The Bard's Tale IV: Director's Cut

 PC
User Score
7.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 52 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 30 out of 52
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 52
  3. Negative: 13 out of 52

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  1. Hexen-Slayer
    Sep 16, 2020
    3
    THE BARD'S TALE IV has a great Gaelic score and a pretty interesting combat system. And that is all the good I have to say about THE BARD'S TALE IV!
    Graphics are outdated and the game world appears lifeless. Most NPCs stand around and don't do anything but wait for you to walk on by and talk to them.
    The game is very poorly balanced with some enemies being too easy and some supposedly    THE BARD'S TALE IV has a great Gaelic score and a pretty interesting combat system. And that is all the good I have to say about THE BARD'S TALE IV!
    Graphics are outdated and the game world appears lifeless. Most NPCs stand around and don't do anything but wait for you to walk on by and talk to them.
    The game is very poorly balanced with some enemies being too easy and some supposedly low or mid level encounters being way too hard. Then there are the horrendous loading times of several minutes: the game is not up to date on a technical level to justify such loading times. Not even close!
    Quests are tedious and require traveling back and forth long distances with the occasional death and long loading times.
    Puzzles are extremely bad - I ended up disabling them.
    BARD's TALE IV does not deserve to bear the name BARD'S TALE, it's an insult to the superb original trilogy. Do yourself a favor: the original trilogy got a superb remaster, buy that instead. You'll be glad you did.
    BARD'S TALE IV however is a 3 out of 9 (Bad).    … Expand
  2. EvgeniLinuxUser
    Jun 21, 2020
    7
    A meditative walk simulator along a full of puzzles path. Turn-based battles and ethnic music are included. Works more or less fine on Ubuntu 18.04 (AMD Ryzen 7 2700X + Nvidia GTX 1080 + QHD + 32 GB+Intel SSD). There are some freezes after every location load. Turning around ones helps. Probably the SSD speed is crucial.
  3. Egres
    Jul 12, 2020
    10
    Very beautiful, research-oriented and puzzling Dungeon Crawler with an original combat system and a terrific soundtrack. The best game in its genre in decades.
  4. DAMreviews
    Oct 18, 2019
    4
    PS4 Pro - I finally tapped out at after 5 hours due to the balance of difficulty hindering game progress. The world looks like a mobile game, very similar to the Elder Scrolls Blades. Load times take 20 seconds-plus. So moving back and forth for some quests began to feel like a chore and caused feelings of dread about simply wanting to grind outside of the main quest.
    Combat is the biggest    PS4 Pro - I finally tapped out at after 5 hours due to the balance of difficulty hindering game progress. The world looks like a mobile game, very similar to the Elder Scrolls Blades. Load times take 20 seconds-plus. So moving back and forth for some quests began to feel like a chore and caused feelings of dread about simply wanting to grind outside of the main quest.
    Combat is the biggest issue because of difficulty. Every meaningful quest encounter is balanced to be barely passable and often felt due to the luck of draw. I died several times on any mid-level battle and then sat through another significant load time, stunned at how punishing it is. After trying new areas, progressing the main quest out of sheer luck, only to repeat the punishing process with no direction or tips from the game, I had to stop.
    I want to support InExile but I’d be lying if I said this game wasn’t trash.    … Expand
  5. NerdishNerd
    Oct 1, 2019
    3
    There's a lot to unpack here, so buckle up.

    First is the history of the game. Delayed, delayed, and delayed some more. At one point it was delayed for an ill-fated attempt at a VR game which supposedly was going to tie in to this. Somehow. It was never explained how nor was it ever tied in. There were also a few early previews for which feedback was given but never used. Which    There's a lot to unpack here, so buckle up.

    First is the history of the game. Delayed, delayed, and delayed some more. At one point it was delayed for an ill-fated attempt at a VR game which supposedly was going to tie in to this. Somehow. It was never explained how nor was it ever tied in. There were also a few early previews for which feedback was given but never used. Which culminated in the first release over a year ago. Which, like this, imploded on itself. Various errors, numerous bugs, and InXile ignoring the Kickstarter backers who tried to warn them.

    Then the blame-game began. Most of it was aimed at the people who backed it. Really, such blame belongs at the feet of the director of the game, one Brian Fargo. He has yet to take any responsibility for the failure of the game, for how poorly it launched, and has yet to make any sort of apology for any of it. Instead us backers got this version of the game. And maybe, eventually some DLC.

    None of which makes up for the fact that this isn't the game that was promised in the campaign, nor for the game-breaking bugs of the first launch, nor for the aborted attempt of a launch. It doesn't go back and undo the fact that InXile ignored the feedback early users, that they changed focus several times during the course of developing the game (through launching new Kickstarters, shuffling staff around to cover on previous projections that were not yet completed, or bringing in new hires who had no idea what this project was about), or for blaming their customers for their own shortfalls.

    The long and the short of it is this: No one in InXile had any idea what to make of this game. Brian Fargo didn't direct, didn't lead, and certainly didn't seem to give a care about how this game turned out. And now, with a second bite at the apple, they've continued to fall short of any expectations that they set with the Kickstarter. To know this is the case, one need only look at the dated graphics, the lack of optimization in the game, and listen to the overproduced and muddled sound & voicing. All of it adds up to a secondhand product being pushed as a top of the line nostalgia hit.

    The original Bard's Tales game were about exploration and fun. This is about none of those things.    … Expand
  6. AndrewThunder
    Sep 13, 2019
    8
    Однозначно хорошая игра для любителей строить "билды" , собирать команду и решать головоломки.
    + большая рпг составляющая по части боевой механики, превосходящая по возможностям большинство узкоспециализированных рпг игр в плане прокачки персонажей.Что на мой взгляд - просто удивительно!
    + сюжет,который разбавляется диалогами и заметками членов отряда при путешествии, благодаря чему    Однозначно хорошая игра для любителей строить "билды" , собирать команду и решать головоломки.
    + большая рпг составляющая по части боевой механики, превосходящая по возможностям большинство узкоспециализированных рпг игр в плане прокачки персонажей.Что на мой взгляд - просто удивительно!
    + сюжет,который разбавляется диалогами и заметками членов отряда при путешествии, благодаря чему одиночное прохождение наполняется приключением.
    +отличные загадки, которые достигаются различными путями и возможностями персонажа (имеются в виду песни).
    + повышенная сложность!Добавлена "легендарная" сложность,которая сбалансирована под тактику,умения , саму находчивость и ум игрока. Что редкость в настоящее время,когда сложность просто завышают на пустом месте.
    +улучшили оптимизацию и повысили (немного) качество картинки, что не может не радовать.
    Из минусов,стоит отметить:
    - возвращение на пройденные локации.
    - скудная кастомизация персонажей. Невозможность настроить внешность своего,предлагается только выбор.
    - не доработанный инвентарь,доставляет некоторые неудобства.
    - отсутствие отображения новых вещей и оружия на персонажах . Этот минус,скорее предпочтение,нежели параметр ,который обязательно должен быть в игре.
    - не совсем внятный визуальный стиль. Будто модели для окружения делали разные люди,которые не представляли себе целостность проекта и его направление с дизайнерской точки зрения . Что на мой потребительский взгляд,большой минус!
    Отдельно стоит отметить хорошее звуковое сопровождение,которое выражается по большей части в отрывках песен.
    Рекомендую!    … Expand
  7. jseph1234
    Apr 1, 2020
    3
    I was ALMOST tempted to Pre-Purchase this but I am glad that I didn't because I realize the gameplay was wonky and shallow and while it had some cool cutscene when you ran into a villian the weird combat sequence sucked.
  8. bladex
    Sep 2, 2019
    0
    pathetic puzzle game pretending to be an rpg that's what this is.

    you'll soon discover early this is not an rpg game the amount of puzzles in it are insane and annoying. ranging from crappy pushing block puzzles to annoying gear puzzles. there is a cheat to skip all these puzzles but that's not what makes this bad. the rpg elements are some of the worst i've ever experienced in my    pathetic puzzle game pretending to be an rpg that's what this is.

    you'll soon discover early this is not an rpg game the amount of puzzles in it are insane and annoying.

    ranging from crappy pushing block puzzles to annoying gear puzzles. there is a cheat to skip all these puzzles but that's not what makes this bad.

    the rpg elements are some of the worst i've ever experienced in my life.

    1st of all there are no re-spawns there are a set number of enemies on the map which makes it difficult to gain exp and gold.

    you will find yourself up against 100 HP enemies than can spawn up to 4 50 HP goblins when all you have is a party of four ranging from 12 to 20 HP when you only do 7-10 dmg and they each do 8-10 dmg against your party and you will be slaughtered! and because you won't have the right gear because everything in the stores is INSANELY expensive you will find yourself getting wiped out again and again!

    it NEVER gives you enough opportunities to grow your party before your thrown into the gauntlet against insanely hard mobs and this is just on the normal settings!

    spell casting sucks also it takes 1 turn to cast a spell and if your hit before the turn is up your spells are cancelled and ythe same goes with enemy spells you have to drop what your doing and do a pitiful low level attack just because it does mind dmg to stop their spells and did i mention you usually only have 2 party members that can do this? the amount of unfairness in this game is just insanely unfair!

    there are much much better rpg (rpg lol what a joke calling it that) out there than this polished turn. try them instead!    … Expand
  9. BeetlejuiceGr
    Apr 23, 2020
    8
    Yes i am 40+ years old. I have played bard's tale 1 and 2 and 3. I never managed to finish the first. The second and third, midway i was so busy rl, it was the first game that i hexedited a save, a hobby that i kept and loved.
    I still remember the first phrase in one of the trilogy "As i lay down and die..." Grandpa bard's tale was gone for years, few times i did install it and tried to    Yes i am 40+ years old. I have played bard's tale 1 and 2 and 3. I never managed to finish the first. The second and third, midway i was so busy rl, it was the first game that i hexedited a save, a hobby that i kept and loved.
    I still remember the first phrase in one of the trilogy "As i lay down and die..." Grandpa bard's tale was gone for years, few times i did install it and tried to play again, who has time nowdays to write down maps and so on.

    On to Bard's Tale 4. The music, the "not so well dressed for the occasion" bard and listeners video while loading a game, the battles, the story, the reminder that many "quality of life" scripts in other games is a plus if they dont exist in this game..makes you focus to important parts..

    In general Bard's tale 4 tried to bring back the pure experience of old pc-rpgs, It reminded me King's Quest and Ultima IX

    The best of this game are

    You will return on the same areas to discover more things as more abilities are unlocked.
    You will have to read poems and text in order to solve puzzles and riddles and unlock abilities
    You will have to make compromises and put your characters back and forth and change them skill sets and whole setups and armor and weapons.
    You will search all the game to find materials for certain food or weapons..
    The chat between your characters even the mercenaries is fun! and it exists (considering so many new games dont have more than 2 lines..)
    You will have so many things unanswered you will play the game from scratch again.!
    You will realize that a game without jump or speed/jump is better for rpg, no-action rpg is a pure rpg perhaps? but yes..use your brain not a trye to cheat jump a road or obstacle. I am surprised a game like this hasn' let me stuck at all in corners or stairs etc.
    Did i mention the music and songs?
    You think the vendors will give you better gear later on? Nope! You think you can sell everything ? nope! choices matter, purchases matter, sales matter, when you fill your inventory think well if you want ot clear it or destroy items..There are not so many apples!!! That's what i thought till i played it second time..
    I played 1/3 of the game and then i realized there is teleport through special areas!
    I played 3/4 till i figure out what those offerings were, and half of it till i understand that there are special shrines to "upgrade" certain items

    The bad parts.
    There should be an option to search an item in inventory. There should be a "auto arrange/sort" inventory.
    Sometimes the game will disappear. (really few occasions with the latest patches)
    Graphics design amazing at some parts, average or bad at others...
    Overall too many puzzles ,i would prefer slightly less, i dont mean they are very hard, but too many at some areas..
    The plot , it is interesting, you listen names that you have played spells with their name on ("mangar's malet "? ) however it is not very intelligent. An unknown villain has other villains (cant write more or there is spoiler) to do his biding (which is unknown) but all in all is linear. I was surprised about who he was in the end, didn't expect it but the truth isyou dont get so much contact with possible suspects to get an idea who or why. I would like to have more side quests and i would like some NPCs to really have a story and sidequest . The Cabbage for example..The farmer that asks for some plants as if he sells them but not, the Blackhawk..is just like nameplaces and i would like to see a sidestory and quest..Thats why i hope for IV...

    If you want numbers

    Gameplay 8/10 (it needs some shining here and there)
    Sound/music/speech 10/10/10
    Graphics 8/10
    Immersion in RPG 10/10
    Replayability 10/10
    Difficulty 7/10 (i havent played hard but i am sure if i spend more time it is doable).

    PRiceless : The blacksmith's note about his daughter and the bag hanging on the top of his house..!

    Dont play the game on easy, normal is what this game should be played, dont take the "music to solve puzzles" its lame and you lose half the magic.

    This game brings back the "no pain no gain" and the pain is in the brain (perhaps i am not awesome puzzle solver or its becaues i play at nights as i have kids who occupy the pc)
    Teaches many things to players who are used in action rpgs, reminds to old players older rpgs which were not a full complete game but still had beauty

    Leaves you with surprises as a game should be. Weapon puzzles! Offerings!! and so on. You want to unlock healing? GOOD LUCK! :P (well it is not hard but you need to unlock it)

    Overall

    8/10
    Hope they give us Bard's Tale 5, The bar is high now InXile, i hope you are up to it, I want more NPCs more sidequests, more Humour, more music, better and more arced plot!    … Expand
  10. vietmart
    Oct 21, 2019
    10
    There's a lot to unpack here, so buckle up. pathetic puzzle game pretending to be an rpg that's what this is.
  11. cordovader
    Feb 17, 2022
    9
    I do not usually get hooked on a game, but this one made me addicted. Fascinating combat mechanics and progress trees, and head-scratching puzzles result in an unbeatable combination. Graphics and music are also pretty cool.
  12. abork
    Aug 25, 2020
    10
    Classic dungeon crawler in new design, with modern game solutions.
    1/ Original and demanding fighting system with lots of combo-mechanics. Game can be very easy or extremely difficult, depends on party configuration.
    2/ Lots of puzzles - yes this is that kind of game, what else you have expected? Puzzles are more and more difficult during game. So if you like puzzles you shouldn't be    Classic dungeon crawler in new design, with modern game solutions.
    1/ Original and demanding fighting system with lots of combo-mechanics. Game can be very easy or extremely difficult, depends on party configuration.
    2/ Lots of puzzles - yes this is that kind of game, what else you have expected? Puzzles are more and more difficult during game. So if you like puzzles you shouldn't be disappointed
    3/ Storyline is as it is should be in crawler - quite simple heroic fantasy tale.
    4/ Some side quests enough for good playing
    5/ Nice graphic with spirit of good old crawlers
    6/ Marvelous folk music over 100 pieces, written and sang by professional folk music writers, singers, and musicians. Ver, very strong point of the game.

    IMHO very immersive game for many hours of play.
    Game starts slowly introducing player into game mechanics and story, so don't be discouraged – after several hours game shows off.    … Expand
  13. ZogarSag
    Mar 2, 2021
    9
    Bard's Tale 4

    I remember when the first screenshots appeared, I really disliked that blue grid and 2D characters looking back at you, like if they sat in a cinema. I watched some let's plays later, but still thought it was a meh game. Don't know why I picked it up in the end, I guess it was that old school feeling, which appealed to me. And man, glad I did! At the beginning I was    Bard's Tale 4

    I remember when the first screenshots appeared, I really disliked that blue grid and 2D characters looking back at you, like if they sat in a cinema. I watched some let's plays later, but still thought it was a meh game.
    Don't know why I picked it up in the end, I guess it was that old school feeling, which appealed to me.
    And man, glad I did!

    At the beginning I was worried that I would abandon the game pretty soon due to ugly characters and outdated graphics, but after a few hours I forgot about such miniscule things! The atmosphere and gameplay just sucked me in!
    Playing BT4 was like eating dessert! I longed to get back home sooner, turn on the comp and do another game session. BT4 reminded me a lot of Wizardry 8 and Arx Fatalis - it really has that old school feeling about it, to the point , when you don't see ugly outdated graphics anymore.

    Voice acting was simply great, with all weird british accents and Wizardry 8 kind of party banter, even enemies drop some funny comments in battles. And I'm not even talking about music - it is just fantastic and made 50% up of the game rating! Irish or Scotish folk songs in a manner which reminded me a lot of Clannad.
    Apart from storytelling the game is half battles, half puzzles. As soon as I started to feel tired of constant enemy engagement there came a puzzle. I found puzzles quite good and enjoyable compared to some other games, they felt logic and I solved them all myself. Even combat felt like a little puzzle too, though I became quite powerful soon enough and many battles started to feel really easy in the second part of the game. Then I went to Harenhold (DLC area), before the last boss, and combat became challenging again. I played on hard difficulty without using any op skill combinations, except on Harenhold's last boss.

    All in all I think balance was fine, it was great fun to discover and try out new skills, though I uncovered them all before the last chapter. So I was afraid that as with many RPGs of late it will become boring if the game will drag on and I will give up, but to my surprise it wasn't too long till the last boss appeared and the game ended. So the length was fine for me - neither too long nor too short, I didn't feel burnt out. Witch unfortunately happens to me a lot with the bunch of latest modern RPGs, like D:OS2, Kingmaker, Wasteland 2, Kingdom Come and some other - they simply are too long, the story starts to drag on, gameplay is filled with necessary trashmob fights (well except KCD) and usually I lost my urge to continue, there is always new game around the corner to try it out.

    As I understood many disliked BT4 because it was not like the first games of the series, I didn't play them back then, so I had no special expectations.

    I'm glad I picked up Bard's Tale 4 despite my concerns, I give it 9/10 (would never have thought so !), a great game, and would like to see more of it in the future. ( though I doubt it will ever happen).

    Great:
    Characters, voice acting, music, combat and game mechanics, puzzles, fun skills, oldschool feeling and atmosphere.
    Good:
    Story, but nothing new here, same old "evil wizard about to destroy the world".
    Maybe not so good:
    Outdated graphics, ugly character models, somewhat easy and repetitive combat after half of the game, some op skills, ingame currency quickly becomes worthless same as elven weapons.    … Expand
  14. Ferrante79
    Jun 11, 2021
    10
    There is no way this game have less than a 9. It has some flaws, but they are few and small, versus the big ammount of great features it has. One of my best experiences with videogames ever.

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
84

Generally favorable reviews - based on 5 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. MMORPG.com
    Sep 18, 2019
    85
    The Bard's Tale 4: The Director's Cut is an epic tale of corruption and evil, suffering and loss, of lessons learned too late and and the bitter consequences. It's also a story of hope and triumph and perseverance. It's a game that challenged me and a story that tugged at my heart.
    Read full review
  2. 3DJuegos
    Sep 11, 2019
    80
    The Bard's Tale IV: Director's Cut is a great dungeon crawler with many clever puzzles and epic combats turn based. It still has some bugs, but the experience is better than the original.
    Read full review
  3. GameSpace
    Sep 5, 2019
    85
    The Bard's Tale 4: Director's Cut is the version of the game we deserved.
    Read full review
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