The Bards Tale
The Bard's Tale was the great-grandfather of modern-day computer role-players. This updated version brings back the fun and adventure, as you play The Bard -- a hero who's only after coins and cleavage. Is a dragon attacking a village? He'll face it, for the right price. Has a princess been kidnapped? He'll save her, but only if she's hot. Comedy and fantasy action combine for a uniqe 3D role-playing experience!
The Bards Tale Accessories
 Fable: The Lost Chapters
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance
Jade Empire
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2
Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes
The Bard's Tale (Prima's Official Strategy Guide)
Oddworld Stranger's Wrath
Demon Stone
Sudeki
Elder Scrolls III Morrowind
The Bards Tale Reviews
The original Bard's Tale was a classic example of one these open, statistic driven American games. The basic story is that your character of the Bard gets drafted into being `The Chosen One', and ends up trying to rescue to a trapped princess. Over all I found that the controls worked pretty well. Ask anyone who has ever played any Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior game and you will find this is true.
Nothing overly special, but nothing shoddy either. The character you control and the games narrator often banter with each other, usually to humorous effect. No wide eye farm boys, elven princesses, or honor seeking knights here. You are often give at least two response choices, a nice response, and a `snarky' response. Players would often run around the game world trying to build up their character statistics as high as possible. You use the primary buttons to attack, block, jump, and activate things with. The menu based combat of old is replaced with good ol' hack and slash button mashing fun.
This humorous script writing even shows up when you engage other characters in dialog. Other than the script writing and humor, the other place this game shines is the sound effects and music department. This trend has even continued into the new century. This is an attitude that never changes in the game, fortunately.
You quickly find many other `Chosen Ones' who have met a sad fate, and also discover that all is not as it seems. Once upon a time (80's, 90's), you could've roughly split up computer and console role-playing games (RPGs) into two groups: Japanese RPGS and American RPGS. Overall, I really enjoyed this game and highly recommend. I was happy with the graphics. Two series that were the hallmark of this type of game were Wizardry, and The Bard's Tale. The left and right trigger buttons activate your summoning spells.
You control a singular character from an overhead view, while partaking in multiple story and non-story related quests. It sure sucks to be the chosen one. He is very fond of beer and the ladies, and doesn't have any loftier goals than finding a warm bed to crash in at night, preferably accompanied with a barmaid. Just compare Morrowind to Final Fantasy X: an open book versus a staged Soap Opera. The emphasis of these games was enjoying the gameplay, not the story. Both titles are good games, just very different. And, in another departure from traditional RPGs, the character you control isn't your typical hero.
The controls are fairly simple. Another difference with this Bard's Tale is that it is a humorous game. The game mechanics were just a mechanism to move the story forth. Enjoyment of the tale the game presented was the main goal of Japanese RPGs. One would never think that such drunken lout would make such a great chosen one. You quickly find out being nice doesn't help you get what you want.
The Bard's Tale for Xbox and PS2 is a new title in a very old gaming franchise. It parodies other games in the genre, picks on common elements such as killing rats, opening random treasure chests, chosen ones, and has a very witty script to back it up with. Unlike the previous titles which had somewhat serious stories to follow, this game is a laugh all the way through. You created a party of characters using Dungeons and Dragons like statistics.
American RPGs on the other hand tended to be very open adventures with a very heavy emphasis on exploration, character development, and game statistics in general. The `story' of these games worked more like a general game playing guideline than a strong dramatic plot. Summoning can get a little tricky in the heat of battle so you generally want to do that in advance. Before talking about the game directly, let me tell you a brief bit about the history of its genre. After that, you would return to the inn to gain levels, heal your party members, and then repeat the whole process over again. The sounds always seem to be on cue, and I loved all the amusing sing-a-long songs they had in the game. Character advancement was not nearly as important as story advancement. The stories presented would give you a rough idea of what needed to be done next, but would rarely push you into doing anything in particular until you really felt like unlocking some new area or getting some special item.
This new Bard's Tale eschews that type of design completely, opting for instead a Diablo type action RPG style of control and play. Then you would run around a pseudo 3D dungeon, kill monsters, and collect treasure. I found the Bard's dialog to be a constant source of amusement. He's a roguish bard who takes advantage of people whenever he can. Japanese RPGs tended to focus strongly on a plot.
Once you beat the game you cannot replay your character. You can raise levels but it's not that fun and the monsters keep getting stronger as you raise levels. This game is sad. Is this game honestly supposed to compete with Elder Scrolls 3 and 4, Dungeon Siege, Diablo 2, etc etc etc. The drawbacks are almost too numerous to mention. The magic items are idiotic.
You have to be a bard. You can summon a few monsters but most of them you don't find until the very last tower. This has got to be the saddest RPG I have purchased in recent memory. You can only have one character in your party. Look elsewhere for your RPG's, guys.
I never took it out of my XBOX until I finished. The Bard has great wit and the help you can summon for battles was a nice touch. I was not expecting such an entertaining humorous game and this was a real treat. This game reeks of character and in the end it is what I love about it. I bought the game because a friend of mine recommended it. The story line and humor kept me looking forward to playing every night until I finished the game. I am glad I drank the punch. The best $20 I spent on a game in a long time.
The gameplay is somewhat challenging. The summoned creatures, I have to admit, are a lot of fun. After you win the game you cannot "go back" and play your character. All those levels, all that treasure and upgrading for nothing. This, although much modernized game, is completely different. You can eventually summon up to three allies, choosing from sixteen creatures. These include an archer, a knight, and a rat. This too is a drawback, I think (it's like penalizing you for growing stronger).
That's it. This is far removed from the old game system where you could sit and munch doritos while your hearty adventuring party pounded the snot out of hordes of monsters. For those of you (like myself) who played the old school Bard's Tale: Thief of Fate and it's sequels, this game is completely unlike the originals. You will probably find yourself dying a few times and having to reboot your saved game.
The closest thing you can get to infinite gameplay is if you simply do not enter the last tower. The game is over. I played this game for a week and traded it in for another game. Gone are the seemingly unending dungeon crawls, the parties of six cusomizeable, leveleable, equipable adventurers. Many of these creatures are upgradeable. Another down side is that the game has very limited replayability.
The fights actually become more difficult rather than getting easy as you become more powerful. The rat, for example, can be upgraded into the "vorpal rat," which, although weak, is capable of inflicting huge ammounts of damage. Because the combat is real time, you are forced to button-mash and pay VERY close attention to what's going on at all times. It is viewed in 3rd person, real time, extremely limited in size (compaired to its predecessors), and has but one character (which must be.you guessed it.a bard) which does gain xp and level but is not nearly as interresting or customizeable as the old parties of six plus one summoned creature. The only bad thing about them is that many of these cool and interresting creatures are only found (and therefore, only useable) in the very last dungeon (which is actually a tower). Some of the fights were challenging enough that I died five to ten times, but I was eventually able to overcome them all and win the game.
Even a very weak monster can kill the bard if you're not paying attention. Wandering monsters automatically grow stronger as you gain levels. This is why I suggest you save your money and rent it for a week. Others do area effect attacks. This leaves you with wandering monsters, scant (and unimagineative) treasure and only leveling your bard. Different combinations of summoned creatures enable you to have, for example, a blocking summoned creature supported by a healer and a high damager.
The intricate mazes filled with darkness, traps and hordes of (sometimes enormous groups) monsters.
how delightfully skewed this game is. I'm not your typical video-game playerI'm a 28 year old woman, a wife, and a mother, with a professional career. Random characters pop up and sing songs. I am totally loving this game.
Love it. It is not, mind you, for everyonethere aren't any loud explosions and realistic machine-gun fire or anything like that.
But I must say, it really and truly grabbed me. It occurred to me, as my little Bard character was walking around, about to shoot some crows, followed by his little dog and the crone he'd summoned ("covered in sores and tattoos" no less).
But this game is such fun. Your adventure is narrated by an elegantly disdainful commentator.
I don't have a lot of time to play video games, which explains why I'm just now getting around to playing thisand I received it as a Christmas gift. There are grutuitous close-ups of ample cleavage.
Ah, I just love this game.
|
