righteous is rather good example of how a story for a RPG should be written. The main narrative kept me hooked on from the start and most of the side quests were engaging too. Companions and their storylines range from decent to very good and I do not recall ever finding them boring, even though I did not like every single companion in regards to their personalities. So far I managed to complete the game as Azata-turned-Legend and currently I am in the middle of the Lich playthrough. The first of those two had me laugh out loud with the hilarity of the Azata specific encounters, although it presents the player character being of the more naïve kind. The Lich storyline I find engaging so far, even when playing a character geared more towards being of neutral alignment than an evil one.
In terms of graphics the game is not of the most visually stunning stock, but it looks good enough, considering the fact that the player looks at things from a distance more often than not. Level design in Wrath of the Righteous is quite good most of the time, though there were moments when I was a bit at a loss as to where to go. That occurred throughout different locations in the game, but most noticeably during the act IV. That was mostly due to a rather interesting mechanic used there, that makes the location of certain elements dependant on the camera rotation. It definitely adds to the theme of the place as well as to its uniqueness, but can be quite a nightmare to navigate at times.
The soundtrack in Wrath of the Righteous is quite pleasant to listen to and nicely accentuates different moods in the game.
What I liked about the gameplay is the adjustability it offers to a lot of elements, allowing the player to tailor the experience to their preferences. In terms of combat the ability to switch between turn-based and real-time-with-pause modes makes a lot of difference for me, as I like playing using the former most of the time, but when facing a lot of weak opponents the fight tends change into a tedium. That’s when this option comes really handy, allowing to lower the time spend in such a fight considerably.
Sadly the game is not without its flaws. The difficulty spikes at the beginning of a new act are considerable and playing on anything above Normal requires an incredibly optimized party builds, where switching just one companion for other, just for a duration of a quest, can render some fights almost unwinnable. Aside from that, there’s the fact, that the game is not fully voice-acted. I don’t really see it as a greatest flaw, considering how much full voice-acting would cost for a game this size; but I do find the amount of text to read through at times a bit annoying.
In conclusion, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is a game with an engaging story and nicely written, interesting companions. While the graphics are not the most stunning, it looks good enough. The level design is fairly good, though one can get lost at times. Gameplay is enjoyable and there’s a lot of things that the player could tailor to their preferences. The biggest gripes I have about this game are the difficulty spikes. Another important thing to mention is the lack of full voice-acting. But despite some flaws I would recommend this game to any RPG fan, who craves a good story-based game and does not mind having to do a lot of reading.