Bard's Tale IV - Beta Review

Originally Posted by wolfgrimdark
…
PS - Proof that RPGWatch does, indeed, increase game sales Course I suppose in some cases it could also decrease them

RPGWatch is influencing many people - here are the current screenshots from the Steam Curator Admin page:

I don't know much about Bard's Tale… can you pick your own protagonist of gender, race and class of your preferance or is it set protagonist?

Originally Posted by purpleblob
I don't know much about Bard's Tale… can you pick your own protagonist of gender, race and class of your preferance or is it set protagonist?

You can set all that yourself.
You first have to play the "original" character before you can do that though. You basically run through the city to the tavern and then you can change everything. This takes about 30 seconds if you run there right away. More likely you take 20 minutes for all the dialogues though. Anyways, it's before the first combat.

You also chose the voice of your character and this one, at least in beta, is surprisingly often used to comment stuff.

I'm just hoping it's wicked-difficult. Above all else, I truly hope it sells well and we see many more Bard's Tales in the future.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
I'm just hoping it's wicked-difficult. Above all else, I truly hope it sells well and we see many more Bard's Tales in the future.

About that, make sure to set the difficulty in the options menu. The game will never prompt you to chose a difficulty.

Game looks like it could be really good… my only complain are the save points. In this day and age, not being able to save anywhere is just an annoyance.

Why can't we just enjoy a game for what it is why do we need to first determine from others if it is complex enough or whatever to be enjoyable. Mind you I like to read reviews first to avoid real dogs but some of these discussions …..

Originally Posted by SSIGuy
Game looks like it could be really good… my only complain are the save points. In this day and age, not being able to save anywhere is just an annoyance.

It's actually quite interesting, at least in the Beta.

There are plenty of save points (after about every 2-3 fights or so), and they are split up into two different kinds:
1. Locations where you can save repeatedly, e.g. at the tavern quest hub thingy
2. Locations where you can only save once. And instead of saving you can actually "consume" the savepoint for additional XP. So you have to weigh up whether or not you want to take the risk of going on without saving.

Of course I can also see the problem of feeling to be forced to neglect all savepoints in order to minmax. But personally I kind of like the idea.

It's a bit gamey but I guess that's kept as tribute to the original where saving freely also wasn't a thing.

Originally Posted by you
Why can't we just enjoy a game for what it is why do we need to first determine from others if it is complex enough or whatever to be enjoyable. Mind you I like to read reviews first to avoid real dogs but some of these discussions …..

I think it's called experience combined with not having an infinity of time available.

There's no reason to pretend we don't have preferences and that there are things we're likely to enjoy - as well as things we're not likely to enjoy.

Otherwise, we wouldn't be humans.

But I think most of us just use these impressions as a way of prioritising games. I mean, if we're really interested in something, I think we'll give it a chance regardless of early information.

3 actives = game developed primarily for mushrooms.
I wish I knew it since the start… Sadly, I backed it on KS back in the day.

You are being cynical by drawing a conclusion that might or might not be true. What if the choice of 3 actives is totally unrelated to controllers does this suddenly make a bad game (one developed for mushrooms) a good game ?

Originally Posted by joxer
3 actives = game developed primarily for mushrooms.
I wish I knew it since the start… Sadly, I backed it on KS back in the day.

I do agree with SSI about the save feature, and I'm really hoping that will be reconsidered before the actual launch. I do like being able to save when the fancy strikes me, and if that is a chore I may find something better to do instead. I just don't have the same amount of time to linger now like I did in my youth.

Originally Posted by HiddenX
RPGWatch is influencing many people - here are the current screenshots from the Steam Curator Admin page:

Well, I'm not sure the curator has any relation to the website outside of the name. Has RPGWatch grown massively in users that came from the curation page? If so, it has some value to THIS site I guess.

I just thought it was something @HiddenX did to get himself a bunch of freebie stuff from Steam and developers. Nothing wrong with that btw. It doesn't take long to write two sentences about a game.

I followed the curator before joining this site

Originally Posted by Kordanor
Locations where you can only save once. And instead of saving you can actually "consume" the savepoint for additional XP. So you have to weigh up whether or not you want to take the risk of going on without saving

Do you mean you pay XP to use it - or get XP when you use it?

I'll admit it's an interesting idea (either way)… but if it's too difficult to exit out of a game these days (without having to go back replay what I've already played), it can bump up against the demands of real life too much.

Still, the game is looking really good and I'm sure I'll play it anyways.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
Well, I'm not sure the curator has any relation to the website outside of the name. Has RPGWatch grown massively in users that came from the curation page? If so, it has some value to THIS site I guess.

I just thought it was something @HiddenX did to get himself a bunch of freebie stuff from Steam and developers. Nothing wrong with that btw. It doesn't take long to write two sentences about a game.

I don't take any freebie stuff - I bought all of my Steam games myself.
(You have to write it on a review, if you got free keys!)

And of course I'm the official curator of RPGWatch.
I don't know if we get more users, but we definitely get more offers from developers, publishers and other game sites to cooperate with us.

Originally Posted by joxer
3 actives = game developed primarily for mushrooms.
I wish I knew it since the start… Sadly, I backed it on KS back in the day.

I wouldn't say it dumbs the game down. It just shifts the decision of which ability to chose away from the combat itself towards combat preparation.
Whether or not that's a good decision is up to debate. As mentioned before I like the idea, but would rather have 5 abilities instead of 3. Also some abilities just make no sense with this concept. For example there is one abilitiy which was called all in or something like that, which was basically a desparation attack when your group is about to die. This would make sense in a game without this ability limitation, but not in a game where you conciously have to decide to take an ability which is only useful if you plan to die a lot. Which basically reduces it's use to combats where you don't see a way to beat without savecumming.

Do you mean you pay XP to use it - or get XP when you use it?

It's a stone in the dungeon at which you can either:
1. Use to save. It will remove the stone
2. Use to gain XP, no saving in this case. Will also remove the stone.

Originally Posted by Kordanor
I wouldn't say it dumbs the game down. It just shifts the decision of which ability to chose away from the combat itself towards combat preparation.
Whether or not that's a good decision is up to debate. As mentioned before I like the idea, but would rather have 5 abilities instead of 3. Also some abilities just make no sense with this concept. For example there is one abilitiy which was called all in or something like that, which was basically a desparation attack when your group is about to die. This would make sense in a game without this ability limitation, but not in a game where you conciously have to decide to take an ability which is only useful if you plan to die a lot. Which basically reduces it's use to combats where you don't see a way to beat without savecumming.
.

Hm. so just be be sure: you can only select 3 abilities dynamically, in combat, to be active, OR before combat starts, you have to select 3 abilities? If its the second case, that's really something I hate, and have complained about in several other recent games….

Originally Posted by booboo
Hm. so just be be sure: you can only select 3 abilities dynamically, in combat, to be active, OR before combat starts, you have to select 3 abilities? If its the second case, that's really something I hate, and have complained about in several other recent games….

Check this one at the given timestamp 1:07:47 and it should be clear:
https://youtu.be/eo_nXTsaaCc?t=4067

Originally Posted by Kordanor
It's a stone in the dungeon at which you can either:
1. Use to save. It will remove the stone
2. Use to gain XP, no saving in this case. Will also remove the stone.

I like that attention to detail in the design… even if I'd still prefer save anywhere/anytime.