Posted on: September 3, 2019

Aikahu

Games: Reviews: 5

Old school fun with a few small flaws.

Bard's Tale IV Director's Cut is a nod to classic RPGs from the 1980's such as Bard's Tale 1-3. The combat is turn based good fun, especially on the harder difficulties where you have to really think about what you are doing. On the lower levels it suffers a little because it's too easy and you will win almost no matter what you do, but the hardest two levels shine. The music in the game is outstanding, sung by traditional musicians in Gaelic. The music alone is worth the price of the game! Buy it for the music, and if you like the game too, then bonus! The game is atmospheric and a blend of first person exploration in a detailed world, third person turn based combat. I believe the best way to play this is without internet spoilers, at least your first time through. The game rewards paying close attention to the world with hidden areas you may otherwise pass by without noticing, and the thrill of discovering them is part of the fun. There are some bugs in the first release and I'm sure the developer will patch them over time, but nothing to prevent you from playing and enjoying it already. Recommended for fans of older RPGs updated to modern graphics and sound. The game has a few flaws for sure, but they're easy to forget about once you get lost in the BT IV world. If you're looking for an action RPG, this is not going to be your game. If you are looking for a slower paced, more thoughtful game that rewards observation and careful exploration, this may be just your ticket.

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Posted on: June 27, 2020

Draugusto

Verified owner

Games: 484 Reviews: 208

This game is soul food to me

Ok, I'm 65 hours in, near the final chapter I assume, but I think I've seen enough, I can't recommend this game enough, I usually get tired of a game after the 30 hour mark, but not on this one - Graphics are nice, they are consistent and fit pecfertly for the whole high fantasy and simetimes I just stopped to admire the view while listening to the awesome.. -Music, the music alone sold me on this one, as soon as the main menu appeared I was awe struck by the performance and sat there, listening to the title music for a couple of minutes, and that wazs not the last time it happened, some times I was walking around and suddenly had to stop to listen to the beautiful singing - The battle mechanics are interesting, you need the synergy of your character abilities to pull some crazy damage, unfortunately you are not able to change your active skills mid-battle and this limitation on skill slots gets in the way if you want to equip an item that grants you a new skill or two - There is a huge amount of puzzles and riddles, this game wants you to read the lore and pay attention, and I love it for it, few puzzles are difficult and the most difficult of all is totally optional (to me it was the one with the horses in Harkyn's place), take notes!! Ok, I woulñd like to talk more about the great momets in my playthrough, but character limitation forces me to skip to the bad things - The game crashes, it has crashed on me around 10 times, it's no more than an annoyance to me since I save frequently (don't play with the "save anywhere" turned off!!) - even with my fairly capable machine the fps drops sometimes, again, it means nothing to me, but I can only imagine the pain for someone with a less powerful pc - later in the game you'll fight undead that automatically revive under certain circunmstances and if they do so while there's another skeleton on top of them they might become invisible, it was hilarious but that's the closest to a glitch I have found so far

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Posted on: January 25, 2022

Android8675

Verified owner

Games: 296 Reviews: 12

It feels like Bard's Tale.

Been playing off and on since I founded this game on Kickstarter. My initial experience wasn't outstanding. I quickly put down the game only to "give it another shot" when I got my new system that lets me run with Ultra settings. So I've played the first three Bard's Tale games on my Atari Systems and enjoyed them immensely, but I never finished any of them. (Short attention span?) I've been playing BT4 and starting out I got incredibly frustrated with the map waypoints and quest system and the UI. It's not super intuitive. I don't know how to describe it, but like having to bring up the M)ap, then click quests too see the quests then back to map after selecting a quest only to have no idea if there's a "goal" location because it's sometimes not obvious weather or not there should be a waypoint. I guess my problem is I'm so used to games that say, here's the quest, go THIS WAY with a giant arrow pasted across the map. BT4 doesn't always/usually do that instead actually relying on you to [gasp] READ THE TEXT, or one of the "lore" books you happened to grab without reading, and some of the quests aren't just "go out and kill something", you might end up trying to figure out something that takes you across several areas before you finally go, Oh cool, I got that thing that that guy back in Skara Brae wanted me to get 10 hours ago! or here decode the code using this bardic song. The game doesn't really become fun until you get out of Skara Brae. A few times I found myself back tracking when I didn't have too. Once I got into the right mindset, it became easier. Combat is fun, you die a lot, but you don't lose unless your whole party dies, sometimes that one "practictioner" (Wizard) stays in it long enough to win it. I wish you could auto-clean your inventory, again a lot of things about this UI could use an overhaul. It's too bad they didn't hire a UI guy early on. Good game so far, will add a review if I ever finish. (GoG needs to allow longer reviews) -A.

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Posted on: January 16, 2024

merkavro

Verified owner

Games: 225 Reviews: 9

a total diassapointment

I loved playing the original Bard's Tale on my Commodore 64 in the 1980s so I figured that this would be enjoyable but it is completely unplayable due to buggy combat mechanics. Playing for a while and I am doing well against challenging mobs. I fight 3 waves of 4 mages and clerics and don't loose a guy even though the difficulty is red and my party says "oooh I dunno if we can win this". The next battle is just 2 fighters and an archer indicating easy 'green' difficulty and my party says "this isn't even a fair fight" and they are correct because by whole party gets wiped out with 1-hit kills and I don't even get a hit on them because for some reason I have 'insufficient opportunity' to have an ac tion even though I initiated combate while hidden in shaddows thgat should give me the initiative and first attack. Sure I get first attack with no action points on any team member and the 3 weak and under-leveled opponents kill me in a turn. I reload save game and try again and again and again.... about 8 times with the exact same result. So I give up and uninstall and warn you that this game is complete garbage

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Posted on: May 23, 2020

liquidkoshman

Verified owner

Games: 383 Reviews: 3

New meets old

I haven't played a deep CRPG in a long time. I didn't even know this existed but based on the trailers liked it immediately. I am aware of the original trilogy but never played it extensively. World - this style of fantasy is so much fun - a kind of epic heroic bardic culture of adventure and camaraderie, the music that is not only simply great but more importantly fitting elevates the whole experience. The game draws a fine line between epic adventure and satire, it never takes itself too seriously and it just works. Gameplay - battle system is deep and fun. It manages to make turn based battles well paced and dynamic - no easy task. Every type of character is useful. Even a tank-less party made up of practitioners, bard and rogue (archer) turned out to be very effective. - character development system is enjoyable, I look forward to every level up. Each ability has tangible effect on your party effectiveness. - puzzles - I was surprised by how big role puzzles have in the game - when you're in a dungeon you're ~50% fighting enemies and 50% solving puzzles. It works great - I feel this has been sorely missing in lots of new games which are often mindless romps. This is old school dungeon of the DM or EOB kind and it's paradoxically such a breath of fresh air. Technical - as already said the music is incredible as is the voice acting. Once again to drive the point home - I really love the music:) - graphically I like it - I'm sure there are prettier games but it still looks good. I'm playing on Intel IGP so everything low and it is barely playable, but enough to enjoy it. - one potential criticism - I had to get used to the fact that unlike a game like say Deus Ex this is limited in where you can go and explore, you can't even jump down from a safe height there are invisible barriers everywhere. In time I got used to it and I think it helps the gameplay stay focused on quests and puzzles - kind of a RPG/adventure hybrid. Give it a try you just might love it!

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Highlights

Featured

Close, but not an exact hit

The Bard's Tale IV: Director's Cut - Standard Edition

Customize How You Play

Create the Hero You Want To Be

Craft your Party, Your Way

Outsmart Evil

Unlock the Secrets of the Past

The Blade’s Tale

New Song of Exploration “Strugglers’ Lament”

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