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

[Reinhardt]

people who say this is a puzzle game and not a blobber are talkling shit.

I'm like 1.5 hours into the game

 

[Zombra]

The grid mode seems to work fine, but the game doesn't really benefit from it. It's like shoving step mode into Wizardry 8. I guess it's nice for anyone that really cares about it, but it's not like the maps are grid-based like in, say, Might & Magic X.

Yeah. I'm still astonished that anyone (not you guys) thought this would be a valuable addition to the game.

 

[Revenant]

I find the grid mode useful when evading guillotine traps.

 

[agris]

Wouldn’t want to get hit for one damage, what with the rarity of food and all.

 

[Sacred82]

people who say this is a puzzle game and not a blobber are talkling shit.

I'm like 1.5 hours into the game

The pacing is like puzzle/ combat/ combat/ puzzle. Broken up by lots of exploration. Definitely can see a lot of replayability value there.

so does the pacing change? Because it's really not problematic at this point. Even if it went puzzle/ combat/ puzzle, depending on the encounter and the 'complexity' of the puzzle, it may not be bad at all.

 

[newtmonkey]

The pacing changes Sacred82. It's not so bad in the beginning or in the dungeons, but the outdoor areas are strings of the same puzzle with slight variations, separated with one or two combat encounters. I don't even mind the puzzles, but I did get annoyed toward the middle where you'd have to solve three fairy pushing puzzles in a row only to be faced with ANOTHER fairy pushing puzzle.

Having said that, although it gets worse, it's still not THAT BAD.

 

[Nyast]

The pacing in the middle is more likle combat combat combat puzzle puzzle puzzle combat combat combat puzzle puzzle puzzle.

 

[Sacred82]

The pacing changes Sacred82. It's not so bad in the beginning or in the dungeons, but the outdoor areas are strings of the same puzzle with slight variations, separated with one or two combat encounters. I don't even mind the puzzles, but I did get annoyed toward the middle where you'd have to solve three fairy pushing puzzles in a row only to be faced with ANOTHER fairy pushing puzzle.

Having said that, although it gets worse, it's still not THAT BAD.

what's fairy pushing? like cog pushing or fairly time intensive? Also, how are those mid/ late game combats? I guess they're a bit more involved than the early stuff.

 

[newtmonkey]

There are puzzles where you just push fairies at rocks to unlock doors (it's more involved that that, but that's the gist of it). They are kind of fun at first because they keep adding new wrinkles (you basically "program" the fairies to move in certain directions), but it gets tiring quick.

The combat gets more interesting later on as you unlock more class abilities, but the enemies don't really get any more interesting. They add some wrinkles—armor that you need to break with special attacks before you can do full physical damage, or skeletons that revive unless you defeat them all in a single round—but it's mostly the same enemies from start to end.

The biggest problem toward the mid to end is that you become ridiculously powerful without even trying.

 

[Agame]

I played the original for 30 hours and enjoyed it. The puzzles were well-balanced as not being too difficult yet also not immediately easy for the most part. Combat was fun in that you can create many of your own quirks and synergies with your party, creating a playstyle that is unique to you as you discover new ways to build your dudes. I think the game is good and it's good they're still supporting it. If it wasn't for Jesus Christ returning in the form of Kingmaker I'd still be playing this.

You seem to like everything, with a kind of child like naivety.

Were you dropped on your head as a baby? Possibly multiple times?

Its all making sense now.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

You seem to like everything, with a kind of child like naivety.

Were you dropped on your head as a baby? Possibly multiple times?

Its all making sense now.

Call me crazy but I tend to enjoy RPGs I play and look at the good in them rather than focus on the negatives. But I don't like everything. I thought Demons Age was a scam/not worth playing at all and there's been games like Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky that just didn't grab me. But for the most part when it comes to CRPGs, I enjoy them, and I enjoy the developers who are working to bring them to us niche nerds.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Fairy pushing? Quit it with the homophobia.

 

[Sacred82]

Not going to see any end of me loving this game.

U gize who find the game too easy, sure you played without save anywhere/ trying to consume instead of bind? IOW, no save scumming? And auto resurrection off?

As I understand it they tweaked the difficulty a bit with the latest patch.

The only thing that hampers my enjoyment so far is some lack of interesting party building. Next to the party I'm running now I can see one more configuration that would make sense and be fun to play, and then I'll have pretty much exhausted the options the game gives you. Unless you want to run same characters.

 

[Zombra]

To be filed under "for whatever it's worth" ... one active forum member and old school Bard's Tale fan finds the grid movement to be very good for the game ...

Having spent about a half hour last night in the small amount of time I had available to try out the major enhancements - being a big proponent of the grid-movement of the trilogy, I have to say that at this point, speaking strictly for the in-game movement perspective - I think I vastly prefer the grid option. I can see how the 'node' structure exists, but having only run around SB Below for a while, I can only trust that any fin-tuned locational content has been tested and verified with the applied grid nodes (like hidden glyphs, or tiny objects to pick up, etc). I say from a navigational perspective because I haven't yet tried exploring and mapping, or playing the intended game content. I'm pretty sure I won't be much happier from that perspective, given the nature of the game and its visually literal content... but... from a mapping standpoint, the clear structure of navigation should make for a very satisfying mapping experience. And apart from turning left and right being defaulted to Q and E (easy to adjust), the combination of mouse look and the highlighted grid nodes with keyboard movement is a nice, fluid mix, imo.

 

[Sacred82]

The system is surprisingly deep with enormous synergies. It's absolutely forgivable you can't invest in skills because of that. Definitely hats off in that regard.

Game runs like a charm on my 6 year old PC with an apparently too large screen for my old gfx. Apart from the occasional 1 second freeze it's fantastic with all settings set to High. Not sure if the graphics profit from Ultra settings, definitely doesn't seem worth any tradeoff in performance as the game has more then enough eye candy for non-tards.

I haven't experienced a single lockup or crash in 44 hours playtime.

Kodex, get off your fucking arse. GOTY 2018? :yes:

 

[Agame]

The system is surprisingly deep with enormous synergies. It's absolutely forgivable you can't invest in skills because of that. Definitely hats off in that regard.

Game runs like a charm on my 6 year old PC with an apparently too large screen for my old gfx. Apart from the occasional 1 second freeze it's fantastic with all settings set to High. Not sure if the graphics profit from Ultra settings, definitely doesn't seem worth any tradeoff in performance as the game has more then enough eye candy for non-tards.

I haven't experienced a single lockup or crash in 44 hours playtime.

Kodex, get off your fucking arse. GOTY 2018? :yes:

Roqua just stop it, we know you love BT4, no one cares anymore.

 

[aweigh]

I don't really understand the hurrah about the grid-based movement, I mean if the maps weren't designed with it in mind then it's just a cosmetic effect.

(And the maps weren't designed with it in mind).

It's just more ammunition for retards to go:

"See? They even put OLD SCHOOL STUFF like GRID MOVEMENT and you guys still hate on it!!!!! You're just toxic gamers!" and completely miss the fucking point.

 

[Eggs is eggs]

Matt Barton did a video about this game and he seemed to enjoy it.

 

[Morkar Left]

Matt Barton did a video about this game and he seemed to enjoy it.

The game is far from being a complete trainwreck but it has substantial issues which prevents it from being a good rpg. That doesn't mean that you can't have some fun with it. But I doubt it would last the whole game.

The biggest problem imho is actually the whole character system and straying away waaay too far from a normal rpg system and having a bit too much repetitive puzzles too often (having the puzzles in is actually pretty good and entertaining). With the wrecked up char system comes some bad balancing and a very weak economy. Add some other nonsensical design decisions like the token system and overall you get a 65-70 % rated game.

 

[ProphetSword]

I think history will likely prove that this game should be a forgotten chapter in the series. Some people might be okay with it now, and there will probably be some who will always say it was good, but I think overall it's not going to be classic, not be on anyone's "must play" list, and will probably only be worth it for those who buy it on the cheap $1 tier in Humble Bundle (probably in July of 2019).

 

[Zombra]

I think history will likely prove that this game should be a forgotten chapter in the series. Some people might be okay with it now, and there will probably be some who will always say it was good, but I think overall it's not going to be classic, not be on anyone's "must play" list, and will probably only be worth it for those who buy it on the cheap $1 tier in Humble Bundle.

Sounds to me like it fits the series perfectly.

 

[fantadomat]

Microsoft power!

 

[Sacred82]

I don't really understand the hurrah about the grid-based movement, I mean if the maps weren't designed with it in mind then it's just a cosmetic effect.

(And the maps weren't designed with it in mind).

It's just more ammunition for retards to go:

"See? They even put OLD SCHOOL STUFF like GRID MOVEMENT and you guys still hate on it!!!!! You're just toxic gamers!" and completely miss the fucking point.

The fucking point being that it's the best thing to have come out of kickstarter yet.

Ok the game is all lollercakez steamrolling if you play at the default settings so maybe you grognard autists dismissed it out of hand for that.

I'm playing on Hard with auto resurrection off and save anywhere off and I'm limiting myself to 4 characters. The game gets really interesting at that point as you must sperg over party setup.

 

[Sacred82]

ok after also having played Pathfinder finally I have to say, gameplay wise, BTIV has nothing on it.

On the other hand... Kingmaker is very cookie cutter. It seems to hit all the notes of what you want from an RPG... literally all of them so far, except maybe stronghold customization. But it's also bland af. It's like people had been brooding for 20 years over how you could have made the IE games perfect, and then went and did that. Which is nice and all and impressively realized, but hardly innovative.

BTIV has a very distinct presentation and concept and maybe that's why the Kodex shits on it. InXile's eclectic design has never met with love here. Not surprsing in a place where people wish they would still make em like Wizardry 1.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

The game is far from being a complete trainwreck but it has substantial issues which prevents it from being a good rpg. That doesn't mean that you can't have some fun with it. But I doubt it would last the whole game.

The biggest problem imho is actually the whole character system and straying away waaay too far from a normal rpg system and having a bit too much repetitive puzzles too often (having the puzzles in is actually pretty good and entertaining). With the wrecked up char system comes some bad balancing and a very weak economy. Add some other nonsensical design decisions like the token system and overall you get a 65-70 % rated game.

RPG developers are moving away from deep stats in favor of a "streamlined" and "mainstream " experience. Meanwhile, I look at sports games (which sell millions of copies) and see 10 main stats with another 30 derived stats ranging from 0-100.

Maybe rpg devs are just fucking stupid. This game was rancid shit and I'm glad it failed. Stop dumbing down the genre.