Bard's Tale The Bard's Tale Trilogy - remaster by Krome Studios

[J_C]

They fucking raped the graphics on this poor game. It looked so beautiful when it was pixelated, but now? It just looks like shitty cartoon art.

It's a completely faithful and tasteful upgrade, stop whining.

 

[Filthy Sauce]

Just saw this on the steam forms

 

[Morkar Left]

Hi Morkar,

We're getting ready to distribute keys for The Bard's Tale I-III Classic Trilogy Remastered (Digital)! In preparation, we need you to select either a GOG key, or a Steam key.

In order to choose your key, you will need to reopen your backer survey. The link to your survey is below in this email.

When you click the link below, you'll arrive at your completed survey, which you will need to re-open by clicking the Open Your Survey link. When you re-open your survey, you'll automatically be brought to the Extras page. As the trilogy product was part of a reward, you'll need to click on Rewards in the survey navigation bar, and locate it in your rewards.

Then, choose between the Steam or GOG version!

Click through the rest of the survey until you've completely finalized the survey again; you won't owe any additional money. (If you see "Congratulations!" then you're done!) You'll then receive a new confirmation email. THE CONFIRMATION EMAIL DOES NOT CONTAIN THE KEY. The key you receive will be sent in a separate email, labeled Digital Fulfillment - Classic Trilogy Key, and should arrive within 24 hours. Please remember to check your spam and filter folders in case the email gets misfiled.

Click here to access your survey

Remember, you must complete your survey again to be sent a key!

Thank you,
The The Bard's Tale Team

 

[Infinitron]

Got my survey at 6 AM this morning (5.5 hours ago).

Glad to hear the game is good, this goes on the Codex curator for sure.

 

[Morkar Left]

Got the key from gog (pretty fast) and installed. It takes half a gig on the hd

Just some first impressions from running around. But it's a complete engine rewrite. The engine is actually 3d. I mean you have the full experience like in the original 2d just nicer graphics and you can even look around in 3d style if you wish (but no need for it). Everything is running smoothly, no delays or something like that.

Overall the menus and introduction are faithful homages to the original. Mouse and keyboard work flawless and the graphics are nice. The portraits ofc you could argue that they are too much comic style and I can agree that by porting these portraits to higher resolutions something is lost in translation. Anyway that's just a very minor thing in the end.

Can't tell much about the game mechanics so far and how they are different to the originals. But there will be a legacy mode coming (it's not ready yet) and the screen looks like this:



https://s22.postimg.cc/ed36rkjw1/legacy1.jpg



https://s22.postimg.cc/swabt0v1d/legacy2.jpg

So far very worth the 5$ for every episode. There is real effort put into this remastered version and it's not a quick cash grab.

EDIT: What I forgot: The minimap could be more stylish, it's just an overlay in the view window and the text window takes up a lot of space. And I couldn't find a manual so far (which is a bit disturbing).

 

[Spiky]

And I couldn't find a manual so far (which is a bit disturbing).

Manual will be part of V2 just like in any other top quality dungeon crawler.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

Edit: btw for the purists (if there are any), you can play the game in 'classic' mode which has none of these conveniences if you wish.

It seems it's not yet implemented.

Apparently that's not coming until after the 3rd game is done. Seems like a relatively simple thing to implement which makes it's long delay a little odd.

I guess they want to sort out the bugs in normal version first. They actually mentioned something like this in a kickstarter update,

 

[AbounI]

I don't remember if it was like that in the past, but entering the adventurer's guild at night and you'll automatically exit it next morning, so that every closed houses (Garth's shop and Review Board) will be open.

 

[Curratum]

I only got this in my BT4 preorder but ewch.

This is from an era a little before the one I can enjoy and sympathize with.

Maybe if they hadn't been so literal with the remaster... I mean, you still can't even check your XP points without going to the review board...

 

[Morkar Left]

Edit: btw for the purists (if there are any), you can play the game in 'classic' mode which has none of these conveniences if you wish.

It seems it's not yet implemented.

Apparently that's not coming until after the 3rd game is done. Seems like a relatively simple thing to implement which makes it's long delay a little odd.

I guess they want to sort out the bugs in normal version first. They actually mentioned something like this in a kickstarter update,

Yeah, that's why I will probably waiting till everything is released. But maybe putting 1-3 hours into it to try things out.

 

[octavius]

I don't remember if it was like that in the past, but entering the adventurer's guild at night and you'll automatically exit it next morning, so that every closed houses (Garth's shop and Review Board) will be open.

It was like that in the past.
With Wolves and Barbarians prowling the streets at night it was nice to go back to the AG.

 

[octavius]

Anyone know which versions the remasters are based on?
I seem to recall that the Apple version was the odd one of BT1. Not only was it (AFAIK) bug free, but unlike the other version you could meet two monster groups on the streets of Skara Brae instead of just one, most likely making it harder than the other versions.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Is it possible to disable the animations for moving? It looks agonizingly slow.

 

[JBro]

I've never played Bard's Tale, but it looks great to me. Even just having it so that your view actually animates when turning or moving instead of the screen instantly changing would help with navigation a bit. I wish someone would do a similar job with Wiz 6 and 7.

I watched this guy play it. https://www.twitch.tv/chuboh

 

[LESS T_T]

Interesting, the gameview is bigger on more wider resolution:

1280x720

1280x600

1024x768

I think they can use the bigger view in the usual 16:9 resolutions?

Also this is made (or should I say "wrapped"?) with Unity.

 

[Infinitron]

Anyone know which versions the remasters are based on?
I seem to recall that the Apple version was the odd one of BT1. Not only was it (AFAIK) bug free, but unlike the other version you could meet two monster groups on the streets of Skara Brae instead of just one, most likely making it harder than the other versions.

My guess is they'd tell you "all of them". Regarding those specific encounters, I recommend you ask.

 

[theSavant]

This is from an era a little before the one I can enjoy and sympathize with.

Same here. I was excited at first (never played the originals btw), but after some playing realized it's too oldschool for me. Can't get around enemies popping up out of nowhere, and them being represented as a single static picture. Too much abstraction for my taste. Same as old Wizardries and jBlobbers. It's only Bard's Tale 4 for me then I guess...

 

[octavius]

Seems the game still has a fair share of bugs:
https://af.gog.com/forum/the_bards_tale_series/bards_tale_remastered_so_many_problems?as=1649904300

 

[Crispy]

LESS T_T how is the music so far?

 

[Filthy Sauce]

What's a decent party? I'm new to bards tale.

I just started with

Paladin
Hunter
Bard
Rogue
Conjure
Magician
Magician.

I've heard bards are ironically shit?

 

[mondblut]

A faithful modern-looking rewrite of a 80s crawler, one that probably cost a six digit number to produce?

Hell froze over.

 

[Eggs is eggs]

It's nice that you can resize the view window. It seems awfully small in the original version.

 

[slymer]

I'm pretty sure you're supposed to keep an open slot in your party for summons and whatnot.

What's a decent party? I'm new to bards tale.

I just started with

Paladin
Hunter
Bard
Rogue
Conjure
Magician
Magician.

I've heard bards are ironically shit?

 

[Roguey]

Interesting, the gameview is bigger on more wider resolution:

FFS the 1280x600 version should be the default

 

[MRY]

I seem to have a GOG or Steam key because of backing the other Bard's Tale game. Anyone want it? If so, GOG or Steam?