EvaUnit02 on 26/1/2015 at 02:14
Ya know how InXile were teasing another return of a classic RPG? They've just announced The Bard's Tale IV.
I've never played this series so I can't comment at all.
(
http://www.pcgamer.com/the-bards-tale-iv-announced/)
We'll see how the Kickstarter goes. They probably would've won over a lot of people with Wasteland 2.
Thirith on 26/1/2015 at 05:56
I wonder how true to the originals this'll be; the Bard's Tale games were pretty simplistic, combat-heavy dungeon crawlers with little puzzling and no meaningful NPC interaction to speak of. I haven't seen any games close to this, not even indie or fan-made games, in over a decade. It's a fun enough template, but it's fairly primitive. I'm curious as to whether or how they'll try to update this.
EvaUnit02 on 26/1/2015 at 06:33
Yeah IDK, these games were WAY ahead of my time. There's not even Fallout nor Planescape: Torment nostalgia to play off of like there was for the Wasteland 2 and Torment: ToN Kickstarters. I'll probably just fund at the basic tier for this one.
Honestly I still don't really know why I sunk $200+ into Lord British's Shroud of the Avatar and play the Early Access version semi-regularly (it makes VERY GOOD progress on a monthly basis, but it's still not in a complete enough state where I'd qualify it as fun). I only played Ultima IV and hated it frankly.
Thirith on 26/1/2015 at 06:39
I loved Ultima V to Ultima VII Part 2, yet I never got much of an Ultima vibe from Shroud of the Avatar, not so much as an Ultima Online vibe, and those are two very different things. Nothing I've heard since has convinced me otherwise.
The Bard's Tale III was my first RPG and quite possibly the first game I bought on the C-64 that wasn't from Interceptor Micros, a weird little UK company specialising in doing ripoffs of arcade titles (e.g. Spriteman 64, which was basically Pacman) and surreal platformers. I do feel some nostalgia for those days, and I expect I will support the Kickstarter, but only with the lowest amount necessary to get the game.
demagogue on 26/1/2015 at 06:49
Bard's Tale II was my first RPG, and the best of the series IMO. It was the first game we mapped out and took notes for, and it seemed like as much of the game was happening with the manual and pen and paper as in the game itself, which is what you had to do in those days. I have good memories of it, though I don't know what to expect with a reboot in our era since RPGs have come so far.
Thirith on 26/1/2015 at 07:39
There's a certain purity to the kind of gameplay The Bard's Tale had, and I would quite like to see how this can be translated into a modern game. Part of me thinks it'd be a shame to turn a Bard's Tale revamp into something more complex, more akin to Wasteland, but I don't think that a straight Bard's Tale revival could come out of modern commercial software development, nor do I necessarily think that this is what the majority of pledgers would really want. It's more the kind of thing I could imagine a fan project to result in.
Malf on 26/1/2015 at 09:00
So I guess none of you guys has played inXile's (
http://store.steampowered.com/app/41900/?snr=1_7_15__13) previous attempt to reboot The Bard's Tale?
I never got around to completing it, but I did get pretty far in. It was a thoroughly enjoyable romp with great comic writing, even if the minute-to-minute gameplay was slightly naff.
Melan on 26/1/2015 at 09:07
I played the Bard's Tale games, and honestly, apart from the bard songs and enchanted musical instruments (using the Fire Horn on 4*99 Berserkers!), or the dimension-hopping in the third part, there is not much there that would stand up to scrutiny today. Most of the entertainment was in mapping out the dungeons on graph paper while fighting off waves and waves and waves and waves of enemies. You could do a complete overhaul of the mechanics, but then what are you left with beyond the name recognition?
Thirith on 26/1/2015 at 09:36
@Malf: As far as I know, the inXile game had pretty much nothing to do with the original games other than its title. It's even further away from the original than, say, the recentish Syndicate.
@Melan: I could actually imagine a relatively faithful Bard's Tale as a mobile game, for smartphones and tablets. The game system is simplistic but it can be fun, so it might work brilliantly for short stints while commuting, for instance. For PCs, though, I'd agree that a complete overhaul is likely, and at that point you indeed have to wonder what is left beyond name recognition. I guess you could try for something that combines classic The Bard's tale with some of the advances you have in games like Legend of Grimrock. The Bard's Tale template has really evolved, through games like Dungeon Master and Eye of the Beholder, and I wonder to what extent you can de-evolve and still stay fun and interesting.
Sxerks on 2/6/2015 at 18:27
The (
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/the-bards-tale-iv) Kickstarter just started for this. Goal of 1.25M, currently at 450K after about 4 hours.
If you back it in the first 24 hours you get a free copy of Wasteland 2, or The Witcher, or The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings.
