Bard's Tale The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep - Director's Cut

[Infinitron]

August 27th:



https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/the-bards-tale-iv/posts/2562232

Director’s Cut Update

We’re happy to announce that The Bard’s Tale IV: Director’s Cut will be arriving digitally on Windows, Mac, Linux, Xbox One, Xbox Game Pass (PC and Xbox), and PlayStation 4 on August 27!

If you already own the game on PC when the Director’s Cut arrives, you’ll receive the update for free with the game’s release on August 27, and it will show up as a new product in your games library listed as The Bard’s Tale IV: Director’s Cut.

For the digital Director’s Cut we’re making the choice for new purchasers much clearer with new Standard and Deluxe Edition. Because the Director's Cut is a free upgrade for current owners, anyone who owns the base game will receive the Director’s Cut Standard, and those who own a current license for the Premium, Platinum, or Ultimate versions will be granted the Deluxe Edition. For our backers who may have retrieved digital rewards through CrowdOx before, you will be receiving The Bard's Tale IV: Director's Cut Deluxe Edition and all your digital items will now be tied to your Steam/GOG accounts.

A reminder for Mac & Linux users: your Steam and GOG keys are already available via CrowdOx if you haven’t redeemed them yet. The keys are universal, meaning they work with whichever system you are running Steam/GOG on (Windows, Mac, Linux). There are no Mac- or Linux-specific keys needed.

For non-backers reading this, here’s a breakdown of The Bard's Tale IV: Director's Cut editions.

PC Digital Standard Edition - $34.99

• The Bard’s Tale IV: Director’s Cut
• Digital Code Wheel
• Digital Guidebook
• Digital Manual
• In-game items:
  • Fire Horn

PC Deluxe Edition - $49.99

• The Bard’s Tale IV: Director’s Cut
• The Bard’s Tale Trilogy
• Hi-res Map
• Hi-res Wallpaper
• Digital Code Wheel
• Digital Guidebook
• Digital Manual
• Digital Novellas
• Digital Art Book
• Digital Songbook
• Digital Soundtrack
• In-game items:
  • Fire Horn
  • Kael’s Axe Puzzle Weapon
  • Red Boots
  • Bardic Brian Skin and Booty

Digital Xbox One and PlayStation 4 - $39.99

• The Bard’s Tale IV: Director’s Cut
• In-game items:
  • Fire Horn

For those of you who have expressed interest in physical Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions, they’ll be arriving just one week later on September 6 in a limited Day One Edition. For those of you who wanted a physical copy of the game, but didn’t back at that level during the Kickstarter, this is your shot.

Retail Day One Edition Xbox One and PlayStation 4 - $39.99

• The Bard’s Tale IV: Director’s Cut
• Physical map
• In-game items:
  • Fire Horn
  • Kael’s Axe Puzzle Weapon
  • Red Boots
  • Bardic Brian Skin and Booty
    

Digital versions are available to pre-order/wishlist today on Steam and GOG, and for the physical version you can pre-order at Amazon and Gamestop, as well as other regional shops in the coming weeks. Head over to our updated The Bard’s Tale IV: Director’s Cut page on the inXile website for links.

We are incredibly grateful for your backing of the game, for your feedback, and (especially for our Mac & Linux backers) your patience.

It's real!

The long wait is almost over!

We’re truly lucky to have been able to pour these additional months of work into a product we love, to have the ability to bring in these improvements and new content, and we’re looking forward to getting the Director’s Cut into your hands in under two short months!

Thanks from all of us here at inXile!

Follow Us:

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[Sacibengala]

Say what you want about Fargo (As I hate how they still didn't made and probably wont do the extras of torment and wasteland 2 that being promised, like comics and stuff) but at least he still focus on the base game and are giving it to already owners, even with this microsoft deal. And I learned my lesson, never buy this shit on release and never again support veterans kickstarter. (Underworld: Ascendant was the atrocious one that made my mind for good about that, though. )

 

[LESS T_T]

New Steam and GOG pages:



https://af.gog.com/game/the_bards_tale_iv_directors_cut_standard_edition?as=1649904300

Hidden in the shadows, an evil has waited patiently. Until now. Who will face the darkness if not you? A heroic adventure featuring 50+ hours of gameplay, 350 speaking parts, a Legacy Mode for returning fans, and over 100 pieces of incredible music!

The Director’s Cut brings more character customization options, new items, new enemies, revised UI, and a free expansion dungeon.

Customize How You Play
Define the way you play, using sliders on numerous options such as saving (including “save anywhere”), the mini-map, waypoint markers and many more. Whether you seek a hardcore challenge, a lighter experience, or something in-between, the choice is yours.

Create the Hero You Want To Be
Play as Bard, Fighter, Practitioner, and Rogue, each featuring 60-70 skills and collectively unlocking 21 unique classes. Build an array of characters to make every playthrough a unique experience.

Craft your Party, Your Way
Start your party with a single character, recruiting or creating new heroes to bolster your ranks. Build a party that suits your play style!

An Adventure Around Every Corner
Explore towns full of quest givers, fight your way through dark and deadly dungeons, and navigate beautiful rolling hills, dense forests, and icy wastes.

Outsmart Evil
Battle your enemies in dynamic, intuitive turn-based tactical combat,that rewards clever thinking. Use superior strategies, thoughtful positioning, and deadly combos to bring down your foes!

Unlock the Secrets of the Past
Unravel challenging mysteries. If your enemies don’t get you, the devious riddles and dangerous traps just might.

The Blade’s Tale
The sense of discovery and mystery doesn’t stop with the environment. Gain ancient Elven weapons containing secrets which you’ll need to uncover by carefully examining them.

New Song of Exploration “Strugglers’ Lament”
Whether you just want to explore and fight or if you get stuck, simply play this song to skip mandatory puzzles.

 

[anvi]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...rectors-cut-update-is-finally-out-this-august

New combat focused dungeon seems worth waiting for.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

New Song of Exploration “Strugglers’ Lament”
Whether you just want to explore and fight or if you get stuck, simply play this song to skip mandatory puzzles.

The puzzles in The Bard's Tale IV are the exploration. Remove the puzzles, and all that remains is a series of battles.

 

[Zombra]

The puzzles in The Bard's Tale IV are the exploration. Remove the puzzles, and all that remains is a series of battles.

I found it weird seeing so many people complain about too many puzzles. It's like, "I want to play a classic blobber but I don't want it to be repetitive!"

Disclaimer: I haven't played BT4 since the beta, so who knows, they may be right.

 

[glass blackbird]

I think it means the slider puzzles, which some people really do hate

 

[Nyast]

It's like you enter a room. There are 3 switch levers, and you have to find the good combination of up / down to progress.

Then you enter the next room, and you now have a 4 levers combination.

Then you enter the next room, and you now have 5 levers.

Finally you progress a bit, explore a dungeon, fight some monsters, and you reach a room which has.. you guessed it.. a 6 levels combination.

That's just a generic exemple, but BT4 is full of such "puzzles". They increase the complexity / difficulty, but without introducing new challenges / mechanisms in them. They're simply boring. After solving the puzzle two times, you already understand the underlying principle. No need to keep repeating them, each time being more time consuming.

 

[Zombra]

It's like you enter a room. There are 3 switch levers, and you have to find the good combination of up / down to progress.
Then you enter the next room, and you now have a 4 levers combination.
Then you enter the next room, and you now have 5 levers.
Finally you progress a bit, explore a dungeon, fight some monsters, and you reach a room which has.. you guessed it.. a 6 levels combination.
That's just a generic exemple, but BT4 is full of such "puzzles". They increase the complexity / difficulty, but without introducing new challenges / mechanisms in them. They're simply boring. After solving the puzzle two times, you already understand the underlying principle. No need to keep repeating them, each time being more time consuming.

But casting Armormelt + Fireball 10 billion times in a row is somehow a fresh new challenge every time?

 

[Nyast]

Of course not. There are far too many trash combats in the game too. But we were talking about puzzles and how repetitive they were.

 

[Infinitron]

(hasn't actually arrived) https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/the-bards-tale-iv/posts/2605500

Director's Cut Has Arrived!

Hi All, we're locked and loaded for The Bard's Tale IV: Director's Cut to go live at 9am PDT tomorrow on Steam and GOG for Windows, Mac, and Linux!

If for some reason you haven't claimed your game key yet, click here for some help on that.

For all backers, as previously mentioned, you will be receiving the Digital Deluxe version of the game. For Steam users, this will be done automatically. For GOG users, you will be emailed via CrowdOx to receive an upgrade key. Those emails are going out right now, so for our GOG backers, be sure to monitor both your inbox and junk mail folders for that email.

There are a couple of known issues to give you a head's up on:

• For the Mac version: the install is slightly larger than the messaged 55gb.
• For the Linux version: there is a bug with certain combats respawning that is being investigated.

Thank you again from all of us at inXile for your support of The Bard's Tale IV! We're thrilled to finally have all of you diving in to Barrows Deep!

Follow Us:

Facebook | Twitter | YouTube

 

[anvi]

I've been waiting for this. Although after just finishing TOEE I suspect it will not seem very good.

 

[Mustawd]

The Bard's Tale IV: Director's Cut

Yup, as to be expected. Buying Games on Day 1, outside of just supporting the devs financially, seems silly in 2019.

 

[Sacibengala]

If I remember correctly, the wasteland 2 didn't needed from us to manually insert another key on gog to get the director's cut. But I'm old, so memory can fail.

 

[anvi]

Directors Cut is apparently free for people who bought the original. Although it still means players spent all that time playing a weak game when a proper version of it gets released a year later. For me that is the thing that matters the most, I rather not waste money too, but I really hate to spend many hours on a game that turns out to be a bit shit, and then I have to wait a year or more for a bunch of patches and mods to make it decent. Only now I need to play the same thing all over again with a new lick of paint. Shitty industry.

 

[fantadomat]

I've been waiting for this. Although after just finishing TOEE I suspect it will not seem very good.

It won't feel bad,it is very different type.

 

[DeepOcean]

Finally the Early Access ended, now I will buy the 1.0 release.

 

[Renevent]

So are the saves from the original game supported? From the list of changes I'm guessing not...

 

[fantadomat]

The puzzles in The Bard's Tale IV are the exploration. Remove the puzzles, and all that remains is a series of battles.

I found it weird seeing so many people complain about too many puzzles. It's like, "I want to play a classic blobber but I don't want it to be repetitive!"

Disclaimer: I haven't played BT4 since the beta, so who knows, they may be right.

It is not the number of puzzles but that they are like 5 puzzles that are repeated ad nauseam.

 

[felipepepe]

The puzzles in The Bard's Tale IV are the exploration. Remove the puzzles, and all that remains is a series of battles.

I found it weird seeing so many people complain about too many puzzles. It's like, "I want to play a classic blobber but I don't want it to be repetitive!"

Disclaimer: I haven't played BT4 since the beta, so who knows, they may be right.

It is not the number of puzzles but that they are like 5 puzzles that are repeated ad nauseam.

Exactly, is like people forgot what a good game should feel like. A corridor with five PUSH BLOCKS puzzles in a row is lazy, boring and a waste of everyone's time. BT4 had some decent unique puzzles, but decided to make the game 3x longer than it needed to be with shitty puzzles that work entirely disconnected from the rest of the game. Is like pausing a movie every 5 minutes to solve a slidding puzzle on your phone.

Go play Operencia: The Stolen Sun and see the difference, they had a fraction of the budget Fargo had and made a game full of unique and interesting puzzles that are part of the game world, as well as cool secrets and far better writing.

They also have this:

AKA, actual fucking dungeons.

 

[grimace]

Directors Cut is apparently free for people who bought the original. Although it still means players spent all that time playing a weak game when a proper version of it gets released a year later. For me that is the thing that matters the most, I rather not waste money too, but I really hate to spend many hours on a game that turns out to be a bit shit, and then I have to wait a year or more for a bunch of patches and mods to make it decent. Only now I need to play the same thing all over again with a new lick of paint. Shitty industry.

The first "release" of the game functioned as the "beta" release of the game.

Paying to be the first to play (in reality: test) the game receives only what may be called goodboypoints.

The Bard's Tale IV: Director's Cut

Yup, as to be expected. Buying Games on Day 1, outside of just supporting the devs financially, seems silly in 2019.

With the added guilt and burden of being told the game will be be possible without your money to fund the game.

How much better might the game be if Fargo financed this passion project with his own funds?

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Buying day 1 is silly until you remember there's maybe 5-10 new games a year worth playing.

 

[Efe]

there are 5-10 games every year..
just go with 3 year befores catalog

 

[Themadcow]

*keeps fingers crossed that it's not shit any more*

I was a higher tier backer of BT4 and it is easily my biggest disappointment in terms of Kickstarters so far. Hell, there are probably games I backed that I didn't play that I remember more fondly.

There is no way that this game is going to be 'great' because it's fundamentally flawed in ways that no directors cut could ever hope to polish, but I'd settle for 'good'. Puzzles taking a back seat, better itemization / inventory, faster and less gimmicky combat and generally improved performance would all point in that direction but I'm still reluctant to give it another go until I've heard from a few BT hardened grognards on the new version.

 

[fantadomat]

The puzzles in The Bard's Tale IV are the exploration. Remove the puzzles, and all that remains is a series of battles.

I found it weird seeing so many people complain about too many puzzles. It's like, "I want to play a classic blobber but I don't want it to be repetitive!"

Disclaimer: I haven't played BT4 since the beta, so who knows, they may be right.

It is not the number of puzzles but that they are like 5 puzzles that are repeated ad nauseam.

Exactly, is like people forgot what a good game should feel like. A corridor with five PUSH BLOCKS puzzles in a row is lazy, boring and a waste of everyone's time. BT4 had some decent unique puzzles, but decided to make the game 3x longer than it needed to be with shitty puzzles that work entirely disconnected from the rest of the game. Is like pausing a movie every 5 minutes to solve a slidding puzzle on your phone.

Go play Operencia: The Stolen Sun and see the difference, they had a fraction of the budget Fargo had and made a game full of unique and interesting puzzles that are part of the game world, as well as cool secrets and far better writing.

They also have this:

AKA, actual fucking dungeons.

Yeah,Operencia is a lot better than Bard's tale 4. I had a grand time playing it,shame that it is epic exclusive,tho i got cracked pretty fast.

I disagree with you that BT4 was "3x longer than it needed",the length was good for such a game,the problem was the content. If they just put 20ish side quests and dungeons instead pushing blocks.....