It never made it to GOG :(
But I really liked it. My local computer game store let me write a review of it (also Dark Heart of Uukrul) and they had both displayed out for people to read. It had some cool ideas, for sure.
Looks like it was C64 and Apple II only, so we’ll need some emulation options to try this. On the bright side, the actual game itself is quite easy to find and download. Assuming you’re ethically ok with abandonware.
Crit weapons overshadow multiple attacks at higher levels. Equip a Stoneblade on the geomancer and that one attack is an automatic kill.
That’s exactly what I ended up doing. Still don’t feel like the frequency of crit occurrence compensates for what I gave up.
I just wanted to pop in and congratulate divedivedive for completing the original games. I have fond memories of playing these games in the 80’s and 90’s, and actually remember finishing the original Bard’s Tale in December of 1992. I remember it thanks to notes I kept in the hint guide… the hint guide I’ve referred to when replaying the original trilogy.
I love the work that Krome put into these remakes. The quality of life improvements in the inventory, graphics, and gameplay are way more than I expected. I love being able to go in, tinker around a bit, and then save wherever I am and move on with life. I’m currently at Mangar’s Tower in my Bard’s Tale play though, but I have a lot more grinding to do before I’m ready to finish the game. I’m not looking forward to Destiny Knight as I thought that was way too difficult, but maybe the same QoL improvements I’ve noticed in the first game will help me over the hump. I’m really looking forward to Thief of Fate as that was one of my favorite games. I actually finished Thief of Fate before I finished Tales of the Unknown.
Anyway, it was nice following your progress and I appreciate the updates.
Seconded. While I played and loved all three of these back in the day, I never was able to make much progress. The remaster does a lot for playability; I’ve restarted part 1 and have already gotten farther than I had back in the 80s.
Thanks folks! It was a lot of fun revisiting these games, and Krome did a great job updating them with some really helpful modern tools.
You may already know this, but when you reach the end of one of the games and start the next, there are three ways to progress your party: as they are, so current level and equipment; bumped down to a level appropriate to the game with some equipment intact; or dropped to level 1 and no equipment carried forward. I went with the first option for the second and third games and it made playing pretty darn easy, especially the second game. If you want some challenge you may not want to keep all your levels and gear.
In fact, I found the third game marginally more difficult just because there seemed to be more enemies capable of critical attacks who could instantly kill a party member. Also, by the time I was getting near the end of the last game I was kind of ready to be done so I started running from most combat. Maybe I should have spaced out playing the games a little more.
This is what I end up doing in a lot of games where I can and then come to the same conclusion you did.
Internet fist bump!
Congratulations! You also seemed to do it with the stock party, and I think that’s cool as hell.
So I’m making good progress on Bards Tale IV (via the Xbox Game Pass) and my interest in picking up the Remastered Trilogy is piqued. What’s the cheapest way to pick this up at the moment - the steam sale? I thought I read that this was a free pack in if you buy something else but can’t seem to find the post
It’s packed in with Bard’s Tale IV Deluxe edition (currently $25 on Steam). When the BT4 director’s cut launched it was offered free with the basic version, but the price point at the time was $40 so the Deluxe Edition is currently a better deal.
The cheapest way is on Game Pass, since you apparently already have that.
Bards Tale IV is a excellent game. Really surprised how fun I had with the turn based combat, despite not liking turn based games (I use to, but they have lost my favor). Some of the puzzles where a bit too obscure.
I’ve been having trouble getting into any new games lately, so I’m going to try the BT remastered trilogy. The original Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is how I fell in love with PC gaming, and I have replayed that game on every PC I have owned except my current rig.
I fired up Wizardry last weekend via DOSBox for a few minutes, then I thought about jumping into Wizardry 6 instead since that is the one game in the series I never played. While looking into automapping mods for Wizardry, I ran across info on the BT trilogy and realized I had those in my Steam library as well, so why not try another franchise that already has the quality of life improvements baked in? We’ll see if my nostalgia for that era holds up with an unfamiliar title.
It held up pretty well for me.