Bard's Tale The Bard's Tale Trilogy - remaster by Krome Studios

[cvv]

Who looks for story or realism in blobbers? Or in videogames?

The "I play games for the story" crowd.

Yes but they're all under 10 years old, which is roughly the age most videogame stories are aimed at, so they're irrelevant.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Hello. Is The Bard's Tale Trilogy any fun? I haven;t played the originals back in the day and most of my experience with blobbers comes from Might and Magic or Wizardry 8. I read that it's a bit simplistic and the story is meh but that wouldn't be a problem as long as it shines in different areas. Thanks.

You could give BT1 a spin, it's p. cool. But don't bother with the others, BT2 is just masochism incarnate, and BT3 is meh.

 

[octavius]

Who looks for story or realism in blobbers? Or in videogames?

The "I play games for the story" crowd.

Yes but they're all under 10 years old, which is roughly the age most videogame stories are aimed at, so they're irrelevant.

They are not irrelevant when they are such a large segment that the market caters to them.

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

How do I save? Playing BT1, legacy mode

 

[octavius]

How do I save? Playing BT1, legacy mode

Assuming things work as in the original (which it should):
Go to the Adventurers Guild.
This will also mean it's dawn when you exit the guild.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

It's like this, perhaps?

Spoiler

Get that pencil and paper ready.

Spoiler

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

it's
CONTRACTION

1. it is.
   "it's my fault"

 

[MaDPuPPeT]

How do I save? Playing BT1, legacy mode

Assuming things work as in the original (which it should):
Go to the Adventurers Guild.
This will also mean it's dawn when you exit the guild.

Hit F10 to open the pause menu. hit save.
(f5 for quicksave / f6 for quickload)

If you are playing in legacy mode with "save only at guild" option enabled, then yeah, you can only do this from the Adventure Guild.

 

[Infinitron]

Bard's Tale has been assimilated:

Available now for PC on Steam and GOG. Arriving on August 13th, 2019 for Xbox One, Microsoft Store, and as a "Play Anywhere" Game Pass title! Arriving later this year on Mac.

 

[LESS T_T]

https://www.reddit.com/r/inXile/comments/cl57n4/updates_on_the_bards_tale_and_wasteland_remasters/

With The Bard’s Tale IV: Director’s Cut and Wasteland 3 on the horizon, it’s a fantastic time for RPG fans to go back to where it all began with The Bard’s Tale Trilogy, arriving on Xbox and PC with Xbox Game Pass on August 13 and with a major update on Steam and GOG. Later this year Wasteland 30th Anniversary Edition will also be landing, a remaster of the original classic that began the post-apocalyptic gaming genre.





Some old friends await!


The 1985 classic The Bard’s Tale, along with its two sequels, revolutionized and helped define the growing computer RPG genre. Three years later, Wasteland brought the post-apocalypse to gaming with narrative innovations that helped inspire many future games, including the Fallout series. Last year, The Bard's Tale Trilogy released on Steam and GOG to popular acclaim and now both of these classics are being remastered and are arriving on Xbox One and for PC on the Microsoft Store, and both will be available with Xbox Game Pass at launch. Wasteland 30th Anniversary Edition will also be coming to Steam and GOG as well on its release date.




The information you need to save the world!


The Bard’s Tale Trilogy features all three original games (Tales of the Unknown, The Destiny Knight, and Thief of Fate), each remastered with updated graphics and audio that still retain the 8-bit spirit of the originals. The Bard’s Tale series pioneered the ability to transfer your characters from the first game to the next, and that’s been recreated in the Trilogy, allowing you to form a party in the first title and take them on a heroic journey across all three games. Quality of life options such as automapping (put away that graph paper!), an in-game manual and bestiary, and the ability to save your game at any time make the titles more accessible than ever before. However, if you’re pining for the 1980’s experience and difficulty (take out that graph paper!), The Bard’s Tale Trilogy features Legacy Mode, a series of options that let you play the game at the original difficulty and without modern amenities.

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

Put it on the Switch!

I actually found it very boring and didn't like having to draw my own map. I just wanted to relax, so I played BG1 instead. Again. Fun game.

 

[Don Peste]

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

Bought it again because BG1 always fizzles out hard for me once you actually arrive in the titular city. By that point, I have so many spells and can just fuck every encounter sideways....what's the point?

 

[Wulfric Pinewood]

Hello, this game is FREE along with titles like TOrment Numenora and whole 3 titles of Banner Saga , Prey and many others on XBOX GAME PASS ULTIMATE FOR PC .

 

[Darkzone]

Bought it again because BG1 always fizzles out hard for me once you actually arrive in the titular city. By that point, I have so many spells and can just fuck every encounter sideways....what's the point?

Now you are just trolling.
Case not: Go to Harkyn's Castle then teleport to Kylearan's Tower and than finish Mangar's Tower.

 

[Martyr]

how to ruin good memories and pleasant connotations - Tutorial 01: use the same locations and characters from an older game and make them worse.
after having played Bard's Tale 4, just reading "Kylearan's Tower" and "Mangar" is enough to trigger my PTSD.

 

[LESS T_T]

https://steamcommunity.com/games/843260/announcements/detail/1607141472544730436

New Bard's Tale Trilogy Patch Released - v4.28

Hi all,

We're pleased to announce that we have a MAJOR patch for the Bard's Tale Trilogy ready for release... actually it's out right now!

Here's a shiny new trailer showcasing some of these major changes!

For those of you who have been on the beta testing branch, please note that the below includes some of the features that were in the v4.07 beta release.

There are a LOT of changes to go through, so we've tried to break it down into major segments.

We hope you enjoy these additions to the game! Please let us know any problems you see.

Cheers
Linds

MAJOR FEATURES

• Full language support for French, German, Spanish, Polish and Russian. Right click on the game in your Steam library, select properties, then the Language tab, to select a different language.
  
  
  
  
• All outstanding cameos have been upgraded and added to the game. We've continued to use the BT1 cameos as the default for character creation, but all the relevant cameos from the other two games are there, available for selection. For example:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Our new In-game Bestiary tracks the monsters (per chapter) that you’ve fought, and progressively fills in their stats and details.
  
  
  
  
  
• The new In-game Manual has all the information you could ever want on how the game works, including information on the differences in Legacy Mode and how the game is different to the original releases.
  
  
  
  
  
• While we were at it, we’ve also added the Original Game Maps in to the game (and we even fixed the spelling of 'Philippi').
  
  
  
  
  
• Skara Brae (BT1 version) has received a bit of a make over. Each of the statues now has its own unique model.
  
• New dungeon wall sets for Hiroshima, Berlin, Harkyn’s Castle, mountain and forest areas.
  
• Over 30 new visual effects for combat, and to improve the environments (like new night-time skies).
  
• Controller support for everything other than text-entry. This utilises a radial selection dialog for the various options. It works quite nicely, even if we do say so ourselves.
  
  

Spoiler

ART

• Updated the game icon.
  
• Improved textures for the text scroll and added animation.
  
• Changed path shading so paths head under gates. Each terrain blends the city entrances to the path used inside.
  
• Put in chapter specific frames around the 3D view and adjusted screen layouts to fit.
  
• Added BT2 and BT3 tavern window anims.
  
• Updated Tombs roof to use a skull/ground texture combo instead of grass/ground.
  
• Fixed gate code that was breaking the gates direction on load - this was causing the issue of when saving while facing sideways under a gate, on load it would make the gate face sideways.
  
• Hooked up VFX for shooting arrows in combat.
  
• Fixed BT3 review board final briefing to use correct cameo/portrait.
  
• Changed a variety of spells to have different or added SFX and VFX.
  
• Fix for the taverns in Ciera Brianna were using the bard window anim instead of the BT3 tavern window anim.
  
• Fixed BT2 Dungeon entrances transition into dungeons so it correctly fades into black.
  
• Made the gate backing now one sided so it is only black looking from the front.
  
• Cleared the apport effect on starting combat, to stop the blue light being on forever.
  
• Fixed Major Levitation not having the carpet effect because it wasn't a no-target spell.
  
• BT2 has had some adjustments to its sculpting and smoothing.
  
• Fixed Interdimensional teleports (BT3 Apport Locations) to fully fade to black before switching locations.

AUDIO

• Stopped the "click" sound from playing when the copyright is on screen.
  
• Fixed some instruments had the wrong music type set (horn of gods, shrill flute, willow flute, angels harp).
  
• Generic out-of-combat spell buff sounds now work.
  
• Changed a variety of spells to have different or added SFX and VFX.

CRASH FIXES

• Fixed crash caused by bad fix of monster group suffix letters.
  
• Fixed hunstman gloves type that was creating a crash when on the treasure screen in the Mountain of BT3.
  
• Fix for non-progression if you leave moving state during the frame and then activate a command.
  
• Fix for non-prog if firing off commands (like view inventory) after combat had started.
  
• Fix for issue with selling items - was creating an exception when highlighting an item due to internal list item indexes being incorrect after removing an item.

DESIGN CHANGES

• Adjust songs so they are no longer affected by Chapter Differences. Songs settings now resets both availability, effects and strength of the songs.
  
• Daggers now do 2-4 damage.
  
• Harmonic gem drop rate slightly reduced.
  
• Made the Maze Of Dread question persistent even in legacy, so you don't have to keep answering it.
  
• Fixed Allirias last ghost to only accept the rainbow rose. Previously it was also accepting a white rose, which allows you to skip a large part of the puzzle.
  
• Health drain ticks faster and takes 5% of the players health per tick (rather than fixed amount dependant on difficulty). Taking a percentage means it will balance across BT1 -> BT3 properly. Spell drain also switched to 5% of magic per tick. Drain tiles should be a bit less nerf'd now.
  
• Swapped path clues 1 & 7 in Destiny Stone so 7 is by the exit. Added a "there is a portal here. do you wish to enter" message before going into the snare to make it a little clearer as to which room is the "bad" one.
  
• Removed the bottom center door from Oscon's Fort lv3 that leads the player to the portals that they should never be able to access. After playing through the original in both Amiga and C64, we're fairly confident this was a bug in all versions of the original game as the design clearly is trying to just tease the player with those portals (but their positioning suggests they are never meant to be used). Before this fix, we were matching to both Amiga and C64.
  
• Moved Allirias Tomb entrance from N6,E0 to N0,E0. Patches the automap on load to clear the old stairs icon and add a new stairs icon at 0,0.
  
• Moved Werra battle to the south east room, where it was clearly intended, judging by the text pretty much saying its there, and the room is the only anti-apar area on the map. Loading into an existing map that has completed that task will move the journal entries to the correct location. Constructed a small room for the shield, since the text also says "it is in the next room".
  
• Status effects created by item magic have been changed. These now cannot be persistent (automatically downgraded to 148 min timed) and only have half-duration to normal spells. This makes items much less powerful and much more rewarding to find one.

GAMEPLAY

• Identify item special attacks for breath weapons are working now.
  
• Reset gold to 1200 on full reset transfer BT1->BT2 or BT2->BT3.
  
• Fix for identified figurines were showing bad "Use".
  
• Fix for using wrong character to differentiate monster groups of same monster type.
  
• Fixed Titan suit and Mithril suit to use the suit slot type rather than the armor type slot.
  
• Disarming map traps now counts towards "armless" achievement.
  
• Locked camera look around to only when in walking state and removed ability to lookaround when paused.
  
• Legacy settings now works with only empty settings.
  
• Removed the BT3 scarlet bard from Skara Brae in legacy songs mode.
  
• (??) info on objects where the range is unknown no longer shows in chapter differences mode (since you can't identify the unknown).
  
• Fixed BT3 map difficulty - all the run from battle difficulties would have been <very> easy in BT3, as everything was erroneously set to difficulty 1.
  
• Fixed the shop so it checks if you have space for wineskins before buying them.
  
• Fixed being able to collect multiple Harmonic Staff in legacy mode from Saradon's House.
  
• Fixes for town teleportation for Joystick/mouse modes.
  
• Identifying an item at Roscoes now contributes to popping the achievement (shopaholic)
  
• Allow the journal to be opened, if automap is disabled but we are in BT3 and chapter differences are enabled.
  
• Fixed the casino to be lit, no matter the time of day.
  
• Fixed healing cost in temple.
  
• Stopped death snare timers from being able to be activated multiple times.
  
• Added support for something odd (reduces detection of traps/special/secret doors to 1 square instead of 3, and adds an icon to the automap).
  
• Fixed issues where AntiApar to other dungeon levels was working but shouldn't be. Mainly effects BT1/BT2, because the system was written for BT2 per-tile flags.
  
• Disabled snare timer when in pause and restart it when we come out of pause.
  
• Fixed an issue where going down a portal didn't set the stairs flag, so if there was a script to go back up, like in nowhere (Tenebrosia), it would fire.
  
• Fixed items getting lost when changing class in individual inventory mode.

PERFORMANCE

• Unity version and compile changes to a more recent version, which also required fixes to Steam integration.
  
• A variety of changes to reduce memory use.
  
• Fixes to various audio settings, for streaming and memory use.
  
• Fixed mesh creation to not leak meshes.
  
• Fixed clouds not getting disabled when doing a transfer from BT1 -> BT2.
  
• Fixed creating some debug meshes in Retail builds.

UI

• Fix doppleganger UI bug - sorting the slots was updating them individually - but doppleganger update requires all other slots to be done.
  
• Roscoes identify items now show cost to identify each item, for identifying the “specials” of items, in non-legacy mode.
  
• Multiple miscellaneous spelling and grammar fixes, throughout the game.
  
• Fix for the flicker when drift background first appears on main menu.
  
• Fix for the mouse cursor not working over buttons.
  
• Improved rendering of all fonts.
  
• Made the "X" button of the stats and controller page close the pages.
  
• Force new games to default to Large view.
  
• Fixed drag-and-drop of character names for party order showing the character names offset.
  
• Hide mouse cursor during loading and during intros.
  
• Removed slash from in front of "TESTING" that shouldn't have been there, in the credits.
  
• Don't let escape key close a confirmation dialog, unless close button is active.
  
• Removed dead space at top of "heal all" character list.
  
• Fix for rename-character to detect when empty string was entered.
  
• Fix for text for party headings - was creating artefacts when small.
  
• Fixed the position of the top message of scrolling text.
  
• Fix slot numbers resizing awkwardly.
  
• Fix for spacing for normal heal text.
  
• Removed incorrect information about large view mode from tooltip.
  
• Stopped ESCAPE from opening pause menu during intro scene.
  
• Add tooltips when you arrow through options on keyboard so game is more playable on keyboard only.
  
• Stopped trade from appearing if there is no-one to trade to (ie. party of 1).
  
• Spells that are bought, now appear in a spell casters 'recent' spell filter tab, after being cast.
  
• Removed the (1-7) prompting for the statues for consistency.
  
• Fix overlapping destiny knight text in player info.
  
• Fix journal icon in BT3.
  
• Fix for that you couldn't see tooltips in legacy Options is you had toggled them off in game and returned to main menu.
  
• Stopped the option of equip/unequip in battle being available if there are no inventory items.
  
• Removed the timeout from temple messages / after heals. It just uses "Press SPACE to continue" now.
  
• Fix issue with large Heal All messages overlapping the PRESS SPACE TO CONTINUE.
  
• Fix journal legend not turning off "hint", "teleport" and "wall / secretWall" entries if none have been mapped yet.
  
• Teleport from sanctum to viscious plane now adds journal at destination, so you don't have to leave the tile and return to see it.
  
• Using joystick/keyboard to select next/prev character while viewing character profiles will now wrap top <-> bottom.
  
• Invisible walls now use a normal wall icon since they are not passible and knowing they are invisible is not useful when examining the map. Railings (which are visible but can be passed through) use the same icon as crumbling walls, since they function the same. Invisible walls and railings can only be discovered by walking into/through them.
  
• Fix for Alliria belt event to not show a blank page with "press space to continue".
  
• Fix bug where automap was updating during title screen.

 

[Infinitron]

New dungeon wall sets for Hiroshima, Berlin, Harkyn’s Castle, mountain and forest areas.

Hell yeah, I was a little underwhelmed by the appearance of the Nazi dimension.

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

Bought it again because BG1 always fizzles out hard for me once you actually arrive in the titular city. By that point, I have so many spells and can just fuck every encounter sideways....what's the point?

Now you are just trolling.
Case not: Go to Harkyn's Castle then teleport to Kylearan's Tower and than finish Mangar's Tower.

I was talking about BG1.

So anyway, I'm really just carefully and comfy-ly exploring Skara Brae. My party is level 3, so it's nice to not have to go "oh shit" whenever 8+ of anything shows up. Where do I need to go to actually make progress? Just been mapping

 

[octavius]

So anyway, I'm really just carefully and comfy-ly exploring Skara Brae. My party is level 3, so it's nice to not have to go "oh shit" whenever 8+ of anything shows up. Where do I need to go to actually make progress? Just been mapping

Relax with some wine in one of the pubs.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

I was talking about BG1.

So anyway, I'm really just carefully and comfy-ly exploring Skara Brae. My party is level 3, so it's nice to not have to go "oh shit" whenever 8+ of anything shows up. Where do I need to go to actually make progress? Just been mapping

You should have a map of Skara Brae that comes with the game, and note that one of the many inns/taverns/pubs is to the south of the Adventurer's Guild, past a statue that comes to life and attacks you.

 

[newtmonkey]

Bard's Tale 2
Slowly making my way through this. I started playing BT1 before the legacy options were available, but I kept myself to a six-character party and even crippled myself by bringing along a hunter and thief... and also forced myself to save only at the Adventurer's Guild. Even so, I am basically immortal at this point even though I selected the "moderate transfer" option. I DEFINITELY should have reset my party to level 1 when I imported from BT1 to BT2.

It's a shame because the dungeon design is a million times more interesting than in BT1. I'm too far into the game at this point to just start over, so I'm just AAAADDing my way through every encounter I choose to fight (I probably run from 85% of the encounters now as leveling up basically accomplishes nothing). From what I understand, BT3 is a bit of a challenge even for an imported party, so I guess I have that to look forward to.

At some point I'd like to come back to this remaster and play with some of the Legacy options turned on.

 

[Darkzone]

Bought it again because BG1 always fizzles out hard for me once you actually arrive in the titular city. By that point, I have so many spells and can just fuck every encounter sideways....what's the point?

Now you are just trolling.
Case not: Go to Harkyn's Castle then teleport to Kylearan's Tower and than finish Mangar's Tower.

I was talking about BG1.

So anyway, I'm really just carefully and comfy-ly exploring Skara Brae. My party is level 3, so it's nice to not have to go "oh shit" whenever 8+ of anything shows up. Where do I need to go to actually make progress? Just been mapping

My bad.
You should level up till 5-7lv party level ( during the night there are stronger monsters roaming the streets and in buildings ). Then go south of the AG to the Tavern and order Wine. (This is not a spoiler, because this was one hint in the book that came with the game.) Take lamps and torches with you and have full SPs pool of your magic classes. If you have half of the SPs then go back.

 

[octavius]

Bard's Tale 2
Slowly making my way through this. I started playing BT1 before the legacy options were available, but I kept myself to a six-character party and even crippled myself by bringing along a hunter and rogue... and also forced myself to save only at the Adventurer's Guild. Even so, I am basically immortal at this point even though I selected the "moderate transfer" option. I DEFINITELY should have reset my party to level 1 when I imported from BT1 to BT2.

It's a shame because the dungeon design is a million times more interesting than in BT1. I'm too far into the game at this point to just start over, so I'm just AAADDing my way through every encounter I choose to fight (I probably run from 85% of the encounters now as leveling up basically accomplishes nothing). From what I understand, BT3 is a bit of a challenge even for an imported party, so I guess I have that to look forward to.

At some point I'd like to come back to this remaster and play with some of the Legacy options turned on.

BT2 is definitely more fun with a new party. And the beginner dungeon is excellent.

BT3 has a very weak beginner dungeon, and you get a fantazillion XP for completing it IIRC, so transfering is a much more valid option. But even with a new party BT3 will start to get too easy if you don't run away from XP a lot.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Man, endless fighting was just about all the fun there was in TBTT. My characters couldn't look in the mirror if they ran away all the time. If too easy play with even less characters. Finish those biotch assed games with 1 man.

Btw, is there a level cap? I'll assume no. I still haven't played until i get time to get new hardware.