The voice acting in Solasa: Crown of the Magister wasn’t its strong point. That was the tactical battles making use of 3D space and terrain, as well as the fidelity to D&D’s rules and vibe. The acting, well, the acting could charitably have been called enthusiastic.

As developer Tactical Adventures revealed at The Game Awards, by contrast Solasta 2 will have a cast stacked with talent. We’d already heard Amelia Tyler (the narrator of Baldur’s Gate 3, Hecate in Hades 2) as the villainous Shadwyn, but another BG3 alumnus, Devora Wilde (Lae’zel in Baldur’s Gate 3, Tzarina Katarin in Total War: Warhammer 3), will be playing Deorcas Colwall, “A formidable warrior whose grief has driven her to doubt her faith, leading her down a path of darkness.”

Her older brother, Rickard Colwall, will be played by Ben Starr (Clive in Final Fantasy 16, Prometheus in Hades 2, Jimbo in the unsettling Balatro commercial). And Ellen Thomas (Ambessa Medarda in Arcane, Liz Webbe in live-action series Teachers) will be rounding out the cast as a “charismatic and manipulative” elf named Anabasia.

The plot will have the party of characters we get to design leading the Colwall siblings across the mysterious lands of Neokos, having been bound together by a covenant their late mother left incomplete when she died. Sounds enigmatic.

The other big news is that Solasta 2 will be launching into early access on Steam on March 12 next year. I’m excited to try it out, after enjoying the demo available during Steam Next Fest, and learning that it’ll be using D&D’s 2024 rules update.