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

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Finally! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/the-bards-tale-iv/posts/2233940

We're Off To See The Wizard

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TL; DR - Wizard class preview, Q&A, Album Box winner

Hi all, Paul here with the latest backer update. There's a lot here, so let's get right to it. We're leading off with Creative Director David Rogers.

Wizard Preview
Hi everyone, David here with the promised look at the Wizard class. The Wizard is a subclass of the Practitioner that focuses on summoning and maintaining allied minions through a variety of spells, passives, and stat boosts. These minions have a lot of different uses – they can split up enemy focus, deal damage, tank hits, buff one another, or even be used to heal the caster. In a lot of ways, they’re full-fledged party members that show up exactly when and how you need them to.

Obtaining the Wizard: Novice skill will grant mastery in the Gate ability. Gate summons a Shadowy Wraith, an elemental who uses Spell Points to deal damage to enemies. It’s one of a few abilities that can be cast in several ways: the longer you channel this ability, the stronger the minion it’ll create by granting more Spell Points. A Wraith will vanish back to the ether it came from when its Spell Points run out, so starting with a high number can let your elemental throw out a couple extra spells before dissipating. With this style of casting, you can plan more effectively around how long you expect a fight to last and be ready for whatever situation you’re in.

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The Gate spell at work

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The Wraith In Combat

Passing the Wizard: Journeyman skill, a Constitution boost that allows you stay in the fight and boss your new friends around a little longer, the Wizard: Master skill will grant mastery in the Prime Summoning ability. Prime Summoning raises two Skeletons to join the party, either as Warriors or Archers. Warriors have an armor-boosting ability, Deflect, and can be put to good use protecting the rest of your party. On the other hand, Archers go down a little more easily, but can put out devastating punishment with their bows if you protect them. Figuring out how best to utilize your bony friends presents some interesting choices.

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Prime Summoning

Wizard: Master also teaches the Sacrifice Minion ability. Another Multi-Function ability, this spell is effectively three in one. Coalesce Essence kills one summoned minion to bolster another, transferring the original’s stats over. Release Bonds sets free the target minion, weaponizing their essence in a True Damage attack against a target enemy. Absorb Soulsacrifices the target, reabsorbing their magic to heal the caster. These abilities let you get the most out of your minions, letting them fight for you while they’re strong and die for you when they’ve lost their usefulness. You can even combo the spell with itself, using Coalesce Essence and then Absorb Soul to create one big minion and then drain them, gaining an even bigger heal. We here at inXile don’t recommend getting too attached to your minions – killing them is sometimes even more fun than creating them!

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Absorb Soul

At the end of the skill tree, having demonstrated time and again your mastery of minions, players can pick up Grand Summoner and another hefty Constitution boost. The skill grants a passive by the same name that shows your minions who’s in charge, buffing all summoned combatants with Armor. After all, they should be protecting you, not the other way around. This passive is especially helpful with Skeleton Warriors: stacking Armor on them and letting them shield you can be a great way to keep your squishy Practitioner safe. Hey, 11 Armor here – not bad!

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Some Grand Summoning

Thanks for reading along, and looking forward to seeing what your party builds looks like once the backer beta comes out!

Best,
David Rogers
Creative Director

Q&A - The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep
Hi all, Paul back to take you through the rest of the update. We received a number of questions for both The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep and The Bard's Tale Trilogy remaster.

With the backer beta due out very (very) soon, we've truncated the number of BT4 questions answered (since the beta will answer many of them) and added in some BTT questions that you've asked us.

Q: Will there be different instruments to play, all with their own renderings of the songs?

A: Each bardic song plays a different track played on a different instrument when cast. We worked with Kurt Heiden, who was the composer for The Bards Tale III: Thief of Fate. Each version of the game had a different MIDI track for each of the Bards songs, and we picked our favorites to recreate. They were scored and then recorded in Scotland by Ged Grimes and his crew of talented Celtic folk musicians.

Q: In regards to the "Will it be possible to create your full party?" question, can you clarify a bit how that works? You start with one character but soon get more? Can you have all characters you made or do you have to have any written NPCs?

A: We get you straight into the game, absorbing the story and the world, as soon as you start a new game. We give you a default character, a bard obviously, but almost immediately let you make your own character if you prefer. The combat and character progression systems in The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep are deep, so we didn't want to ask you to make six characters right out of the gate before you even engaged in your first combat. The first section of the game is basically a quest to recruit your starting party, so we quickly ramp you up to four party members. You meet three narrative characters at the start that join your party: Dalgliesh the Dwarven fighter, Wringneck the Trow Rogue, and The Green Lady, an Elven Practitioner. Similar to the starting character, you can choose to continue adventuring with them, or spend Mercenary Tokens to create custom characters to replace them. No one character is required to be in your party.

Q: Does weather impact the gameplay in any way?

A: No. Any weather in our game is purely cosmetic and just helps to set the mood.

Q: Another question: how much depth will there be in intra-party interactions? Is it just occasional banter or will party members develop running feuds, flirtations, etc. over time (or based upon in-game events).

A: Different characters have different interactions and relationships. Narrative NPCs, like The Green Lady, have fully fleshed out scripts, but the custom characters you create will also have their own personalities and interactions based on the voices you pick for them, so making your own characters won't mean you're missing out. Party Chatter isn't a dynamic system in that you can't, say, make two characters fall in love, but different characters do have different relationships and will interact in special ways.

One fun anecdote to illustrate this is that I made a character and gave him the Volatile voice pack, making him super aggressive. When Dalgliesh the Dwarf joined my party all of a sudden my character kept trying to goad him into an arm wrestling match to prove he was stronger than a dwarf. This exchange probably went on for forty seconds and I was cracking up the whole time.

Album Box Winner
Thanks to everyone who voted in our Album Box poll! The nostalgia was strong with this vote, and we're pleased to announce that the winner was option C (the choice that most closely matched the original three game boxes)! Here's your album box, now with the sub-title added in! It looks awesome, and for those of you who have the original game boxes, it will definitely look fantastic on the shelf next to them.

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The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep

Spotlight: Character Creation
Finally, in case you missed it, we posted a spotlight video yesterday highlighting character creation in The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep! Take a look and start thinking about the kind of party that you want to build today!

That's it for now, but with the backer beta just around the corner, you will be hearing from us again very shortly!

Until Next Time,
Paul Marzagalli
Public Relations & Community Manager
@phimseto

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Dorateen

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A: We get you straight into the game, absorbing the story and the world, as soon as you start a new game. We give you a default character, a bard obviously, but almost immediately let you make your own character if you prefer. The combat and character progression systems in The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep are deep, so we didn't want to ask you to make six characters right out of the gate before you even engaged in your first combat. The first section of the game is basically a quest to recruit your starting party, so we quickly ramp you up to four party members. You meet three narrative characters at the start that join your party: Dalgliesh the Dwarven fighter, Wringneck the Trow Rogue, and The Green Lady, an Elven Practitioner. Similar to the starting character, you can choose to continue adventuring with them, or spend Mercenary Tokens to create custom characters to replace them. No one character is required to be in your party.

Morally ill. Spend mercenary tokens? For a something that has been a standard feature of the genre for forty years? Who is this Paul Marzagalli clown? Where does he come from? No, your combat and progression "systems" are not deep. Your fake bards tale couldn't carry Grimoire's jock!
 

Strange Fellow

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Nice update! I think they should rename "classes" to "schools" and "wizard" to "summoner". Choosing a class seems to be just deciding which skill tree you want to develop, like Skyrim. As far as I can tell there is nothing in this update or the previous class update on whether choosing a class (i.e. a skill tree) locks you off from picking other classes. I'm sure Infinitron will correct me.
Passing the Wizard: Journeyman skill, a Constitution boost that allows you stay in the fight and boss your new friends around a little longer,
This sounds like shit. You have a mandatory pick of a constitution bonus, which depending on your build you might not even need, if you want to advance your wizard abilities? Did a skill tree of just 4 levels really need a filler skill? The skill tree could be more expansive than what they've shown of course, but that would make this a bad update, assuming they want me to get excited about their game. I wonder if all classes will have this Novice -> Journeyman -> Master -> Grand [X] progression, and what it will take to get to the end of the tree in terms of stat requirements, skill point costs, etc. Oh well, the active skills sound like fun at least.
And I'll have to agree with Dorateen, what the fuck are Mercenary Tokens?

Q: Will there be different instruments to play, all with their own renderings of the songs?

A: Each bardic song plays a different track played on a different instrument when cast. We worked with Kurt Heiden, who was the composer for The Bards Tale III: Thief of Fate. Each version of the game had a different MIDI track for each of the Bards songs, and we picked our favorites to recreate. They were scored and then recorded in Scotland by Ged Grimes and his crew of talented Celtic folk musicians.
I've given them grief before for the excessive focus on the music, but honestly, if they pull off an excellent Celtic folk soundtrack they'll have my money even if this turns out a mobile clicker. :bounce:
AND they're doing Wiz 8-style party banter! About fucking time someone took inspiration from that.
 

Infinitron

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The terminology might be some sort of Bard's Tale legacy thing. From February's update:

The Practitioner has 5 classes to its name: the spell-slinging AOE-focused Conjurer, the crowd-controlling Magician, the enemy-disrupting Sorcerer, and the monster-summoning Wizard; and if you master three of those four classes, you can gain access to the ultimate Practitioner class, the Archmage.
 

Strange Fellow

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Thanks. Yeah, I suppose my nitpicking is a few decades too late. :P
Now for the million dollar question: What, in fantasy, is the difference between a magician, a sorcerer and a wizard?

It sounds like the class trees are indeed as small as the update indicated, and the player is expected to max out a "class" with relatively little effort, and getting close to maxing out all the classes associated with one archetype throughout the course of a single game. I'd shout "decline!", but what this really means is that it comes down to the non-class trees to create a meaningful difference between two characters of the same archetype.
 

Zombra

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Make the Codex Great Again! RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
It sounds like the class trees are indeed as small as the update indicated, and the player is expected to max out a "class" with relatively little effort, and getting close to maxing out all the classes associated with one archetype. I'd shout "decline!", but what this really means is that it all comes down to the non-class trees to create a meaningful difference between two characters of the same archetype.
I counted 76 abilities in the Fighter archetype. It's not known how many skill points you'll get over the course of the game ... but if you get 1 per level say, and you get to level 20 by the end game ...

AND they're doing Wiz 8-style party banter! About fucking time someone took inspiration from that.
Yeah, this is a big deal. I've been yelling on the forums about Wiz 8 systems for years. Looking forward to seeing how BT4 lives up.


----------

I'm annoyed with the "Mercenary Token" idea too. I just want to fire the default party and get on with making my own.

Disappointed that the music is only one track per bard song! Was hoping there's be a flute lead, drum lead, horn lead etc. depending on which instrument the character uses.
 

Strange Fellow

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I counted 76 abilities in the Fighter archetype.
But won't there be free-for-all skills, like stat-ups et. al? If not, I suppose the choice of archetype is really the most important decision you'll make in terms of defining your character, with "class" hardly mattering at all in the grand scheme of things, since, as Infinitron's quote suggests, you're likely to max most, if not all of them. Or is it designed around a trade-off where you have to choose between maxing your available "class" trees, and getting utility from archetype-only restricted skills? That could be interesting, but it would severely diminish the inherent differences between same-archetype characters, as you'll undoubtedly locate some skills which are too good to pass up, so you end up picking them on all available characters. I know that's what I'll do, at least. Either way, this is sounding less class-based by the minute. Which is fine, I suppose; I don't really have a strong preference one way or the other.
Yeah, this is a big deal. I've been yelling on the forums about Wiz 8 systems for years. Looking forward to seeing how BT4 lives up.
I didn't play WL2 or T:ToN, so I don't know how the casting was in those games, but I'm hoping it will end up just as cheesy as Wiz 8.
 
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getter77

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I suppose there's some worry on stinginess in terms of whether it will be a trap or not to take the background that nets you some extra skill points given what a key drive this seems to be. Things got....regrettable...with Int in WL 2 in terms of horizons so...
 
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Yes, can't wait to level up and pick HP+5 as I rub my hands together in eager anticipation of picking Sword+2% on the level after as I nut mercenary tokens. Truly the height of blobberdom.

Anyway, cautiously optimistic here. We'll see.
 

makchanka

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The combat and character progression systems in The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep are deep, so we didn't want to ask you to make six characters right out of the gate before you even engaged in your first combat.

"We think you are too retarded to figure out how to play our dumbed down version of The Bard's Tale without serious hand-holding."
 

ColCol

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I'm not surprised at the character creation . Fargo was clear from the get go about the hearthstone feel and influence. I think it will feel like building a death machine in "Slay the Spire".
 

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Beta is out and Q3 release window reconfirmed: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/the-bards-tale-iv/posts/2236020

The Backer Beta Has Landed!

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TL; DR - Backer Beta news, Backer Beta FAQ

The Backer Beta is Here!
Hey Everyone,

Paul here. It has been a whirlwind for everyone since we launched the alpha systems test in March. We’ve been soliciting feedback, bug reports, and acting on all of it in the intervening months. All of the comments we have received from you have helped us make the game better and brought us to this point - the release of the backer beta.

We’re excited because this time so many more of you get to experience playing the game for yourselves. The backer beta has a roughly 4-5x larger player base, and that’s something we’re very happy about. We’re thrilled for those of you who finally get to try the game out for yourself, and we’re looking forward to your feedback.

And there’s a lot of feedback to provide. The backer beta is a big slice that takes you through the beginning of the story, introduces you to the game’s core systems, and then lets you go play in that world for a little while. Character creation and customization, combat, exploration, puzzle solving, and (of course) dungeon crawling all await you.

Further on in this update is a FAQ for our beta backers. For those backers, please be on the look out soon for a CrowdOx email containing:
  • Your Steam key for the beta test
  • A PDF containing a letter from VP of Development Chris Keenan & beta test notes from QA Lead Daniel Dean
The FAQ at the bottom of this update should hopefully address any basic questions you have about the backer beta and getting access to it.

For all our backers, the release of the beta means that we are that much closer to our Q3 release date for the game. That’s almost upon us, so expect lots of news in the near future!

Until Next Time,
Paul Marzagalli
Public Relations & Community Manager
@phimseto

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Backer Backer FAQ
How do I get my Steam beta key?

We are distributing our Steam beta test keys through CrowdOx. If you have completed your CrowdOx backer survey, you will receive an email from CrowdOx containing your key, along with a PDF containing a letter from VP of Development Chris Keenan and QA Lead Daniel Dean. Please be patient, as depending on how many emails need to be sent, it may take a little while for the system to fully process all of them. If you haven’t completed your CrowdOx backer survey, you can find more instructions on how to do so here.

I don’t want to use Steam. Can I get the backer beta on another platform?

We are only supporting it on Steam for the beta test, mainly because as an indie studio we don’t have the bandwidth to support multiple stores for a beta. Doing things this way allows us more time to work on the game itself and be reactive to player feedback. For the final game, you will be able to make a choice of which platform you want at a later date.

What operating systems does the beta test support?

While we are supporting more OSes for the final release of the game, the beta test is only available for Windows.

What are the recommended system specs to play?

OS: Windows 7/8/8.1/10 (64-bit)
Processor: Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 970/AMD 290 equivalent or greater
Storage: 50 GB

These requirements may change by final release as we continue to optimize the game.

Will my beta test key count as my final game key?

Yes. The beta test will unlock the full game upon release. If you prefer a GOG key at launch, we will offer you the chance to deactivate your Steam version and get a GOG key at a later date.

How do I report bugs or provide feedback for the beta test?

For beta backers, please see the PDF that will arrive with your Steam key. It contains a link to a page you can go to report bugs and provide feedback. For both our beta backers and everyone else, please visit our forums! We’ve set up a forum thread here for everyone to chime in with their thoughts (as well as track known issues).

Can I do Let’s Plays or stream the backer beta?

Yes! You are welcome to share your experiences with others, and if you have a Twitch or YouTube channel, you are also welcome to monetize your videos as well. Our only request is that you clearly state in your coverage that this is a beta look at the game, and it will change and improve before release.

Zombra sstacks Nekot-The-Brave
 

Infinitron

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https://www.polygon.com/2018/7/12/17562554/the-bards-tale-4-preview-pc

We played the first hour of The Bard’s Tale 4
Hands-on with a boozy, sing-song RPG

It begins with a hanging. The dominant Fatherite priesthood has rounded up heretics and pagans and put them to the scaffold. Elves, dwarfs, magicians and bards are all fair game to the fanatics. I must find my way through the town of Skara Brae to join up with my friends from the banned Guild. From there, we will delve into the ruins of the old town.

This is the opening scene of The Bard’s Tale 4: Barrows Deep, setting up a tale of persecution, prejudice, warfare and magic that runs through its 30 hours or so of role-playing adventuring. Early backers and pre-order customers of the game will be playing its first few chapters in the days ahead, many having waited three years or more since it was first announced.

Like its three 1980s predecessors, The Bard’s Tale 4 is a faux-medieval fantasy of good versus evil, in which a party of allies traverses enemy-infested dungeons. Backed with more than $1.5 million in Kickstarter funding, it’s a modern-looking game of pretty locations populated by walking, talking nonplayer characters.

I played the opening hour and found it to be an engaging turn-based combat game, with plenty of nonlinear exploration, peppered with puzzles, item collection and characters. It’s being made by InXile Entertainment, which has a good handle on midbudget RPGs, having successfully delivered the likes of Wasteland 2 and Torment: Tides of Numenera.

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Unlike those isometric-view games, The Bard’s Tale 4 is a first-person adventure. In this regard, it harks back to the much-loved original game, designed by Brian Fargo, who is now the head of InXile.

The Bard’s Tale games feature all manner of potions and spells for the player to use. But they also feature songs, wielded by bards, which have various defensive, offensive and augmentative powers.

When I come up against a set of enemies, I make use of these songs to debuff their most dangerous weapons, while also buffing my allies. Songs are cast by drinking alcoholic beverages, brewed by using a deep crafting system.

So it’s pleasing that InXile has made a major effort to focus on The Bard’s Tale 4 as a rich auditory experience, from character barks to songs. The score was recorded by Scottish musicians, who deliver a more satisfying tonal backdrop than the sometimes perfunctory tinkly-tinkles of many medieval games.

The voice acting was also recorded in Scotland, offering an enormous relief from the phony accents that are so often a disagreeable feature of quasi-European fantasy worlds. Still, the writing cleaves closely to genre roots here, with dialogue feeling more ren-faire than genuine article.

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All my characters have their own particular abilities. Along with bards, the classes consist of magicians, warriors and stealthy rogues, which can also be slotted into various human and nonhuman races. There’s no shortage of complexity when it comes to character personalization.

And this tartan tapestry extends throughout the game, which demands more than merely hurling spells at enemies. In combat, an array of gems, spells, buffs and weapons demand attention and calculation, extending their powers according to criteria that I am bound to discover through common sense, trial and error, or long experience with RPGs.

That’s the game on offer here. It’s about observation, tinkering and learning. The strengths and weaknesses offered by various combinations extend from the makeup of my party to the clothes I wear to the items in my inventory. This game is for people who love the essentials of role-playing. There is, of course, a big, fat upgrade tree for each character.

Logic puzzles offer a break from serial combat scenarios, bringing forth the usual shapes, lines and channels, demanding to be aligned. There’s also a good deal of discovery, including plenty of secret areas, moving doors and hidden dungeons. I zipped through my gameplay session, missing lots of item pickups and secrets that might have extended my powers.

The story world is linear, but within unique sections, different narrative arcs can be followed, depending on personal taste and individual risk calculations. Even in the early segments, there are options to drift away from the well-trod main path and take on more challenging battles.

The Bard’s Tale 4 feels like a work of love, celebrating the basic tenets of RPGdom, while providing a pleasing visual and auditory world appropriate to modern gaming. It demands a commitment to detail, and a taste for turn-based combat. But that’s what we all signed up for. I doubt those early access players will be disappointed.

The full game will be released later this year for Linux, Mac and Windows PC. You can find out more on the game’s website.
 

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Ooh:



Interplay founder and inXile CEO Brian Fargo narrates the process of bringing the first Bard's Tale's iconic box art to life as part of the journey in The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep!
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth


http://www.ign.com/articles/2018/07...st-hour-reveals-a-deeper-rpg-than-we-expected

THE BARD'S TALE 4'S FIRST HOUR REVEALS A DEEPER RPG THAN WE EXPECTED

I really liked what I played of Brian Fargo and inXile’s crowdfunded RPG The Bard’s Tale 4 a few months ago. It hinted at a very unique and potentially deep party- and turn-based combat system that role-playing fans would really be able to sink their teeth into. What I didn’t realize until my hands-on with the Kickstarter backer beta, however, is that what I saw last time was barely scratching the surface.

I played the opening hour of The Bard’s Tale IV and was pleasantly surprised at just how deep of an RPG it appears to be. It opened in a town square, with myriad NPCs roaming about to speak with – some of them offering sidequests to undertake. Visually, too, the reborn Bard’s Tale makes a wonderful first impression, with graphics that feel on par with games that have exponentially larger development budgets.

Small blue circles on the ground indicate where to go if you’d like to follow the main path, but the inXile developers encouraged me to wander around, so I did. The town has an impressive hustle and bustle, complete with fully voiced NPCs, singing bards who provide in-game lore if you listen closely, and more.

I moved along to a quest, which took me to the Adventurer’s Guild. Before long I was underground, ready to start combat. In my case, I was already familiar with how combat works in Bard’s Tale 4 thanks to the aforementioned GDC alpha demo. But it was good to see how it will be properly introduced to players in the full game. That is, you’ll start with one party member up against pushover enemies.

You quickly learn how to move your party members around the grid, learning when to move them forward, back, or out of the direct line of sight of enemies. It’s an intricate system – an interesting Westernized version of a traditional JRPG combat system. It works quite well, and an inXile developer explained just how intriguingly complex it can get later on in the game. Like the rest of Bard’s Tale 4, it is deceptively deep in, seemingly, the best of ways.

My hour with the game – the opening hour of the adventure – ended far too quickly, which is a great sign. After all, how an RPG begins can be key to hooking players (who can forget Final Fantasy XIII’s opening slog?), so inXile seems to be on the right track here. Backers and folks who preorder Bard’s Tale 4 can get their hands on the same chunk of gameplay I played now. I’m quite eager to dive back in at the next opportunity.
 

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
https://www.destructoid.com/dungeon...-the-bard-s-tale-iv-barrows-deep-511774.phtml

Dungeon crawling is still as fun as ever in The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep

The original Bard's Tale trilogy was developed by Interplay and published by Electronic Arts in the mid-to-late '80s. Despite being hard as nails, that trilogy is generally seen as a hidden gem among classic RPGs. They had incredible music, writing, and addicting dungeon crawling gameplay that kept you pushing forward.

Three decades later, the series is back and I had the chance to play an early preview build of The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep from inXile Entertainment. And after spending a little more than seven hours with it, I can safely say the world of Skara Brae inXile Entertainment has crafted is dark, complex, and interesting -- as well as wonderfully written and voice acted. It's a game that has been beautifully updated and reimagined with both modern and classic gameplay conventions that had me willingly explore every inch of its world.

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Set over a hundred years after the events of The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate, Skara Brae in The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep has seen better days. The political climate has gone off the deep end as a group called “Temple of the Swordfather” are persecuting and executing those they deem as “old races.” This basically includes Elves, Dwarves, Trows, and anyone that might align with them. Despite the serious tone, however, The Bard's Tale IV is not without a dark and wicked sense of humor as well.

From the moment I started a new game, I was greeted with an opening scene of a group of folks being hanged. Prior to the hanging itself, however, there was hilarious small-talk and banter between this group, such as “How about a song before we go?” That was immediately followed up with “It will have to be a short one” as nooses descended before each of them.

This opening perfectly sets the tone of the entire demo and it only continued to build from there. The writing and dark humor is without a doubt my favorite aspect of The Bard's Tale IV so far. In the time I spent in the dungeon underbelly of Skara Brae, I heard plenty of great dialogue and banter between my party, NPCs, and enemies alike. All of which is wonderfully voice acted and I could easily tell the voice cast were having a blast with some of the dialogue.

For those of you wondering if you need to play the original trilogy before playing this; I think if you did, it would add some extra context, but it's certainly not a requirement. Hell, I only managed to survive a little over an hour into each of the three original Bard's Tale games (make that about 15-20 minutes in The Destiny Knight), before seeing the game over screens.

That said, I never once felt like dialogue or lore was going over my head in The Bard's Tale IV. Right after the hanging scene, you begin your adventure as a default character known as Melody (who happens to be a Bard). Shortly after, though, you're given the option to create your own character and pick between four different archetypes, each with their own unique skill trees.

The character creation offers a number of different character portraits and models to choose between across seven different cultures. This includes four different groups of Humans, Dwarves, Elves, and Trow. Each of them also has a unique passive ability. The creation process also features a variety of male or female voices to pick between for your character.

Personally, I went with the “cynical female” voice, which included plenty of self-loathing dialogue that lived up to the cynicism. Notably, you can't seem to change the name of specific character portraits, so despite making a new character, you could potentially still end up with Melody if you stick with the same character portrait.

You can select between four different archetypes in The Bard's Tale IV. These archetypes include Practitioner, Fighter, Rogue, and Bard. Practitioners allow you to dabble in various forms of magic and spells, including the ability to summon monsters. Fighters are your typical tanks and berserkers, with better overall constitution stats than other archetypes, making them the best choice for taking hits and protecting more fragile characters.

Meanwhile, Rogues can get past enemy defenses and can land devastating blows, all while being able to conceal your party from enemy detection. Then, finally, you have Bards (which is what I went with). Bards basically act as your drunk support characters that can play various tunes on different instruments to buff other characters in the party. This requires spell points, however, which you gain as a Bard by consuming alcohol! Clearly, this was an archetype that spoke to my soul.

Each archetype also contains a different set of skill trees, with a variety of different skills to experiment with. The skill trees play a very important role in The Bard's Tale IV. Because not only do they allow you to expand your move set, but, they also dictate everything from what type of equipment or weapons you can use, as well as different types of armor you can wear.

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For example, as a Bard, you'll first need to expand your skill tree in various instruments before you can use them, which in turn, allows you use different buffs and abilities from those instruments. Specific skill trees become more powerful and diverse the more skills you learn within that tree, allowing for plenty of experimentation. It's just as deep as it is interesting.

At its core though, The Bard's Tale IV is still very much a dungeon crawler. Running on the Unreal Engine 4, you explore the land of Skara Brae in a first-person perspective, with the first dungeon you'll encounter simply known as “Lower Skara Brae.” Which is a much older section of Skara Brae that has been left to decay away beneath the new section of the city. Initially, when I first entered Lower Skara Brae, I was too busy going up to walls and gawking at the photogrammetry rendered textures and the incredibly dense and detailed environmental work.

In all honesty, at first glance, I thought The Bard's Tale IV was simply just a first-person fantasy RPG. But, then I began to notice the makings of a dungeon crawler as I explored deeper into Lower Skara Brae. This decrepit place contains plenty of shortcuts strewn about, most of which are locked behind different puzzles (such as re-aligning cog pieces to open doors) or can only be accessed from one side or with a specific skill.

You'll navigate this place through narrow pathways and streets that branch out everywhere in a maze-like fashion. While doing so, you'll also stumble on various enemies that patrol these narrow paths and streets that will spot you if you're too close in front of their limited vision. The Bard's Tale IV may have captured my interest to keep playing with the dark humor, but it's when I was dungeon crawling in Lower Skara Brae that I knew I was hooked.

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As for the combat, it's a turn-based affair with a mix of tactical positioning with your characters on a 4x4 grid. If you've played Darkest Dungeon you should take to it right away. Players can initiate combat by approaching an enemy from behind or before being spotted to get the first turn. If you're spotted, however, the enemy gets the first turn. Various skills use up “opportunity,” which limits the number of skills and actions you can perform per turn.

Skills also have different ranges of effect, so for example, some skills can simply hit enemies directly in front of them. Others will only hit things within a specific area of effect on the grid. Certain skills require a turn or more to charge. For example, I ran into a particular enemy with a skill that could one-shot anything in front of it, but, it first needed to be charged. So, I could either simply move my characters out of the way on the grid or attempt to disrupt the attack's charge by hitting the enemy with mental damage.

Overall, it's a combat system that is just as deep as every other aspect of the game I've mentioned so far, and it's all the more rewarding because of it. I'm sure there are a million other things I've glanced over, such as the larger puzzle rooms, to blood drinking cultists, and even a Soup Nazi. In fact, the developers themselves have even mentioned what's in the preview build is only scratching the surface of the content that will be in the full game.

Everything I've seen and played so far blends together perfectly in The Bard's Tale IV. This is a game that combines the best of both classic dungeon crawling and modern RPGs. The Bard's Tale IV is also just another example of how inXile Entertainment is currently thriving with crowdfunding and simply making great games with the motto of "if you want it, we'll build it." For more information on the development of The Bard's Tale IV, be sure to check out CJ Andriessen's interview with lead designer David Rogers.

[This piece is based on a preview build of the game provided by the publisher.]

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https://www.destructoid.com/the-bar...ar-on-playstation-4-and-xbox-one-511795.phtml

The Bard's Tale IV arrives on PC this September and later this year on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One

InXile Entertainment is one of a few companies to take to crowdfunding like a fish to water. It's been around since 2004 when it developed its first game, The Bard's Tale, an action-adventure title that shares a name with the classic RPG series but none of the characters and locations. The title was decently reviewed, but not exactly a monster seller. It wasn't until the developer turned to Kickstarter to fund a sequel to the 1988 open-world RPG Wasteland that it found its niche. With team members on board who worked on those classic EA games, the company would make its mark giving fans sequels to these long-lost classics.

Wasteland 2 was a massive hit for the company. It raised more than $3 million through Kickstarter and Paypal, was eventually ported to consoles and will soon find another release on Nintendo Switch. Its follow-up, the crowdfunded Torment: Tides of Numenera, saw similar success though it missed its expected release date by a country mile. The company is now hard at work on Wasteland 3, funded through Fig this time around, and a project that is an absolute dream game for lead designer David Rogers, The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep.

The Bard's Tale franchise is as old as I am. Developer Interplay Productions knocked out the original trilogy in rather short order, releasing the final game, Thief of Fate, in 1988. By the time I got into computer gaming, the series was a relic of the past. 30 years is a very long time to go without getting a new entry, but with a team of dedicated developers, the Unreal Engine 4, and Rogers at the helm, this series is set to return in a way that'll please new and old fans alike.

"The story picks up 150 years past the end of The Bard's Tale III so it really gives us a chance to reintroduce the world, the lore, and the backstory to first-time gamers," he explained. "But fans of the old games will realize we used the map of Skara Brae from those games to make Lower Skara Brae. (Editors note: In Barrows Deep, the new Skara Brae is built on top of old Skara Brae, New New York style.) The dungeon you play in the demo is the Cellars of Kylearan's Tower, which is one of the first dungeons you played in the original game. Harkyn's Castle is still there, you can still do the 99 Berzerkers Fight. We hit all those little hallmarks and landmarks of the original game and made sure to put them in there so it feels like home; like you're seeing Skara Brae as you never seen it before."

At a hands-on and inteview session in San Francisco, Rogers gave me a guided tour of the first part of a new demo for the game. Because this is my first time in Skara Brae, I wasn't quite sure how to compare it to the city of old. Obviously, a game made in 2018 is going to look a hell of a lot better than one made in 1985, but inXile has really gone all-out in designing this decrepit world with Unreal Engine 4. The city, both above and below ground, looks absolutely stunning; like a tourist destination that's slightly off from a place you'd find in the real world.

"We took a trip over to Scotland to take shots for photogrammetry and for reference on the buildings and the world," Rogers said. "We even went to Mary's Kings Close, which is built very similar to Skara Brae underground. We tried our best to mimic the Scottish aesthetic as much as we could but also, we didn't want to make it feel like Earth or just like how Scotland actually is, so we warped things around and made it really bizarre."

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The game has been in development for more than two years. While it's being made to feel like a natural extension of the original trilogy, Barrows Deep finds influence in other games that have come since. Take the Ancient Luck Stones for instance. Found throughout the world, these are stones players can bind to, making it a save point they can respawn from, or consume for experience at the cost of deleting it from the game forever. It's a concept that reminds me of the Shovel Knight save-point system, a comparison Rogers completely agreed with.

The Ancient Luck Stones are just a few of the clever developments Rogers and team are making with The Bard's Tale IV, but their main objective is to mesh story with the genre in ways not seen before.

"We're really trying to innovate the dungeon crawler genre," Rogers explained. "Games like Legend of Grimrock, while being awesome, they dump you on an island and there's no character development because there is virtually no story. It's just 'Uh, go do dungeon stuff.' It's cool, but that's all it is. We have a full cast of fully voiced characters, a wholly original soundtrack, a really rich story that we reinforce at every angle in different ways, and the character progression is just so deep."

Barrows Deep's rich story is explored through world building and character dialog, both with non-playable characters and among party members. Team members will chat during downtime, asking each other questions that expand on their backstories, and not every NPC will take kindly to your crew as a handful of the citizens who populate this world come preprogrammed with prejudices against some of the races.

That will be better explored when the full game launches later this year. The demo releasing today is around five hours long, something Rogers considers a "sliver" of the full package. The final product will be around 30 hours long, though Rogers admits he might be underestimating that. However long the final product ends up being, the scope of it is being made possible in great part due to the last game the development team worked on.

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"The game I worked before this is The Mage's Tale which is our VR game. It's set in the same world so we could explore the art style and some of the dungeon assets we share from one game to another. We are able to make this game as big as we can because we were able to build The Mage's Tale first."

Wrapping up our session, I asked Rogers if he has any plans for a Bard's Tale V. He said without a doubt and so long as there is demand from the audience, he and inXile will be there to meet their needs.

"There were a group of fans who clearly put their money where their mouth is and said 'We want this game.' I think it's pretty easy to see there is no game like it. It's one of a kind and I love developing original games. This is a blast to work on and people have been clamoring for a game like this. We said we wanted to bring back The Bard's Tale and we want to really modernize the dungeon crawler. $1.5 million worth of people said 'yes please do' and so here we are. It's nice to be able to make a game and know that people want it because they already said they did."

The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep will launch for PC on September 18, 2018, for $39.99. Mac, Linux, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One ports are expected to arrive before the end of the year. Today's beta is available to Kickstarter backers as well as those who preorder either the Platinum or Ultimate edition of the game.

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https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/20...pelling-take-on-first-person-puzzle-dungeons/

The Bard’s Tale IV is a rough but compelling take on first-person puzzle-dungeons

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I’ll be frank: The Bard’s Tale IV looks like what I’d expect to see if I found a DVD-ROM from 2005 with ‘Legend of Fantasy: Mages & Goblins’ scrawled on it. My every instinct, after the first few minutes with it, was to run screaming from its Bratz doll faces and onslaught of fol-de-rol. Books, covers and all that, though: underneath its soupy presentation, the first few hours of Wasteland 2/Torment: Wives Of Hans Gruberstudio inXile’s latest act of Kickstarted ancient RPG necromancy are an enticing blend of roleplaying old and new, and of monster-bothering and puzzle-solving.

I’ve been playing a six-hour beta build of the Bard’s Tale IV, which is apparently very similar to the demo version soon to arrive with backers. Full release is slated for September, so it can’t be too far off what we’ll ultimately all be getting. Setting-wise, there elves and goblins, magic and dungeons, inns and gold and all that jazz. The twist upon these sword’n’sorcery tropes is more tonal than anything else – this new Bard’s Tale pulls from Scots Gaelic culture to inform its music, outfits and even character accents. I.e. the dwarves are Scottish, as dwarves so often are, but so is everybody else.

I wouldn’t say it goes far enough into this stuff to feel truly distinctive, but it’s certainly a step to the left of the usual D&D or Elder Scrolls take on high fantasy, and it’s a welcome reprieve from Medieval Fayre-quality English toff impersonations. You absolutely don’t need any prior knowledge of Bard’s Tale games, either the original 90s pair or the maligned, satirical third one from last decade, to click with this: really it is, with the greatest will in the world towards its Scots inflections, Just Another Fantasy World.

In terms of what you do, this is a first-person, party-based RPG that’s much more interested in how you use your various team-members and the placement thereof to solve problems than it is the fate of a central character. The Legend of Grimrock would be the nearest point of comparison, but it’s not shackled to tile-by-tile movement, nor do you feel quite so solitary. You peg it around in full real-time, with full analogue free-look, as you take up quests and trade armaments in NPC hubs and scour dungeons for secrets, traps and a path through their winding mazes.

Y’know, find the hidden switch, push the boulder onto the trigger, place the correct sequence of items in front of the statue – all that good stuff, but generally a little less cryptic about it than Grimrock was.

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In combat, there’s a switch to turn-based, your gang and their opponents arranged in a messy grid – 3D enemies taking up the bulk of the screen, while your guys are crushed into icons along the bottom that collide with the rest of interface. Bard IV is trying to have its cake and eat it, in terms of being resolutely single-perspective first-person but needing to present and co-ordinate a squad of up to six, and it hasn’t quite worked. It’s serviceable, but it sure ain’t elegant.

What it’s doing underneath that smoosh of squares and character headshots is a good time, though. Who your folks can attack depends on where in the grid they are, so there’s an ongoing tension over whether to spend your action points – ‘opportunities’ here – on stabbing whoever’s in range or on moving closer to an already-injured or particularly lethal enemy. Then there’s the need to interrupt lads who are gearing up to cast devastating spells, or on getting your tank in front of your own spellcaster, and on needing to generate spell points by dedicating the latter’s turn to mediation.

Plus your attacks usually need a turn or two to recharge, or need to be comboed with other ones, or – there’s plenty to juggle, is what I’m saying. It’s far from overwhelming, but straightforward attack-spamming it most certainly is not. It’s strategic, boardgame-like, thoughtful – and massively customisable too. Each of your characters can only field three skills at once, so working out the savvy combinations as you upgrade and equip your guys is a massive part of the game.

Then there are the titular bards. You don’t need to make your ‘main’ character a boozy musician, but seeing as bards are the signature fighters of this series, it’s a shame to not have one of ’em on your squad, chugging pints and banging out battlesongs. They’re a variant of mages, in effect, but they get soused rather than meditate in order to generate their spellpoints. Which instrument you equip your songsmith with affects what they can do in battle – drums make enemies catch on fire, harps reduce your team’s cooldowns and so forth.

It’s all weirdly non-musical in practice, however, and similarly the drunkeness is only portrayed in terms of ability point-wrangling, not any visible squiffy chaos. Again, it’s that issue of the game wanting a single, window-on-the-world perspective at all times, so we’re denied swaying drunkards or visible harpsichord shredding. Alice O observed that Bard IV combat screenshots looked like a motley crowd moshing along to a deliriously OTT metal gig, and man, imagine that roleplaying game.

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Again, this is a beta build, so we might yet see a little more gloss and pep, even though it seems broadly robust and glitch-free. I’d also love to see it resolve a few facepalm issues before full release. E.g. when Ian Tutorial joins your party early in the game but doesn’t give back all the cool loot you equipped him with when he reverts to NPC status later. Or occasional thoughtful savepoint placement, such as my having to repeat an entire, long puzzle-dungeon because immediately after solving it the game threw me down a surprise trapdoor and into a pit of nasty baddies. Just a few polish issues, really, that mean Bard IV occasionally crosses the line from jaunty 90s no-handholding ethos and into Being A Bit Of A Dick.

I reckon they’ll probably have cleaned up many of those acts by the mooted September launch, but I’d also love them to fix NPC faces that look like someone threw a bowl of porridge at a wall and then painted mascara over it. The weird thing there is that some of the environments and the less humanlike characters look half-decent, even if there’s a persistent air of last-generation Plasticine. I couldn’t begin to guess what’s gone wrong, and I’m not usually much of a graphics gonk, but the only people you actually have conversations with looking like dolls that just spent half an hour lying in the middle of a busy road rather lets the side down.

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Far more importantly, I’ve had a good time piecing together these Grimrock-lite puzzle-dungeons, looking out for sigils and buttons that open up new passages, sneaking up on baddies and most of all arranging the jigsaw pieces of my party to take down much stronger foes efficiently.

Bard’s Tale IV feels a bit wonkier and a lot cheaper than I’d been expecting, given the flashy Kickstarter pitch, but it’s definitely onto something – an old-fashioned, party-based dungeon-solving RPG that doesn’t feel too old-fashioned.

The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows Deep is due for release on September 18.
 
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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
https://www.pcgamer.com/a-few-hours-in-the-bards-tale-is-a-captivating-dungeon-crawler/

A few hours in, The Bard's Tale 4 is a captivating dungeon crawler
A modern combat system melded with classic exploring makes for an enticing beta.

Three hours into the beta of The Bard's Tale 4, I realized how late I'd stayed up puzzling my way through the labyrinth beneath a wizard's castle and thought: Damn, this is a really good dungeon. I was engrossed. For the first time, my surrounds were beautiful and fantastical: ethereal light from tall windows cutting through the haze, elaborate gilded statues lining the halls, secret passages rumbling open in innocuous stone walls. The puzzles were clever and quickly escalated from gimmes to satisfying headscratchers. While it takes a couple hours to get going, this feels like exactly the game I hoped The Bard's tale 4 would be: a proper dungeon crawler with a creative combat system that doesn't feel beholden to the past.

The first "dungeon" you'll explore in The Bard's Tale 4 is not a maze of gloomy underground tunnels, absent of life but for the skeletons and goblins you have to kill. It's the lively, un-dungeon-y town of Skara Brae, where NPCs mill around selling soup and armor and commenting on the day's batch of hangings. There's no time wasted here: The local religious order has it out for heretics and adventurers like you, a classic RPG story if ever there was one. But the ability to move freely around without a grid, with characters to talk to and ample voice acting, helps decouple The Bard's Tale 4 from dungeon crawling tradition, especially when you put together your first party of adventurers.

The opening couple hours serve as a tutorial: you'll recruit some named characters from the game's non-human races, an elf and a dwarf and a trow, all of whom are in hot water with the Fatherites, that noose-happy religious group. These characters sub in for the typical dungeon crawler character creation process, so you won't be buried in stats menus for your first half hour. Your party starts small with just a couple characters before you can recruit a full six, keeping the first encounters simple as you learn the basics of combat.

That's probably for the best, as there's a lot to learn here. Combat plays out on a grid, and where your characters are in relation to the enemy is pivotal. Some attacks can only hit the squares directly in front, while others have more range. Abilities and movement pull from a pool of opportunity points, which you can divide up between characters as you please. Crucially, some moves don't cost opportunity, and learning how and when to use those will make bards and spellcasters key to your offense and defense. Spellcasters use spell points to cast magic, which have to be charged up during combat, while bards slam some booze and use drunk stacks to power their own spells.

So far I love this combat system, which will probably be the most controversial element of The Bard's Tale 4's design. It's a far cry from the standard RPG menu of attack/defend/magic/item, with each character proceeding in turn. But even in just a few hours, there's a promising richness to this combat. I quickly found a strategy I liked: throwing down traps that stunned enemies when they were stepped on, then using my fighter's taunt to pull a unit forward onto that space.

The AI, unfortunately, hasn't been too devious: while I've had a few tough battles, I've also fought some that should've been tougher, but ended up a breeze thanks to enemies wasting opportunity points by walking back and forth. I hope the game is still just easing into the hard stuff.

The first few puzzles I encountered were pitifully easy, but were just introducing concepts that would quickly get much more complex and much more fun. These cog puzzles are frequently used to open locked doors, and within a couple hours you'll be swinging them on arms, trying to line up certain cogs to spin and others to stay clear of the mechanism. The harder they get, the more I like them.

The Bard's Tale 4's exploration really started to feel right once I got past the tutorial and started exploring with no waypoints to string me along. While it's cool and exciting to have a hub like Skara Brae filled with NPCs, the town isn't a great showcase for the powerful Unreal Engine 4. You can see where inXile had to stretch its budget: an opening cutscene told via illustrations feels like a placeholder animatic, the lighting's dull, and some character models are, well, not beautiful. Then again, they're peasants; maybe that's appropriate.

The tunnels under Skara Brae, where you quickly flee to escape the Fatherites, are more atmospheric but still largely barren. But I absolutely loved the next area, beneath Kylearan's Tower. There's gorgeous foliage and effervescent mushrooms, a chamber where a spell has sent huge chunk of the ceiling (and a few goblins) floating through the air, hidden passages and treasure chests aplenty. Magic Mouths in some rooms offer clues to the puzzles in amusing verse.

If the rest of The Bard's Tale 4 maintains this level of atmosphere, I'd play through it for the scenery alone. It really nails the vibe that, to me, makes the idea of the dungeon crawler compelling: the sense that a place is alive, yet empty. You're alone in an environment that feels mysterious, braving its traps to fill in the unknown.

There have been puzzles that feel trite—I'm sorry to report you'll be pushing around plenty of blocks—but others clever enough (and presented with just the right fantasy flourish) to keep me engaged as I push deeper. And this is still, really, just the end of The Bard's Tale 4's tutorial: its first main quest, before I've even had the chance to create my own party totally from scratch. That's still an option (and grid movement will be too in the final game, for all you traditionalists out there).

I could point out plenty of little issues I've run into after a few hours with the beta. It's crashed a few times. Characters tend to repeat the same voice lines a little too often, whenever I glance in the direction of a dangerous area or walk by a magic mouth eager to dispense a clue. There are a few typos. There's not enough variety in the character portraits you choose for your party members. Those are the kinds of issues betas are for. The Bard's Tale 4 needs polish, but the fun is already there.
 

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth


https://www.pcgamesn.com/the-bards-tale-iv/the-bards-tale-iv-world-combat-songs-puzzles

Dark Souls level design and tactical drunkenness meet in The Bard's Tale IV

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When designing new dungeon-based levels in games, there’s a single, inescapable shadow that looms over everything: Dark Souls. There’s no denying the impact game director Hidetaka Miyazaki has had on RPGs. Further evidence comes in the form of The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows Deep, which, despite being from the other side of the roleplaying spectrum, owes some of its sensibilities to FromSoftware’s giant.

“We took a lot of inspiration from the Dark Souls series of games,” David Rogers, creative director of The Bard’s Tale IV, reveals. “We really like the player gaining mastery over the environment. As you're exploring you're constantly knocking down bridges, opening up passageways, or throwing grappling hooks to shrink the level.”

“You open up shortcuts that give you faster routes back to town or open new areas,” Rogers continues. “We have these massive levels but they quickly feel as though they shrink down to something manageable as you dominate the space.”

It makes sense that The Bard’s Tale IV would use ideas at the forefront of game design. Once upon a time in a land of Amigas, Commodores, and Spectrums, the original Bard’s Tale was a trailblazer. Its 3D grid-based dungeon crawling and animated character portraits were groundbreaking, resulting in it becoming the best-selling computer RPG of the 1980s, and positioning the series as a true competitor to the Ultima games.

It’s been 30 years since The Bard’s Tale III, but developer inXile still wishes the fourth installment to feel as if it has made the most of three decades worth of innovation. As such, the game has a modern, slick UI, full voice acting that’s keen on the rolling Rs of the Scottish Highlands, and a world that is freely explored without being restricted to movement tiles.

Considering its lineage, it would be easy to expect The Bard’s Tale IV to play akin to Legend of Grimrock, but instead there’s much more of The Elder Scrolls at play - the world of Skara Brae is home to dozens of talkative NPCs, and networks of shadowy cobbled streets that lead you to new treasures and challenges. Among those challenges are a variety of puzzles, ranging from logical simplicity to the truly fiendish.

“We have a certain number of base puzzle systems like you may have to disarm traps by rejiggering like a series of gears to turn off traps or open up secret doors,” Rogers explains. “Or you may even find a weapon that has puzzles built in, such as an image you have to shuffle back together, or channelling power from one end of this magical sword to another. You're going to keep re-encountering these puzzle systems, and they keep getting increasingly complex so you learn upon what you previously played. Then we start combining them in different ways.”

Playing a role in the cracking of codes is the Bard themself. More than just a name on the front of the box, the Bard character class is able to solve problems by literally singing to them, suggesting that blues music was on to something all along. “Songs of Exploration are magical songs,” Rogers says. “They can raise the dead for interrogation, rewind time to rebuild stone structures or knock down walls, or kindly ask the woods to part for your passage.”

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Songs of Exploration certainly sound effective, but for the riskier player there’s something far more tempting: mead, and a heck of a lot of it. Summed up as “tactical drunkenness” by Rogers, the Bard class can chug back alcohol during battle, which helps enhance their spells and buff the party. Take a swig too many, though, and you’ll find your Bard passed flat out on the floor, useless to all but those who need a fleshy door mat. The Bard’s Tale IV’s grid-based combat appears to be full of neat quirks like this that hint at the game’s depth when it comes to character progression.

The Roman numerals suffixed to the game’s title suggests that The Bard’s Tale IV is a game for those previously invested in the series. But that’s not true at all; despite its throwbacks and easter eggs, this is a thoroughly modern game designed for the world of today. Its budget, scale, and ambition means that it falls into an odd mid-point between the vastness of triple-A behemoths like Skyrim and stripped-back indies like Darkest Dungeon.

That positioning could make it awkward for fans of either side of that point to settle into. But should that hurdle pose no problem, and you’ve got an ear for Gaelic folk music, then The Bard’s Tale IV could well be your RPG quest of choice when it launches on September 18.
 
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Cross

Arcane
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Oct 14, 2017
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In their latest desperate attempt at staying relevant, I see Fargo & co. have now discovered the 'Souls-like' buzzword.

It’s been 30 years since The Bard’s Tale III, but developer inXile still wishes the fourth installment to feel as if it has made the most of three decades worth of innovation. As such, the game has a modern, slick UI, full voice acting that’s keen on the rolling Rs of the Scottish Highlands, and a world that is freely explored without being restricted to movement tiles.
InXile sure is lucky that game journalists never played the later Might and Magics, Wizardry 8 and Thunderscape, so that they can present these decades-old features as 'innovations'.
 
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