The Bard's Tale Trilogy

Taiso

Remembers The North,
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2000
Posts
13,156
This just got released on Steam today. It's only the first game, but buying it guarantees you all three titles, and I believe they're planning Bard's Tale IV as well.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/843260/The_Bards_Tale_Trilogy/

I was never an Apple IIE owner, so back in those heady days of early computer RPGs, I couldn't play Wizardry at my leisure. I had twin cousins that owned one and I spent a lot of weekends over there playing Dungeons and Dragons with them (I was the DM, of course) and watching sword and sorcery movies on VHS that we were way too young to be watching. Our parents were loving providers but weren't very responsible with our media consumption. I don't fucking care, though. I got to see cool shit that other kids my age couldn't.

Anyway, the point is that after everyone else went to sleep, I'd fire up the Apple 2E and play Wizardry all night long. And then when everyone else woke up, we'd have a completely unhealthy breakfast (Mr. T cereal or Pop Tarts) and go back to playing D&D and movies all over again. A little Robotech was mixed into it as well.

So when The Bard's Tale came out for the Commodore 64 (my teenage gaming machine of choice), I was super excited. It was essentially the same type of game with better graphics and legit sound. It also had these charming monster animations where the enemy on the screen would open and shut its mouth, breath a lick of fire or clench and unclench its fists. It was all rather quaint but back in the 80s, that was the good shit. In fact, the game Wasteland that everyone remembers so well is a direct descendant of The Bard's Tale and the similarities are obvious.

This had been released as a legacy trilogy in the past in various forms but it always sucked and didn't run well on modern PCs. So Inixile, those glorious bastards, went and decided to remaster the games. And I am super pumped for this. I've been wanting to revisit these games for years and now I can just by opening up my Steam client.

Anyway, there's my nostalgia trip. In case you care, the game is out.
 

Psygnosis8

Sieger's Squire
Joined
Oct 30, 2012
Posts
820
This just got released on Steam today. It's only the first game, but buying it guarantees you all three titles, and I believe they're planning Bard's Tale IV as well.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/843260/The_Bards_Tale_Trilogy/

I was never an Apple IIE owner, so back in those heady days of early computer RPGs, I couldn't play Wizardry at my leisure. I had twin cousins that owned one and I spent a lot of weekends over there playing Dungeons and Dragons with them (I was the DM, of course) and watching sword and sorcery movies on VHS that we were way too young to be watching. Our parents were loving providers but weren't very responsible with our media consumption. I don't fucking care, though. I got to see cool shit that other kids my age couldn't.

Anyway, the point is that after everyone else went to sleep, I'd fire up the Apple 2E and play Wizardry all night long. And then when everyone else woke up, we'd have a completely unhealthy breakfast (Mr. T cereal or Pop Tarts) and go back to playing D&D and movies all over again. A little Robotech was mixed into it as well.

So when The Bard's Tale came out for the Commodore 64 (my teenage gaming machine of choice), I was super excited. It was essentially the same type of game with better graphics and legit sound. It also had these charming monster animations where the enemy on the screen would open and shut its mouth, breath a lick of fire or clench and unclench its fists. It was all rather quaint but back in the 80s, that was the good shit. In fact, the game Wasteland that everyone remembers so well is a direct descendant of The Bard's Tale and the similarities are obvious.

This had been released as a legacy trilogy in the past in various forms but it always sucked and didn't run well on modern PCs. So Inixile, those glorious bastards, went and decided to remaster the games. And I am super pumped for this. I've been wanting to revisit these games for years and now I can just by opening up my Steam client.

Anyway, there's my nostalgia trip. In case you care, the game is out.

I saw this last night. I love those 1st person dungeon crawlers but I’ve got no time for graph paper these days. im considering picking it up though.
 

Taiso

Remembers The North,
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2000
Posts
13,156
So there is an in game map that you can toggle with M, and it even marks important locations, such as shops, taverns and temples. The problem is that the transparency for shit and it's hard to see it on that little window. I haven't figured out if there's a way to transfer it to a full screen overlay, which would be infinitely more useful despite mildly obscuring the graphics. Since you can barely see it anyway, I can't imagine it would get in the way of your character stats and menus. And with a larger size, it would simply be easier to see. But I haven't messed around with display options yet so IDK if anything can be done with it.

I may bust out the graph paper anyway. Feels like a part of the experience is absent without those physical materials on hand.
 

Viewpoint

Art of Typing Wiz, , ,
20 Year Member
Joined
Aug 15, 2000
Posts
6,274
This game is a classic. I remember playing this years ago on the Commodore Amiga.
 

Jeneki

Enemy Chaser
Joined
Jan 22, 2013
Posts
1,164
I played a lot of the first Bards Tale. I still remember my first party, searching for the training grounds to level up, and getting one-shotted by orcs in random buildings. Just getting to level 2 seemed like an accomplishment.

Wizardry, Might and Magic, Bard's Tale, and Dragon Wars were my main rpg games growing up. Wish I still had all my graph paper maps.
 

Taiso

Remembers The North,
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2000
Posts
13,156
Strangely enough, I think I still have my old maps. I'll have to go and see if they can be unearthed. If so, perhaps the efforts of those adventurers 30 years ago can be of benefit to this intrepid explorer and his companions...
 

Gentlegamer

Sakura's Bank Manager
10 Year Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2014
Posts
728
I was never able to play the originals, but I started playing the PS2 version several years ago. I remember running into a colossal fire breathing rat. I should pick it up again.
 

Taiso

Remembers The North,
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2000
Posts
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The PS2 game was not at all like the classic games. It shared some of the same lore but the original games were basically Wizardry clones with better graphics and sound.
 

Kid Panda

The Chinese Kid
Joined
Jun 13, 2010
Posts
12,514
This was a series that literally defined my child computer years. My brother and I grew up playing The Bard's Tale I from a cracked copy I got from a friend of mine. We beat it a year later and then bought the third one, imported our characters and promptly got whipped hard. We never did beat Thief of Fate, but I do remember the first one vividly. One of the best games on the C64 and I'm picking this up for sure.
 

Kid Panda

The Chinese Kid
Joined
Jun 13, 2010
Posts
12,514
So I picked this up today. If you want to take a quick look at a bigger map, hit J for journal. So far, I'm liking the game, I have noticed walking around in town, there are not nearly enough random encounters, I'm actually kicking down doors. The automap feature is nice though, crazy that I still knew where Roscoe's Energy Emporium was.
Took out the Samurai down south and as soon as I gain a level, I'm heading the the cellar......
 

Kid Panda

The Chinese Kid
Joined
Jun 13, 2010
Posts
12,514
So here we are, Mangar's Tower Lvl 4. Man, this game, I really can't recommend it to anyone unless you played the original. If you did play it, then you are going to really dig this remaster.

There are alot of quality of life upgrades in the game that make it much smoother. Battles can be sped up to a very quick pace, the automap function is above and beyond any expectation I would have had, enemy encounters have been halved, (this allows more movement in town and in dungeons vs the original), plus the inventory has been overhauled.

I love it and can't wait to dig into the 2nd one when it comes out soon. This one gets a huge thumbs up from me. On to kill Mangar!

Spoiler:
mmpvFgZ.png
 

Kid Panda

The Chinese Kid
Joined
Jun 13, 2010
Posts
12,514
And Tales of the Unknown is done! The same trick that worked back then worked this time too, so it was an easy cash in. Man, I never played The Destiny Knight so this should be fun when it hits to import my characters from Vol I. So many feels with this game, I can't praise it anymore than I have to people that have played this in the past. 15 bucks well spent so far.

Spoiler:
fbe86986b545f861e09e531f212b12af.jpg
 
Last edited:

Taiso

Remembers The North,
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2000
Posts
13,156
I love seeing people legit and unabashedly enthusiastic about stuff they love

As long as the stuff they love isn't SHIT.

Spoiler:
The Bard's Tale Trilogy is most definitely NOT shit.
 
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