The Bard's Tale
04 11 2005About one month ago I started to play the RPG The
Bard's Tale on my PC (with my brandnew geforce6). The Bard's Tale is
ostensibly 
an homage to the classic PC RPG of the same name, but it is
more of a satire of other roleplay-games and the fantasy genre in
general. But after I had to accept this issue it turned out that this
game was even more fun than the classic one!
So some words about the game - its premise and message is simple: our hero, the musician and rogue, must save the world by banishing a great evil and rescuing a trapped princess.
Yes, I know - this sounds familiar to you, but that's because it's supposed to be! As noted, the game is satire and thus its narrative depends largely on skewering the clich's of the genre.
The german synchronous speaker is Oliver Kalkhofe by the way - and this fits perfectly to this arrogant and crude Bard.
And some words about the story: it all begins with such a skewering as the Bard is asked to skewer rats in a tavern cellar that begins many such adventures.
Our Level 1 character must begin his career inauspiciously taking on less than terrifying vermin to prove his worth and begin his ascension towards more legitimate heroic levels. As the Bard descends into the dimly lit "dungeon", he stops cautiously to save at a conveniently placed save point, then begins exploring the labyrinth.
Inside, he locates a rat and kills it in a single blow. Striking a victorious pose with sword held aloft, a voice booms "quest complete". As a player, I giggled and was immediately sold on the cynical premise of this tale.
This cynicism is also reflected in the attitude of the Bard and returns me to my earlier cynical take on the genre. When asked t
o take on the
quest to save the princess, the Bard is hesitant until he sees
her and realizes that she's a hot babe and is assured by her that both her body and her wealth will serve as rewards for her rescue. The Bard's motivations are simple -- he quests for coin and cleavage.
The only thing in this game which drove me nuts was that hack & slay thing like played before in games like Diablo. My fingers sometimes were bruning by clicking on the mousebutton like hell. But its so funny to listen to the very funny dialoges between the narrator and the bard - the narrator even insults the bard if he is doing stupid things - the bard then upturns and quarrels with the narrator.
The story has a very good ending which leaves you four options how it ends. All of them are funny of course.
That's me - the Bard
So some words about the game - its premise and message is simple: our hero, the musician and rogue, must save the world by banishing a great evil and rescuing a trapped princess.
Yes, I know - this sounds familiar to you, but that's because it's supposed to be! As noted, the game is satire and thus its narrative depends largely on skewering the clich's of the genre.
The german synchronous speaker is Oliver Kalkhofe by the way - and this fits perfectly to this arrogant and crude Bard.
And some words about the story: it all begins with such a skewering as the Bard is asked to skewer rats in a tavern cellar that begins many such adventures.
Our Level 1 character must begin his career inauspiciously taking on less than terrifying vermin to prove his worth and begin his ascension towards more legitimate heroic levels. As the Bard descends into the dimly lit "dungeon", he stops cautiously to save at a conveniently placed save point, then begins exploring the labyrinth.
Inside, he locates a rat and kills it in a single blow. Striking a victorious pose with sword held aloft, a voice booms "quest complete". As a player, I giggled and was immediately sold on the cynical premise of this tale.
This cynicism is also reflected in the attitude of the Bard and returns me to my earlier cynical take on the genre. When asked t
Thats me again - with my dog!
her and realizes that she's a hot babe and is assured by her that both her body and her wealth will serve as rewards for her rescue. The Bard's motivations are simple -- he quests for coin and cleavage.
The only thing in this game which drove me nuts was that hack & slay thing like played before in games like Diablo. My fingers sometimes were bruning by clicking on the mousebutton like hell. But its so funny to listen to the very funny dialoges between the narrator and the bard - the narrator even insults the bard if he is doing stupid things - the bard then upturns and quarrels with the narrator.
The story has a very good ending which leaves you four options how it ends. All of them are funny of course.
So the fact that this game has nothing in common with
the classic (and more serious) games is not that disappointing, since
the game dismisses itself in a very clever way.
Next review will probably about Civilization 4 which drives me crazy already.
Next review will probably about Civilization 4 which drives me crazy already.
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