Bard's Tale IV - A Monstrous Menagerie

[Silver]

A new update for The Bards Tale IV and some more information on monsters and InXile review the year thats been.

Bard's Tale Monsters

We haven't kept all of the monsters from the first three Bard's Tale games. There were a lot - A LOT - and to be honest, some were a shade on the goofy side, but we're incorporating the coolest and most iconic into The Bard's Tale IV. And there is none more iconic than our first contender...

Berserker

In the original games Berserkers were famed as much for their numbers as their battle rage. You never encountered just one. In The Bard's Tale IV, berserkers are worshipers of Vidlsvin the Boar, the Einarr god of War. While the rest of the Einarr people are content to be fishers, farmers, shepherds, and good neighbors to their Baedish and Fichti cousins on the mainland of Caith, the Berserkers crave a bolder, bloodier life. Whipped up to a frothing fury by the priests of their cult, they seek to bring back the ancient Einarr traditions of raiding, pillaging, and slaughter, and thus restore the lost glory of the Jarls of the Stanish Isles.

Dragon

Dragons in the first three Bard's Tale games came in many colors - blue, green, copper, white, etc. - and there will be quite a variety in the Bard's Tale IV as well.

Dragons are originally natives of the realm of the Dwarfs, and one of the reasons that dwarfs build underground. (Castle walls aren't much use when a dragon can drop right into the courtyard, are they?) Unfortunately, a few of these monsters escaped into Midgard, the human realm, during Ragnarok, the war of the gods, and they and their offspring have been menacing humankind ever since.

The dragons of Caith are not, however, sentient beings. They're just the alpha-predators of all alpha-predators. Fire-breathing, mountain-dwelling stealers of cattle, killers of men, and wreckers of village, town, and castle. They fear nothing, and vigorously defend their territory and their kills. Worse, they are not immune to corruption, and their simple animal minds can be taken over by practitioners of dark magic and made into living weapons. That is when you really need to fear them.

Skeleton

Another nasty and numerous enemy in the three original Bard's Tale games was the skeleton. In The Bard's Tale IV, skeletons are the servants of necromancers, summoned to fight and die to protect their masters. They are merciless, relentless enemies who feel no pain and know no fear, and worse, if you see a skeleton, you know a necromancer isn't very far away.
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More information.

 

[luj1]

Never was a fan of Bards Tale... but that Wasteland 3 footage actually looks like Fallout 4 done well.. its so obvious where they're gooing with it now

 

[mercy]

In Bards Tale 3 for the C64 you could summon Death and keep him "sedated" enough - via spells - to obey your commands:
- Attack!
However Death and its summonable mega monster kin were so strong, they usually freed themselves from under my spell and began hacking away at my party, hehehe..

Was popular then like World of Warcraft is now or was a couple years ago. People were trading super-hi level Bards Tale 3 characters on floppy disks. All importable, of course, into your party.

 

[Deleted User]

Bard's Tale IV is one of my most anticipated upcoming games. I've gotten into first-person dungeon-crawlers lately and I'm really interested to see this one.

Are the Bard's Tale 1/2/3 remakes/remasters done yet?

 

[Hastar]

One of my favorite fights in any games was the 99 berserkers (x4). I remember the first time I was like what the hell and thank god for the mage spells that hit all members of a group. Had to speed up the game to get thru that fight.

 

[Vitirr]

and to be honest, some were a shade on the goofy side, but we're incorporating the coolest and most iconic into The Bard's Tale IV

I kind of like to some extent the goofy side on old games. I don't know why nowadays everything has to be so serious.

 

[rjshae]

To me a little creative goofiness can be welcome in those types of games. Blobber combat is tactically limited and can become dull, so a variety of unique opponents is essential.

 

[Saxon1974]

Bard's Tale IV is one of my most anticipated upcoming games. I've gotten into first-person dungeon-crawlers lately and I'm really interested to see this one.

Are the Bard's Tale 1/2/3 remakes/remasters done yet?

Nope, over a year late and no communication on it in a long time.

 

[JDR13]

I don't expect much from the remakes anyways. From what I've seen, they're pretty much the same games with new character portraits and an auto-map.

 

[fadedc]

As much as I was a huge bards tale fan back in the day, I can't really think of any monster that I can think of as being iconic. I mostly remember them as being largely interchangeable with each other, other than generic power/level differences. But maybe I'm forgetting something. Either way I'll be curious to see how it turns out.

 

[Deleted User]

I don't expect much from the remakes anyways. From what I've seen, they're pretty much the same games with new character portraits and an auto-map.

That's exactly why I want them. I never played the originals but would really like to try them with an auto-map. From what I have heard you had to map the original games yourself.

 

[wolfing]

That's exactly why I want them. I never played the originals but would really like to try them with an auto-map. From what I have heard you had to map the original games yourself.

You did. Some puzzles if I remember correctly had the solution in the map (like the walls in the map formed letters). It was especially bad in some maps where you had darkness and teleporters so you thought you went from coords 4,4 to 4,5 (and mapped it that way) when instead you went to 10,3... and then your map was pretty useless.

 

[you]

I thought they did a good job on wasteland 2 (esp director cut). In a lot of ways it was better than both pillars and ds. While I love ds combat and basic mechanics (crafting et all) the game had some serious cohesive and balance issues. I'm replaying pillars (never played whitemarch) and to be honest it is an extremely confusing mess with semi-lame combat. It reminds me of everything I hated with rtwp combat (in nwn, dragon age, and infinity engine). The number one thing I hate is the inability to establish a combat line that makes sense. Also pilalrs stats and story are a confusing mess.