The Bards Tale

The Bard's Tale is officially a remake of the old Commodore 64 classic: but while it does indeed feature a musical hero with a good singing voice, that's where the similarities end. The old plot's gone, the original fantasy setting of Skara Brae is nowhere to be found, and at first glance this 'remake' appears to be nothing more than a typical Action/RPG. Looks are deceiving, though, and while there's a lack of true Bard's Tale nostalgia there is a heavy dose of humour to keep you going.
But going where? Can laughs make up for bog-standard gameplay? And for how long?

The basic story is, well, basic: you're a bard on a quest to save the lovely Princess Caleigh from an evil wizard. "Not that original" you might say, and you'd be right. As any good bard knows, though, it's not the story itself but the telling, which in this case means humorous narration and killer chickens....

For each new game, you'll create the Bard's stats in a D&D style character setup. Depending on which difficulty you select he'll have higher or lower numbers to start with, to be improved over time. All of the usual categories are there with the addition of a rhythm level which determines the bard's musical skills. This is crucial to the game, because along with carrying a tune the Bard uses music to summon monsters. The better the rhythm level (and the lute you play on), the larger and hairier the help.

One quirk is that you can't change the Bard's appearance, which limits character creation a bit. This is more than made up for, however, by the use of Cary Elwes (from The Princess Bride and Men in Tights) as the voice of our hero. He does an excellent job and has captured the bard's personality perfectly.

That personality really comes through when interacting with NPCs(Non-Player Characters). Throughout the game you get to choose between polite or not-so-polite responses, some of them hilarious, and Bard's Tale manages to make even the strangest comic routines seem natural and in character. Depending on the responses you pick you can end up with information, free items, or even a new member for your party. These additions range from a dog to a helpful villager who loves to jump into magic barriers to break them. Most of your other party members come via summon spells.

As you raise your characters level, you will also acquire new Talents. Talents are skills that you can use at any time without the use of mana. For example, if you have the dog in your party, once you level up a bit you'll be able to select the dog training talent, which allows you to use your dog in battle. It may be weak, but it helps a lot that the pooch can't die, instead it just gets knocked out and gets back up again after a few seconds.

As with many other Action RPGs, your mana and health regenerate over time. However, creatures you have summoned will need to be summoned again as their health does not regenerate. Sometimes party members like the dog or the various summoned monsters can be used to distract a tough enemy so you can attack it from the side. This can be a useful strategy when taking on a large group of monsters. At first, you can only have one monster summoned at a time. However as you acquire more powerful lutes you can summon more creatures.

The AI in the monsters and summoned creatures is flawed on some occasions. Say you're at the bottom of a ridge with a bow and there's a hand full of monsters running around at the top. Instead of going down the 'ramp', they'll continue to run around at the top swinging their weapons, letting you take them out from a distance. Apart from the less-than-smart A.I. some of the enemies are just glitchy. Vikings in the settlement of Finstown, for example, didn't fight back at all when attacked with a sword or arrows.

Visually Bard's Tale is average at best, thanks to a dated engine and a top-down camera view, which can hinder you in fights if you happen to be under a tree. However, the camera problem is partially corrected by a good radar system in place. All of the enemies you are close enough to see or hear are marked with red dots, friendly characters are marked with green dots, save points are marked with blue dots, objective points are marked with yellow points and so on. You can also enlarge the map and rotate it using the Right analogue stick.

Bard's Tale is fun for a while, and it certainly has its comedy moments, but there's something very wrong when jokes are the highlight of a game. The voice acting is great - something not heard in many games of this kind these days - and Cary Elwes' narration is brilliant, but underneath it all is still decidedly average, Action/RPG gameplay. The controls in some areas such as melee fighting are unresponsive and clunky. This is especially apparent when trying to kill a chicken, as they sometimes run away before you can hit them.

All up Bard's Tale is an entertaining fantasy romp, which may leave you laughing your head off rather than blown away by the experience. As far as being a remake goes, this doesn't have much at all to do with the original series, but it's a good little tune in its own right.