Bard's Tale IV - Gameplay Video

Well, I had zero interest before the video and now I'm mildly interested. If there are non-dungeon areas, such as Skara Brae, then my interest goes up. I'm not into dungeon crawlers at all, so there has to be something more to do then fight. To me, combat is a means to show what you've bought and plundered.

Maybe because being utterly disappointed with Wasteland 3 plans, I didn't watch the video and won't be.
Someone please confirm this game won't share the same "enhacements" as WL3.

Can't help you there, Joxer. WL2 was interesting at first, but I found it very repetitive after awhile and didn't come close to finishing it. There just wasn't enough "non-combat" material. Combat was 90% of the play time.

I can see why people who like these sorts of games are excited. The game looks good for what they are doing.

I was never into these types of rpg games, where you have a group along with a first person view, just don't like them. If I'm in first person, I want it to be just one character, solo, not a whole group. And in rpg games where there is a group/party members, that they be presented with the isometric overhead view, but that's just me and my tastes.

After watching the video, I can say I'm glad I didn't back this game, but can see the appeal for those who are into this particular sub genre of rpg.

And Joxer - The game looks nothing like Wasteland 3. Two completely different games, just watch the damn video...

sea said:

We turned on mouse smoothing for the video to get rid of the jittery feeling you tend to get in first-person PC games, as we found it was kind of distracting in some of our earlier recordings. That's not something you'll necessarily see in the final game.

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Thanks for the clarification

I liked the bobbing heads

This looks great. An early purchase for me.

crpgnut said:

I liked the bobbing heads

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Looks excellent but those bobbing heads are something like this :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evef8FCK6wk

A lot of talk about graphics but I'm really interested in how the end game will play. This video raises a bunch of questions for me. Hoping that the kind folks at InXile grant me a second interview to ask some of them.

crpgnut said:

Can't help you there, Joxer. WL2 was interesting at first, but I found it very repetitive after awhile and didn't come close to finishing it. There just wasn't enough "non-combat" material. Combat was 90% of the play time.

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Look I'm KS backer for BT4. But I don't know if they're planning MMOization of it too. If they do, I'll just pass the key to someone who likes that stuff. But I just can't watch anything now and risk the letdown later.

I think the UI looks a little odd, but overall this game should be amazing and I am really looking forward to it I know I quite dug Wasteland 2, and Wasteland 3 is looking to be even better so far, so I have a lot of confidence in inXile. I know some people are complaining about the optional co-op mode in Wasteland 2, but it is kind of a silly thing to complain about since it is entirely optional and you don't even have to use it if you don't want to. They call it an 'MMO' but that stands for 'massively multiplayer' and the co-op feature doesn't meet that description at all. Even the old Infinity Engine games had multi-player

The encounter system might something to experience.
One trend has kept growing: adding laving animation to ugoigo products. In real time products, it is colourless since it is embedded in the resolution time.
In UgoIgo, they are separate from resolution and extend the playtime on uncertain grounds, those animations are going to grow old quite fast.

There will probably be an option to speed up combat and/or remove animations, even. Even Xulima has a speed up combat option. The animations are also likely not there to extend game length but just enhance the cinematic appeal of the game. IMO. If I had to guess there will also be less overall encounters in each dungeon and more set pieces encounters, so you won't be fighting a ton of the same battles and seeing the animations way too much.

.

My biggest take away with this game every time I see it is - wtf. It's a simple genre where content and smoothness of execution are king and fancy graphics has never been a staple. It's an odd mix of elements in this one. It looks more like a visual novel/point and click adventure than an RPG.

We'll see.

I hope it turns out well since there are never enough quality games of this style (that I can get into since the flood of JRPG/anime kiddie porn style games lately don't really do much for me).

Yes, the graphics are very pretty, but that is the absolute last thing I care about in this type of game. You tend to do a lot of repetition (moving around, combat) in this genre and all those cute animations and graphics will be cool the first few times you see them but after hundreds of battles they'll be insanity inducing.

Quality of content, extent of content, character development/leveling system, combat system - core stuff - that's what matters to me with this genre. Fancy graphics are either just gravy or possibly something that gets in the way of smoothness (which is what it looks like to me in this video).

The combat looks pretty standard outside of a ton of animations and interruptions - again - stuff that'll be amusing the first few times you see it but on that dozenth, hundredth, thousandth time it's not going to be nearly as fun.

The (non-combat) UI on top of the photo realisitc grahics looks totally out of place (might just be a WIP, I hope, as the "animations" for party banter are pretty heinous too and the contrast in graphic styles is jarring to say the least).

The touch-looking combat UI with no sign of hotkey support does not inspire (well, maybe it inspires rage against console/controller and touch leading to the downfall of gaming humanity).


I haven't looked much at WL3 but seeing that they're adding multi player makes me say, WTF? Who needs MP in a single player RPG? Why bastardize a great single player franchise to poop in some kind of co-op. WL2 was pretty successful, why rock the boat? Yet more oddness from the Fargo gang. I suppose innovation is a good thing, if it's actually innovation, but there's something to be said for "if it ain't broke, don't 'fix' it"

On the plus side, I tend to spend way too much money buying games and have a huge backlog. Decisions like this by Fargo help me curb my game spending and acquisition.

Battletech looks very good - so there's that.

Fluent said:

There will probably be an option to speed up combat and/or remove animations, even. Even Xulima has a speed up combat option. The animations are also likely not there to extend game length but just enhance the cinematic appeal of the game. IMO. If I had to guess there will also be less overall encounters in each dungeon and more set pieces encounters, so you won't be fighting a ton of the same battles and seeing the animations way too much.

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I'll quote the devs from facebook:

One thing you aren't seeing in the video is that you can actually input commands while other combat animations are playing. We slowed that down for the video to keep it easier to follow.

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It looks interesting. Like others I had forgot about this but will pay more attention now.

Not excited about the game , from the video. Let's hope for the best though.

I saw the combat and immediately thought of Wizardry 8 - but this has pooled points. That should be pretty interesting.

I wonder if you can save points? Saving them for the next round could be handy for big combos. Another possibility would be saving them for "opportunity fire" - like leave the fighter with a point so he can attack the shielded enemy right when the shielded enemy drops his shield a bit to attack. (Similar to "overwatch" in XCOM or opportunity fire in the PnP game Rolemaster.)

xenocide said:

"Obviously, this is still in development and there are things we're not in love with yet. Namely, the characters on the HUD are still at a first pass. We will be updating their visual look and likely not have them bouncing around as they speak."

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Honestly I don't think you need a visual at all. Just have the voices (and have them placed a little behind you).

P.S. PC Gamer says October 2017. Ish. I'm sure delays will push some games out but right now this is looking like the best RPG year in eons.