My Pathfinder: Kingmaker tale began back in 2021. Some years removed, and about 35 hours of restarts and false progress, I finally managed to settle on a character with which to finish the game. Was it worth the wait? That remains to be uncovered. There are some widely accepted myths that have to be dispelled, though. Might even need Greater Dispel.

While you can spend a good while reading through all the dialog hyperlinks, great feature existing in modern CRPGs, the opening to Kingmaker lays out matters in rather straightforward fashion. Hopeful adventurers have answered the call of the kingdom of Brevoy and are now being officiated by Jamandi Aldori, a noblewoman setting them on their course of action – tame the territory of the Stolen Lands, claim it as your own and you’ll be named baron. After fending off the attack on the mansion where you’re housed, already exposing this won’t be so simple given the number of conflicting interests and region itself being a powder keg just waiting to explode, you gather your party and venture forth to the nearest place of civilization in the region where adventure and more awaits.

Keeping in mind this is a 100+ hours affair and above is merely the prologue I haven’t told you much at all. Game is an adaptation of a six-part Adventure Path series of books released for Pathfinder proper. How does it translate to game form? Well, while there is an overarching plot thread you’re looking at a sequence of individual stories that tend to hit differently. Early on you’re dealing with strange Trolls who can resist fire, but things eventually escalate as your barony grows in power to catch the eye of neighboring Pitax where you’ll have to deal with dangers of civilization instead. What I’m trying to say is individual chapters are not exactly even and transitions were abrupt for my taste..

This is a CRPG which guarantees heavy emphasis on written text. Even more so given the scope/scale of Kingmaker on top of the kingdom management aspect. I’ll get into it, I promise. There’s definitely bloat here that could’ve been excised. Level of writing quality mirrors the unevenness of individual chapters. I’d overall put it into “decent” category as it tries to do too much tonally. There are rare standout moments, like when a particular slimy diplomat gives you honest advice in his own roundabout way, but when drama mattered I was rarely moved. Planescape: Torment this is not, but is that a prerequisite for a game to be enjoyable?

Lastly there’s one topic to deal with in the narrative department - characters. You’re working with an entire kingdom and cast of characters keeps growing. How are the companions, though? I’d say a balanced mix of special snowflakes and down-to-earth regulars. From your stalwart Valerie, a middling fighter because of her build, to a Goblin murder ball that is Nok-Nok they come in all varieties. Personally, I ended up caring more for combat and Kingdom roles they can fill over their largely archetypal personalities. Needless to say there are personal quests to tackle with actual consequences to be had. Let’s just say Pathfinder: Kingmaker has one of the longest end slideshows as it goes into how all companions fared after the finale. My favorites? Easily Ekundayo, Non-Nok and Jubilost with their brands of murder and mayhem.

There are two pillars in Kingmaker and while they’re not exactly equal latter can still end your game if you’re not careful. I am talking about your customary isometric adventuring, but also the Kingdom mode. Maligned by many and for the most part beloved by me after getting into the groove of things.

For you see, there are in-game TIME LIMITS on chapters that affect both modes of play. This is where I have to ask you all to put down pitchforks and torches so I can cast that Greater Dispel. One of the great misconceptions Kingmaker suffers from is people assuming this time limit has major detrimental effect on the experience. Seeing as I’m fresh from finishing the game it’s a non-issue provided you go about it reasonably. This means learn your ruleset and like with every RNG system you rig the odds in your favor. Since so much can be mitigated with good dice rolls you quickly learn direct healing takes a backseat to buffing your party instead. Or you don’t, and opt to camp after every encounter wasting a full rest. In reality it’s the overland travel that will consume most of your time. Invest in arcane so you can put down those teleportation circles in your towns and eat food that increases your movement speed. Even with all that in mind I can assure you you’ll end up with days to spare doing nothing in both adventure and Kingdom mode. With that tangent done, time to move on...

To the bread and butter of the adventure mode segment. Owlcat did do us a solid by patching in a turn-based mode as alternative to real-time with pause the game launched with. I prefer turn-based and only occasionally switched to deal with trash encounters. If you’ve played other CRPGs you’ll recognize the offering at hand - six-man party, fully craftable protagonist and bonus option of hiring just as customizable mercenaries in case you don’t like any of the companions. One of the biggest draw of the game is the munchkin aspect. Ever wanted to create that perfect character that dips levels into half dozen classes for the bonuses? Well, now you can. Or don’t. I’ve played on Normal difficulty, which is admittedly still a bit gimped, and single class playthrough with stock companions worked just fine. There were annoyances in the last two chapters as I didn’t like certain Fey enemies game throws at you, but no bosses or earlier encounters posed any danger for my smug Sylvan Sorcerer and his cohorts. You get the full stretch of experience from level 1 to 20 so keep that in mind with the armory of equipment you’ll acquire along the way.

There are issues here and I can’t attribute them all to Unity Engine. Some like frequent loading screens becoming longer I absolutely can, as well as camera spazzing out, but what actually got on my nerves was turn-based combat locking up necessitating a switch to RTwP so it can reset. This seemed to occur more as number of combatants grew. There are also “problems” that stem from Owlcat’s design decisions. They like to pepper regions with locations that are way about your expected CR (challenge rating) turning them into traps unless you paid attention to locale descriptions or environmental clues. Sometimes they just get you.

I’ve delayed talking about the Kingdom management for too long already so let’s get to it. Needless to say you succeed and claim Stolen Lands which in turn makes you a baron. Well, you gain access to another mode usable from your throne room and to limited degree on the overland map. First, you get to assign advisors and these can be your companions or other key characters you recruit along the way. They handle problems, opportunities, research, advancements, etc. in their own flavor. Each of these takes fixed amount of time to resolve, once again feeding into the timed aspect, and BP (build points) to get started. You acquire those on weekly basis based on myriad of actors such as your advisor’s proficiency level, kingdom’s stats centered around economy primarily, and also buildings you’ve build in towns. Yes, plural. You start with your capital, but will with time acquire other regions in Stolen Lands which bring their own events, place to build new settlements and benefits of adventuring on “home turf”.

Kingdom mode is the actual big picture where not only events from adventuring bear fruit, but also where major decisions are made that will impact your game dozens of hours later. Your main character’s alignment is key aspect in how your kingdom shapes based on choices. I could not shake the feeling a Lawful Charismatic is the way to go if you wanted optimal outcomes, though. I haven’t tried it myself, as any possibility of replaying a game this massive is far in the future, but Chaotic kingdom with a trickster ruler would be amusing. Some of the decisions you can make are, well, companion leaving your party worthy. At the end of the day I really ended up liking the Kingdom mode. There is that initial helplessness while you’re struggling to piece it together, but sometime during chapter 2 it clicked for me. Do NOT ignore crisis or they’ll fester and be the cause of constant penalties to Kingdom’s stats. This is the sort of game where you want to tackle the main story first and then do everything else in the leftover time.

Now is where I’d say more about combat if it wasn’t an adaptation of the ruleset. Provided you’re a complete newcomer with no D&D or Pathfinder experience you’re in for a learning cliff. Thankfully, Kingmaker has a vast encyclopedia and glossary for you to reference, not to mention those aforementioned hyperlinks are used for not only lore dumps but also to break down formulas. You can see plainly what goes into your attack vs enemy’s defense, and change something to alter it. Buffs. Answer is almost always more buffs. Even this is not such a consternation on normal difficulty, though. Haste, Prayer, Blessing, and True Sights should be your general go-to spells.

On the production side this is fairly impressive given the fact game was at least partially Kickstarted. Yes, you’ll notice certain small areas get re-used, but this is also a game that has a time system, weather and seasons included. Definitely punching above the belt considering chapters take you to various locales. I wish the soundtrack had more standout tracks, though. Main theme and final boss showdown track embody that bombastic CRPG glory perfectly. I’ve also I played all three major DLC and reviewed them HERE, HERE, and HERE so as not to clog up this already overly long reviews. Give ‘em a read.

Final Thoughts and Rating?

Pathfinder: Kingmaker is a CRPG of truly enormous scale, one where your hopeful adventurer ends up claiming the Stolen Lands and becoming a baron in their own right. What follows is turn-based/real-time with pause affair as your barony ends up dealing with various crisis. At times buckling under the weight of Unity Engine and Owlcat’s own design choices, there is nothing alike from other developers. Kingdom mode is divisive, as is the largely misunderstood timed nature of the game, but both can be tamed leaving only the layered complexities of the Pathfinder ruleset to contend with. New players should arm themselves with willingness to learn and for the veterans there has never been a greater opportunity to build that character you wanted. Kingmaker has its audience, are you among them?