welly321
Scholar
because it flopped and sold extremely poorly.
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Bard's Tale The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep - Director's Cut
- Thread starter Infinitron
- Start date
Ok but why? Is it a bad game? Then why it has over 100 pages on dex? Seems like a good game by sheer publicity here.
Mortmal
Arcane
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2009
- Messages
- 9,182
It's a good puzzle game, just very very lite on the rpg side.
Peachcurl
Cipher
It has some good puzzles (but too many of the same type), it has fun turn based combat, pretty unique art style (visual and sound, music). Very weird writing, odd looking characters.
And it's too long. I tend to lose interest when I get into that snow/ice region.
Still, one of the more original works in recent years, despite pretending to be the fourth installments in a series.
More of an RPG than certain Codex-RPGOTYs
And it's too long. I tend to lose interest when I get into that snow/ice region.
Still, one of the more original works in recent years, despite pretending to be the fourth installments in a series.
More of an RPG than certain Codex-RPGOTYs
It is too niche.
Mainstream pleb game = 100000000000 million potential customers
Bugs / Poor release = 10000000 million potential customers
With RPG mechanics = 100 million potential customers
With a party = 500 potential customers
With puzzles = 8 potential customers, and they're not sure.
Mainstream pleb game = 100000000000 million potential customers
Bugs / Poor release = 10000000 million potential customers
With RPG mechanics = 100 million potential customers
With a party = 500 potential customers
With puzzles = 8 potential customers, and they're not sure.
Sacibengala
Prophet
- Joined
- Aug 16, 2014
- Messages
- 1,105
So...We reached that point in time where Bard's Tale IV is finally good, then? Can't wait for the time where Tides of Numenera and Underworld: Ascendant will be considered good, cult classic games as well.
Antigoon
Augur
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2013
- Messages
- 366
They didn't update the original game with that directors cut but created a "new" game on steam. Effectively all reviews from the first year are lost/removed. Pretty sure they were mixed though. Guess they thought starting our fresh would help them.
fantadomat
Arcane
It was a glorios mess on release lol,just read the first few pages. Also a lot of pointless filler puzzles. There is a bunch of short poser reviews of the game in here too. Just read some old shit,it is a good thread,funny. Oh and looked like this:
Peachcurl
Cipher
Sure was buggy as hell. But it never looked like that, even at release. Wtf.
Well you probably underestimate the power of low-spec gaming bulgarian modding scene.
fantadomat
Arcane
Fucking retards,it was a bug on release. It is funny how people that didn't play the game argue about how it was.
Peachcurl
Cipher
"my experience has to be identical to everyone elses"
Fucking retards,it was a bug on release. It is funny how people that didn't play the game argue about how it was.
Chill bro, i was just poking at bulgarians and low spec eastern european gamers.
Glop_dweller
Prophet
- Joined
- Sep 29, 2007
- Messages
- 1,166
No... It's simply not this:
...And by my interpretation BT4 seemed to be a Frayed Knights rip-off. —not even a Bard's Tale rip-off.
vortex
Fabulous Optimist
On AMD card did look like that but was fixed later. Even Director's Cut had pretty lame performance.
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2015
- Messages
- 11,878
This has been discussed previously: InXile deviated from the formula of the original Bard's Tale trilogy in both combat and exploration, while at the same time heavily "casualizing" the game in almost every respect. The result is an evidently unsuccessful attempt to reach a broad audience that has never played the original trilogy and wouldn't care for it, while also alienating the narrower audience that appreciates Wizardry-likes and might be nostalgic for the original Bard's Tale games. Changes made to combat were seemingly aimed in the direction of making it more tactical, but it's too casualized to hold much appeal for the type of CRPG player who enjoys the tactical combat of Pool of Radiance and similar games. Similarly, changes made to exploration placed a focus on mechanical puzzles, but these puzzles are too simple and repetitive to hold much appeal for the type of CRPG player who enjoys the sort of puzzles found in Dungeon Master and similar games. The Bard's Tale IV was additionally hurt by the agonizingly-lengthy loading times for those without a solid-state drive and reportedly also poor framerates for many with older and/or cheaper computers, though these issues would be less likely to be experienced now than when it was released. Also, the game is burdened with a prolonged, unskippable tutorial sequence in a dreary underground area and generic medieval city before it finally allows you to create your own party and enter the first real dungeon.
The developers were unable to attract the casual gaming audience they were so clearly pursuing. The reasons for this aren't entirely clear, but certainly InXile did itself no favors by wasting money on advertisements attempting to attract people who had enjoyed Skyrim, even though nearly anyone who considers Skyrim a good game would run away screaming at the first real puzzle in The Bard's Tale IV, and not many would be fond of the (rather odd) turn-based combat either. I suppose certain portions of the casual audience might have been interested in either the combat or the puzzles but not both simultaneously.
Last edited:
V_K
Arcane
Which happens when exactly?
Going by steam stats, I gave the game 4 hours before getting utterly bored, and didn't find any.
Ivan
Arcane
Peachcurl
Cipher
Good question. It takes a while, I think the "tutorial" phase only has some optional stuff and minor block-moving riddles? The large puzzles occuring at high frequency mostly happen once you leave Skara Brae for the first time (e.g., fire stream puzzles, fairy golf puzzles, crystal shape puzzles, larger block-moving puzzles).
This is nothing like Wasteland 3 but if you don't already have other things you're excited to play this weekend you could do a lot worse for $4.
TheDeveloperDude
MagicScreen Games
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2012
- Messages
- 407
with turn based combat = 1 potential customer, and he is not sure
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