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

[MuscleSpark]

The GOG version will be patched any day now.

Aaaaaany day now.

 

[BEvers]

 

[Ulrox]

Maybe you can try contacting a dev and ask if they can manually fix your save ? I saw that happen for other games. Another person is trying to, see that thread and good luck:

https://forums.inxile-entertainment.com/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=19541

I'm pretty sure they said in the patch notes that they would help. So seems the best way to go about it.

 

[Hamster]

 

[fantadomat]

Also i noticed that in most torrents i visit is pretty popular game. Also they are slav torrents .

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

IHaveHugeNick
You don't give people what they want, you give them what they need.

Besides, restrictions like this are always going to backfire, if respec is available, you can avoid to use it, same for saves, but if it's not allowed, you're fucked if you want more flexibility or if you want to stop playing whenever you want, like it's supposed to be in a modern PC RPG.

You're wrong about that. If you make a significant design decision (for example saving everywhere vs limited saves) then you design your game around it - or at least you are supposed to. The player can't just "avoid" it because the whole gameplay is (should be) balanced aroundd said design choice. Think of (decent) permadeth games vs multiple saves games. The former aren't simply the same games as the latter ones minus the ability to save. They're different games, designed and playing differently.
I'm not saying that BT4's gameplay is well designed around its save system - I wouldn't know, maybe it's not and in this case it wouldn't matter. But as general rule, what you're saying is incorrect.

Yeah, exactly this. Nobody asked them to make saving harder just for the sake of it. The idea was to try and replicate brutal difficulty of the original games, and obviously a restricted save system is one of ways to do this, but you need to design around it, not just make retarded checkpoints and consider it job well done.

 

[BEvers]

Watching a stream of the endgame right now, turns out the puzzles/combat ratio keeps increasing throughout the game. Guy's spent a bit over 2 hours in the final dungeon so far, and he's been in combat for less than ten minutes of that.

There's a bunch of multi-stage gear puzzles in the game; IMHO they're harder than almost anything in the Grimrock games.

 

[Tigranes]

So you're saying a decent game is hidden beneath hours of shit?

 

[Roguey]

I'm pretty surprised at the number of people here enjoying this given the more casual-pandering non-traditional mechanics. The strength of good puzzles I suppose.

 

[Infinitron]

I'm pretty surprised at the number of people here enjoying this given the more casual-pandering non-traditional mechanics. The strength of good puzzles I suppose.

The strength of exploratory murderhoboing, more like. Roxor isn't the only one!

 

[Don Peste]

What about saving stones reappearing after being consumed? I appreciate the free extra XP, but I'm not sure that's an intended behavior.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

I'm pretty surprised at the number of people here enjoying this given the more casual-pandering non-traditional mechanics. The strength of good puzzles I suppose.

The strength of exploratory murderhoboing, more like. Roxor isn't the only one!

So you're saying a decent game is hidden beneath hours of shit?

A lot of stuff sucks gigantic ass. But it appears that, excluding the technical issues, it's the stuff that generic Codexer won't care for that much in a dungeon romp.

It's a Bard's Tale game, core elements are exploration, mindless slaughter, puzzles and great soundtrack. And it's all here.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

I'm pretty surprised at the number of people here enjoying this given the more casual-pandering non-traditional mechanics. The strength of good puzzles I suppose.

Codexers' are contrarians by nature. If RPS says BT4 it's a bad game and the general consensus is negative, they will praise the game and find some merit in it, somehow. I also suspect that some people here are are saying positive things about the game either because they are feeling guilty or moved by compassion. Things are indeed awful if a medium studio being run by a veteran is being pitied by usually edgy posters.

 

[Andhaira]

So has performance improved with the patches?

 

[BEvers]

 

[Agame]

I'm pretty surprised at the number of people here enjoying this given the more casual-pandering non-traditional mechanics. The strength of good puzzles I suppose.

The strength of exploratory murderhoboing, more like. Roxor isn't the only one!

So you're saying a decent game is hidden beneath hours of shit?

A lot of stuff sucks gigantic ass. But it appears that, excluding the technical issues, it's the stuff that generic Codexer won't care for that much in a dungeon romp.

It's a Bard's Tale game, core elements are exploration, mindless slaughter, puzzles and great soundtrack. And it's all here.

There is also no competition in a niche genre, if you want a blobber that isnt animu.

If you starve a man for long enough he will eat any old shit and thank you for it.

 

[Jinn]

So has performance improved with the patches?

Very slight improvement with the first patch, but not enough to be considered fixed. Very thankful for that FOV slider though. Game looks much better with the FOV maxed out.

 

[Stokowski]

Codexers' are contrarians by nature.

That's not true.

 

[Darth Roxor]

I'm pretty surprised at the number of people here enjoying this given the more casual-pandering non-traditional mechanics. The strength of good puzzles I suppose.

casual games tend to be pleasant/addictive, it's probably their biggest hook

 

[ortucis]

https://www.shacknews.com/article/107462/the-bards-tale-iv-review-past-its-due-date

Where The Bard’s Tale IV shines the brightest is in its character customization and world building. I was more than impressed when designing my character by the amount of diverse options I had when it came to race, class, skills and appearance. More specifically, the fact that the character creator offered several different male and female voices with different tones and emotional ranges is a feature I found really cool. The majority of games in which you get to create your own character from scratch usually go the “silent protagonist” route; you can see inXile put in the extra effort in creating a genuine role-playing experience. Hearing your own character speak and react to the events around them audibly seems like a simple addition, but really drives home the sense of immersion we crave so desperately when playing an RPG. Also, being able to assign any voiceover to my character, regardless of gender, is a neat touch.

 

[Mexi]

I'm pretty surprised at the number of people here enjoying this given the more casual-pandering non-traditional mechanics. The strength of good puzzles I suppose.

Codexers' are contrarians cucks by nature. If RPS says BT4 it's a bad game and the general consensus is negative, they will praise the game and find some merit in it, somehow. I also suspect that some people here are are saying positive things about the game either because they are feeling guilty or moved by compassion. Things are indeed awful if a medium studio being run by a veteran is being pitied by usually edgy posters.

Fixed it for you.

 

[felipepepe]

Having played a bit more after the patch, Bard's Tale IV biggest selling point is that it brings a AAA-esque production to dungeon crawlers, with all the fancy music, graphics and voices. It feels good to walk around exploring.

It's kinda what Legend of Grimrock I & II did, but those games had nothing to offer outside one giant dungeon full of puzzles and simplistic real-time combat - which is enough for a niche, but boring for wider audiences - and I bet most casual players hated the grid movement. Bard's Tale IV has a dumb story, dumb dialog and paper-thin characterization, but it's an extra layer that greatly improves the sense of pacing and adventure, something extremely important for any RPG. It makes the Shacknews intern happy.

This could make it a fun and popular casual dungeon-crawler, had they not started the game in a shitty area with fugly NPCs, pointless backtracking, no puzzles and no real sense of exploration (seriously, the first real dungeon is SO MUCH BETTER than Skara Brae). And if they actually finished the goddamn game before release... now it's stable, but how the fuck they realized they needed basic things like inventory sorting, controller support and FOV & speed sliders only AFTER release?

 

[Jimmious]

Well said felipepepe . It's impressive how much they screwed up their own game by the way they released it. Also the more people talk about it, the more I believe the "tutorial area" was added in a hurry and therefore it ... sucks so much. Like someone said "oh fuck we should have a tutorial!" and they squeezed that in

 

[ArchAngel]

From what I watched CohhCarnage playing it, the game seem decent. Bugs and performance problems should not have been allowed to kill it.

 

[Jinn]

The game is downright fun. Would recommend anyone play to at least the first real dungeon (a mage tower - you'll know it when you get to it) before abandoning the game.