The Bard's Tale Trilogy

Good old Commodore 64 games! I love the nostalgia.

*I'll eventually update the review once I have progressed into the 2nd and 3rd game in this collection.* Whether you played the original games back in the 80s or want to check out some very classic RPGs from the early days of that genre, this is a good choice. The studio put all three games into one package, updating the graphics, sounds and many other things. Under that new "skin", you'll find the bones of those classic games, so you get to experience them with a graphic style, performance and with QOL features that may remove the barricade of running the originals on an emulator or bouncing off the very outdated graphics and controls of the originals. (Not that there is something wrong with it, I still enjoy playing old games in their original version, but I am aware that's not for everyone!) The game also is made a bit more convenient by new features, like a party inventory instead of individual ones, charges for certain items instead of a percentage change of them disappearing, etc. If you want to play it the way it used to be, use the legacy mode, the choice is up to you. The game comes with a default party you can use to jump in even quicker, yet I recommend to either create your own or using some of the default chars (you can change their names if you dislike them, or remove the equipment to have to equip new characters) and adding your own. For example, there is no hunter in the default party, yet that class is pretty strong and you may want to create one and add it in the backline (first 4 chars in your group are the frontline, the other 3 are the backline, so you want your casters and hunter in the back row). I also recommend to create a monk and stick it into the frontline, it's a pretty cool class as well, especially once you level it. Healing happens in temples, while you recover magic points for casting by moving. You will run into random encounters and should explore the city thoroughly. Eventually, there will be a hint to visit a certain bar, and you may want to ask for a specific kind of spirit there to find something new to explore. This game (or rather, collection) has been on my pile of shame for years, but I recently decided to reinstall and give it a try, and I have been enjoying it. Yes, it is grindy, and especially early on, you may fail when running into a strong monster group (you can try to run and you should do so sometimes...), but if you are up for reliving some memories with a polished visual experience or check out why people loved the BT games back then, this is great! It currently is about 3 bucks, so you really don't have much to lose, and if you miss the current sale, I am sure there will be others where it's that cheap, considering it came out in 2019. Bottom line: A great remake of these beloved 80s classics, and, like the recent Wizardry 1 remake, a wonderful way to explore or revisit these magical streets.

I played this on my C64 when i was a child, grew to love RPG, this remaster of the trio was done very good, very impressed how this was remastered.

Die Bard's Tale Trilogie ist ein faszinierendes Projekt für all jene, die die Wurzeln des RPG-Genres berühren wollen und selbst erleben möchten, wie Dungeon Crawler der alten Schule gespielt werden. Die Neuauflage macht das Spiel für moderne Spieler zugänglich und mildert gleichzeitig viele der Ecken und Kanten des Originals ab: Automatische Kartenerstellung, vereinfachtes Grinden und Speichern jederzeit ermöglichen es Spielern, Vergnügen ohne übermäßige Anstrengung zu genießen. Spannender Gameplay : einfache rundenbasierte Kämpfe, Erkundung von Dungeons mittlerer Komplexität und die Zusammenstellung der Gruppe ergeben letztendlich ein angenehmes, fesselndes Spielerlebnis, das nicht vergleichbar ist mit modernen RPG. Der Spieler wird ins Spiel eingeführt, wobei ihm im Wesentlichen der Grund für die Erkundung der Dungeons/Stadt erklärt wird. Danach ist er bis zum Schluss auf sich allein gestellt und beschränkt sich auf die seltenen Dialoge der ebenso seltenen Charaktere, denen er unterwegs begegnet. Wer von einem Rollenspiel aus dem Jahr 1985 gut geschriebene Charaktere, ein reichhaltiges Dialogsystem, Entscheidungsmöglichkeiten und eine nichtlineare, sich im Laufe des Abenteuers entwickelnde Handlung erwartet, wird enttäuscht sein. [b] 9.5/10 [/b] Schließlich wurde hier das beliebte Genre der Computer-RPG erfunden. Wäre es nicht interessant, mehr über seine Ursprünge aus erster Hand selbst zu erfahren?

Unfortunately, I'd have to advise against playing this collection. I never played any of these back in the day and I have zero nostalgia towards the series. This collection was included with Bard's Tale IV Director's Cut. So, that's why I checked them out. It's very grindy and archaic, but has a certain charm to it for sure. I don't think they added enough QOL improvements to make it palatable to play these days though. Pass on this unless you are personally nostalgic towards these games or like to punish yourself with old school video games.

I come from the 70s and 80s. I played this game on C64. This remake gives you the greatness of the game with updated graphics that still feel old-school. I never actually finished the 80s version. I will finish this version. I like the easy-click map of the town and the convenient HUD. . So far, I have only one complaint: I wish I could control the combat speed better. You can make it go from too slow to a touch too fast, no in-between, or you can make it go really fast. I find the scrolling sentences that describe the attacks, misses, and HP loss go by too fast. They should have color coding at least! I want to see "red" and know that one of my warriors got hurt, and I want to see, for example, a red "10/25" to show that a character is hurting. Unharmed characters will remain in black font. Also, I want different color coding to help me differentiate between monster attacks. For instance, if I see a green line of text, I know I'm attacking. If I see red, I know the monster is attacking. Otherwise, I'm happy with this game. I give it 4/5 stars.

Its great fun customizing and building up your characters and exploring the map. After you get the hang of it, it becomes a bit grindy.

I enjoy exploring world but interface is a bit tricky for me.

A fun flashback to one of the first RPGs. It has gotten easier than it was originally when saving could only happen at the guild and if your team died it died. But still a fun journey back in time. Not sure how younger people will feel.

The best Dnd style RPG original game from 1985. Of note it has a complicated and fun magic user system ahead of its time allowing your character to master spells in four classes: conjurer, magician, sorcerer and wizard. Further adventures continue in Bard's Tale 2&3.