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As a free and major upgrade for Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Edition, the Definitive Edition upgrade is out now and it's a pretty huge update.

"Pathfinder: Kingmaker is the first single-player isometric CRPG set in the world of a top-selling D&D type role-playing game by Paizo. Being a tribute to such classics as Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights. Establish your kingdom to bring peace, hope, and prosperity to the land or take everything for yourself and drive it into darkness."

The biggest additions in the Definitive Edition are the ability to play it in a turn-based mode, which is a thoroughly different experience and you can also now hook up a gamepad. Apart from that, they attempted to address a pretty long list of technical issues both big and small.

It's the Console trailer below but it gives you a reasonably up to date idea of what the game looks like of course.

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Pathfinder: Kingmaker has always been a bit of a mixed bag. It offered a lot of content, fun mechanics that mixes things up compared to other similar RPGs, an interesting story and so on but so many technical issues across all platforms made it a bit of a nuisance. Hopefully now it's a bit smoother for RPG fans. In my own testing of the Linux version, which they've kept up to date, both new major features work quite well. No issues with gamepad input at all, honestly, I might even like this a lot better with a gamepad in hand.

You can buy it from Humble Store, GOG and Steam.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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8 comments

Tchey Aug 19, 2020
Unless i’ve understood it wrong, the turn-based system is made by the same guy behind the mod pre-definitive edition.
He got a job from it.
If it’s right, it’s a nice move from the game’s team.
Julius Aug 19, 2020
At least for me it is a lot more fun in turnbased mode. I tried the game previously, but it just didn't click. Yesterday evening I tried again and it seems much more enjoyable... but maybe that isn't only the turn based mode.
Keyrock Aug 19, 2020
Is it still a horrifically buggy mess with major balancing issues?
Expalphalog Aug 19, 2020
I personally did not encounter a single bug in my 126 hour playthrough. I'm actually surprised to hear that it is considered buggy so I don't know if it's been fixed (I played it for the first time in March of this year) or if I just got lucky. What are the balancing issues? If you mean are some player character builds way more powerful than others, then yes that still exists but it also should exist because that's an artifact of Pathfinder itself and a holdover from classic pen and paper RPGs.
pageround Aug 19, 2020
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Do you think they'll release a definitive / GOTY edition on PC?
I've been waiting to buy, maybe I should just get the 'enhanced' and pick up the DLC separately.
Disharmonic Aug 20, 2020
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Is it still a horrifically buggy mess with major balancing issues?
I didn't really encounter any major bugs, but the balancing felt way off to me when I played it in the spring. The game seems optimized with man-maxing in mind as far as I can tell.

What are the balancing issues? If you mean are some player character builds way more powerful than others, then yes that still exists but it also should exist because that's an artifact of Pathfinder itself and a holdover from classic pen and paper RPGs.
I don't agree. Several encounters are extremelly hard if you don't have specific skills in the party from what I remember. In fact I remember using a mod to enable some skills temporarily just to progress further. What makes this worse is that I don't remember the game giving you any clues that you'll need these abilities beforehand.


Last edited by Disharmonic on 20 August 2020 at 11:01 am UTC
Expalphalog Aug 20, 2020
Obviously our experiences were different, but I am not a min-maxer (in fact, I'm not even a power gamer, I prefer to RP as my character and never ever use mods or strategy guides) and while some fights were challenging, none were impossible. Unless you're talking about the encounters at the keep - the ones where you assign advisors to handle situations - those can be impossible, but you are not supposed to succeed at everything there. Maybe it's because I am an experienced tabletop gamer, but to me "you aren't a god and will fail sometimes if you attempt difficult or risky things" is practically the definition of 'balanced.'
14 Aug 21, 2020
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A free and huge update? Sweet! I have the Enhanced edition but haven't started it yet. It's great to hear the bug fixes were applied to previous customers.

One of my friends enjoyed the game and said it was probably "better" than Pillars of Eternity. I think I recall him complaining of bugs back at release, but I did not hear anything negative when I asked him about the game recently. I'm looking forward to getting started.
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