Reviewed: December 14, 2004
Reviewed by: Roger Cox

Publisher
Vivendi Universal Games
inXile Entertainment

Developer
inXile Entertainment

Released: October 26, 2004
Genre: Action / RPG
Players: 1
ESRB: Teen

9
8
9
8
9.0

Supported Features

The Bard's Tale is an action/role-playing game in which the player takes on the role of the Bard – a sardonic and opportunistic musician and adventurer, driven by carnal rather than noble pursuits. The Bard is not interested in saving the world; his motivations are strictly "coin and cleavage."

A truly non-linear game, the player chooses the Bard's responses towards other characters he encounters with either 'snarky' or 'nice' dialogue. Each choice changes the course of events in the game. The action takes place in medieval times in a land based on the Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland – the inspiration for many of the classic fantasy stories.

This modern interpretation of the original Bard's Tale, the grandfather of all role-playing games, by the original producer - Brian Fargo features:

• A new generation third-person, action/role-playing game that features truly wicked humor and clever personality.
• Forget the quest to save the world; this hero is interested in just two things – coin and cleavage.
• A deep role-playing experience with non-linear game play resulting in many different outcomes and true replay value.
• Using the Snarky/Nice conversation system lets you choose the tone of the Bard's interactions. Make your choice and live with the consequences. (one of the coolest features)
• Develop your combat party by summoning a group of eccentrics and misfits to do your bidding.
• Solid graphics and bustling environments, alive with interactive townsfolk, original music (with singing), birds, animals, rustling trees, waving grass and trickling water.
• Based on the storied land of the Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland - the inspiration for the classic fantasy worlds.
• Driven by the next generation of Snowblind's Everquest: Champions of Norrath Engine.

The Bard’s Tale starts out with you deciding the difficulty (Easy, Normal, or Olde School). After that you will be taken to the character generation screen where you can allocate the Bards attributes to your liking. If you don’t wish to do it yourself, then you can select “Auto Allocate” and the game will do it for you. It’s basically a predetermined amount of skill points that you can distribute amongst your: strength, vitality, luck, dexterity, charisma, and rhythm. Each one has its own advantages.

After that you will need to select a talent. The large list of special talents includes; Two-handed Weapons, Duel Wield, Flail, Shield Bash, Riposte, Heavy Parry, Shield Charge, Blade Dash, Spinning Smash, Whirlwind, Power Shot, Arrow Storm, Critical Strike, Improved Critical Strike, and Treasure Hunter. You will learn more talents as the game progresses, utilizing “power ups” you earn by winning battles. After selecting one, the Bard’s Tale begins.

You begin your quest with a simple sword and some modest armor. As the game progresses, you can upgrade the Bard’s weapons and defenses by exploring or going to village merchants. There is a nice variety of weapon to choose from, such as dirks, swords, two-handed weapons, flails, and bows. Each weapon has different levels of quality and effectiveness. It’s fun to purchase things because each item you select is described in great detail by the merchants.

To buy these things you obviously need money. This can be obtained by killing creatures and foes or completing certain quests. Money is important for upgrading weapons and armor throughout the game as well as buying the Bard out of precarious situations.

As you progress through the game, you will learn or be taught new tunes to play. You will also collect new instruments, which will summon creatures to help you during battle. They will do your bidding after you give them orders such as: come to me, stay where you are, attack, and back off. In total, there are 16 different summon creatures. There is a unique 4 second tune for each creature you summon. Summoning creatures requires you to put away your weapon(s) and pull out an instrument to play the tune. Each time you play a tune there is a mana cost that will be subtracted from your mana pool.

Your mana and health regenerate over time, although mana regenerates much faster than health. In order to heal faster, you must cast a spell that you have learned. However doing so eats up precious crystals. You collect these crystals by killing enemies or finding them along the way.

Fighting is easy and effective. By simply tapping the X button, the character swings his sword and then, immediately after killing an enemy, he will swing at the next nearest enemy. It’s nice that you don’t have to turn your character 180 degrees in order to attack the enemy behind you. Fighting is repetitive, but there is always a humorous scene to interrupt the mindless hack-n slashing.

You would think that most of your experience points would come from tedious leveling up, but not so in The Bard’s Tale. Here, experience is gained by performing quests. So, as the story proceeds, you do as well, leveling up as quickly as is needed in order to defeat the ever increasingly difficult enemies. You do have the option of going to the world map and leveling up.

When you go into a battle from the world map, you are placed in an environment in which you must kill a certain number of enemies in order to leave and return to the world map. The enemies are spread throughout small environments and you must hunt them down. At the top of the screen is the number of enemies you have killed out of the total number of enemies left (EX: 0/7). The only time you are in the world map is while traveling between towns and forests.

A very nice map is located in the upper right hand corner of the screen that shows the layout of the land and where enemies are located. You can turn it on, off, or enlarge it to cover the whole screen. The map is translucent so you can theoretically play the game while the map covers your entire screen. Although it’s doable, I wouldn’t recommend it. It becomes difficult to see what you are doing and increases your likelihood of dying during battle. Because of the game’s overhead viewpoint, enemies can easily sneak up on you, making the map vitally important to watch at all times.

The map has a “Key” that displays what each symbol on the map represents. For example, the yellow dot represents the destination of your goal. It’s nice to know what you need to do next in order to proceed, as well as where to travel. Checking your stats is as simple as hitting the “select” button. From here you can view your current quest information, along with all of your prior quests.

There is no auto save or checkpoints here and it’s surprisingly easy to die in this game. With that being said, never skip an opportunity to save your progress. You can’t save at any time, only at designated save points, which are frequent throughout the game.

As far as the controls are concerned, they have been well mapped out and are easy to get used to. The only problem is the manual camera, which I will discuss later.

The only negative thing about the gameplay is that there are some minor slow downs during big battles. It doesn’t happen very often and when it does, it’s only for a split second. Overall, the gameplay is rock solid. Inxile Entertainment went with a tried and true formula and merged it with an original style, presentation, and story. Be forewarned, once you get into this game you won’t be able to get out. It’s very addicting.

With that being said, you should know that The Bard’s Tale has solid graphics that look a little dated because of the rehashed game engine. It would have been nice to see Inxile make their own engine and push the PS2’s graphical performance a little more, but for what they had they did a great job.

The pre-rendered levels really stand out. When walking through the forest the plants pop out at you, creating an almost creating holographic effect. Most of the levels are very colorful and bright.

The camera is fixed above the main character, much like Baldur’s Gate. This proves to be a major problem at times, primarily during difficult battles when you don’t have enough fingers to attack and move the camera at the same time. It’s frustrating that there is no auto follow camera. Instead, you must manually adjust it using the right analog stick or it will remain stationary.

The sound effects are equally as satisfying throughout the game. Everything from the monster’s groans to the clanging of your sword in battle is here. Each environment sounds great and sets the tone/feel of the game. For example, when you are standing in a forest, you can hear the leaves rustling in the wind and the birds chirping. They sound so good that I’d swear I was outside in the spring. Someone obviously went outside and recorded what a forest sounds like because it’s right on the money.

It’s amazing how sound alone can make or break a game. I can honestly say that without a well written, funny as hell script, and “AAA” voice acting, The Bard’s Tale would be your average Action/RPG with a handful of original ideas.

Everything in the game is explained verbally and in great detail, from the items you purchase to the tunes you play. For each creature you summon there is a tune your character plays. The towns are alive with people, chickens, cows, and dogs. Everyone in town is more than willing to talk to you, unless of course they are busy. People will even say “excuse me” if you get in their way. Sit back and relax, for this is one of the few RPG where you don’t need to sit close to the TV in order to follow the story.

My only gripe is that there is very little background music to speak of, and the only time you will notice it is when you are in town or during an in game cinematic.

This is the type of game you can’t wait to tell friends about after you beat the game or finally put down the controller. It’s one of the few games this year were I found myself promoting and telling people about it. After playing The Bard’s Tale you feel the same excitement you do after watching a hilarious movie in the sense that you can’t wait to tell people about it.

The replay value The Bard’s Tale has is amazing. It’s one of the few RPG that is just as much fun to watch as it is to play. Friends of mine would come over and spend hours laughing themselves silly while I played. What really keeps you playing by yourself is a feature known as the “Advanced Attitude System.”

Throughout the game there are hundreds of different conversations you will have. It’s in these instances that you can choose to respond to their comments by being nice or a smart ass. Your decision will change the course of the game. Sometimes you will beat yourself up for being a smart ass, while other times you will beat yourself up for not. This simple feature not only makes the game immediately fun, but it gives you as the player a feeling of empowerment. It’s always tempting to be a jerk just to see what the other person’s reaction will be. Sometimes they will respond better to you if you aren’t nice and that’s what makes the game interesting. After beating the Bard’s Tale I am replaying it because I have to hear all of the hilarious reactions people have.

There is extra content in the game that you can unlock if you are willing to donate money to different churches. Doing so will open up some fun behind –the-scenes material that you can access through the main menu.

The Bard’s Tale is a game that you can proudly place on your shelf. Make sure it’s in your PS2 this year or at least on your Christmas list.