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

[Gregz]

Since a lot of stuff from later games seems to have been added into the remastered BT1 just curious if you can archmage in it now as well. Anyone gotten that high to check it out yet? That would be massively op in first game.

Technically no, there are 4 spell classes, but you can learn them all on one character.

 

[Crispy]

I decided last night to add my bard back in to fill slot #7 for now. Party was all level 8 and he was at level 1.

Efficiency has skyrocketed. He leveled quickly, obviously, and now has 8 songs in reserve. The traveling tune along with the floating shield spell stacking really helps to lower AC all around. Plus the song that debuffs all enemies' damage output in all groups for the duration of combat is a nice one.

Dare I say the game's gotten a little too easy? I will admit to savescumming some of my leveling so as to get some better numbers, but I'm hoping/anticipating getting past level 3 of the sewers should ramp up the difficulty again to where I'm laughing at myself for underestimating this great game.

It's so nice to remember so little about the game that it feels almost all totally new again.

 

[Gregz]

The hardest part of The Bard's Tale was the mazes, not the combat.

There was no auto-map, no online maps to refer to, nothing but graph paper (if you were lucky enough to have some). It was really really hard. Only the Dungeon Master games and a few Wizardries compare in difficulty.

 

[Dehumanizer]

There was no auto-map, no online maps to refer to, nothing but graph paper

And you had to deal with one-way doors, spinners (typically in places where your view looked the same no matter which way you were looking), teleporters, darkness zones, anti-magic zones, health and/or spell point draining zones...

Back in the day, me and my brother eventually mapped the whole game by casting SCSI (Scry Site, which told you your coordinates) after each move. Otherwise, later in the game, you just couldn't trust anything, something that being forced to redo entire floors from scratch (because our maps were all wrong, since we didn't notice a teleporter or spinner) taught us. Those were the days.

 

[Sceptic]

I decided last night to add my bard back in to fill slot #7 for now.

Waitaminute... the remake allows you to go with all PCs in all 7 slots in the first game?

 

[Sceptic]

Ok so now that I know you can get 7 PCs in the remake of BT1 I'm completely changing my previous reply to octavius. I'm also much more tempted by the remake. Thanks Crispy.

You don't really need a Rogue, since the Hunter is a better killer and mages can just cast the cheap TRAPZAP spell at no risk.
EDIT: Although the Rogue's ability to Hide and attack monster that are far away should be quite useful at times.

Knowing what I know now, I'd just go with Paladin Hunter Monk Rogue Bard Conjurer Magician. Conjurer and Magician go through the other classes before ending as Magician and Conjurer respectively, then go Archmage in BT2, then one of them goes Chronomancer in BT3. By the time the Monk starts becoming useless in BT3 it's time to turn him into a Geomancer. This party would work very well in all 3 games in the remakes, would get you the use of all items in the game, and you'd benefit from all the class-specific abilities like Paladin's protection and Bard songs (and you need the Rogue for BT3 anyway).

 

[newtmonkey]

Hmmm, this is looking mighty tempting after reading all this. I think I might still wait until all three games (with legacy mode) are released, but I might be tempted some drunk night to pull the trigger...

 

[octavius]

Ok so now that I know you can get 7 PCs in the remake of BT1 I'm completely changing my previous reply to octavius. I'm also much more tempted by the remake. Thanks Crispy.

You don't really need a Rogue, since the Hunter is a better killer and mages can just cast the cheap TRAPZAP spell at no risk.
EDIT: Although the Rogue's ability to Hide and attack monster that are far away should be quite useful at times.

Knowing what I know now, I'd just go with Paladin Hunter Monk Rogue Bard Conjurer Magician. Conjurer and Magician go through the other classes before ending as Magician and Conjurer respectively, then go Archmage in BT2, then one of them goes Chronomancer in BT3. By the time the Monk starts becoming useless in BT3 it's time to turn him into a Geomancer. This party would work very well in all 3 games in the remakes, would get you the use of all items in the game, and you'd benefit from all the class-specific abilities like Paladin's protection and Bard songs (and you need the Rogue for BT3 anyway).

Assuming the remakes are balanced for using the same party in all three games, I would tend to agree.
But seven PCs means you can't have a Wind Dragon, or monsters joining (willing or not), and you occasionally have to make room for NPCs in the party, like Hawkslayer in BT3.

 

[Sceptic]

Assuming the remakes are balanced for using the same party in all three games, I would tend to agree.
But seven PCs means you can't have a Wind Dragon, or monsters joining (willing or not), and you occasionally have to make room for NPCs in the party, like Hawkslayer in BT3.

TBH I don't think the games are that much more balanced towards using a new party anyway (though I suspect you may disagree with this statement). Finishing the starter dungeon in BT2 gives new parties bonus XP that puts you at about the level of a party that didn't grind much in BT1 (and while the endgame of original BT1 is obnoxious as hell if you're not high level, I'm still not sure grinding is worth it, and I'm hoping the remake has made that part more balanced). BT3 is even worse, since the end of the starter SETS your level to something absurd (high 30s if I recall) that would've required a soul-crushing amount of grinding (which BT2 doesn't need anyway). The only fun you're really missing by importing all the way is that you're overpowered for the starter dungeons. It's a bit of a shame for BT2's, since that one really is quite nice and very well designed, but BT3's isn't even that good anyway.

The monster-joining was fun in BT1 but I didn't really miss it in BT2-3. Hawkslayer was disappointing - I had him in my party of the longest time, but he makes absolutely NO comments whatsoever, and not being able to control him or his inventory eventually got irritating. The biggest problem with a party of 7 is that you won't have space for the required NPCs in BT2, but even with 6 you'll still have to ditch more of your PCs for at least one snare (requires 3 NPCs). I'm curious to see if they're rebalancing the games for any of these considerations as you mentioned.

 

[Aildrik]

Loving this remake! BT was the first CRPG I played as a kid, on our family's Apple IIc. Oh the hours and hours and hours of grinding 99x4 Berserkers The changes (7th char slot, less XP per level) definitely make this version easier, so I am anxious to try out legacy mode which looks like the original ruleset. Got my group to L11; damn the fire horn helps so much. You can tell they really jacked up the gold rewards too because I am loaded with gold and have not even hit Harkyn's Castle yet.

Not sure if anyone else feels the same but I sorta wish they had remastered the original IIc art; it just looked a little more badass, despite the lower resolution.

 

[Dungeon Lord]

How do you discover a trap on the floor and how do you disarm it? Without a thief?
I have stepped into one in the cellar.

 

[octavius]

There is a spell with a 3 square radius.
I don't recall the name, but an eye icons shows up when it's active.
You can use Trapzap to disarm them, I guess.

 

[Gregz]

Loving this remake! BT was the first CRPG I played as a kid, on our family's Apple IIc. Oh the hours and hours and hours of grinding 99x4 Berserkers The changes (7th char slot, less XP per level) definitely make this version easier, so I am anxious to try out legacy mode which looks like the original ruleset. Got my group to L11; damn the fire horn helps so much. You can tell they really jacked up the gold rewards too because I am loaded with gold and have not even hit Harkyn's Castle yet.

Not sure if anyone else feels the same but I sorta wish they had remastered the original IIc art; it just looked a little more badass, despite the lower resolution.

Sadly they nerfed the 99X4 fight to not reset, you can only do it once. I'm pretty sure the 'legacy' version will be the same. Haven't verified that however.

 

[Roqua]

I really like all the improvements besides the save everywhere feature. The big fights grinding being removed was a decent call because I abused it and I'm sure others did too. I know what I am abusing is the save/reload. You used to only be able to save in the Inn, which made trap location and pretty much every aspect of the game significantly harder.

The only other critique I have is no rebindable keys. I would love if they put more of an effort into at least grouping them better. I've played a lot of the Asian blobbers over the past couple years that started off on consoles and would love to be able to keep my regular setup. It isn't a huge deal but a lot of us older guys don't know how to type like secretaries, or at least this guy doesn't. I can spam AAAADD, sure. But I have to look down to get the Y or if I'm casting spells. It ends up making it easier for me to just use the mouse for everything besides moving and AAAADD trash spam.

 

[thesheeep]

The only other critic I have is no rebindable keys.

Not rebindable keys are just a sign of a rushed or careless development. Stuff like that (just like no-speed up options for combat in other games) weirds me out every time.
In this case I don't need it, learned proper typing long ago, but still.

 

[Lord Marcus]

Anyone got a detailed walkthrough for Kylearians Tower, the ones on the net are old as Methuselah and are sparse on detail, trying to get to Kylearian, have completed 95% of map.

 

[Lord Marcus]

Anyone got a detailed walkthrough for Kylearians Tower, the ones on the net are old as Methuselah and are sparse on detail, trying to get to Kylearian, have completed 95% of map.

Stuck just after fight with Crystal Golem.

 

[Lord Marcus]

Anyone got a detailed walkthrough for Kylearians Tower, the ones on the net are old as Methuselah and are sparse on detail, trying to get to Kylearian, have completed 95% of map.

Stuck just after fight with Crystal Golem.

Figured it out, had to reset the Riddle about the name of the street.

 

[Gord]

Completed Part 1 yesterday. Was fun, although in the end it had begun to get a bit too repetitive. Ultimately it is a rather simplistic game, after all.

With all the modern amenities, it is definitely a good bit easier as well. Quick save & auto map in particular may remove some of the tedium, but reduce the challenge as well.
Judging from the patch notes, a few bugs had further lowered the difficulty in some instances. In fact I suspect that there's still a bug related to armor values (spells/songs are sometimes reducing them more than would be expected).
Interface improvements (some more introduced in the patches, like a kind of quick sort for spells) are welcome, however, and the graphic modernizations were done well, imho.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to part two.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I’d been to Kroah’s deconstruction site just to see what he had done to display pictures. It’s a pity on the Bards Tale Games it was primarily Amiga and PC he had. I have to to see a full compilation of all Bard’s tales on all the old platforms.

I haven’t seen if the items, spells, monsters, etc are similar or different.

On paper I had at one time (PC) I cast Baylor’s Spell Bind to capture every monster and record their AC, hp, and possible damage and spells. I’m sure some one who can program and read code could do a more accurate job.

That said, I’m curious on how close the new trilogy compares in those departments. Exact, close, .... different.

I suppose for those who wanted manuals these are the best bets:
http://bardstale.brotherhood.de/talefiles/1/docs/index.html

https://mocagh.org/loadpage.php?getcompany=ea&npp=25&whatsnew=0&start=0&series=Bard's+Tale+Series

Replacement docs seems to have no usable links the last I checked.

And is Mages Tale VR only and is it out?

 

[ItsChon]

Motherfucker, I'M ItsChon and I was confused when I saw this post. You need to change this shit. KeighnMcDeath

 

[octavius]

Motherfucker, I'M ItsChon and I was confused when I saw this post. You need to change this shit. KeighnMcDeath

Joined: Jul 1, 2018
I don't think you are in a postition to make demands, kid.

 

[Gregz]

Motherfucker, I'M ItsChon and I was confused when I saw this post. You need to change this shit. KeighnMcDeath

Keep your avatar KeighnMcDeath. You seem like a quality poster, and word on the street is that ItsChon is a waste of air.

 

[aweigh]

Do we have proof that Kennegh was using that avatar since 2016? Will he fire shots back at ItsChon? Will ItsChon survive? Find out next time on dragon ball zeeeeeeee

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Find out next time on dragon ball zeeeeeeee

More like Dragon Ball reeeeeeeeee, am I right?