After a group of brave heroes defeated the wizard Mangar the Dark and freed Skara Brae from eternal winter, all seemed well in the world. However, the evil Archmage Lagoth Zanta shows up and splits the Destiny Wand into seven pieces, scattering them all over the land. The Destiny Wand has protected the lands for seven hundred years, and without it the realm will fall into chaos. Thus it falls upon the heroes to reforge it. One of them also has to ascend to the position of Archmage and use the wand to defeat Lagoth Zanta.

The Destiny Knight is the second installment in the Bard's Tale series, and a sequel to Tales of the Unknown. Like its predecessor, it is a fantasy role-playing game with first-person exploration of a pseudo-3D world and turn-based battles against randomly appearing enemies. The sequel features six towns as opposed to the predecessor's only one, and a larger overworld area. Dungeons contain more traps and puzzles than before.

The player can create a party of up to seven active characters, as well as create additional characters and store them at the Adventurer's Guild in every city. Available races are human, elf, dwarf, hobbit, half-elf, half-orc, and gnome. In addition, some monsters can join the party and be summoned during combat. It is also possible to store money and banks and gamble in the casino, though the latter feature has been removed from the PC version.

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Screenshots

The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight PC-98 Main menu

The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight NES Creating characters for the party

The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight Apple II Walking through Tangramayne

The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight NES Walking around

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Promo Images

The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight Magazine Advertisement

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Alternate Titles

"The Arch Mage's Tale" -- Pre-release title
"Bard's Tale 2" -- Informal name

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Part of the Following Groups

User Reviews

A brilliant game that clearly deserves the title of epic masterpiece.	Commodore 64	Rob Von Strahd (7)
This Sequel is BETTER than the runaway hit Original ! Amazing!	DOS	XplOrOrOr (16)
Yes, the sequel is better!	DOS	ex_navynuke! (48)

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Critic Reviews

Computer and Video Games (CVG)	DOS	Dec, 1990	95 out of 100	95
Amiga Computing	Amiga	Dec, 1988	87 out of 100	87
Amiga Action	Amiga	Jan, 1991	86 out of 100	86
Tilt	Apple II	Jul, 1987	17 out of 20	85
ASM (Aktueller Software Markt)	Apple II	Mar, 1987	10.2 out of 12	85
Commodore User	Commodore 64	Apr, 1988	8 out of 10	80
ASM (Aktueller Software Markt)	Amiga	Dec, 1990	9.4 out of 12	78
Joker Verlag präsentiert: Sonderheft	Commodore 64	1992	76 out of 100	76
The Games Machine (UK)	Amiga	Sep, 1988	76 out of 100	76
Computer Gaming World (CGW)	Apple II	Jun, 1987	Unscored	Unscored

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Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
BT2 in the Auto-mapping Game Group?	4	GTramp (77628) Jun 23, 2011

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Trivia

Development

Michael Cranford, the creator, was never directly employed by Electronic Arts. Instead he was brought in as an outside contractor. He designed the second game almost entirely from his home, and after a falling out with an old friend on he decided not to get involved with the third game.

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Related Web Sites

Bard Songs (An online collection of Bard's Tale music transcribed to MIDI format. All from the PC versions.)
Bard's Tale 2 - The Destiny Knight Walkthrough/FAQ (This text solution includes monster references and more plus the full guide. Posted on CheatChaser.com)
Fan Site (Nice comprehensive site with links to maps, walkthroughs and other Bard's Tale 2 fan sites.)
The Bard's Tale Compendium (Very complete site with lots of information, hints, downloads for every game of the Bard's Tale series.)