Average Playtime: 3 hours

The Bard's Tale

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About

Comedic action role-playing games have a certain public to appease and The Bard’s Tale, a separate title from the series with a similar name, succeeds. Players control the Bard, a cynical, sarcastic opportunist in the world of magic and swords. He is not interested in saving the world, but when it comes to getting a reward, or his own head is on the line – he’ll gladly jump into the action. And when the cult members recruited him to save the Caleigh, a beautiful princess, he considers that it might be worth his time.
The Bard’s Tale (2004) was a deviation from the main series, not only with a 3D environments but a moral choice system. The Bard has a choice in almost every dialogue to give either snarky or nice response, which might have lasting consequences through the entirety of the game. The game introduces summoning mechanic, which is improved with every musical instrument Bard finds during the story that allows players to call for the help of a companion. Companion specialty varied and they might be attacking defensive or utility. And because the game is focused on a musician, the player will view many musical numbers and songs.

Metascore
70
Release date
Developer
InXile Entertainment
Publisher
Vivendi Universal Games, inXile Entertainment
Age rating
13+ Teen
Website
http://www.thebardstale.com/

System requirements for Android

2.3 and up

System requirements for PlayStation 2

System requirements for Linux

  • OS: X11 enabled Linux distro
  • Processor: Pentium 4 2Ghz / AMD AthlonXP 2400
  • Memory: 512Mb
  • Graphics: GeForce FX5700 or better / ATI Radeon 9600 or better
  • OpenGL: 2.0 compatible video card and compatible drivers
  • Hard Drive: 3.8GB of free space
  • Sound: OpenAL compatible sound card and necessary drivers

System requirements for macOS

  • OS: OS X 10.6.0 or higher
  • Hard Drive: 3.6GB Hard disk space

System requirements for PC

  • OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista
  • Processor: Pentium 4 2Ghz / AMD AthlonXP 2400
  • Memory: 512Mb
  • Graphics: GeForce FX5700 or better / ATI Radeon 9600 or better
  • DirectX®: 9.0c
  • Hard Drive: 6GB of free space
  • Sound: DirectX 9 Compatible Sound Card

System requirements for iOS

iPhone 4, iPad 2 Wifi, iPad 2 3G, iPhone 4S, iPad Third Gen, iPad Third Gen 4G, iPhone 5, iPod Touch Fifth Gen, iPad Fourth Gen, iPad Fourth Gen 4G, iPad Mini, iPad Mini 4G, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPad Air, iPad Air Cellular, iPad Mini Retina, iPad Mini Retina Cellular, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air 2, iPad Air 2 Cellular, iPad Mini 3, iPad Mini 3 Cellular, iPod Touch Sixth Gen, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPad Mini 4, iPad Mini 4 Cellular, iPad Pro, iPad Pro Cellular, iPad Pro 9.7, iPad Pro 9.7 Cellular, iPhone SE, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPad 6 1 1, iPad 6 1 2, iPad 7 1, iPad 7 2, iPad 7 3, iPad 7 4, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPad 7 5, iPad 7 6, iPhone X S, iPhone X S Max, iPhone X R, iPad 8 1 2, iPad 8 3 4, iPad 8 5 6, iPad 8 7 8, iPad Mini 5, iPad Mini 5 Cellular, iPad Air 3, iPad Air 3 Cellular, iPod Touch Seventh Gen
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Last Modified: Jan 25, 2024

Where to buy

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Top contributors

iBarin

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+116
Playstation 2
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Android
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231,414 items
Producer, Designer
6.92%
Master Bard
Unlocked all Trophies!
10.98%
Brew Connoisseur
Drank 1 beverage in each of the 5 bars: The Drunken Rat, The Aiken Drum, Trowies Pub, The Fat Lute, and The Tup
10.98%
Token Trove
Collected 20 tokens
11.59%
Olde School Bard
Finished the game on Olde School Mode
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headcanon reasons for the layout of dungeons?
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exploration best practices?
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224/713 Bard's Tale (Part 1/6) - NESMania
Prepare thyself traveler, for a most peculiar tale of a salty waff who plays as a bard...
224/713 Bard's Tale (Part 6/6) - NESMania
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121 items

The Bard's Tale reviews and comments

I played this on PS4 and it’s a mobile port.  Very buggy, and the controls are not fluid whatsoever.  
Translated by
Microsoft from Deutsch
An old, classic Adventurere. However, with much more humor and regular vocals (It`s baaaddd luck to bee youu). Very nice are the dialogues between the protagonist (player) and the narrator, who are not always of the same opinion. The game also plays very well with the classics of "Chosen One" and the clichés around adventure games. The only drawback, the game occasionally crashes. Since you can save only in certain places, that can be quite annoying. Here's a patch that would be the fix! Therefore only 4 stars. Price-performance ratio is definitely correct! Recommendation!
Translated by
Microsoft from Deutsch
The predecessor reviews describe a bug that can easily be bypassed. The game hung in dialogue with the old man after the basement scene. Here actually two masks should be faded in the black area above the dialogue scene, one for a bland answer and one for a nice answer. The click areas exist here. If you click above somewhere in the middle of the black area, it continues. Too bad that there is this bug in the Mac version. In general I do not think the Mac version is that good. on the other hand, the iPad version convinced me, especially with regard to the operation. Who remembers all the keyboard shortcuts? The game is in itself, though not the latest gameplay, but very entertaining and refreshingly self-deprecating. There are actually four stars for this. Operation and the bug in the beginning are annoying, therefore a star deduction.
Translated by
Microsoft from Dutch
Bought the game and played it a few hours before writing this review. The game is extremely funny, I play it primarily for the sarcastic hilarious dialogues. The dialogues between narrator and the character made me laugh out loud multiple times. The action is nice too, it reminds me of Nox. Melee weapons, bows, charms, treasures, it's all in there. The graphics are nice too, not everything is super pretty but the movements and details are actually better than I'd expected. Some issues/bugs are to be fixed though, mainly the bug that prevents you from chosing the conversation options due to the black bars that cover these. The options are above the 'movie-scene', discovered them by randomly clicking over the screen. Nevertheless, if you know they're their, you can click them anyway and the problem is solved. Needs some fixing though. Haven't liked a game this much since a while, 5 star rating is well deserved. UPDATE The update should fix the bugs regarding the disappearing buttons thus I installed it. Now all my save games are lost quite a bummer. No way to turn on iCloud sync for saves.
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