Bard's Tale IV

Just published my (German) Review of this Game.
If you're currently having fun it might be good to not watch it before you finished or dropped the game. It's not containing any spoilers in the normal sense but it might drain some of the fun.

Well, I do know that it is kind of dull in some parts, for example the city of Skara Brae is a bit empty, although not that much, and everything is looking so much … like an "old school dungeon crawler".
For me, personally, that's good. I like it this way.
One could say "quite outdated graphics", but I'm used to that.

But I fear that later parts might be … not that good. And maybe even a bit too hard for my PC.

Everything reminds me very much - when I think of it - of Arx.
Only with better graphics … and, well, everything is a different world, of course.


P.S. : What do I do with Elven Weapons ß I put them into some kind of shrine, and then ? There happens nothing. What must I do ?
The in-game starting tips say that some even need to slay a certain enemy in order to solve the riddle … But in general, what do I do with them ?
( That axe looks very much like a guitar, by the way ! )

It's actually quite easy:
Most (not all) elven weapons have 3 stages.
The first 2 are always puzzles on the weapon.
The third one either requires:
1. Place elven weapon into one of these shrines. You find the right shrine by comparing the text you get on the last stage and the text you see on the shrine. It's less of a riddle than a 100% match.
2. Very few items (afaik) require you to kill someone
3. Very few items reuire you to play a song at a special location

Thank you very much !

Can you bring the text up on the weapon at a later date to remind you of what phrase the weapon contained ?

Originally Posted by Kordanor
It's actually quite easy:
Most (not all) elven weapons have 3 stages.
The first 2 are always puzzles on the weapon.
The third one either requires:
1. Place elven weapon into one of these shrines. You find the right shrine by comparing the text you get on the last stage and the text you see on the shrine. It's less of a riddle than a 100% match.
2. Very few items (afaik) require you to kill someone
3. Very few items reuire you to play a song at a special location

Yep, just inspect the weapon again. Usually you need to click on a gem or something on the hilt to bring up the text.

Regarding the shrines however: You need to note them down once you encountered them. Otherwise it will be hell to find them again.

And collect those blue/yellow/white/violet "seeds" that look like gems. They are needed to finalize the first two stages.

I have seeds and i have weapons but to be honest the few I bother to unlock i found worthless compare to other weapons you find in the game. I noticed that when looking at @Kordanor video of fortgeardon (btw sadly i am a dumb American and don't know German) he didn't appear to be using these weapons. In fact it look like he mostly used the same weapons I used - but his party was very different.

Originally Posted by Cacheperl
And collect those blue/yellow/white/violet "seeds" that look like gems. They are needed to finalize the first two stages.

I collect everything I can get - as an typical Adventure player !

Originally Posted by you
I have seeds and i have weapons but to be honest the few I bother to unlock i found worthless compare to other weapons you find in the game. I noticed that when looking at @Kordanor video of fortgeardon (btw sadly i am a dumb American and don't know German) he didn't appear to be using these weapons. In fact it look like he mostly used the same weapons I used - but his party was very different.

Well… yeah. I have to agree that at some point you just start collecting a bunch of rather useless puzzle weapons. (at least the puzzle weapons are not trolling you by giving you additional skills that reduce the number of skill slots, like certain other weapons )

Two types of puzzle weapons seem to be very useful tho. "Keen" weapons, which help with your melee crits. There are several of those.

And the totally overpowered Galfroi's wand. It's really overpowered. Overpowered. Did I say overpowered? Over. Powered.

Yeah, Galfoi's Wand is the overpowered puzzle weapon which broke the balance most.
The other weapons in the party hardly matter in comparison. My rogue had some sword with some 100% crit chance on a crit and resetting a bunch of stuff at a chance when this happening and on the other hand the rogue was using a "normal" sword. The extra attack on this sword attack is just adding 50% damage, which is pretty insane, especially combined with the critical ability and the skill reset and opportunity refund on crits.

… The other game that this game often reminds me of (apart from Arx) is : Stonekeep. By Interplay.

I'm now in the tower of … Anguin ?
And … well … it's a bit dull there. Only riddles, and speaking mouths … I remember this from another game, but I don't remember which one …
I wish there were less riddles and more NPCs … But, well, this is an old school dungeon crawler, isn't it ?
I liked the underground of Skara Brae more …

By the way, there's a certain room …

Can anyone of you transcribe to me what this goblin there actually says ? He sounds a bit like a pirate to me … ("Arr …")


… Well, and there's now another fix out there …

There is a post by a developer somewhere that indicates that fortgeardon is not finished. Er that thing you click on that goes from close to open is suppose to go to a new area that was never implemented.

Well…another thing which didn't make it for release then…

All this news will just assure me of another play-through next year, probably with a very different squad.

I plan on playing it for the first time sometime next year or whenever it hits $5.

Sometimes, it sounds to me like "death called fingers", and then sometimes it's "death-cold fingers" …

I'm talking about that main song.

It is nice and rare when a games music doesn't get turned off by me in favour of something superior. They did a great job on the entire audio portion of this project, in my opinion.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Sometimes, it sounds to me like "death called fingers", and then sometimes it's "death-cold fingers" …

I'm talking about that main song.

I think the ingame book says "death's cold fingers" (Des Todes kalte Finger)

Thank you very much. Unfortunately I didn't have the idea to look there.