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

[Safav Hamon]

My understanding is that the song only gets rid of the puzzles blocking main progression. Optional puzzles still exist.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

If you skip all the puzzles, is there any content left?

All that would be left is the semi-tactical combat --- until they release a Producer's Cut allowing you to skip that as well.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Just so I don't leave my post of bitching about the game unresolved, the area DID finally load the next day after rebooting my machine, so it must've been leaving something in memory or some damn thing. Regardless, game's thankfully knocked on the head. I actually enjoyed it a decent amount when I started playing but it feels like they could've made the game half as long for the content provided. New enemy types/compositions/variety dies out super fast, even the bosses basically being clones, and you also cap out on your characters really quick too. Not long after getting out of Skara Brae. The story's pretty much a non-entity too, so with the story being dead, the combat being dead, the character development/advancement being dead, you're left with the puzzles. Which were reasonably enjoyable in moderation but they abso-fucking-lutely aren't used in moderation in BT4, and the final dungeon being a fuckton of puzzles and then a final boss that died in 2 combat rounds sums it up well.

Not complete garbage for Kickstarting and I'm glad I got the BT trilogy remaster out of it too, but the game probably would've been better if it was shorter and they used the effort to tighten things up and add more variety to the combat and puzzles in that smaller span.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

2 rounds? Man, maybe Fargo needs to inject some FF game-juice into bosses. That's rather anti-climatic and depressing.

 

[agris]

Multi-headed Cow is really being too kind to this game. It vastly overstays its welcome, is mediocre to bad in all elements (maps, character building, itemization, challenge, length, “””puzzles”””, story, graphics) except the music. Even that gets a caveat because they overplay a single song per area until you’re sick to death of it.

And I have to say, calling the impediments to progress that dot every map like acne scars on a codexer’s face “puzzles” is a gross denigration of the word. This game has puzzles like politicians have morals. 99.3% of the time (and I can use that number of significant figures cuz there’s a fucking TON of these time wasting speed bumps) the “puzzles” require next to no thought and just break the monotony of fighting the same groups of enemies in a given map for the 39th time, or to distract you from the fact that you hit the deep end of the loot pool 1/3 into the game and you sure as shit know that elven weapon you just got won’t beat your diablo 3-style generic “rare” loot.

This game is the best that I’ve played from inXile and it’s garbage. Do yourselves a favor and play something good. Even if it isn’t new! Old stuff can be good too...

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

"What's old to some is new to others."

I haven't played a lot of games CRPGaddict has so they're new to me, even if the machines the first games were made are archaic artifacts of the past.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/the-bards-tale-iv/posts/2530365

Mid-2019 Update

Release Update

Hi everyone, work on the Director’s Cut is going very well, and we’re excited to share more about our progress today. As you’re aware, we were acquired by Microsoft late last year, and they’ve been a truly amazing partner, providing us access to new resources and refinement processes, and allowing us to take the time we want to ensure we make this the definitive edition of The Bard’s Tale IV. The good news is that the wait won’t be that much longer, as we’re targeting late summer for a release of the Director’s Cut on Windows, Mac, Linux, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

We’ll be sharing more news on specific dates in the near future, but for now here is a video on the changes from the game’s Creative Director, David Rogers, detailing what you’ll find in this new Director’s Cut.

And here are a few shots of some of the new features to look forward to—ones inspired by the feedback you gave us.

New Song of Exploration, “Struggler’s Lament”, allowing you to move past the main questline puzzles.

New character customization options.

Revised inventory management and additional UI features.

The Bard’s Tale Trilogy Update
We also have some news regarding The Bard’s Tale Trilogy for Mac gamers. Since launch, we’ve seen that Linux users have been able to play the game with minimal fuss, using methods like Steam’s Proton service. On the other hand, Mac users have not been able to play the game, so we are pleased to announce that we have made the additional investment to develop a Mac version. Krome is currently working on some additional updates for The Bard’s Tale Trilogy, and will begin work on the Mac version later this summer. All of you, Windows, Mac, and Linux, will be getting these additional Bard’s Tale Trilogy enhancement updates free of charge.

Stay Tuned!
As we noted above, we’ll have a release date for the The Bard’s Tale IV: Director’s Cut soon, so be on the lookout for another update!

Follow Us:

Facebook | Twitter | YouTube

 

[Morkar Left]

Not one word about game mechanic / rpg system changes?

 

[anvi]

Is it worth getting this game once the directors cut is out? I saw the video, looks good. https://youtu.be/LkJzadDLGa8

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

There might be the Golden RPG directors cut, then the gold premium, platinum edition, diamond edition, doubled diamond, and the Rockin' Rodeo Yee-Haw Edition.

Maybe... just maybe... The Fantastic Fargo Edition.

If patches and content are added free after purchase and you get it cheap; then why not.

Now underworld... its silent and maybe dead.

 

[newtmonkey]

I enjoyed it for what it is. The puzzles are boring and basically don't change in any way until the very last dungeon, where they finally do something interesting with the cog puzzle (a very decent puzzle at that). It's a problem because there are TONS of puzzles throughout the game; I'm not gonna exaggerate and be like ITS ALL PUZZLES, because you spend way more time exploring and fighting than you do solving puzzles, and most of the puzzles are in the dungeons where they belong. However, they often string several puzzles back to back in the outside areas, and if you aren't in the mood to solve fairy golf puzzle #45 followed by block puzzle #32 and cog puzzle #22, it can kill your motivation to play.

The combat and party building is pretty fun at first, but it takes too long to get a full party, and then once you do you get pretty overpowered quickly and party building starts to get boring. On top of that, a lot of abilities are clearly more powerful/useful than others, and since you're restricted to selecting only a handful of abilities (this includes spells) for each character, you basically end up with the non-choice of, for example, an attack that does single digit damage versus an attack that one-shot kills anything under XX HPs.

That leaves you with exploration, which is pretty much more like a Metroidvania game than a blobber—linear with small side areas to find treasure (sadly 99% crafting garbage) and locked areas for you to revisit later in the game.

It's a turn-based blobber, so it automatically gets points for that. I'd give it a C.

 

[Curratum]

Is it worth getting this game once the directors cut is out? I saw the video, looks good. https://youtu.be/LkJzadDLGa8

I'd say go for it. It's not the absolute best thing it could have been and there are often a few too many puzzles en route from A to B, but the DC will have a song that should allow you to skip puzzles, so it should be ok. Mechanically, it's good fun if you go in without too many pre-conceptions about what it should be.

 

[ProphetSword]

if you go in without too many pre-conceptions about what it should be.

Right. If you don't expect it to be a good CRPG, you'll be fine. Enjoy your puzzle game with puzzles you'll soon be able to skip.

 

[LESS T_T]

Strange small update by Micah Whipple (the new Communications Director), sending a wallpaper of the new key art: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/the-bards-tale-iv/posts/2549907

New Art from an Old Friend

The Bard’s Tale IV: Director’s Cut New Art Unveiled!
This is going to be a quick update to share something we’re pretty excited about: the new Director’s Cut key art. We’ll have a meatier update in the next couple weeks with answers to the questions we know you’ve been asking—we’re almost there folks—but until then we wanted to give you the first look at the new art.

With the Director’s Cut taking you to new places and balancing the experience, we spent a long time considering the creation of a new piece. We wanted something that celebrated this version of The Bard’s Tale IV while still communicating the setting and gameplay.

With an idea in-hand, we turned to an old friend to help make the concept a reality. The incomparable Andrée Wallin has been creating concept and promotional art for us for years. From his first piece during Wasteland 2 development, to his more recent work on Torment: Tides of Numenera and Wasteland 3, he has once again brought our ideas to life with this stunning and dramatic look at Haernhold—a new dungeon in The Bard’s Tale IV: Director’s Cut.

Andre’s work has always been popular with our fans, so we’ve prepared three large sizes for you to use as desktop wallpaper.

Download: 21:9 | 16:10 | 16:9

Let us know what you think of Andre’s latest creation!

 

[unfairlight]

I feel pity for this thread. So few people in it that the only ones keeping it above page 20 are newsposters.

 

[felipepepe]

What can we do if InXile sucks at this? They make a newspost about "unveiling" a single art piece that everyone already saw 3 weeks ago as it's the cover art of the Director's Cut...

Patch notes are more exciting than this shit.

 

[anvi]

I am still waiting to buy it once the Directors Cut is done. I usually wait for a game to release, then wait an extra year for patches, and then wait another extra year in case any must have mods come along.

 

[Daidre]

InXile seems to be afraid that somebody would even try to play their game.

I wishlisted it on Steam hoping to buy it with discount and get a free upgrade to Director Cut (as usual) but game had not got even pathetic 10% discount at sammer sale. Iirc I never seen any decent discounts at all.
I wonder if they really hope anyone would be desperate enough to pay full price for attempt #2.

 

[LESS T_T]

Price parity with upcoming console releases, I think.

 

[PsychoFox]

I wonder how many patches the Director's Cut gonna get. Fucking patch culture.

 

[PsychoFox]

I am still waiting to buy it once the Directors Cut is done. I usually wait for a game to release, then wait an extra year for patches, and then wait another extra year in case any must have mods come along.

Honestly, that's how I'm going to be doing things from now on. I tried it with KCD and it worked out well. Sometimes you'll have trashfires like PFKM where the "Enhanced Edition" still gets tons of patches, but hey those cases are probably rare.

 

[Jimmious]

Yeah buying games on release is pointless at the moment... Waiting a year or two will give you a much better product in a much cheaper price

 

[felipepepe]

Yeah buying games on release is pointless at the moment... Waiting a year or two will give you a much better product in a much cheaper price

Word. I feel bad for all the poor sods that played Pillars of Eternity II at launch... the final release with turn-base combat is an entirely different beast.

Then again, I was a poor sod that played PoE1 on release and got burned out with a bunch of stuff they fixed like 1 year later :/

 

[Jimmious]

Yeah buying games on release is pointless at the moment... Waiting a year or two will give you a much better product in a much cheaper price

Word. I feel bad for all the poor sods that played Pillars of Eternity II at launch... the final release with turn-base combat is an entirely different beast.

Then again, I was a poor sod that played PoE1 on release and got burned out with a bunch of stuff they fixed like 1 year later :/

Yup. Even worse was the situation with Wasteland 2 and Wasteland 2 DC. The latter was a far better product in all accounts but I can easily imagine people that missed it entirely just because the initial release was buggy and unoptimized etc

 

[PsychoFox]

Yeah buying games on release is pointless at the moment... Waiting a year or two will give you a much better product in a much cheaper price

Word. I feel bad for all the poor sods that played Pillars of Eternity II at launch... the final release with turn-base combat is an entirely different beast.

Then again, I was a poor sod that played PoE1 on release and got burned out with a bunch of stuff they fixed like 1 year later :/

Yup. Even worse was the situation with Wasteland 2 and Wasteland 2 DC. The latter was a far better product in all accounts but I can easily imagine people that missed it entirely just because the initial release was buggy and unoptimized etc

Yep. I still haven't gone back to play DC even though i own it. Just because my initial experience with the game was so bad.