Whether you appreciated its recent method or loathed the ideas behind The Bard’s Tale 4, it’s arduous to disclaim that the revival of the traditional RPG collection wanted a couple of extra months within the oven. Today’s massive ol’ patch, which builders inXile are calling the Second Sight Update, smooths over among the larger cracks in its pseudo-old-school facade. For the nice of everybody, now you can save the game anyplace, however these wanting a extra uncompromising retro expertise can allow grid-based motion and even recruit the unique six pre-made Bard’s Tale heroes.
The grid-based motion (which continues to be admittedly in beta) is the headline function of a set of latest ‘Legacy Mode’ choices. While many of the choices make the game harder, the Save Anywhere choice permits quicksaves and masses wherever you go, at the price of not with the ability to eat luck-stones for bonus XP. Another pleasant change is the choice to re-spec characters at the price of one mercenary token spent on the Review Board. Eight tokens will purchase you one of many six unique Bard’s Tale heroes together with Brian The Fist and El Cid geared up and able to go.
That’s concerning the finish of the great, pleasant modifications. There’s a bucketload of bug-fixes and steadiness tweaks (largely nerfs), and a complete slew of latest choices to make the game more durable for your self. There’s a brand new Legendary issue mode, an choice to disable straightforward resurrections, a perma-death choice (that’ll delete your save game in the event you all die), and even an choice to disable auto-mapping. Sadly there’s no Etrian Odyssey-style ‘doodle on the screen’ system, so inXile suggest bringing your personal graph paper. I feel I’ll simply follow common issue settings, thanks.
To say that The Bard’s Tale four met combined response at launch is an understatement. I’ve solely had time to play a tiny shred of it, however I’ve loved its mixture of puzzle-heavy dungeoneering and cornball 80s sensibilities. It’s completely not the ‘blob of heroic stats slays 300 bandits’ expertise that the originals had been, although, and I can perceive why many bounced off it. John wasn’t too impressed in his review either, but it surely’s good to see inXile hammering out the kinks nonetheless. Perhaps I’ll shelve the game till the vacations, and at last give it a correct shake as soon as it’s been polished up a bit extra.
The Second Sight replace for The Bard’s Tale four is out now, and you may check out the complete patch notes here.
