Bard's Tale The Bard's Tale IV Pre-Release Thread [RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Zorba the Hutt]

>video of the combat system end of january

so... where is this shit?

Easy, bro, game development doesn't go in a straight line from A to B. They're probably a bit too busy with press and publicity to communicate right now.

 

[Bester]

>video of the combat system end of january

so... where is this shit?

In 11.5 months.

 

[Hirato]

>video of the combat system end of january

so... where is this shit?

It turned out to be harder than expected, so it became cut content.

 

[Infinitron]

Somebody's paying attention:

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Bester]

Must be some sad feel when you want to be with Skyrim, Hearthstone and Witcher and you're with Bard's Tale instead.

 

[Zeriel]

What the actual fuck is he trying to say with the hours comparison? It makes no sense. If anything, a blobber should provide many more hours of gameplay than something like Torment or Wasteland 2 you'll finish in a day or two. Does he live in some parallel world where Wasteland 2 took 100 hours to complete because everyone has the reading speed of a 6 year old?

 

[Infinitron]

What the actual fuck is he trying to say with the hours comparison? It makes no sense. If anything, a blobber should provide many more hours of gameplay than something like Torment or Wasteland 2 you'll finish in a day or two. Does he live in some parallel world where Wasteland 2 took 100 hours to complete because everyone has the reading speed of a 6 year old?

TBH, looking at my Steam stats, it has taken me significantly more time to finish text-heavy isometric RPGs than blobbers. Although the only examples I have of the latter are the Grimrocks.

 

[Zeriel]

Grimrock is in the kiddy puddle, though. Dungeon Master & games like Might and Magic/Wizardry/Bard's Tale have always been very separate sub-genres. The latter are very grindy and content-rich games. I guess he is communicating that BT4 will be nothing like earlier BT games, but it still seems like a weird comment to me. Maybe if he said, "unlike earlier Bard's Tale games, this one will be shorter".

 

[vonAchdorf]

Why mention Skyrim's combat? It's neither good nor visually interesting nor unique. A fresh take on blubber combat could be interesting, but hopefully it's not just being different for being different.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

A few things. It's really disappointing that BT:IV is not going to be an epicly huge blobber. Elminage Gothic offers hundreds of hours of game, and even if you don't choose to explore it all, it's there. BT:IV in turn is going to be much shorter, I think somewhere around the 30-50 hour mark last time I heard.

So, this raises a few questions. Do Brian and co. maybe think that a "real" blobber like BT:IV is not a viable choie for them to make today? They also are making Wasteland 3 much smaller than W2. I also recall Brian saying that he wanted to do some risk/reward saving in BT:IV, but the amount of game time he was kicking around that a player could potentially lose was 5-10 minutes. So who knows if that is another area that isn't going to click with casual gamers and they won't want to do it. That's all speculation. But the fact remains it's going to be a shorter game.

However, Brian tweeted awhile back and answered my question about adding hardcore options, such as more limited saving (risk/reward saving) and things like this. He assured me that there would be hardcore options in the game for those who want them. So that is a good thing.

This was my most anticipated RPG coming up, but I would really like to hear that they decided to make it epicly huge and have 80+ hours of stuff to do. While focusing on graphics is cool since it is a first-person blobber and there's room there to operate, I think the more hardcore dungeon-crawl fans among us will also want a huge game...

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

I almost forgot I did an interview with InXile awhile back (mid-2016) on BT:IV. You can check it out here: https://www.rpgwatch.com/show/article?articleid=374

 

[Hobo Elf]

I'd be surprised if they managed to make BT4 a 30 hour game.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

I can't find the exact tweets (sorry), but what I'm talking about are just things that Fargo and others talked about last year. Brian responded to at least one of my tweets asking about hardcore difficulty options, and he said something like, "Don't worry, there will be hardcore options for those who want them" or something like this. As for BT:IV being a 30-50 hour game, I forget where I picked that up but it might have been another tweet or some BT:IV article last year. Of course these things could have been changed now thus making them inaccurate, but I'm just posting what I have learned from last year while following this game. It is a highly anticipated title for me.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I'm not disagreeing or questioning you. I'm just saying that I have my doubts that a mainstream western dev can manage to put forth enough content in a dungeon crawler to make it break the 30 hour mark. It's easy to make an RPG long when you bloat it with voice acting and text. Not so easy in a purely gameplay game.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

That's why I'm curious now as to what BT:IV is really going to look like. It doesn't seem like it's going to be a straight gameplay blobber like the old games. Or perhaps it is gameplay-focused but just really short.

 

[Alienman]

Maybe it will be more a cave instead of a dungeon

 

[Zeriel]

I'd be surprised if they managed to make BT4 a 30 hour game.

Yeah, that's basically the implication that I'm hearing. That they're going to produce a streamlined, short 25-30 hour blobber with most of the grinding and long playtime sapped out of it so casuals don't get bored.

 

[theSavant]

IIRC it was once said, that the game will have approximately 25 hours of gameplay. Also if Wasteland2 took 60 hours on average, Fargo's statement "not half of those games" would confirm the 25-30 hours. I honestly wouldn't expect more.

Can be good or bad, depending on your preferences. If party customization and skill system allows enough freedom, it will encourage multiple playthroughs. I really hope it does. And when it does, it's a little bit better not having to do all 60 hours again. Wizardry 8 for instance, was great to mess around with party and skills... but playing through the whole 60 hour campaign again... that was tedious at the 2nd time already.

 

[Zeriel]

Wizardry 8 actually isn't that big or long of a game in terms of maps & quests, it's just got a fuckton of trash combat (not a criticism, btw) and those notorious animation speeds where you spend 90% of your playtime watching 3D models waddle even with mods. The same game with the combat of earlier games in the series would feel much "shorter".

 

[vonAchdorf]

I'd be surprised if they managed to make BT4 a 30 hour game.

Agree. With the production value they apparently aim for, 30-50h without much recycling and padding seems long.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

My preference for RPGs in general are huge in scope and 80+ hours of gameplay, preferably more. However, I know it varies from person to person. My thoughts are just that in a dungeon-crawler like a Bard's Tale game, is 25-30 hours really enough? I want optional mega-dungeons, huge sprawling levels that take hours to complete and figure out. The game is supposed to have 30 levels, so if each level is 30 minutes or so, that doesn't seem like enough. Now like I was expecting anything *too* casual non-friendly, but we'll see. I am turned on by the hardcore difficulty options, so hopefully the mechanics themselves also encourage multiple playthroughs and have a lot of risk/reward and unique development opportunities, etc. Ramble Mode, off.

 

[felipepepe]

Lands of Lore is just 15-20 hours long, but it was designed as a blobber for newcomers. I imagine Fargo's vision is much closer to that than to the old Bard's Tale games or something like Elminage/Strangers of Sword City.

And I doubt any dungeon will be more complex than what Grimrock I offered.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

I dunno, it *is* a Bard's Tale game, so we'll see. There's got to be some complexity there, I would imagine.

 

[tuluse]

Grimrock is in the kiddy puddle, though. Dungeon Master & games like Might and Magic/Wizardry/Bard's Tale have always been very separate sub-genres. The latter are very grindy and content-rich games. I guess he is communicating that BT4 will be nothing like earlier BT games, but it still seems like a weird comment to me. Maybe if he said, "unlike earlier Bard's Tale games, this one will be shorter".

This was clearly communicated in the kickstarter, have you followed what they were saying at all?

Edit: did you also notice the raised money difference?