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

[newtmonkey]

Impressions from fantadomat almost made me consider giving the game a second chance, but I'll wait for patches to come out. I don't care about the performance/graphics; it looked decent enough and ran okay for me. I'm more concerned about the bugs people have mentioned. I really don't like fixed encounters, but I could get over it if the exploration is fun enough. M&MX was right on the borderline for me; although it had fixed encounters gating you along a pretty linear path, the rest of the mechanics were pretty typical. I just dunno if I can get into fixed encounters + this weird Hearthstone-like combat.

I feel like the game doesn't really have an audience. People who loved BT or even Wiz/M&M series and have been waiting for something similar aren't gonna like this. If you take that (admittedly small) audience away, what's left for a game called "Bard's Tale 4?" That guy that liked Bard's Tale 2004? He's thinking, wtf happened to BT 2 and 3. I guess they were just hoping to attract a wider audience with the combat system? I really don't get to whom they are trying to sell this game.

 

[Revenant]

"Games are very educational. Scrabble teaches spelling, Monopoly teaches cash-flow management, and D&D teaches us to loot the bodies" t. based Steve Jackson

 

[BEvers]

I guess they were just hoping to attract a wider audience with the combat system? I really don't get to whom they are trying to sell this game.

 

[Serus]

As for "is this flopping?", let me just say that the game is currently being played by less than 1500 people on Steam. T:ToN (which did flop) had over 7000 concurrent players after release.

The genre is the nichest RPG genre in existence.

Didn't stop MMX from having 8k peak concurrent players.

To be fair Might & Magic is a much bigger and more recognized franchise and was when MMX was released - compared to Bard's Tale.
It makes the description on steam so much more ironic:

The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep is the triumphant return of one of the most iconic RPG series of all-time.

Sorry but no, M&M or Wizardry or Ultima were iconic series and even those are probably barely recognized by younger generation. Bard's Tale was just one of many titles/series from that era.

 

[FeelTheRads]

if you like any game plz buy our game

 

[MRY]

"I'm an empty wine sack that has no wine in it" is a featured line of dialogue?

 

[bataille]

That skyrim ending is a perfect punch line. The gradual increase in how preposterous the comparisons are eclipses with the alpha and omega of games.

 

[MRY]

It just struck me that those ads are kind of like the ones that used to run on the Codex about how if you like RPGs, you'd be great at online poker.

 

[unfairlight]

Doesn't Sorcerer's Place still run gambling ads?

 

[aweigh]

They should just market directly to the Hearthstone/CCG crowd. There's a lot of them.

 

[Jimmious]

Serus exactly my point. I knew very little about Bard's Tale even though I'm an "RPG nerd". Granted I was never into blobbers but I had friends that were passionate about M&M and Wizardry.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

I'm not sure combat is the issue, seems to be a grog complaint. All the streams I watched explicitely said how much they like the combat and those guys are no dummies, one was a literal Codexer. Bad reviews all focus on terrible performance and other technical issues.

However, I doubt it would have sold like hot potatos even with optimal performance. The bad reviews certainly don't help but I'm not sure if there was any hype train to be derailed to begin with.

 

[dragonul09]

The game is done for, it's on 36th place on steam 1 day after release and it has negative reviews, this is the worst combo you could have for a niche game. Also, this game cost almost 10 milions and you know what, I just don't see where all the moolah went, the VO is cheap as everyone sounds like some random yokel from the hells of Scotland, the design is simplistic and there's a lot of reused assets, the game was barely advertised so where the hell did those 10 jilions went?

 

[unfairlight]

InXile panders to nostalgia obsessed losers and makes major dough off of them on their scam websites such as Fig and then proceeds to release something trash, before doing it all again 2 years later. It's a cycle of

 

[Jimmious]

There is no chance in hell this game costed 10 million. Or someone is REALLY REALLY bad at budget management over there.

*Can easily be also what Chad J. Thundercock said

 

[Serus]

InXile panders to nostalgia obsessed losers and makes major dough off of them on their scam websites such as Fig and then proceeds to release something trash, before doing it all again 2 years later. It's a cycle of

Actually it seems it doesn't work that well. This thing (BT4) will flop very badly and last game despite being a much better magnet for nostalgia (P:T being actually popular) wasn't financially successful either AFAIK. It only really worked the first time with Wasteland 2. Which means that we are probably approaching the end of the "cycle".

 

[FeelTheRads]

Actually it seems it doesn't work that well.

No buying back Interplay, then?

 

[unfairlight]

Serus It doesn't matter, it paid for itself because it was crowdfunded. Probably cost twenty bucks to make and they just pocketed the rest.

 

[unfairlight]

No buying back Interplay, then?

Interplay already sold everything they had that was of value.

 

[fantadomat]

Did they sold 2 millions by now?

 

[PhantasmaNL]

Those ads were probably procedurally generated.

Fargo should have consulted with Cleveland Blakemore. He knows a thing or two about the art of making an epic blobber.

 

[Bohr]

Those ads were probably procedurally generated.

Fargo should have consulted with Cleveland Blakemore. He knows a thing or two about the art of making an epic blobber.

Instead they just shamelessly tried to tap into his massive fanbase

Spoiler

 

[SausageInYourFace]

Fargo should have consulted with Cleveland Blakemore. He knows a thing or two about the art of making an epic blobber.

People actually suggested that in the comment section of the original KS.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Indeed. But what is an RPG?

A game that plays sufficiently like D&D, dummy.

Why does this site fetishize one of the worst tabletop RPGs that's only ""good"" because it's popular?

 

[BEvers]