© 2005 inXile entertainment. All rights reserved. The Bard's Tale is a trademark or registered trademark of inXile entertainment in certain countries; and is a trademark or registered trademark of Electronic Arts Inc. in certain other countries where it is used under license. inXile entertainment and the inXile logo are trademarks of inXile entertainment.
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Posted on: July 23, 2022
xaero47
Verified ownerGames: 132 Reviews: 89
LOL
Great game, despite its age. Probably has the best script for a game along with Soul Reaver 2 that I've ever seen, funniest game I've ever seen. Has tons of upgrades, good summoning system and you'll never be bored with it, it has tons of value.
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Posted on: December 20, 2023
jpierres
Verified ownerGames: 107 Reviews: 2
Manual is in GOG Galaxy folder
Worked on Windows 10 but made me motion sick Keyboard controls: See C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\The Bard's Tale\!Downloads \bards_tale_manuals.zip\manuals\The Bard's Tale (2005) - Manual.pdf Summary: Game menu - toggle Esc (load, options, exit) Stats - Right MB on upper left health icon (coins & crystals, quest log, equip/tune/talent/token lists) Inventory (on world map) - Tab Move - Right MB Attack - Left MB (hold ~1 sec for bow) Block - Space Use/Action - F (Pickup, Talk, Save at rotating book, etc) Quick Heal - R Choose dialogue - Left MB on head icons at top Artifacts menu - 1 (or Shift D) then W/A/S/D to use chosen item Melee Weapons menu - 2 (or Shift W) then W/A/S/D to equip chosen weapon (sword, etc) Summon Creatures menu - 3 (or Shift S) then W/A/S/D for type, W/A/S/D for spell Order Creatures Menu - Aggressive stance - Up arrow (or Alt W?) Defensive stance - Down arrow (or Alt S?) Stay - Left arrow (or Alt A?) Come to me - Right arrow (or Alt D?) Special Weapons menu - 4 (or Shift A) then W/A/S/D for item (bow, etc)
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Posted on: November 13, 2019
awsomewelles
Verified ownerGames: 381 Reviews: 3
Repetitive, in spite of he humour
I never played any of the Bard's Tale games before, and didn't quite know what to expect. The game starts out in a promising way, and after the introductory adventure, I had got my hopes up; the quest, the banter between the Bard and the unimpressed narrator and the effort put into the songs created a fun and enjoyable little world. However, the further I ventured out from the starting villlage of Houton, the bad level design, repetitive combat and bad controls took its toll on my enjoyment. One level had me fighting about 20 set fights without much variation in enemies or difficulty. The repetitiveness was made much worse by several unnecessary deaths as the Bard repeatedly got stuck in a power-shot mode with his bow and couldn't move away from enemy attacks. Another had me fighting through three levels of unvaried enemies (though there were the ocasional fun traps) only to have to fight my way down three levels again through one recurring mix of other enemies. Another design choice that added to the repetitiveness was that all enemies respawn if you come back to a place you had visited before. I didn't mind that too much in the beginning, but since it also occured on visiting houses or shops in a city, it got tedious to have to fight the same enemies over and over again. The game does have a few good components though. I would have liked the rest of the world to be The tavern in Houton was immersive and fun, and it would have been great if the rest of the world and its interactions would have been as well developed. I also liked the summoning system and would have liked it to be developed even further to include more options than "attack" or "stay back". Without more varied enemies and fixing the twitchy combat controls, such development would probably not add much to the gameplay. In summary, the game has some good ideas and concepts and a world that has some good potential, but the gameplay and combat system takes away all the fun in the long run.
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Posted on: June 11, 2022
LiorHecht
Verified ownerGames: Reviews: 1
A wonderful parody of old fantasy tropes
While the gameplay is outdated, the comedy isn't, and this is what this game is mainly about - comedy. this is a paradoy for all the fantasy cliches of fantasy, most of which is still prevelant today, two decades afte this game was published. Every once in a while I look if there is any new game like this one, alas these are rare and fewer made me laugh as much as the "chosen one" songs.
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Posted on: December 8, 2015
Klumpen0815
Verified ownerGames: 1797 Reviews: 63
Nice try... or not
Based on the Linux port: My first thought was "Looks, feels and controls like a PS2 game" and guess what: It is a PS2 game indeed that was ported to all kinds of platforms by now. I've finished it in about 14,5 hours with all three endings although had to spend more time due to unacceptable bugs (see further below). It's meant as a satire to all RPGs and falls flat in most regards. Although some short passages are funny, it's too much impersonating what it's trying to mock in a quite repetitive way and is trying too hard to be funny in a mostly sarcastical and cynical way. It would need a bit deeper characters and more kinds of humour to work. Questing is linear, grinding is not too bad although there often isn't much else besides grinding. Gamepad support is there (not only XBox), but there is no button mapping and the Y- and X-axis of the right stick was mixed up on my pad. The save system relies on checkpoints which was a particularly bad idea as seen below. The Linux port has [b]massive technical problems[/b]. 1. The old games simply won't start at all. If you choose them from the menu, you only get the "help" tab. You have to hack in the password protected and disguised archives in the games folder containing the games and then run them in an emulator if you want to play them. 2. There are a few bugs in the game where a script doesn't work and you have to try over and over again in order to be able to make the story go on. 3. There's a really mean lighting bug causing to randomly spread one color over a whole area, slowing down the game to about 0,5 - 2 frames per second and forcing you to reload from the last checkpoint. I had to do this over and over again in order to finish this game. After all those years of updates, I expected it to be at least free of the worst bugs... I'll never touch this game again and wouldn't recommend it to most people, if you're in the mood for cheap satire and a hardcore fan of Brian Fargo, you could try it though.
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