The Bard's Tale IV: Director's Cut

 PlayStation 4
User Score
5.9

Mixed or average reviews- based on 15 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 15
  3. Negative: 5 out of 15
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  1. tomvs123
    Aug 31, 2020
    6
    As someone who played the original Bard's Tale when it was new and has liked grid-based, turn-based, first-person RPGs ever since, this isn't exactly what I was looking for, but it's not a bad western RPG.

    Lets get the bad out of the way first. On PS4, there's a lot of technical issues. The frame rate is bad (even on PS4 Pro), there's annoying (but not game-breaking)    As someone who played the original Bard's Tale when it was new and has liked grid-based, turn-based, first-person RPGs ever since, this isn't exactly what I was looking for, but it's not a bad western RPG.

    Lets get the bad out of the way first. On PS4, there's a lot of technical issues. The frame rate is bad (even on PS4 Pro), there's annoying (but not game-breaking) visual/audio/interface bugs and glitches everywhere, and they even have a mouse cursor on top of the ending movie - They really missed that??

    And this is the only game on PS4 that was physically painful to look at for extended periods - and I've played a lot of first-person games. I attribute this to the game's incredibly heavy motion blur when moving the camera horizontally. At first, I moved the camera sensitivity up to 80 since it was too slow for me. But that made the headaches and eye fatigue worse due to the increased blur, so I settled on 50 and avoided moving the camera quickly from then on.

    Related to this, they do offer a grid-based movement system in the settings, which prevents you from moving in ways that causes motion blur. But the game is very annoying to play in this mode as the levels/maps were seemingly not designed with grid-based movement in mind.

    The story is unfortunately cliche and generic. Although not bad, and not full of plot holes, it's based on the same plot that 90% of Western RPGs use: Evil being wants to control/destroy the world for some unknown reason, and you're the only person who can stop it. It plays out exactly how you expect, except there's much more getting magical items to get to the next plot point than normal.

    So lets get onto the good. If you like turn-based combat, you'll be glad to know that the combat here is good, relatively unique, and challenging. You're on a small grid with your opponents, with each side having half of the grid. There's skills that target specific squares of the grid and those that target enemies. For example, you can set fire to a specific square and enemies who step in it will catch fire. An enemy can start channeling for a powerful skill that will hit certain squares (related to him) on the next turn, and you can either kill him before that happens or use another skill to move him - either so you take no damage or the enemy skill hits his allies. And this is just one of the interesting mechanics. There's several other mechanics that keeps combat fun and rewarding.

    The puzzles in the game are good. They start out simple and get more complex as you make your way though. There's moving blocks through mazes onto switches, spinning pieces of circular puzzle boards to line up images, getting fairies to unlock doors by controlling their movement via totems, rotating devices to get strange blood magic to flow certain ways to unlock areas, and more. The puzzles don't make complete sense in the world, but they do a good job at keeping the player mentally engaged. In addition to standard puzzles, there's plenty of riddles that require you to read lore to figure out what to do next. Don't expect any hand-holding with these - some are relatively difficult, while avoiding being so abstract that they don't make sense. Use of pencil and paper will definitely help out with some of these.

    And then we come to the music. I normally don't mention music, but the game has some of the best vocal Celtic music I've heard in a game. This will vary based on your taste, but I think it's a great fit for the world. The only downside to this is that the music is a bit too good for the world. You'll be walking by a house, hearing this perfect pre-recorded singing and it seems a little too good for what you'd expect going by some random person's house.

    I had a decent time with the game, which is more than I can say about most games I play these days. The ending is a bit weak, the world seems a little small (even though it took me nearly 60 hours to complete), and I didn't have much motivation to go into the optional dungeon after beating the game, but I don't regret my time with it. Definitely a game to consider if you're into old-school western RPGs or turn-based RPGs.    … Expand
  2. MaksimT
    Nov 29, 2019
    6
    I always wanted to try something from Wizardy or Might and magic. But when I was small, for a long time such games did not drag me in, I dropped out for a maximum of an hour. And accidentally stumbled upon this game in the Playstation store. We go from the first person in a group, feel the plot, fight in turn-based battles, pump characters, solve puzzles. General role-playing adventure.I always wanted to try something from Wizardy or Might and magic. But when I was small, for a long time such games did not drag me in, I dropped out for a maximum of an hour. And accidentally stumbled upon this game in the Playstation store. We go from the first person in a group, feel the plot, fight in turn-based battles, pump characters, solve puzzles. General role-playing adventure.
    But first about the bad. The game is not much finalized. Even in this directorial edition. I played around 30 hours. 7 times the game crashed. With such a graphics, long downloads. From time to time lags appear. Sometimes a game issues a puzzle - a false freeze, the interface disappears from the screen - occasionally droops after 10-20 seconds, and more often you need to click on the desired button on the controller - random. And because of one departure in my save, the time of the game broke and the clock rolled back to 7. Just time, the saving itself is intact. And now in saving I have less time indicated than actually. And even saves may have incorrect names, for example, it is called your old save, but in fact this is the last save and deleting it will break the game. So until you complete the game, do not get all the trophies and what you might need in the game - do not delete any saves at all. There is really nothing critical. But patience is needed for this. Some may not like going back and forth. And yet, the translation is occasionally a curve.
    Now for the good. Roles are recouped. The warrior will defend, stand, or crush the armor of the enemy. The thief will poison, steal, find and cause great damage. Mage, spit on his opponent’s armor. But the bard helps very well from the start of the game with his healing shield. Therefore, my advice is either to take Melody from the start, or create a bard. You can hire a bard mercenary after an hour of the game or wait for the story bard to be received, which will be given somewhere after 6-8 hours of the game.
    The plot is interesting. There is some good humor. Third-party conversations are also interesting to listen to. Like reading books.
    This is not a game where tons of booty and darkness of enemies. There are 4 classes of armor (light, medium, heavy and robes for magicians), and inside there are several more subclasses. Fewer weapon options. The equipment is divided into gray, green, purple and red. And inside the subclass, the same thing may differ by + - a unit of some characteristic. No more. Opponents do not resurrect after restarting the game. But when you advance in the story, somewhere, some will disappear and others will appear. Fighting is interesting.
    There are enough puzzles and they are interesting. Only if you are not a maniac of puzzles, to whom constantly give different and new. Then you are probably not here. I think most puzzles have already happened somewhere.
    4 character classes and several subclasses. At the beginning, you either take Melody or create your own. Further in the story, others will join the group, to take it or not to take it, choose it yourself. You can hire mercenaries in the guild for tokens. At the same time, the hiring process is presented in the form of creating another character. All the soldiers and created mercenaries met, if they are not needed, do not disappear, but end up in the guild. There you can redo the group.
    As long as I like the game, dragged on. But if you look at such poor optimization and a flaw, then 6 out of 10. If they modified it, then 8-9 out of 10 I would put it.
    And do not listen to others that the game is outdated by mechanics, etc. Just try it if the flaws with the flaw in the game are not a problem for you.    … Expand
  3. Awanka
    Aug 14, 2020
    6
    It's a fairly well-made low-budget turned based 6-member party RPG. There are some things about the game that are kludgy that prevent the game from being very good. The graphics are PS3 era. The power level scaling is off. By the second half of the game, encounters were complete faceroll. Towards the end of the game, there are some truly obnoxious puzzles as well. I believe I got about 70It's a fairly well-made low-budget turned based 6-member party RPG. There are some things about the game that are kludgy that prevent the game from being very good. The graphics are PS3 era. The power level scaling is off. By the second half of the game, encounters were complete faceroll. Towards the end of the game, there are some truly obnoxious puzzles as well. I believe I got about 70 hours of gameplay, so it's a fairly lengthy experience. Overall, it's worth your time if you like blobbers, and puzzle solving walking simulators, because there is quite a bit of puzzle-solving in this game. I found the first half of the game much more engaging than the second half because of the aforementioned power creep issues and annoying puzzles.… Expand
  4. OldAndCynical
    Jun 7, 2021
    6
    On the surface, Bard's Tale IV is a brilliant, old skool RPG with great music, humor and atmosphere.
    But it has big issues with balance, the kind of issues I've never encountered in classic RPGs before. And it keeps burdening you with party members you really would rather do without. The kind of 'heroes' that take up valuable hero slot in your party, are usually totally useless in battle,    On the surface, Bard's Tale IV is a brilliant, old skool RPG with great music, humor and atmosphere.
    But it has big issues with balance, the kind of issues I've never encountered in classic RPGs before. And it keeps burdening you with party members you really would rather do without. The kind of 'heroes' that take up valuable hero slot in your party, are usually totally useless in battle, and totally mess up your well thought out party composition for the duration of the quest. All this makes the game one of the most annoying RPGs I've bothered to play thru.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

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No score yet - based on 3 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. SpazioGames
    Oct 4, 2019
    77
    The Bard's Tale Iv Director's Cut is the best version of the game from last year, with a lot of improvements and extra content, but still retains too much little bugs that need to be fixed as soon as possible. A solid choice for all the dungeon crawler fans.
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  2. The Games Machine
    Oct 1, 2019
    73
    The Bard’s Tale IV: Director’s Cut defines a further step forward for InXile Entertainment. The flaws are there, but it's worth playing as long as you like this genre.
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  3. PlayStation Universe
    Sep 14, 2019
    80
    The Bard's Tale IV is a sometimes awkward, often charming and never less than a thoroughly enjoyable RPG that with cheeky wink and a swig of Elven Wine presents itself as one of the most surprising adventures of the year.
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