Playstation 2 - Bard's Tale, The

Format
Playstation 2
Publisher
inXile entertainment
Developer
inXile entertainment
Country of origin
US
Genre
Action RPG

The Bard's Tale

By David Rasmussen
5th Mar 05

So did you like The Princess Bride, but didn't think the humor was biting enough?
Did you SEE The Princess Bride, let alone know what movie I'm talking about?
Do you like Monty Python's Flying Circus but would like it better if the humor wasn't so sharp?
Would you like to see all these things rolled together into a smart mouthed little RPG that gives you sharp yet fairly clean humor (at least so it rates a T for Teen rating) set in a medieval setting with fantastic creatures, wacky characters, singing and yet fairly passable gameplay (but nothing that'll make Team Final Fantasy worry or sweat about anytime soon)?
The Bard's Tale might be the game that embodies all that.

Starring the actor who played the role of Wesley from, yes, The Princess Bride (as the Bard) the game introduces you to the "Bard", a character who is sick and tired... or maybe just sick and drives people to become tired of him... one or the other.

But what is the Bard tired of? He's tired of being tricked into doing hard tasks that he'd rather not do (aren't we all). He's tired of being stood up by the women he's trying to woo... yeah. He's tired by would be "chosen ones" (and by the time you reach the halfway point of this game you'll see why), and he's tired of irate villagers, endless quests for the few and scattered trinkets of magic needed to accomplish just one part of a long task, having to go through all the pomp and circumstances of going through long areas and lots of enemies just to fight the one boss creature he could have fought right off at the beginning, and so on and so forth... tired tired tired! That's what he is, tired.

And after playing this as long as I did I thought I'd be tired of it too... but it has a few merits.
There's quite abit that pushes the Bard's buttons, and sad for him all of these things happen to be in THIS game! Not a good thing if I do say so myself! So he tends to mock the game he's "trapped" in quite abit, and even once mocks the previous games... previous games?

Did I mention that there's a good chance that this game probably as many past versions as Elizabeth Taylor has past husbands? Name three PC systems, any three PC systems, and odds are one, two or (heaven forbid) all THREE of these systems has hosted a version of The Bard's Tale at one point or another.
Apparently this game has some "legs" on it, but sadly it doesn't have the popularity of Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, or one of the other long lasting series. In fact if anyone even remembers one of the previous incarnations of this game I'd be surprised!

Gameplay is straightforward... and a tad beatdown boring.
All the humor is in the cutscenes. Once the game draws back to gameplay mode it's your basic game.
You move, fight, search, fight, move, etc. Gameplay is nothing to send a scroll back to the homeland about, but it is easier to manage than some RPGs I played. Lock on is fairly easy. Map management is easy enough. Upgrades are automatic (once you acquire a new weapon or item it is automatically put into play), and everything on the menus is very easy to work and manage (a plus).

Yes, the personality of the game doesn't seem to reach past the cut scenes but the gameplay is fairly easy... and also a pain! Quite often the Bard finds himself in tough situations and you might end up getting beat down over, and over, and over again... of course the game might be more fun if you had a few cheats... cheats... maybe a God mode... and a mode that puts money in your pockets when you need to buy that special something... but then again do I think so poorly of the game's fighting system that I would actually tell you the codes? Are some parts so darn much of a headache to wade through that only a good code will keep you from having to wade through harsh battles over and over again?

Sorry. No codes here. After all if I thought the game was so occasionally harsh I'd tell you that you'd have to hold the L1/R1 buttons (during gameplay) and press right, left, right, left, up, down, up and down for God mode and up, up, down, down, left, right, left and right for money.
Yeah. About a 1/4th of the way through it became a nightmarish headache and I was playing on Easy mode... what, is THIS supposed to be EASY?!? Sheesh! After that the game became fun again.

Oh-kay. You don't need to cop out like me, but if you're hoping for a well rounded world you'll be sadly disappointed. Fighting is fighting, humor stays in the cut scenes, and occasionally the characters break out into song and sing. As for the humor I'd have to say that while you won't be rolling on the floor with laughter you won't find it dull or inadequate either. It's fair, but not excellent.

Oh-kay. Breakdown time.

The Bard's Tale Breakdown the... ???
What's Hot - For a version of the game... actually I don't even know how old this series is, let alone what version THIS is... anyway this is not such a bad game. It's not keeping the people responsible for Breath of Fire or Legend of Zelda up at night, but it is a nice game you should buy... if you can find it at a low discount price. My local Blockbusters have it for "previously played" at $30... No way I'm going to drop 30 bucks on a game that's only marginally passable. Maybe if it's for under $20 I'll consider it, but not now.

What's Not? - The gameplay is nothing special. I liked how easy it was to manage all the things of this game, but the gameplay was normal and at times a bit harsh... or maybe I was just being lulled into half boredom from the endlessly repetitive feel of the "chapters" which basically is the same gameplay over and over again with only the "summoning" magic of your music and the different weapons (and the cut scenes) to break the monotony of the chapter missions. Anyway the gameplay could have been abit better.

Moments to Remember? - Yeah. That'd be the endless cut scenes. Oh, and the choice
The choice? That'd be the dialogue choice you have during conversations with all the people you meet.
Unfortunately the choice you have is even less detailed than the few choices you have to make in The Urbz : Sims in the City for the GBA! You can only choose to answer in a nice way, or a smarmy smart... well, you get the point. The story is affected by how you choose, mostly to the tune of whether you earn experience points or not. So what do you do? Common sense most of the time will serve you here. If it's a situation you wouldn't mouth off on in real life odds are it's a situation you shouldn't mouth off during in the game... though there are a few curve balls to watch out for but you'll see that as you play.

What to Ignore? - I'd personally would like to ignore the fact that I think I've seen the way this game will end long before I even got near the end. I don't know, maybe I am once again reading too much into this, but why is it the circumstances of the main plot of this game seems to just set off lots of red flags for me? You're sent on a quest to save a "princess", which is another cliché of the fantasy RPG genre (yes) but why is it I have a vague idea of the things to come?

Of course that's not the sad part... it's the part where I know without even reaching the end that the ending I foresee is probably in the cards. That's sad... so ignore me please, I'm just down on an ending I haven't even seen yet... guess I need to buy this game after all when I can.

Overall? - It's not stressing anyone in the "competition", but it's not a horrible thing either.
I say if you can you should rent it out, and give it a spin like I did. You might find some merit in this game and that might compel you to buy this game... just don't buy it for over $30 because it's not worth THAT much "loyalty" from you in terms of purchasing.
Oh-kay. Check it out, judge for yourself. I'm going to buy it... just not at too high a price... so that must mean it's at least a fair game if nothing else if I'm going to invest in it for the collection!

Judge for yourself and tell me what you thought of it. Maybe you could let me know if my fears were justified or not while your at it. Thanks.

-- David Rasmussen 5th Mar 05

Playstation 2 Bard's Tale, The Images