Game News Bard's Tale IV Kickstarter Update #45: New Website, Backer Beta Releasing In July

[Infinitron]

Tags: David Rogers; InXile Entertainment; Paul Marzagalli; The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep

inXile have published a new Bard's Tale IV Kickstarter update, the second one this month, to announce that the Backer Beta will be out in July. This comes several days after the launch of a fancy new official website, where the game is now available for preorder. What the update doesn't mention is that the website also features two new videos - the alpha teaser trailer that Brian Fargo showed at the THQ Nordic event earlier this month and a full playthrough of the alpha narrated by creative director David Rogers. It's nothing we haven't seen before, but it's good to have official versions of these.

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As is customary these days, Bard's Tale IV has a couple of preorder-exclusive items - Kael's Axe and the Fire Horn, both famous artifacts from the original trilogy. Kickstarter backers will of course receive these for free. See the update for details.

 

[Darkzone]

Nice. Kael's Axe and the Fire Horn are very iconic items. So in mid / end July i will see how this turns out. But from my perspective this will be the best game from InXile and the item puzzles are very neat idea, making the magic items more interesting. Also i love celtic folk music since Clannad's Legend album in 1984 (Soundtrack for Robin of Sherwood), despite it was sung in english and not in gaelic.

 

[Bohr]

 

[Diggfinger]

What does this game have, that Grimoire does not?

 

[Darkzone]

What does this game have, that Grimoire does not?

First of all a clean UI with good usability. Second the item puzzles. Third the celtic folk music. Fourth a clean theme (like femorians as monster) based around celtic and norse mythology. Fifth it is in UE4 and it is 3D. I could go on.. but i'm just answering your question.
Everything has its place Grimoire and BTIV; and we have to see the end version of BTIV first to answer definitly your question. And after that we can also turn the question around and ask "what Grimoire has that BTIV doesn't have".

 

[PrettyDeadman]

The game looks SO good.
Can't wait to play it!

 

[Max Heap]

First of all a clean UI with good usability. Second the item puzzles. Third the celtic folk music. Fourth a clean theme (like femorians as monster) based around celtic and norse mythology. Fifth it is in UE4 and it is 3D. I could go on.. but i'm just answering your question.
Everything has its place Grimoire and BTIV; and we have to see the end version of BTIV first to answer definitly your question. And after that we can also turn the question around and ask "what Grimoire has that BTIV doesn't have".

A 20 minute indiegogo video, with Cleve breathing into the mic.
That's masterpiece in its own right.

 

[Bohr]

I think it's a bit unfair to compare these KS games to masterpieces of the past. Let's give it a chance and judge it in its own right.

 

[Dorateen]

"what Grimoire has that BTIV doesn't have".

The ability to roll an eight character party right from the start.

 

[MurkyShadow]

The way the user interface is presented, and also the combat information, it all feels a tad console oriented to me.
I don't know where I do stand with the item puzzles. Just that I'm wary in the regard of puzzles and crafting.
There's a fine line for puzzles becoming tedious and crafting devolving into cancer.

 

[Outlander]

 

[Grampy_Bone]

 

[theSavant]

I'm also surprised that Beta is announced so early. Expected them to be in Low-Mid-Alpha or so... (especially with their slow start and updates), but Beta in ~1 month definitely astounded me

 

[Infinitron]

I'm also surprised that Beta is announced so early. Expected them to be in Low-Mid-Alpha or so... (especially with their slow start and updates), but Beta in ~1 month definitely astounded me

Doesn't seem that early to me considering they want to release the game in Q3. 2-3 months in beta? I suppose it's possible.

 

[Darkzone]

The way the user interface is presented, and also the combat information, it all feels a tad console oriented to me. I don't know where I do stand with the item puzzles. Just that I'm wary in the regard of puzzles and crafting. There's a fine line for puzzles becoming tedious and crafting devolving into cancer.

I don't own a console and besides the Atari 2600 i have never owned a console and therefore i don't know what you mean. But there are games that are regarded as good that were released on the console like DOS, Dark Souls or the Witcher 3 and this lets me conclude that this is not necessary a negative criteria for a game. You are right on your concerns with the puzzles. If only unique items have this puzzle then this can be very good, but if there are many items that can be found often in games have this puzzles then it can become boring.
Crafting is kind of difficult topic and in Arcanum this was one of the cornerstones of playing a tech character and it was very nice to find or buy a blueprint with a design for a weapon or item. Alone in the crafting aspect Arcanum has a replay value. But to be honest there are only a very few games where crafting was something special that brought something to the table.

 

[aweigh]

I mean, 2-3 months in beta is enough time for them to tweak balance (numbers, multipliers, locations, spawns), but actual assets like a dungeon or an NPC? Nuh-uh, all of that will be locked down already.

 

[MicoSelva]

after that we can also turn the question around and ask "what Grimoire has that BTIV doesn't have".

A manual?

Oh, wait...

 

[Suicidal]

Looks pretty good honestly. My biggest concern is that it probably will end up being too easy like many western RPGs tend to be nowadays, sadly.

 

[vonAchdorf]

Looks good, I just hope the blue grid will be moddable.

When will the console port be announced? Before or after release?

 

[Infinitron]

When will the console port be announced? Before or after release?

A year ago: http://www.rpgcodex.net/article.php?id=10667

 

[Bladeract]

I really like the music, which is a surprise since music in games has pretty much hit rock bottom.

 

[Pope Amole II]

Am I the only one who got a strong nasheed vibe from the first video's music?

 

[Sentinel]

Combat looks way too slow & why is there a post combat screen with exp summary? just put that info in a fucking combat log in the UI.
& why are we limited to 5 abilities in combat? what happened to spell lists?

 

[Lady_Error]

Looks pretty good honestly. My biggest concern is that it probably will end up being too easy like many western RPGs tend to be nowadays, sadly.

I hope that it's not too short. Really like what I see so far.

 

[Zeriel]

Looks pretty good honestly. My biggest concern is that it probably will end up being too easy like many western RPGs tend to be nowadays, sadly.

The MMX Legacy thread was full of Codexers bitching about how it was too hard, so the marketers might actually be right on that score. People like to say they're hardcore, but seem to dislike anything that disproves that self-belief, unless it's explicitly marketed as such (i.e, Dark Souls).

I say this as someone who is in the complete opposite camp so this is not apologetics, the MM X case was just very eye-opening to me that people do not necessarily mean it when they say they want challenge.