The Bard's Tale (2005) didn't age well. Graphic is just plain bad for today standard, but that is to be expected for an old game. Unlike the previous Bard's Tale titles, which are classic dungeons crawler. The Bard's Tale (2005) is an action RPG a la Diablo, however it is missing every single element, which makes an ARPG great. There is no loot nor skill/character progession at all, it is as bare bone as it can get. Monoton environment and lack of different enemy types makes it a literal snail paced ARPG. Oh what about the music or sound you might ask? Nope, no battle theme nor background music and maybe 3-4 different sound effects. Did I mention the glorious satisfaction of hitting an enemy (hit detection and feedback)? No? It is like hitting your enemy with a wet noodle. I could rant about the boring level design, which I will, because you are reading my review. Image an epic final battle, which the Bard's Tale won't deliver (joke is on you) , because you are too busy fighting in the same room 13 times interrupted by a long unskippable slow elevator animation and not so fancy panorama view of the freaking elevator until the final Boss, which also induce some serious RL rage in me (oh forgot to mention: SPOILER!) The only redeem factor in this game was the tongue-in-cheek humour, which wasn't LOL worthy,but mildly amusing and kept me going for 12 hours until I beat the game. Would I recommend this game? Serious: NO, but I will, because I want you to experience the not so epic final struggle eh I mean battle (real Rage included)
Wizardry 7 was the first RPG I bought as a teenager and was never able to beat it, despite of different official and inoffical guides. Years after, I replayed Wizardry 7 and was able to progress to the final part of the game, but misplaced the *cursed* serpent staff, hence I wasn't able to beat Wizardry 7. Finally in 2016 I was able to beat both Wizardry 6+7 with my buddy google.com (:-D and was suprised how much fun I had, despite its dated gameplay and level design. Wizardry 6 graphic and sound are nearly unbearable (especially sound effect).You will virtual look at the same grey wall the entire game, which makes navigation impossible, if you don't use a map. There is no mouse control or interface, hence you are forced to use your keyboard. Level design is old school, your party enters a castle, progress to the next floor, each floor is a maze, you find an item move to the next floor. However the detailed class and deep battle system is where Wizardry 6 truly shines. I spent hours of rolling my perfect party (Lord, Valkyrie, Monk, Faery Ninja , Priest, Mage) and leveling/grinding my party to perfection. Wizardry eptomize the classic hardcore RPG, inexorable battles, lots of random encounters, but a strong sense of progression, each level make your party stronger. Wizardry 6 had a well written story + 3 different endings and you can import your entire party to Wizardry 7, which makes Wizardry 7 substantial less grind heavy. Wizardry 7 did improve everything, graphic and sound are much better and there is a proper interface. Wizardry 7 introduced sci-fi elements in the rather classic setting, now you explore an entire planet rather than a castle. It is an open world, bit this also makes Wizardry 7 a lot harder than 6. Moving from A to B is even a bigger issue, because the world is huge and a lot of back tracking is required for many quests (I spent 90% looking at my map than looking at my screen). It is obvious that Wizardry can't be beaten without a proper guide and world map. Overall it was a remarkable enjoyable experience, however I can't recommend Wizardry to casual RPG players.
