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Preview GameSpot Previews Bard's Tale

Sol Invictus

Erudite
Joined
Oct 19, 2002
Messages
9,614
Location
Pax Romana
Tags: Bard's Tale (2005); InXile Entertainment

<a href=http://www.gamespot.com>GameSpot</a> has just put up a <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/rpg/thebardstale/preview_6109072.html">preview</a> of the PS2 version of The Bard's Tale that is completely relevent to the PC version regardless of the platform. Here's a snippet, one that made me laugh aloud:
<br>
<blockquote>Aside from its combat and summoned enemies, it's The Bard's Tale's sense of style that seems most memorable. Designer Fargo has already stated that the purpose of the game is to deliver a deep but fun role-playing game with "as much personality as possible," especially when it comes to satirizing tired old RPG conventions. You'll see this when the bard triumphantly raises his sword aloft after killing a tiny cellar rat and receiving accolades from the narrator, shortly before getting roasted by the "real" rat in the basement. You'll also see this when the bard uncovers another RPG convention--that of generic monsters dropping fabulous piles of loot from out of nowhere. The bard kills a nondescript wolf in the forest that drops a new sword, a new bow, and a whole pile of gold pieces and furniture, and narrator Tony Jay actually has to stop himself to see if he read that right--no, that wolf really did drop several piles of gold and various household items. The game has a slightly dark and gothic look, different from the brighter colors of Champions of Norrath or Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. Its musical score, which makes liberal use of the bagpipe, and its spirited voice acting and humor seem to recall some of the best movies that parody high fantasy, like The Princess Bride, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and Robin Hood: Men in Tights.</blockquote>
<br>
Pythonesque humor? Sweet. Though, admittedly the game's lack of RPing options seem very... <i>tinny</i>. I have a slight dislike for <i>tinny</i> sort of things, though hopefully the humor and content will make up for it in some way.
<br>
<br>
Thanks for the tidbit, <b>Odin</b>.
 

GameMaster

Novice
Joined
Sep 25, 2004
Messages
5
Location
Riga; Latvia
From what I have seen or heard, it looks like Bard's Tale won't be anything like it's predeccesor. The authors keep "amazing"" us with battle system and other action-oriented stuff. I fear that in the end, we will get nothing more than a mere hack'n'slash game with a famous name.
 

4too

Arcane
Joined
May 20, 2004
Messages
289
Template

Template

... humor and content will make up for ...


Considering the use of the Snowblind Engine, isn't this a similar design template as FO:BOS?

Is it a game or a Sit Com ? Fight through swarms of rats to reach the next comic cameo. Run a maze, dungeon, gauntlet for a cheesey laugh, so I get to be the rodent too.

Insider, Easter Egg style humor is a tradition. Parody is " 'in the eye of the beholder" " , so after each rush of trolls, will I need a laugh track to pin point the comedy?


4too
 

Reklar

Liturgist
Joined
Jun 22, 2004
Messages
395
Location
Port Orchard, WA, USA
That's a disturbingly valid concern for the play value of this game, 4too. As I recall from my time playing the original Bard's Tale game on PC, there wasn't a whole lot of humor to it? Perhaps I never got far enough to find most of it though.

-Reklar
(a Fallout/RPG fan)
 

4too

Arcane
Joined
May 20, 2004
Messages
289
C-64 Memories

C-64 Memories

Humor in the 8-bit BT? I recall the game-story was fairly "straight" forward.

Typical fantasy that hadn't - yet - become ARCH-typical fantasy.


Bard's Tale 3 was one of the first fantasy RPG's I played.
Back trailing to BT1 and BT2 were more academic pasttimes than the focused entertainment that "learning" a game system involves. Learning how to exploit the strengths of each class for each variety of bad guy. The thief - or - bard was sneaky and could get under the radar of several end bosses, including the great Foozle or who ever was the Uber end boss.

A pleasant surprise was that some potential stat fodder could be asked to join your group.
And your NPC pals could be "parked", a welcome feature after playing Wasteland.


The 8 bit game may have been no more than a meg in code, and a negative, opinion would rasp out that there may have been more role playing in these low pixal games than the modern formulas that come on DVD's.

In a Nov. issue console mag (PSM) the only ad that touted dialogues was the latest Leisure Suit Larry. It would be funny if this ACTION RPG called Bard's Tale had less
RPG than a obvious sexploiter like the Larry series, and sad if BT had less "humor" too.

My reading between the lines of the Nov. issue Playstation Magizine review, sees a lot of conflict in the SnowBlind / BG:DA style, wave after wave of boredom, so the "promise" of this being "special" is only a gleem in a market rep's eye.

I can wait.


4too
 

Anonymous

Guest
Rex, how come you're such an RP whore?

It's like you believe everything people say in previews.

'Pythonesque' humor when all it really is is poop jokes and LAWL U CAN KICK A DOG
 

RGE

Liturgist
Joined
Jul 18, 2004
Messages
773
Location
Karlstad, Sweden
GameMaster said:
From what I have seen or heard, it looks like Bard's Tale won't be anything like it's predeccesor. The authors keep "amazing"" us with battle system and other action-oriented stuff. I fear that in the end, we will get nothing more than a mere hack'n'slash game with a famous name.
If the game had been like its predecessors, would it have been something more than a mere hack'n slash game with a famous name? Assuming that this new games has riddles just like the predecessors did, all it would miss would be the manual mapping of dungeons. Is that the part that would be sorely missed?
 

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