Story	7/10	Characters	5/10
	Graphics	8/10	Music	8/10
	Gameplay	7/10	Extras	8/10
Reviewer: Chi Phan Final Score: 7.2/10

The Bard's Tale was actually an rpg series introduced back in the 80s. It has since been lost in time when the new age of console gaming began in the 90s. This time around, Brian Fargo, the original creator of the series, returns to his grass roots with a brand new remake called what else, The Bard's Tale. Let us take a closer look at a possible revival of a new Bard's Tale series.

What you look at stranger? I'll be back for you girlie! The story starts off very slowly in the beginning with the introduction of the Bard visiting a village called Houton. At this point you will start to get an idea of who this Bard character is that you're playing. He's not your political correct person, I can tell you that. He's into drinking beer, scheming people to make money, bedding women, and gaining magical power. The Bard has an unusual talent of being able to summon mystical creatures to do his battle by singing. In Houton, the Bard met a strange fellow by the name of Truncherface, who belongs to some mysterious group. Truncherface surprisingly decides to offer the Bard help by showing him how to get more power to summon stronger mystical creatures. As the story progresses deeper, you start to learn why this mysterious group is helping the Bard get more powerful. Apparently the Bard is the Chosen One and there's a princess that he needs to rescue from an evil wizard. Not exactly an original plot but what makes the story interesting or even entertaining to the point of being funny is that the Bard is your non political correct hero. He's a guy that doesn't want to do anything unless there's something in it for him. He's not going to rescue a princess unless he can have sex with her in the end. Most of the funny moments come from the Bard and his sarcastic remarks at the people he meets. It's a totally different kind of rpg story where the hero isn't the kind of hero you expect. The story is told through a narration which gives the presence of a tale being told. The story overall is pretty short and not in-depth but a light hearted fun story. If you're tired of the long and serious type of rpg story and want a change of pace just to have a break then the Bard's Tale is just what the doctor ordered. I guarantee you'll be laughing for a bit.

Just me and my dog. One of the disappointing things about this game is the lack of a cast to support the Bard. Even though this is an action rpg game where the hero is pretty much by himself, he still need some sort of a supporting cast of characters in the story. But there's none. The Bard himself is the only real main character in the story. However the Bard will eventually meet up with various other characters but they don't really play too much of a role other than to help him progress in the game by providing him with clues, money, or magic on his next exploration. These dialogues between the Bard and these characters are pretty funny. The Bard himself is excellently played by Cary Elwes. In fact the entire casts of characters in this game are beautifully played out by their perspective voice actors. I haven't been impressed with this kind of voice over in a long time. Sure you don't have any other main characters or supporting characters but the ones that are in the game sure come to life thanks to the actors that play them. It's a treat just to go shopping for new weapon and armors just so you can listen to the shopkeeper describe his wares in rich voice over details letting you know just why that brand of equipment is state of the art. That's just how good the voice acting is. The two main voices are the Bard and the Narrator. It's a treat just to listen to those two argue over each other on how the story should be told. The game itself doesn't go too much detail on how the Bard is and his past. You have to get that from the instruction book. I'm disappointed in the lack of a cast and a lack of character development on the Bard but the presence of good voice actors also gives the game a boost.

Looking for treasure, boy? One of my biggest surprises from this game is the presentation of the graphics. Looking at early screenshots of dark images and dungeons, I thought the graphics might be average or just above average, to my surprise the graphics is on par with most 3-D engine graphics out there. The overall designs are a bit different than what you normally see in other rpg games but it's done exceptionally well. Let's talk about the 3-D background environment. This is what sells the game in terms of graphics. As you start to travel and move around in the game, you will begin to notice just how much time the game developers spent on making sure that everything in this world is rendered perfectly as much as possible. Stone houses are done to perfection, wells, creeks, and trees all look very realistic. The character designs as well as the designs of the monsters all look good too. But you might need a couple of hours getting used to the character designs simply because the character designs aren't influence by the Japanese anime designs that you normally see in typical console rpg games. You have the Lord of the Ring type of look to the characters, especially the designs of the monsters in the game since they look like orcs and goblins. The only drawback in the graphics that I see is the used of colors and the fact that the game is a bit too dark at times. But this is done on purpose though to showcase a dark world with mystical creatures to gamers.

Let's sing a song about beer! The presentation of the music is also different than the typical console rpg game. Hmm, different seem to be a theme in this game. LOL. In most typical rpg game, music is presented through various categories of themes. These themes are character themes, battle themes, dungeon themes, town themes, story themes, and world map themes. The game does have a few of these themes but not a whole lot of them or a strong presence with those themes. What the game does have to compensate for lack of musical themes are 11 wonderful songs. Most of these songs are sung brilliantly and at times quite funny too. You can listen to these songs over and over and have a good time with them. But the main thing that gives the game its rich sound isn't the music but the sound effects used in the game. They are very realistic that it's kind of scary. Put on a pair of headphones and move around in the game and turn up the volume and listen to the surrounding area as you walk the Bard around. The noises around the Bard are too realistic that you can almost feel like you're actually there inside the game. You can hear birds chirping from far away, footsteps around you as people are moving, growling of animals, bells going off in the background, howling of animals, and water running from a creek. That's just how good the sound effects are. It makes the world inside the game come to life. I spent most of the game playing with a headphone set on just so I can listen to the sound effects. The songs are good but it's the sound effects that will impress you.

We're under attack! A good view of the action. Game Information    Genre: Action Rpg    Publisher: Inxile    Disc: 1 DVD Disc    Memory: 400 KB    Players: 1 Player Mode    Analog Control: Yes    Vibration Function: Yes    Rating: Teen    Release: October 2004 The Bard's Tale is an action dungeon crawling rpg game, this pretty much mean you're be hacking and slashing at monsters while exploring the various dark dungeons in the game. So let's look at what this game has to offer. The hack and slash is pretty basic stuff. You don't have any combos to work with. Just swing and hit. You can also block the other person swipe at you with their weapons. You have a world map that has towns and dungeons for you to go through. The gameplay is pretty straightforward so you shouldn't have too much problem on figuring out where to go next. Dungeons too are fairly easy to explore. You shouldn't have any problems getting lost at all. Some dungeons do have traps though so you need to watch out for that. This game doesn't have any real puzzle solving elements at all that is normally found in an action rpg game. This might disappoint some fans or it might please some fans. When beginning the game, there are three difficulty levels to choose from. There is no difference in the overall game by choosing one difficulty over another. Let's break down the gameplay to sections. Statistics: At the beginning of the game, the Bard will start off with a set of statistics with 12 extra points that you can allocate to each stats to your liking. This is your way of customizing the Bard into the fighter you desire. Each time the Bard level up, you will gain 2 extra points that you can use to further customize the Bard's stats. Weapons: As a fighter, the Bard can equip various kinds of weapons. Each type of weapons has its strong and weak points. You can buy new equipment or find them in chest as power up items. Summoning: While the Bard is the lone main character in the game, he can also summon mystical friends to help fight along side him. Summoning comes from playing tunes from his instrument. As you play deeper into the game, you'll be able to learn and find new tunes to help you. Now each mystical friend has their own unique abilities to help the Bard as they fight side by side with him. The Bard can summon up to four mystical friends at once. There are a total of sixteen summons that the Bard can summon up. Some summons can be upgraded to an even more powerful form. Drinking: By visiting taverns, the Bard can actually buy drinks to help give him an added boost to his stats on his journey. Each drink has different stats boost and a time limit as to when it will wear off. Snarky/Nice: This is a bit of a unique thing in the game. As the Bard interacts with other people, you'll be getting an option to reply to them. Those replies can be a snarky remark or a nice remark. Each approach will have different consequences and will effect how the story is played out. Don't assume you should be nice all the time with your replies. The game is a fairly short one. You can probably finish it in about 25 hours or less. This includes the bonus dungeons. The gameplay is pretty basic stuff that you shouldn't have problems learning. The only thing you will need to get use to is the short cut keys to summoning your friends to fight side by side with you, once that's done than just charge and kill. If you look at the key features, there's really isn't much of key features in the game. I think the game needs to offer something more than just summoning mystical creatures to fight side by side. Unfortunately it doesn't. Good gameplay but not enough meat to it since it's fairly short with easy dungeon exploration.

Score: 7/10

Got a good aim now. There are quite a few things you can get as added bonus materials. There are four extra dungeons for you to explore in the game to get valuable treasures. These dungeons aren't large in general nor do they process any extra bosses but they do possess lots of booby traps and much harder monsters than normal to defeat. A good place to gain experience points and rare treasures. Other goodies to unlock are available in the Extras Menu. In the Extras Menu, you can unlock 7 movies, 11 songs, and 11 artworks. Of course unlocking each feature will require a certain amount of silver. You'll need lots and lots of cash for this one. Replay comes in the form that the game gives you three difficult settings, easy, normal and hard. If you play the game in normal mode on your first try then you can try it out hard mode on your second time around. Plus there are cheat codes for you to unlock and try out in your second game to make things a bit smoother. Don't forget that the game has three possible different endings so you can always try replaying the game again to get an ending that you haven't gotten. The bonus dungeons are nice but I think I prefer there be more substance to those bonus dungeons than simply exploring them for hidden treasure chests. Like a side event or something that goes with the in-game story. Unlocking the Extra Menu is very difficult to do. The amount of cash needed is staggering. Still it's better to have some bonus materials as oppose to not having any bonus material at all.

The Bard's Tale is definitely a different type of rpg than the usual Japanese influence rpg that you see on consoles. It's more of a PC dungeon crawling rpg game that normal PC players are used to. How this plays to the console players is uncertain. Clearly when you look at the surface of the game in terms of the designs and playability of it, you can tell this isn't a Japanese made rpg. If you're going to play this game, you have to play it in a way that you don't compare it to a Japanese rpg game. Even a Japanese action rpg is different than this one. It's like comparing apples and oranges. Just two different type of rpg games. The Bard's Tale on its own is a pretty good game. If you're looking to take a break from the bigger rpg games that came out this fall like Shadow Hearts Covenant or Star Ocean: Till the End of Time and want to try something different for a change of pace, you can pick up The Bard's Tale. The Bard will definitely give you a few laughs on your journey to find silver, women, and magical power. Final Score: 7.2/10