A new spotlight video for The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep focuses on personalities.
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Bard's Tale IV - Spotlight #3 - Personalities
- Thread starter Silver
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Zloth
I smell a... wumpus!?
An empty wineskin with no wine in it? Not an empty wineskin half full of wine?
Still, at least there's proper respect for sloths.
Still, at least there's proper respect for sloths.
The more I see of this game, the more of a bizzare mixture it seems to me. While there are nods to the original game in terms of classes and skill names, combat (from what I have seen) seems more like a deck building game, and the npcs look like they could have fit well in the rather mediocre The Bard's Tale from 2004. The humour in that game was definitely the best part, so if it makes its way in here, that's fine with me. I've already divorced myself from the idea that this game will play like a wizardry title, so I'll just try to judge it for what it is, and hope that it turns out to be a fun game, even if its not a proper BT4.
Considering how different WL2 is from WL1 how can one expect BT4 to be similar to BT3 or Wizardry and other such games...
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Yeah nothing about is remotely makes me think of BT. And that’s fine really, BT was an amazing game at the time but it was mostly because CRPGs before that were so primitive and BT had so many innovations that were unique at the time but that so many other games adopted since. The only thing that was really iconic about the game were the bards, and maybe the schools of magic to a lesser extent.
I’m very interested in BT4, but it has nothing to do with BT being my favorite game as a kid (although it was). I’m interested in it because it seems like it could be a great game it’s own right even if it’s BT in name only.
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Well WL2 reminded me in many ways of Fallout, which was inspired by WL1, so I felt the transition was more natural than what we've seen here. Maybe I've simply decieved myself more because BT3 was one of my all time favourite games as teenager, whereas I couldn't get into WL1 when it was released.
Games like BT and Wizardry are a little hard to adapt to today's market. What new innovative things should they have when the old formulas seem to stodgy? People don't seem to want to take time to ROLL characters. Legend of Grimrock delivered, but then people got over the nostalgia and didn't need a basic dungeon crawl.
BT4 definitely seems like they are trying too hard to bridge new players in without making sure people that liked the old games still feel connected.
BT4 definitely seems like they are trying too hard to bridge new players in without making sure people that liked the old games still feel connected.
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Actually as much as I loved the old games, I didn't like the 'roll' character part. It was more a challenge to your patience than anything. I much prefer point-buy systems nowadays.
Kordanor
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Ditto. Something to add in the "Glad that current games don't have that anymore" threat.
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Sorry, feel compelled to post one more rant on this game. Last one, and then I'm done.
It's possible to advance the gameplay mechanics of BT, and still keep the spirit of the originals. But they have failed miserably (as one possible example of a direction they could have gone with combat, look at Lords of Xulima...I would have been thrilled with something like the combat from that game).
What I DON'T want is to strategize every battle about how best to waste opportunity points to build up my SP from zero so my mage can cast one of their 4(!) active spells. What I DO want is a large SP stockpile with a dizzying array of spells available that I need to carefully manage before deciding it's too risky to keep going and head back to Roscoe's or the temple to recharge (even if it's via a teleporting spell or whatever). But apparently this tried-and-true CRPG mechanic isn't good enough for the edgy and new-wave gameplay that the millennial designers of this game feel is necessary for some reason.
And there's so much more that's wrong with this: No using a cool new ability unless you remove another cool ability from your 'mastery slots'. No stat increases on level-ups (characters gaining levels are a complete snooze-fest). Constant damage, so combat feels more like a math puzzle game. STR effects all damage including spells, so high-STR mages do more damage with their dagger than my high-CON fighter does with his sword (so he just stands there and is a LITERAL meat-shield).
So many disappoinments. I actually don't care if they deviated from the original BT, as long as they made a fun game. But they didn't. All the above isn't fun, it's frustrating. At this point all I can hope for is poor sales, and enough PR backlash that they go back and do a "BTIV Remastered" that completely overhauls the character and combat mechanics.
It's possible to advance the gameplay mechanics of BT, and still keep the spirit of the originals. But they have failed miserably (as one possible example of a direction they could have gone with combat, look at Lords of Xulima...I would have been thrilled with something like the combat from that game).
What I DON'T want is to strategize every battle about how best to waste opportunity points to build up my SP from zero so my mage can cast one of their 4(!) active spells. What I DO want is a large SP stockpile with a dizzying array of spells available that I need to carefully manage before deciding it's too risky to keep going and head back to Roscoe's or the temple to recharge (even if it's via a teleporting spell or whatever). But apparently this tried-and-true CRPG mechanic isn't good enough for the edgy and new-wave gameplay that the millennial designers of this game feel is necessary for some reason.
And there's so much more that's wrong with this: No using a cool new ability unless you remove another cool ability from your 'mastery slots'. No stat increases on level-ups (characters gaining levels are a complete snooze-fest). Constant damage, so combat feels more like a math puzzle game. STR effects all damage including spells, so high-STR mages do more damage with their dagger than my high-CON fighter does with his sword (so he just stands there and is a LITERAL meat-shield).
So many disappoinments. I actually don't care if they deviated from the original BT, as long as they made a fun game. But they didn't. All the above isn't fun, it's frustrating. At this point all I can hope for is poor sales, and enough PR backlash that they go back and do a "BTIV Remastered" that completely overhauls the character and combat mechanics.
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Totally agree
Modernizing with point based systems makes total sense. I gotta say it's nice to see the graphic upgrades but the rest just doesn't feel like BT. Those were hard- injecting too much humor can sometimes be distracting.
Modernizing with point based systems makes total sense. I gotta say it's nice to see the graphic upgrades but the rest just doesn't feel like BT. Those were hard- injecting too much humor can sometimes be distracting.
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Kordanor
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Think of Darkest Dungeon where you can also only select 4 of your 7? abilities. Actually Darkest Dungeon Combat plays somewhat similar as the point system you mentioned is affecting the battle as the positioning and positional changes do in Darkest Dungeon.
Not having much luck involved is imho a great thing in my book, and I loved Legends of Eisenwald for this. Compared to that there is far more luck in BT4 though (Legends of Eisenwald had almost 0)
Level up gives you talent points which you can also use for stat increases. I'd even argue that this is actually the less interesting choice compared to other talent options.
Regarding Mage vs Tank:
If you use a Einarr as Tank he will also increase his STR every time he is hit (which seems like a good option, same as Fichti who would absorb a deadly blow).
Also a mage who wants to do serious damage with a dagger would also need to spec points into daggers, which he can't even improve until he breaks through the first tear. If you are talking about comparing auto-attack damage of a tank who decided not to put talent points into his weapon and not increasing str, and a mage who cannot put talent points into his weapon (at start, and even after that doesnt get any big things which make it stronger besides of the attribute) and increases his str, then yeah, the mage will probably do more damage with his dagger standard attack (with which he also moves one step back automatically) than the tank, who is specced to not do any damage at all. Pretty sure that's also a huge waste of potential of the mage if you want to play him dagger only. But well...you will not run into the issue of having to limit your abilities...because you will only have this one attack
In addition you can argue that combat with a dagger is about hitting at the right spot, not about physical strength.
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It seems to fit more and more into the Monty Python league of … horrors. :lol:
Look few times at Monthy Python's Flying Circus, and then you'll notice how well this game fits into that theme ! :lol: