The game's sound, particularly the voice work, is top notch. The Bard himself is well rendered, with his facial animations particularly lifelike at times. Graphically, The Bard's Tale is no stunner, although it does boast some varied textures throughout the different environments in the game world. You don't even need to go to a town shop to offload items - it's done automatically for you the instant you get a better piece of equipment. The Bard's Tale introduces a great new concept in where instead of an inventory system, the Bard automatically outfits himself with the best armour and weapons at his disposal. Trouble is neither of these methods are very handy in a tight scrape. You can only heal via summoning a specific character (the Crone) or by using a certain spell that can heal your entire party. So top marks for story, but how does it play? Unfortunately combat, which is what you'll be spending most of your time doing, can be a frustrating experience at times.Īdd to this the baffling decision by the programmers to not include a way to quickly heal yourself and it becomes a recipe for agitation.

The Bard's Tale is also one of the few games we know off that takes time off for a song or two, usually Monty Python-esque ditties about getting drunk or dying horribly after being attacked by ogres. At one stage the Bard even jokingly asks a group of guards why they always place the control levers for a gate they're protecting in front of said gate instead of safely behind it. Breaking barrels, a typical RPG method to uncover hidden items, is rewarded by the game world's resident barrel maker, who sees profit in replacing barrels lost to your senseless bashing. The Bard’s Tale IV picks up 150 years after the events of The Bard’s Tale III, revealed Creative Director David Rogers. For example, the main story revolves around the Bard having to save a princess from an evil wizard - a hackneyed RPG plot that even the characters within the game disparage for its unoriginality. The cynicism continues right through into the game world itself by taking numerous potshots at longstanding RPG conventions.

The bards tale xbox cover art