The Bard's Tale IV: Director's Cut

 Xbox One
User Score
6.9

Mixed or average reviews- based on 16 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 16
  3. Negative: 4 out of 16
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. Xbox_Alive
    Sep 1, 2019
    7
    The Bards Tale IV: Directors Cut is an engine and content update to The Bards Tale IV: Barrows Deep released in 2018, a first person Tactics RPG sequel to the original The Bards Tale series. The Directors Cut of Barrows Deep contains several hours of new story line, featured in an endgame chapter. The update to the Unreal Engine is visually stunning, and adds a bit of new depth to theThe Bards Tale IV: Directors Cut is an engine and content update to The Bards Tale IV: Barrows Deep released in 2018, a first person Tactics RPG sequel to the original The Bards Tale series. The Directors Cut of Barrows Deep contains several hours of new story line, featured in an endgame chapter. The update to the Unreal Engine is visually stunning, and adds a bit of new depth to the games graphics. Thousands of performance improvements and fixes are implemented to the game overall, creating a cleaner experience from exploration to combat. The story continues to stay immersive and gripping, as the Bards Tale series has always provided masterful narrative to its games various encounters. Character Creation now features more class and gender options for your main Hero, or you can always just play as Melody. Fight New Enemies, with new weapons, armor, and items, in a re-balanced collection of encounters across the game. Conquer new puzzles and collect the Dwarven Masterwork set to complete your collection. Interact with a newly refined UI system, with better features. So, dive back into the fourth installment of one of the most Iconic RPGs ever made with this definitive edition of Barrows Deep, a must have for fans of the Bards Tale series. All we need now to complete our collection would be a remaster of A Bards Tale with Cary Elwes!… Expand
  2. silencer
    Nov 3, 2019
    8
    Fun game, good story, tactical combat but was way too many puzzles. It's like you can't take a step without getting into another puzzle. Luckily you can skip most of them which imo makes the game a lot more fun. Solid 8.
  3. jeffbizloc
    Sep 16, 2019
    3
    Bard's Tale IV seemed like a perfect game for me. Tactical turn based in a grid! Using columns for strategy! Sadly the devs made a grave error - could not read the text. Always make text readable (give the option to make larger if necessary). I gave up a couple hours in since I couldn't read anything.
  4. Daelus
    Mar 7, 2020
    4
    Firstly, I game for RPG's, so its crushing for me to rate this studios latest effort so low; I have never rated an RPG lower than a 5. With Xbox money behind them now I was hoping they could join the 3 AAA RPG devs out there (Gearbox, Bethesda and Bioware), so there would be more than 1 great RPG every couple years; unfortunately only Obsidian has/ can make that leap as I find no redeemingFirstly, I game for RPG's, so its crushing for me to rate this studios latest effort so low; I have never rated an RPG lower than a 5. With Xbox money behind them now I was hoping they could join the 3 AAA RPG devs out there (Gearbox, Bethesda and Bioware), so there would be more than 1 great RPG every couple years; unfortunately only Obsidian has/ can make that leap as I find no redeeming qualities here.

    Semi-pro:
    Reasonably lengthy campaign (hard to speedrun a game with combat as bad as this is in the beginning; although they do provide the option of turning off the rubbish puzzles which are literally everywhere).
    Classes each have defined skillsets.

    Cons:
    The music is the worst I have ever encountered outside a jRPG; I had to shut it off completely as it was constant and annoying.
    The game aims for 4th-wall breaking comedy which simply comes off as very childish and not humorous in the least; there was no way for me to become immersed in this game, nor was I entertained; lose-lose.
    I love turned-based combat; this take on it was god awful. The game was not designed for direct combat rather they simply want you to move the characters (yours and the enemies) around the grid until you win. At level 1-3 you have around 10 hitpoints yet you are constantly fighting enemies with 20-60 hitpoints. It becomes more balanced as you gain powers but the routine never changes.
    The story is utterly forgettable.
    Forgive me for thinking they wanted to make a puzzle game and not an RPG as there are more puzzles than combat encounters....seriously.

    IMO, even for PC-Kickstarter shovelware, this game is a fail. Here's hoping this was the B team and the A team is was working on Wasteland 3!    … Expand
  5. WarkKnight
    Sep 9, 2019
    7
    Story and gameplay are pretty solid, animations are awesome but won't please that special graphic snob in your life. I think the allure of playing a content-packed classic dungeon RPG like this is too hard to pass up with Gamepass on console or pc. It's more accessible than the original but has less handholding than other modern games.
  6. Pat413
    Sep 23, 2019
    8
    Having never played a Bard's Tale game before, I was pleasantly surprised by how playable the game was and how quickly I was invested on the goings-ons of the game world. I am not an experienced RPG-er, and the Bard's Tale IV was a perfect, simple, tactical game that kept me satisfied long into many late nights. No it's not fancy, or super deep, or graphically gorgeous, but it's definitelyHaving never played a Bard's Tale game before, I was pleasantly surprised by how playable the game was and how quickly I was invested on the goings-ons of the game world. I am not an experienced RPG-er, and the Bard's Tale IV was a perfect, simple, tactical game that kept me satisfied long into many late nights. No it's not fancy, or super deep, or graphically gorgeous, but it's definitely an enjoyable experience from stat to finish. Plus - it's free if you have the Xbox Gamepass, so if you have the Gamepass and are a fan of RPGs...give it a go!… Expand

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
tbd

No score yet - based on 1 Critic Review

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. TheXboxHub
    Sep 23, 2019
    70
    For fans of the series and lovers of the genre, the combination of turn-based combat, intriguing puzzles, and exploration work well. Throw in a large amount of gameplay hours, plus the side quests, challenges and crafting and this is a game that will keep the ardent adventurer in clover.
    Read full review