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

Themadcow

Augur
Joined
Feb 17, 2012
Messages
308
Um, nope. The remaster is significantly easier due to faster leveling, save anywhere and auto-mapping. I made it to Mangar's lv1 in around 11 hours, but then again I know the game inside out.

Even when they implement Legacy mode, it'll still be easier than the original.

On the other hand, BT2 and 3 were a fair bit harder (depending on the version) and created with save anywhere in mind, so should provide more of a challenge when they're added in (Nov and Jan possibly).
 

ProphetSword

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Messages
1,755
Location
Monkey Island
It might have been easier for you because you know the game so well. I didn’t, and it took me 34 hours to beat. I grinded a lot of levels to be sure I had an advantage. The middle sections were easier, though the battles could still wear you down and put you in perilous situations once your spellcasters were low on resources.

The ending was difficult. Fights were hard and the numerous traps didn’t help. Well placed anti magic fields sometimes made my life hell. I still beat the game, though, even though the final battle nearly did me in (half my party didn’t survive).

So, I guess it depends on a lot of factors. Not knowing the game increases the challenge, which is why I am looking forward to the next two chapters. Never played them.
 
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Themadcow

Augur
Joined
Feb 17, 2012
Messages
308
Yeah, the last 3 levels of Mangar's step up the challenge but I steamrollered the middle game content from Catacombs 2, through Harkyns (especially easy) and spent maybe an hour in Kylearan's. I can see it might take some people a lot more time, but it's definitely true to say that the game is much easier than the originals for the reasons I gave.

Your completion time is certainly more in line with the 20-30 hours I've seen elsewhere - including some old-school players:

https://forums.inxile-entertainment.com/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=19261
 

Darth Roxor

Royal Dongsmith
Staff Member
Joined
May 29, 2008
Messages
1,878,406
Location
Djibouti
Having recognised the futility of trying to play BT4, I've decided to give this a spin instead.

Question: comrade tutorial at the start mentions that it's wise to keep the 7th character slot empty for "summons and roving creatures" - how important is that in practice? Because I'd hate to drop anyone from my partay since I have no idea whom I could really drop (paladingo - monkor - huntard - bard [probably prime candidate, but it just feels wrong] - roguey - conjurer - magus).
 

KeighnMcDeath

RPG Codex Boomer
Joined
Nov 23, 2016
Messages
12,874
I think in the original that was a S(pecial) slot ONLY for monsters joining, summoned mobs or illusions, and if you cast Baylor's Spell Bind to snag a chosen enemy like the Soul Sucker or Mangar (yeah some versions allowed this I’m pretty sure). Crap, I don’t recall if you need anyone to join you in BT1. You certainly don’t want doppelgänger types joining even if it can be comedic (or deadly).
 

Gord

Arcane
Joined
Feb 16, 2011
Messages
7,049
From my playthrough - roving monsters might have been useful early on, when they are still somewhat powerful compared to the party, or much later when you can (rarely) get some with interesting abilities.

As Keighn said, I think you didn't get more than 6 chars in the original games, so 7th slot was always open for summons/joined monsters.

But in the remaster, summons (for me at least) were mostly a late-game thing, as those offered some good abilities/damage output, but I have to admit I didn't check out the illusionary xy types of spells, which are available much earlier. I dropped one of my chars eventually, mostly out of curiosity and replaced him with a summoned demon lord or such. Ultimately though, it works just as well to forget about them and use another hero character.
 
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Sceptic

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 2, 2010
Messages
10,871
Divinity: Original Sin
Question: comrade tutorial at the start mentions that it's wise to keep the 7th character slot empty for "summons and roving creatures" - how important is that in practice? Because I'd hate to drop anyone from my partay since I have no idea whom I could really drop (paladingo - monkor - huntard - bard [probably prime candidate, but it just feels wrong] - roguey - conjurer - magus).
As others have mentioned in the original you couldn't put a PC in the 7th slot anyway and some of the idols summoned quite powerful joinable monsters. But given the chance in the remake I'd go with your full 7 party all the way. If you take this party in the BT2 remake you'll need to drop characters at one point (unless they change the mechanic), but for one snare at least you need THREE empty slots, so even if you leave that one slot empty you'll have to drop PCs, so you might as well fill it all up and drop only as needed.
 

ProphetSword

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Messages
1,755
Location
Monkey Island
After a few hours, I filled the 7th slot with my own character; because the monsters and NPCs who joined you seemed lackluster and doppelgängers were a pain in the ass. Adding a rogue with a bow to the back ranks helped a lot.

Also, if you drop a character, don’t drop the bard. Without one, you probably won’t be able to beat the game.
 

Theldaran

Liturgist
Joined
Oct 10, 2015
Messages
1,772
Will they be remastering BT4 too?

If they make it like BT 1-3, I might actually play it. But, that would require them to have some common sense, and given the state of the world these days, I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Forget it pal, the 80s are long gone. You can see the decline in the way every new threat the world faces has less charisma than before. Nazis were cooler than Commies, and Russians are a joke. Just take a look at Indy movies. They prove my point.
 

Themadcow

Augur
Joined
Feb 17, 2012
Messages
308
Meh, I'd better get my arse in gear and finish off the last couple of levels of Mangar's Tower. It's a more attractive option than burning more of my time on BT4.
 

Vapid

Learned
Joined
Jan 18, 2017
Messages
72
https://steamcommunity.com/games/843260/announcements/detail/2826464524708065582

The Destiny Knight Update
22 OCTOBER - LINDS
Hi all,

We just wanted to let you all know that we're in the final stretch for the Bard's Tale 2 release. The game is going through QA testing now, and we're fixing various bugs as they come up. We are happy to announce that the game will be arriving tomorrow, Tuesday, October 23rd.

There are a few cool things coming in the release that we thought we'd share with you, as a taste of what is to come (soon!) in The Destiny Knight (please keep in mind these are compressed GIFs).

The Wilderness
5f415d10bbfae3da4acb9ec8b36bd9198e686c06.gif


Seamless Map Transitions
d3afdb7ef38f9cadc7dcd134b6cb4096afe67e9e.gif


New City Art
9173ae2a29ca00f7b8ee1f00e303f230e0c807d4.gif


And, of course, the monsters!
122062c4020408274c5ce7de2753f186778d0ee6.gif


Spell Effects
  • Traps visuals and Trap Zap
    8f32394c7ba46131b254c73ed6dfc358f0fe74c1.gif

  • Apport Arcane
    642bf6ae91a7c0bd1b688f48b7c257c72090710f.gif

  • Visible Portals
    608e0166573f6c978b98fbf44cc48bfa0400e2d9.gif

In addition, we have several other cool updates and fixes for you to enjoy. As a taste...
  • Confirmations on deleting saves :)
  • Detect secret doors on the automap when you walk through them
  • Added the Dork Ring sound
  • An icon is displayed in by the player name when a character can level up or learn new spells.
  • Monsters won't cast an already active buff spell again if it doesn't stack
  • Identify now filters only unidentified items and doesn't reset to top of list once an item is identified.
  • Rogues now auto-disarm traps if they have 100% skill
  • The automap keeps track of which traps and encounters are active.
  • And lots more!

Not long to go now! We will be pushing the update at 2pm PST on Tuesday the 23rd.

Cheers
Linds
 
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Gord

Arcane
Joined
Feb 16, 2011
Messages
7,049
And here I wanted to play something else than blobbers for a while...
 

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