Bard's Gold

It might look unusual. Maybe because it is unusual. But 'unusual' usually makes me curious! The game is a platformer and plays solidly with an Xbox 360 controller. You start easily but then the difficulty kicks in and represents a real challenge. What I totally dig is the amount of secrets you find, you optimize your playstyle, adapt, overcome - run by run. The permanent upgrades at the end, motivate me to keep on playing.The game's setting and pace are very interesting and finishing a stage with all your loot and upgrades feels like a small, personal victory every time. I also like the mellow music. This game is truly a hidden gem - just like those hidden gems in the game. If I am not mistaken, it's the first game from that developer and I'm curious to see where he will take his ideas with his next games.

This is a really fantastic platformer! I love that it's a bit darker, like a dank dungeon, and the wide variety of items and weapons are really fun to experiment with. The pixel-graphics are well-done, and the soundtrack enhances the tone and feel of this game. There are secret levels to uncover and Steam achievements that are perfectly attainable, most occurring naturally with game progression. I would definitely recommend this to any gamer looking for a classic platforming experience. The controls are smooth, and gameplay is pretty straightforward, albeit with a few surprises. Hidden items and doors to secret levels make this a truly classic platforming scavenger hunt.

Note: I was given early access to the game. Bard's Gold is a slow-paced platformer with a high difficulty. It stars Bard (the player) attempting to get his family heirloom back from a nasty goblin who stole it. Bard must travel through four worlds, each containing seven levels in an attempt to obtain his treasure. The game is fairly hard and punishes you for making a mistake, but it's not the kind of punishment that would make you overly upset. Patience and level memorisation is required in completing this game. The game currently features four worlds with seven levels in each. The first six levels are levels full of secrets, traps, and enemies. Thankfully, not everyone wants you dead, as some of these levels have shops that sell various goods to help you on your quest, such as better weapons such as a chakram, the ability to run faster, weapons dealing more damage, extra lives, and more. These are very handy powerups, but not necessary to complete the game (though it makes it much easier to accomplish!). All of these levels have secrets in them. Most of them reward you with currency, but some reward you with something better, in particular, a map piece. The first six levels have one map piece in them. Collect them all, and you are rewarded with something great. If you have difficulty finding secrets, buying the glasses from the shop will help you greatly. The game features a currency called Gems. Gems are found by shooting daggers at pots, opening chests, secrets, and killing enemies. Gems can be spent on powerups in the Shop. If you lose all your lives and die, you are given the ability to spend your gems on upgrading your character. By obtaining various Skill Books, you can upgrade your character on things like more starting lives, longer weapon range, more level time, and more. If you're having difficulty finding some, remember that each boss drops one when defeated. Bard's Gold features lots of enemies with different AI. There's a Blue Goo with a simple AI path that makes him go back and forward. There's the Green Goo that follows the same path, but immediately rushes into the direction it was attacked from. There's the bat that moves horizontally, and there's a variation that bounces off walls. There's also the evil Harry Potter tome books that fly around vertically. These are just some of the enemies the game features. They really make game interesting. Overall, I would consider Bard's Gold to be a very fun game. The soundtrack is simple yet great, the controls are great, the difficulty is high, and the joy you experience finding something interesting or completing a difficult level is a great feeling. The developer is a great guy and is always open to constructive feedback. It is clear he has spent a lot of time crafting this game to the best of his ability. It's unfortunate that this wonderful gem is suffering from obscurity. If you enjoyed the game, do spread word of it. It deserves some recognition.

My recommendation is somewhat reserved. While the game is enjoyable and has a few flaws. The biggest is how dying appears to remove all your powerups. Only after playing for a while do you realize certain items block this, and you don't actually lose everything. Still, even with a bubble around you there are still plenty of instant deaths it seems. The game is rather short once you get the hang of it. There is no reason to use a weapon other than the knife, and the game is completeable with very few of the "death" upgrades. The bosses are zero challenge if you arrive at them with a 3-knife fully powered up. I like the secrets, including assembling the map. There does feel like something is a bit off though; on the first level if you find all the secrets you get a bonus heart. This doesn't appear to repeat on any other level of the game. The hit-boxes of the monsters (for character contact) are unforuntately quite generous. Quite often I died without any visible pixels actually touching each other.

射撃・ジャンプ・二段ジャンプを駆使して 鍵を拾って扉を開けてステージをクリアしていく趣旨の オーソドックスなアクションゲーム｡ 最初期だと敵は固く､ステージは孔明の罠だらけで 高難易度ゲーに感じられるかもしれない｡ しかし､稼いだ資金で自キャラの各種性能を強化していけるため プレイを繰り返すほど強くなり､攻略が楽になっていく｡ この成長していく過程が､気持ち良さを感じられる上手い塩梅に 仕上がっているため､繰り返しプレイが苦にならない｡ のんびり遊んで全実績解除まで10時間程度｡ 本作だけが持っている強みのようなものはないが 遊び尽くしてみて素直に楽しかったと感じられた良作｡

I can't in good conscience give this a bad review. It is very well done, polished and generally fun. I agree with virtually everything the other positive reviews say. But it is easily the most annoying game I have played in recent memory. EDIT: The last couple of patches have helped with several of the annoyances. Ledges are *just* high enough that you can't shoot over them, so you have to double jump and shoot on the way down to hit something on a ledge. The arrows shooting from the edges of the screen are completely unavoidable in many cases, sometimes even by design, unless you know where they are. The floating books are usually just out of reach and a pain to hit. Don't get me started about the Tower of Patience. Take a look at my library. I have played and beat many "hard" games including Mr. Bree, Super Meat Boy, Bloody Trapland, etc. What you won't see there is many permadeath games. Even though this has lives, it's still game over when they are gone. This, coupled with the difficulty is just too much for me. I don't mind trying a level or boss 30 times. I do mind having to do the previous 6 levels over and over to do it. So, given that I don't care for permadeath games, take my opinion for what it's worth. If you don't mind permadeath + lots of redoing of levels, it really is a fun game overall. Edit: I wanted to clarify that when all your lives are gone, it's not exatly "Game Over". You can spend what you earned to increase a skill permanently (slowly...), but you then have to restart from the first level of that area.

Soooooo good! It's a classic platformer: simplistic, challenging, REALLY challenging. It reminds me of playing Mario games as a kid. They weren't easy. They took strategy and effort, and you felt like you earned every foothold. This game is going to keep me entertained for ages!

[h1]Запуск игры под SteamPlay/Proton[/h1] [b] Не для казуалов как я, довольно таки сложный платформер с гриндом, придётся проходить один и тот же уровень по нескольку раз чтобы собрать золотишко и прокачать персонажа, а также перепроходить уровни чтобы выбить свитки дающие нам те или иные улучшения после смерти. Музыка раздражающая, так что её через полчаса советую выключить. Играть с геймпадом! Ибо с клавиатурой это те еще страдания. [/b] Тестировалось всё на Ubuntu Mate 18.04.3 и ноутбуке: CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2540M @ 2.60GHz RAM: SO-DIMM DDR3 16Gb 1333MHz SSD:SAMSUNG EVO 850 120Gb Video: Intel HD 3000 + Nvidia GeForce GT 540M(Fermi) Версия proton 4.11-12

Controls are stiff, you die frequently and your inventory is lost when you do. And they have B.S. invisible traps that spike you from off screen. Not a lot of fun.

Bard's Gold is an awesome 2d Metroidvania leaning rogue-lite game (More Castlevaniaish than Metroid). Took me 5-6 hours to beat and 10 hours to 100% achievements. Used a game controller to play. Difficulty is medium-hard with some parts being unfair. This game is really fun. Really really really fun. It looks simplistic on the outside but inside its gamy guts there's a lot to offer. Lots of enemies and traps, mildly unfair level designs that'll keep you on your toes, different weapons to buy, and everything is crawling with secret bits to find. When you lose a life, the level might pull a switch on you and leave you figuring out a new method to get to the door. The achievements are all doable with patience. And there are different modes to play, too! If you're looking for a 2d 'find the key, get to the door, die a few dozen times and curse at bats and spikes' game, Bard's Gold is where it's at. This is the sort of romp where you suck royally sorts of bad at the beginning then eventually get good and feel the success of a hard win. No fluff or useless junk, and everything is easy to figure out with enough playing. 101 ways to die, the Rogue Troubadour version. There are three things that bugged me: 1. The axe was a little too slow and leaves you at a disadvantage. Fun for challenge runs, less so for a straight play-through. 2. There is no way to pause between deaths on the last boss. He's hard and when you have 10 lives and have to repeat the whole battle over and over again you'll need room for a eye break. Everywhere else in the game you can pause it, but not for Lasty McBlastinface the fourth over there. 3. ... Was there a third? I got distracted by the nickname on the last complaint. Ffff.... Oh well. Maybe the first three bosses were easy. Or there wasn't enough toast. Make something up here. So yeah! 2d Metroidvania with rogue-lite elements on the levels. Very very fun. Lots of knives and slimey things. If you like this sort of candy, go get this game. Worth it. Promise.