The Bard's Tale Trilogy Reviews

Absolute kino.

Awesome game

immersive game big time eater.

If you liked the version of Bard's Tale you played on your Commodore 64 (needing 8 floppy disks), you'll love this. Stays very true to the original, but has updated a few things to make the game more user-friendly (no more mapping on graph paper!) Well worth the price.

I loved the original game on my cousin’s C64 years ago, but this remaster doesn’t capture the same magic. While the updated visuals might appeal to modern players, the core mechanics remain as dated as ever, with little in the way of quality-of-life improvements. It feels like a shiny coat of paint on an old, clunky game, and without meaningful gameplay updates, I’d rather stick with the charm of the original graphics.

Was grinding in the second dungeon and left to heal, but it's way too expensive because everyone has status effects so I can only afford to res the dead party member. Now I have to grind in the first dungeon so I can afford to heal everyone so I can grind in the second dungeon. Why.

Wholeheartedly yes! With a caveat: if you have an interest in how games used to be constructed, or played the originals (like me) as a kid this is for you! If you want to try something old and unique, this is for you. If you'd like inspo for your small dev team of something you could possibly use as a jumping off point, this is for you. A lot of the things that would make this game suck if it was a direct port are gone. It is mouse driven and has decent modern features to overcome some of the old game's interface (remembering and typing spell short names for insance) are gone. The auto mapping feature is great and would not prevent you from grabbing graph paper and making your own map. It may not be for you if you are looking for a contemporary game. And that is okay! Baldur's gate 3 is amazing (or Divinity Original Sin 1 + 2 for that matter) or Elden Ring for the Souls treatment will work better. Hope you all have an amazing day, and good luck adventurer. Elf needs food BADLY!

Very accurate implementation of the game from the 80's. Wonderful memories unlocked

1986 and playing my first PC game. I had no idea what equip meant or what a monk meant outside of strange beer-brewing buildings in the countryside. But I loved the story even if I had no idea what a review board was (or where to find it). Years later in middle school a bud told me about how to play the game. Even showed me the clue book that you could mail away for. I slaved away on this game with a broken ankle on my Dad's Apple IIGS until the evening when I finally beat Mangar and his despicable followers. I still remember the sense of pride. This release has the exact same graphics as my old version from the 80s, just smoothed out a little. You can make your own map just by walking around instead of using graph paper like I did. It has humor, a great story and plenty of grinding for experience and gold. I love it and I hope anyone that plays this gem loves it too.

So happy to be back in my hometown, Skara Brae, after all these years. If you've never played anything like Bard's Tale, Wizardry (1 or 2) or Eye of the Beholder, this is the one you want to play. There's other options but Bard's Tale plays into the fantasy genre better than most games that are out today. It has a certain amount of 1970s fantasy to it, as well, an very little in the way of modern fantasy tropes - and the way the game plays reflects the scope of the adventure. They've also modernised it a fair bit with some little niceties that would have been difficult to do on old hardware/software, like looking around. The interface is also cleaner, and they added some functionality that makes it faster to play. They recreated some of the artwork from the original. It may be a little dated but the game just isn't the same without it - original IBM release was bare compared to the Commodore 64 releases. I know I'm posting a positive review pretty early in terms of play hours, but I'm just excited that there's so much ahead of me. Really wish I could send a letter of thanks to the original creators for inspiring my formative years, but thanks to inXile as well for reviving these games.