The Bard's Tale

aka: Bingcheng Zhuanqi, The Bard's Tale (2004), The Bard's Tale ARPG, The Bard's Tale: Opowiesci Barda, The Bard's Tale: Remastered and Resnarkled, The Bard's Tale: Song of the Bard
Moby ID: 15800
PlayStation 2 Specs
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Description official descriptions

The Bard is a cynical, opportunistic musician who roams the country in search of carnal pleasures. However, this impatient and selfish fellow is compelled to accept the greatest quest of his life: save the princess Caleigh from a demonic cult that has kidnapped her. The unlikely hero must now explore the land in search of the princess, accompanied by the omnipresent Narrator who obviously can't stand the Bard and uses every opportunity to sarcastically comment on his actions. Furthermore, Fionnaoch, the mysterious abductor of the princess, does everything he can to stop the Bard, sending his minions after him.

A self-proclaimed "quest for coin and cleavage", The Bard's Tale is an action RPG that is more of a whimsical take on role-playing games than a remake of the classic series. As the Bard, players can fight off hordes of foes with blade and bow, and summon companions through magical Bard Songs. Leveling up allows the player to raise the character's main attributes and invest specialization points in the different types of weapons he can use. Magical companions must be sought out and then summoned during battles. After being summoned, they act pretty much like AI-controlled party members; some of them specialize in physical attacks and offensive spells, while others can heal the hero.

During conversations the player can choose "nice" or "snarky" responses for the protagonist. While mostly used for humorous effect, some of these responses may affect subsequent events. The game uses the Dark Alliance engine and has a similar camera and control scheme.

Spellings

  • Похождения Барда - Russian spelling
  • 冰城传奇 - Simplified Chinese spelling
  • 新冰城傳奇 - Traditional Chinese spelling

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Credits (PlayStation 2 version)

137 People (128 developers, 9 thanks) · View all

Original Concept and Design
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VP Operations
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Environmetal Design
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[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 74% (based on 51 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 78 ratings with 5 reviews)

Playing a "music man" is pretty darned refreshing, not to mention hilarious!

The Good
Rogues, pirates, scoundrels, womanizers .. ya gotta love 'em. The world would be a boring place without them. Look at the smash hit movie Pirates of the Caribbean and tell me that's not the case! The comical parts of that movie (and its sequel) remind me very much of this game.

It's been a very, very, very, very long time since I played the original The Bard's Tale games, so digging deep into grey matter to find an inkling of remembrance is necessary. I do recall those being part of my first role playing experiences and that I was able to finish all 3. Somehow I know I liked them and it was a thrill to be able to install and play them on a modern Windows XP system from my new Bard's Tale CD. (It only took me about 10 minutes for me to uninstall them .. but they'll play.)

The new Bard's Tale game takes place in a fictional world that reminds one of rowdy ole England (although I think our bard's voice is Australian). There are pubs where drunkards get sloshed and sing happily in slurred voices and wenches serve brew, rustic dwellings in towns with cobble-stoned streets or mere dirt. And, of course, there are monsters we've never seen the likes of before plus humans (both good and evil) inhabiting the lands. It's mystery and mayhem, deceit and treachery, magic and dungeon trampling - all rolled into a bundle with comedy wrapped around it like a pretty bow.

Getting down to the nitty-gritty, what can you expect as far as gameplay is concerned? This single-player game uses a combination of keyboard and mouse. The mouse is used for moving around, changing camera angles, etc. Use keyboard commands (customizable) to access menus, change weapons and for summoning party members. Yes, I said Summoning! With a punch of a few keys you can bring forth companions to journey with you. Early on, only one will accompany you, but more become possible as you learn more "songs" and gain experience. Towards the end of my game, I had 5 people in my party (out of the 16 available). If they die .. who cares! They're not "real" people .. can't carry any equipment for you .. you can't talk to them .. and you can always re-summon them if they get diced. (Sometimes, though, certain party members do respond (talk) during cut-scenes. Interesting.)

Back to gameplay .. I would consider the game to be a Role-playing/Adventure game .. not an Action/Adventure because there's no jumping or climbing or sleuthing possible. As a role-player, you build up your tolerances and "skills" as you and your party kill off things, advancing your stats gradually. As an adventure .. well maybe that's a stretch because there are no puzzles like you'd find in the adventure genre.

I've always hated games with specific save points, which this game has .. but the spots in this game are intuitively placed so there's not a great deal of doing things over if you fail to kill that something-or-other, or get zapped unexpectedly by a laser beam.

There's no inventory as we're used to seeing. In fact, you don't even accumulate extra weapons or armor. When you go into a shop, the only things possible to buy are better than what you already have. Wow .. no more guesswork as to what armor is the best, which to keep and which to sell .. no encumberment problems .. not even arrows need to be bought for your bows. Ingenious! That frees you up to concentrate on questing and advancing the story.

Speaking of the plot, it's a good one with a final twist at the end that you don't expect. (All 3 of the multiple-endings are worth playing through, btw.) At first, as you're getting to know the controls, there seems no point to the game except doing errands for the townsfolk. But, when you're finally able to get outta town and are in the midst of a real quest, you bump right into the main objective of the game .. save a damsel in distress .. rescue the love of your life .. a Princess!

Terrence Bosky's review of the PS2 version of this game mentions that it is "combat-intensive", and that's true .. but I enjoyed 90% of it in my Windows version. I liked the gameplay, the music, the voice-acting, the plot .. and especially the "snarkiness" of the Bard. Many times I was laughing out loud .. sometimes to the point of tears!

The Bad
I didn't think the graphics were all that great .. good, yes .. but not exceptional. Cut-scenes (with the close-ups) were the best.

The narrator, although he had funny moments too, became irritating at times.

The mapping system was rather lame. The most important view appeared right in the middle of your screen. Although faded so you could see what was going on with your characters, it still obscured my point of view. I would've liked being able to add labels (notes) to the maps too so I could remember, for instance, where the weapons shop was located when I returned to a town.

A quest for coin and cleavage? Coin maybe .. Carnage for sure .. but you won't find loads of busty women anywhere. Several yes .. but not as many as the company blurbs suggest.

The Bottom Line
My experience with The Bard's Tale was thoroughly enjoyable.

The game is not so huge that you can't finish it in, say, a month's time. There are ways to extend the gameplay with extra, non-essential quests too if you wish.

As I mentioned above, there are multiple endings, each of which provides an alternate scenario as to the outcome of the Bard. Me? I like him - just the way he is - sarcastic, a little short tempered, with a snappy wit that keeps you laughing - smart and somewhat handsome. I hope they make a sequel!

Windows · by Jeanne (75956) · 2006

Right Script and Acting, Wrong Game

The Good
Just to let you know, if you are familiar with the original Bard's Tale series which was 1st person perspective RPG in the 1980's, well this Bard's Tale has nothing to do with that unfortunately. So if you’re a big fan of the series, you just got suckered...like me.

Most old-skool RPG fans were waiting for this game to come out only because of its title. This little marketing scheme may have disappointed many hardcore fans of the series. Something I propose publishers never do again: Promote a false Messiah.

Anyway, back to the game. Bard's Tale, curiously enough is exactly was the title say's it is. A tale of a Bard. The bard is you and considering the time period, bard's are practically tricksters and scoundrels with the wit and charm of barmaids always fall far...at least until she's taken advantaged or she's missing a few coins.

And so we have the tale of our Bard. A handsome fellow...a little rough behind the edges...maybe a lot rough behind the edges, has the tongue of a snake and most impressively can steal a maidens virginity before she realizes it’s gone! A little dramatic by my part, but our hero bard is everything every man at one point in his life wanted to be...but wasn't allowed by certain figures in society. Ahem.

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Now if you’re expecting this game to be an RPG, then you may be a little disappointed. Unfortunately for you RPG fans, this the game's genre follow this sequence :

  1. Adventure
  2. Action
  3. RPG

So if your an action adventure fan or a hack-and-slash RPG fan, then this may be up your alley. For hardcore RPG fans, this game however lacks fundamental elements an old skool RPG has, but we'll discuss that later.

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The difference this game has to offer refers to the Bard's skills. Our bard is practically a Fighter/Mage/Ranger/Thief. As traditional RPG bard's are, a Jack-of-Trades. A little bit of everything, none too good, none too bad.

Now the "magic" part refers to his bard abilities to play tunes or songs. When played, the magical notes create a spell. May it be a bonus to your character, but more interesting, the capability to summon monsters or NPCs to aid your bard. Depending on your charisma, you can summon a maximum of 4 (four) monsters to aid you in battle.

But what I like most in this game is something I totally did not expect: Good acting and good storytelling (well the storytelling got lame later on, but the first few hours were pretty good – especially the pub song). Now the voice acting (and whoever wrote it was genius!). I'm always a fan for intelligent sarcastic type-dialogs, since all those "serious-type" acting does get to be boring and repetitive after a while. The acting in this game is a breath of fresh and funny air in my gaming experience, since not many if not almost no RPGs have ever had a "serious approach to humor" before in there games.

The main actors of this game comprise of two individuals. Firstly, you the Bard - who has this pessimistic and opportunistic tone and idea of life. And the Storyteller, who doesn't seem to like the Bard one bit as if he has a gun...or crossbow aimed at his head if he didn't continue to tell the story. I love the fact that there are many scenes where the Bard and the Storyteller keep fighting among themselves, totally out of context of the game, which probably is a very refreshing diversion from all that monster-bashing. I don't recall playing a game where half of the time I was laughing...

Needless to say, the acting introduced in this game, to my subjective opinion is the best elements of the game. An approach which I have rarely seen in games and would really like to see more with this type of acting involved.

The Bad
Now from an RPG point of view for you RPG lovers out there, this game is a serious insult to the genre. If I didn't know any better, they'd should have dropped the RPG part in the first place, because seriously, it technically wouldn't made much difference.

Why? Simple little things like character development, which is minimal. But the most insulting trait to a hardcore RPG gamer is the elimination of an inventory and complex items.

My God, what have they done? This isn't an RPG, its an adventure game wanting to be an RPG! That's right boys and girls, you don't have an inventory. Well you do, but its automatic...similar to what you would normally find in action-adventure games.

Now the problem isn't that the game doesn't have much of an inventory, character development, and other stuff you'd find. It's because of one thing: the title.

It's called Bard's Tale. If you want to use a name that already has a reputation, in this case of being one of the best darn RPG series in the RPG classic world of gaming, then people you'd better live up to it or get trashing from the fans. Most of us already condemn this game just because of the title. Hey, we were really expecting a Bard's Tale sequel here you maggots! Don't blame us if we spit on your grave!

The Bottom Line
If it weren't for the splendid voice acting, I would give this game a good trashing it really deserves. A rare exception.

PlayStation 2 · by Indra was here (20756) · 2007

Dull game in a slightly funny outfit

The Good
A role-playing game that is a comedy all the way through is a rare beast. I can't think of anything else but Knights of Xentar, the classic of parodies, and perhaps Anachronox, with its share of humor exceeding usual limits. Tengai Makyō games probably had too many serious elements to be taken as true comedies.

The "new" Bard's Tale aspires to be humorous all the way through. The writing here is sometimes similar to such classics as Space Quest - laughing at the hero, breaking the fourth wall, etc. The humor focuses almost entirely on conversations. There are by the way quite nasty bits, almost reminiscent of GTA games. The two characters who steal the show are, of course, the Bard himself, and his omnipresent companion, the narrator. Bringing back the narrator, whose presence in games I missed so much since Quest for Glory IV, was one of the best decisions this game has taken. He can't stand the Bard, and he keeps teasing him with ironic narration of the story. There is something very British about the narrator, he has dry wit and is always skeptical of the Bard's success.

The game also boasts excellent voice acting and, as the icing on the cake, features musical performances. The "beer song" will stay in your mind long after the game has lost its appeal. Overall, if the musical theme were pursued more thoroughly we could have ended up with a pleasant comedy alleviating the boredom of the gameplay.

Speaking of which, the one element of the gameplay I liked was summoning. You don't have magic, but instead can summon various creatures who act like your party members. You can issue general commands to them, and the intended goal here is to build a balanced party with the most effective combination of skills and abilities. Not all summons are just given to you: some are found in optional areas, and their upgrades are particularly worth hunting down.

The "snarky" and "nice" options in conversations are a nice idea as well. Sadly, it is barely implemented, since most of the time your responses either do not affect the gameplay at all or result in insignificant rewards or penalties. The choice of three possible endings, however, is a definitive plus.

The Bad
There are many things wrong with Bard's Tale, the most obvious ones involving what are, in my opinion, the pillars of game design: gameplay and game world. I'll get to those soon, but first I'd like to point out that - apparently unlike many other reviewers - I don't think the game can even be enjoyed purely for its comedic value.

I don't think the game was really funny. A lot of people were delighted when the hero was breaking empty barrels at the request of a shop owner who wanted to make a profit out of it or when the narrator icily commented on the implausibility of wolves dropping gold bags. Unfortunately, this pretty much sums up the humor style of the entire game. The Bard half-heartedly mocks RPG cliches, the narrator keeps telling us how much of a loser our protagonist is, and... that's it. Sure, it's amusing at the beginning, but it grows old really fast. There are no funny characters to remember and no real wit in the dialogue. Without those, humor loses its significance, particularly when it keeps being applied to the same thing over and over again.

The real problem is the fact that while the humor in cutscenes and dialogues is present no matter what, it has absolutely no effect on the gameplay. Even worse: the gameplay is actually what the game laughs at! The dialogue constantly mocks stale RPG conventions, and the gameplay keeps following precisely those conventions in the most conservative way imaginable. It is as if the developers wanted to make it easier for themselves and turned to humor as an excuse for poor design.

Seriously: The Bard's Tale is a by-the-book action game with a semi-RPG system slapped onto it, as generic as they go, without anything to distinguish it from the very games it tries to lampoon. What is the use of satire applied to a situation where you have to climb a long boring tower to face a powerful boss if the game actually forces this same situation upon you right away? And this happens every time, everywhere. Take away the humorous cutscenes and you'll be left with monotonous, unimaginative hack-and-slash that makes Diablo games look like epitomes of sophisticated role-playing.

Whoever says The Bard's Tale is a "funny Diablo" fails to see that the heart of Diablo was not at all in its massive doses of repetitive action, but in its obsessively vast item-collecting opportunities and customization. Compare the limitless outfitting of Diablo to The Bard's Tale with its paltry selection of equipment, where a "stronger" sword directly replaces a "weaker" one and where all items automatically convert to silver coins! Compare the wealth and fine-tuning of character classes of Diablo II to the paltry sword-flail-bow choices of this game, of which none makes much difference anyway.

Indeed, The Bard's Tale is "streamlined" in that infuriating modern (some would say "console-like") way, when everything is all too convenient: all the stuff you'll ever need is being neatly laid at your feet, whatever you do leads to easy victory anyway, and exploration is just a matter of following an obvious corridor or clicking on a map icon. Why bother pumping up your strength if you are guaranteed to find a more powerful amulet that renders anything you've found so far obsolete? Why search for that perfect combination to give you the edge in combat if all you need to do is just follow the general direction of the game?

The only trouble you'll ever have is guaranteed to come from the game's atrocious perspective. The Gauntlet-like top-down view is absolutely unsuitable for a 3D action game and ruins even the simple pleasure you might have had from hacking your foes to pieces. I hope you like clumsily waving your sword around trying to figure out when it actually connects, or aiming your bow at red dots representing your off-screen enemies, pressing the fire button to hit them automatically regardless of your skills. Combat is simply not satisfying, badly needing dynamics and drama that come courtesy of a free-roaming 3D camera this game unfortunately hasn't heard about.

Perhaps as a result, the game suffers from a serious lack of atmosphere. You do not feel the beauty of open fields or the fear reigning in demonic caverns. Predictable layouts, mediocre graphics, and the aforementioned overhead view greatly diminish immersion in the game world.

The Bottom Line
In conclusion, The Bard's Tale is good only for a few laughs, and even those can't last long. The actual game behind the humorous facade is a completely run-of-the-mill, antiquated top-down slashfest with a shallow RPG angle. It is one of those games you'll be curious to check out, but never compelled enough to come back to.

Xbox · by Unicorn Lynx (181780) · 2014

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Trivia

Extras

The Polish version contains the first three Bard's Tale games as a bonus, just like the US one, but apparently unlike any other European release.

Information also contributed by JRK

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Terrence Bosky.

PS Vita, PlayStation 4 added by mars_rulez. Windows Apps, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One added by Kam1Kaz3NL77. OnLive added by firefang9212. iPhone, BlackBerry, iPad, Macintosh, Android, Ouya added by Kabushi. Linux added by Iggi. Windows added by Jeanne.

Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, Jeanne, JRK, Sciere, Cigam, Stratege, Paulus18950, Patrick Bregger, Plok.

Game added December 9, 2004. Last modified March 15, 2024.