This is used in the crafting aspect so it's not a waste, but seriously, wood in a treasure chest? The first twenty plus hours of the game felt like I was being rewarded with absolute craft. Time and time I'd come across a treasure chest, open it up, and find. And when you do have the money, they won't have what you need. This wouldn't be so bad if it was easier to buy equipment, but not only are shops slow to become available, you will rarely have the money to actually buy anything. And to be clear, I'm not talking skills in light, medium, and heavy armor, but as I said, 12+ (ok, maybe not that many, but it's close). That means that even if your fighter picks up a piece or armor, there's a strong change she won't have the skill for it. So remember that skill tree I mentioned? You've got something like 12+ or more skills related to armor. now for the bad.įirst, the game is incredibly stingy. Interesting "puzzle weapons", a really good soundtrack at times, and more. It never takes out an enemy but it makes me laugh every time I use it. Every time she drinks (bards drink for spells), she'll throw her tankard at the enemy for a small amount of damage. She has the best skill I've ever seen in a game - mean drunk. Speaking of bards, I absolutely love mine in game. You can also craft potions and equipment. ![]() You heal, mainly, by eating, and you can craft different types of food with different healing qualities while traveling. There's a crafting aspect that's really well done. While not an action RPG by any means, this does give a small taste of one.Īnd speaking of combat, it's a minor thing, but actually seeing my spells, spells I first used thirty plus years ago playing BT1, was pure joy. You can also also wait for enemies to turn around to attack them and get initiative. These hints let you know if you're ready to take them on of if you should haul ass and turn around. You also get hints before you engage an enemy. To be honest this really threw me at first but once I got the hang of it, I rather enjoyed it. While still turn based, it takes place on a 8x8 grid (2 rows of 4 on each side) where position is much more important than it was in earlier games. Similarly, for my rogue I avoided poisons and traps and focused more on theft and arrows.Ĭombat is also updated. ![]() For example, I ignored the summoning skills. This is especially true of the magic users as you can focus on the style of magic you think is best. The skill tree is varied (and beautifully designed too) and lets you have very different characters with the same archetype. You pick a base character type, like bard, fighter, practioner (magic class), and then use skills to customize your character. Character creation, and setup, is uniquely different compared to BT1-3. I almost quit today and I'm glad I didn't, but overall it feels like a game that is real close to greatness but just has too many issues to really be great. But for every aspect I think is neat, it's got a corresponding aspect that bugs the hell out of me. Normally I try to wait till I finish a game before I review it, but I'm not sure if I will or rage-quit. It's a bit old now (Game Pass generally has older games, but sometimes will have new releases) but as I had recently enjoyed playing the updated older trilogy, I figured I'd give it a shot. Rather, this game is a proper entry in the earlier trilogy. I played all of BT1 and a bit of BT2.Īnyway, when I saw the entry on Game Pass, I actually mistook it for "The Bards Tale", which was made a decade ago and has nothing to do with the original trilogy. The graphics are updated, the UX remodelled for a controller in a really sensible manner, and, thank god, automapping. A few months back, I discovered there was a remastered collection available on XBox. I played it, and BT2 and 3, on an Apple 2+ in glorious green monochrome colors. ![]() I cut my teeth on that game as a kid, drawing maps out on hex paper and actually learning hex so I could edit my save games and cheat. At first, I thought it was a different game. This is their "Netflix-style" service that offers a library of games you can play for a monthly fee. I first ran across "Bards Table IV" (BT4 from now on) while perusing the list of games available on XBox Game Pass. (My last one was a review of my Arcade1Up machine and I still love it!) As I'm spending a lot more times indoors lately (thank you Corona!) I've had a chance to play quite a bit more and I figured it couldn't hurt to start up the review process again. It's been sometime since I've posted a video game review.
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