Take command of a demon-fighting army
By Gieson Cacho // The Mercury News (TNS)
Platform: Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows
Genre: Role-playing
Developer: Owlcat Games
In Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous — a sequel to Pathfinder: Kingmaker — players create a character that becomes the leader of an army charged with freeing a region that was invaded by a demon army.
For those new to the series, they don’t have to worry about playing the original. Wrath of the Righteous happens in a separate narrative from Kingmaker. They don’t need to know what happened in the first game, but they will have to deal with plenty of races and classes. Kingmaker had about 1,000 spells, feats and abilities available to players. This time around, Owlcat Games is adding at least two new classes in the oracle and witch with more likely on the way.
On top of that, narrative designer Chris Avellone said the team is adding Mythic Paths to the mix. It’s an additional layer of story development. It makes the main character stronger in order to defeat the demon lords, but it also unlocks distinct abilities for them as well as unfurls a story with a different focus. It sounds almost like an additional lens to the overarching plot of freeing a nation from demons.
In the Mythical Paths, players can be on the side of angels and lead celestial forces, or they can be a powerful necromancer called a lich. That role will revolve around fighting and debuffing and have the added bonus of replacing the party with undead creatures. A third path lets players follow the ways of the Aeon, a group of monitors concerned about balance in the world. They can manipulate time and go back in the past in order to fix problems in the present. Lastly, the fourth mythic path is the trickster, which is chance based, and designed to make jokes on powerful beings.
In Wrath of the Righteous, the focus is on building an army. Players have to recruit troops and manage war assets. That’s where the strategy comes in as they put together companies for different missions. Players can use a squad for scouting and attacking weak points. Nonplayable characters help out with different aspects of the conflict, including logistics.
The options available to players were apparent in the demo that showed Wrath of the Righteous chapter 2 — the siege of Drezen. Players must free the city, which will eventually be used as a base of operations, but that is easier said than done. It’s infested with demons that maximize the walled defenses. Players could listen to Nurrah, a shady bard who knows a secret way in. It could minimize the impact on forces. Alternatively, players can identify a new path by creating a diversion so a small party can sneak in or they can use troops for a full-on assault on the walls.
From the looks of it, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is set to be an enormous title. The CRPG launches its Kickstarter campaign today.
