In a discussion with Darkest Dungeon fans, some of them claimed that the design team was obligated to diverge so hugely from DDI when creating DDII. You can diverge too far and in the wrong direction.
I sadly did not get the chance to play Bard's Tale back when, because I was busy from 1984-1999 with real-life problems, the military, and working my way through university, and although I had a Commodore 64, I did not have the money or time to play much at that time.
The Bard's Tale series are 4 great games!
In the first one, you are exclusively in various dungeons and towers of Skara Brae. You are hunting down a servant of the Mad God. The mechanisms for fighting and leveling up are very comfortable.
In the second one, you are in Caith generally. You can and must leave Skara Brae to pursue your quest in other towns. Here, you must find the pieces of an ancient artifact to save Caith.
In the third one, the Mad God has destroyed Skara Brae and all of Caith. Here, you are dimension hopping. The first portion of the game is just leveling up your character. Sadly, they did not build-in a mechanism, like we've had for some time now, to level-up the characters. Many people complain about having to dungeon crawl in the labyrinth of the Mad God again.
The fourth one obviously came out much later, and is for another review.
You can have a party of upto 7 characters, or 6, depending upon what mode you choose. You will be challenged with many puzzles and various monsters to fight. I love that they provide the old cloth map. I intend to get them all taken to a print shop and hang them on the wall with my BG I and II and IWD I and II maps. Modern creators under-estimate the charm of a cloth map.
