If you’re reading this review now, know that it’s been changed. After my first playthrough, I gave Pathfinder: Kingmaker a negative review due to its insane difficulty spikes in the final hours of the game. With that being said, I really do think that this game has plenty of great things going for it that make it a worthwhile purchase. I’ve tried to be as fair as possible in my criticism.
Pros:
- The first two chapters of the game were really compelling, and sucked me into the game. Fighting the Stag Lord, and the quest that followed were super fun, and I was a big fan of the early game dungeons. It was a fun adventure that I would've been happy to play standalone.
- The companions were well written, and the companion quests were probably one of my favorite parts of the game.
- Basically anything to do with the main story, as far as writing goes.
- The game is Pathfinder, so there are a ton of character options, and building and leveling up my party was my main drive to adventure.
- Since writing this review the developers put out a turn-based mode for the game. That by itself was amazing and something that makes the game a lot more approachable in my opinion, but they way that it’s implemented is even better. Unlike games with optional turn-based modes like Pillars of Eternity 2, turning it on or off is an in-game button, meaning that even in the middle of combat you can switch back and forth to from real-time to turn based. That means that for fights you’re guaranteed to win easily, you can just turn it off, making certain parts of gameplay significantly less tedious.
- The DLC is also pretty good. I found all three of the additions to be enjoyable in their own way, and I really enjoy how they interact with the main story. Plus, I’m a big roguelike fan, and though that mode can be tedious after a while, it really does a great job of showing off the character-building aspect of Pathfinder.
- The scope of this game is massive. For the price you pay, you receive a ton of content. Both of my playthroughs of the game clocked in at around 120 hours. It’s not a short experience by any measure and if you play it through to completion, you’ll get your money’s worth and still have missed some of the game’s content.
Cons:
- This game pulls out ALL, the Pathfinder cheap tricks. Ability damage, permanent status effects, and negative levels. You're basically forced to carry stocks of items to negate these effects, or use all your cleric's slots preparing spells specifically to counteract all that garbage. This problem also manifests itself in another annoying way. If you’re playing blind, you have no clue what spells you’re going to need to prepare to counter certain enemies until after they apply massive debuffs to your party. Often, you either have to reload an earlier save to rest and switch to the proper spells, or simply back out of whatever dungeon you’re in to rest which isn’t always an option considering the time constraints placed on you by the game.
- The difficulty curve is broken. The first two to three chapters of the game are fine, though the fight with the Stag Lord is particularly brutal. The back half of the game is completely unfair, however. The final dungeon, specifically, is a mind-bending mass of brutal enemies that deal massive damage and/or apply permanent debuffs to your party that just drags on and on. The final boss(es) of the game of way over tuned, your martial warriors can barely hit them with a full suite of buffs, and their saving throws are so high your casters spells will just bounce off of them. For the record, I used to run Pathfinder games, so I've got a decent handle on how to properly build characters but even with the might of the internet at my back I still found myself falling behind the curve.
- The game also doesn't explain itself very well. It can be difficult to figure out where a quest is trying to lead you on the world map. In one of the later quests, you’re tasked with locating a hidden tomb. What the game doesn’t tell you is that while your kingdom does most of the heavy lifting, you have to take an adventuring party out to physically locate it because the game never marks it on your map. Outside of that, Pathfinder is a complicated system, and many key features, like how a full-round attack works just isn't explained to the player. It's also really easy to fall into character building pit traps because the game just throws all the options at your face with a few thumbs up and down icons as your only guide. Sure, you can just turn on the auto level-up option, but that kinda defeats the purpose of playing Pathfinder don't you think?

In conclusion, after two playthroughs and over 250 hours of playing this game, would I recommend it? Maybe. The game is a mixed bag, with a strong story and likeable characters offset by crushing difficulty in places. If you don’t like challenging games, I can safely say this one’s not for you. It does have lower difficulty modes, but they very quickly become trivial. If you’ve played Pathfinder (the TTRPG before), or enjoy challenging experiences that require you to bend the game’s mechanics to win then it becomes a much easier sell. I don’t think that after all the time I sank into this game I can call it ‘bad,’ but it’s not the most accessible RPG you can find out there. Maybe it’s just some strange form of Stockholm Syndrome, but overall I found the game to be much more positive of an experience on my second playthrough.