The Bard's Tale Demo

A classic role-playing game usually requires a lot of concentration and experience, especially if it is based on the official D&D rules. They are rewarding and fun to play, but they can also get repetitive after a while, especially if you have been playing them for a long time. Hence, something different in the genre is always welcomed, as long as it manages to maintain some form of quality about it.

The Bard's Tale is a spoof on most classic RPGs, since it capitalizes on their greatest cliches and it pokes a bit of fun at some of their best features. The game features a top-down perspective, with a limited zoom option and a very simplified gameplay, in order to accommodate any kind of player. On the other hand, it manages to remain sharp when it comes to humor and sarcasm, so the experience should be quite fun and enjoyable, if not challenging.

As far as the plot is concerned, you play as a bard, who remains nameless throughout the game. His intentions are not to save the world from peril, nor rescue people in need of assistance, but to hoard silver and befriend as many pretty girls as possible. A sarcastic narrator talks interjects on the story every now and again, which makes the entire experience that much more memorable.

The gameplay is about as unremarkable as it can get, since all you have to do is click the mouse buttons to both move and attack. Your character can only interact with certain objects, while the loot is automatically picked up when you walk over it. Not only that, but the items are automatically turned into silver as well, which removes the need for an inventory altogether. In case you happen to stumble upon a better weapon than the one you currently have equipped, it is automatically changed, while the old one is turned into silver as well.

You can summon companions to lend you a helping hand, all of which have different skills and abilities that might come in handy in one of the dungeons you find yourself in. They cannot be controlled directly, but the A.I. is decent enough to handle them. Speaking of decent, the graphics quality falls into the same category, given the fact that it doesn’t really excel at anything, but it’s not exactly bad either.

When it’s all said and done, the well-written dialogue and the mature humor is what make The Bard's Tale so attractive. If you are looking for a solid role-playing game to provide you with a challenge, then this is not the right option. If you are tired of battling dragons and saving princesses, on the other hand, you might as well play as the nonchalant ‘hero’ for a change and see how the world feels like with no responsibilities.