The Bard's Tale IV - Officially Announced!

Gorath

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Brian Fargo announced via Twitter what everybody already expected: The Bard's Tale IV is in development. More details as they become available.

Thanks Lemonhead!

More information.
 
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HiddenX also sent me a link for GameInfomer with more information

Link - http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2015/01/24/the-bard-39-s-tale-4-announced.aspx
Brian Fargo and InXile Entertainment announced a new chapter to the classic RPG dungeon-crawler series at PAX South today. This single player PC-centric installment won't be a complete throwback-style game like Wasteland 2, and instead The Bard's Tale 4 will attempt to modernize and revitalize the genre - sort of like how Hearthstone approached the card game.

"This is a special game for me," says Fargo. "It was the first game that really put Interplay on the map, and it just happens that this will fall on the 30th anniversary."

The game will feature modern day approaches to graphics, sound, and design while revisiting all the locales and classes that players love from the early installments in the series like the town of Skara Brae. The game will be a dungeon crawler through and through, but don't expect to have to bust out the old-school tools. HUD elements will be kept to a minimum, there will be plenty of puzzles, and immersion will be the focus.

"I don't think in this day and age we can make you break out the graph paper," says Fargo. "We might have a hardcore mode for that."
As for the announcement I have only played the console version on the PS2 back in 2004. So you see I'm not as excited as most of you are in this thread.

Hopefully he makes Van Buren (Fallout 3) next as he owns the license.
 
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Hmm... I don't think that I would pay full price for a blobber nowadays, and Fargo's praise for Hearthstone doesen't give me much confidence in the game either :(
 
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They didn't add the numeral for nothing - which is actually the surprise here.

After one very solid RPG and a potentially great one in the making, I'll throw my money at them right away.
 
IGN also has more information about the new game and other projects.

Link - http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/01/24/brian-fargo-announces-first-bards-tale-sequel-in-27-years
InXile Entertainment is planning a Kickstarter for The Bard's Tale IV. Details about the game are still light, but Fargo did say the team will be pulling from the original as far as overarching ideas go. From a story perspective, players will be returning to Skara Brae, where it all began. But on the gameplay side of things, Fargo is planning a deviation.

"Traditional turn-based combat," as Fargo calls it, bases turns on varying factors, creating battles in which different characters attacked at different times, often alternating between opposing sides. But in The Bard's Tale IV, teams attack all at once. This increases the pace of the combat, and allows for a different set of tactics than the traditional system might allow.

"There will be plenty of combat diversity and depth," Fargo said. "You look at something like Hearthstone, for example. It's sort of that going back-and-forth process, and you see the complexity and detail and strategy and nuance that can happen. It's really an amazing system. I love those modern influences. I took a lot away from that, and see things we need to do with our combat system."
Seems it will be InXile's next kickstarter but no date was given yet.
 
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Like Heartstone... graph paper is too complicated these days... has the logo of a Facebook free to play game...

No, I'm going to be very doubtful about this one.
 
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Like Heartstone… graph paper is too complicated these days… has the logo of a Facebook free to play game…

No, I'm going to be very doubtful about this one.

Can't you just use graph paper anyway and eschew the automap?

Plus didn't he suggest there might be an option to turn off the automapping?

Personally I find using graph paper tedious and fraught with potential errors.
 
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I don't know much about the classic bard's tales, but I played bard's tale (2004) and enjoyed it quite much. Light hearted action rpg which had some of the funniest dialogs i've ever heard in a videogame. The game really poked fun of traditional fantasy and rpg tropes/cliches. And the narrator in that game deserves an emmy or something.. I have rarely laughed so hard while playing a video game :)

So i'm hoping that new bard's tale continues to that light hearted comedy direction instead of delivering some kind of "serious rpg". And I hope that the combat system is not too tedious. To clarify i mean the tone of the game stays light hearted instead of serious and dark.
 
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I've never been able to get into the Bard's Tale series for some reason. It sounds like this will be party-based, which is a plus. I guess I'll see how it goes.
 
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Awesome ... definitely will back this one and grab it when it comes around!
 
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Everyone who survived the Crypt in Bard's Tale 2 and fought against Father Kringle and Ybarra the Mage, wants a game of this challenge again.
 
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Actually Hearthstone is the greatest implementation of a card game currently available. There are just so many way you can build your deck now it is really fun. That said if you want to do well now and catch up to the rest it will be a money pit, oh how i wish i didnt start a a couple of months ago instead of the start and kept playing.

THe magic the gathering games' online implementation is an abomination. It is so bad and uninspired in comparison.
 
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Oh my goodness me! What an amazing breakfast greeting at the 'Watch. I take the first sip of my morning coffee, spot this thread and practically burn my lips in the process of reading it. :D

First a new Underworld gets announced, TSI plans to recreate the gold-box experience and now news of a Bard's Tale IV emerges from the mist? Are you kidding me? Incredible! I'm simply in awe here.

I'm just going to throw away all attempts at being rational for a moment and go with the unadulterated excitement. I remember signing petitions for this game to be made back in my uni days. http://www.cheek.org/bard/petit.htm
Now finally it's going to happen. I'm lost for words. :) Another project I'd support immediately if it went to Kickstarter, for sure.

Whilst I'm curious to know precisely what these "modernisations" are that Brian mentions in these early articles and don't know much about Hearthstone, I do hope the essence of the original games is the main focus. Devil Whiskey was a good game with these merits for example and did a greater job at being a spiritual successor to the originals than the 2004 InXile revisit was.

Still, I'm ridiculously pleased with this announcement. Thanks Gorath! :) *whistles the Rhyme of Duotime and pumps his mangar's mallet quietly in triumph as he finishes his breakfast*.
 
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OMG, OMG, OMG!

I still have one of my old hand-drawn maps of Skara Brae, this was the game that pretty much made me a crpg:er 4ever, back on my trusty C-64. (actually, now that I think about it, it was a C-128, the C-64 was bought when I was using an Amiga 500, out of nostalgia, but whatever)

Instant pre-purchase!
 
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