The Bard's Tale
Completely unlike the classic Bard's Tale games, this game is in a 3D environment with the player watching his only controllable character from an overhead vantage point, and it is better described as an…
The Bard's Tale is an adventure developed by inXile Entertainment, released 26 October 2004 on Ouya, PlayStation 2, Xbox and Android.
What The Bard's Tale is
The Bard's Tale is an adventure game developed by inXile Entertainment and released in 2004. It is available on Ouya, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Android, BlackBerry OS, iOS, Linux, Mac and PC (Microsoft Windows). It runs on Dark Alliance Engine.
The premise, in the publisher's words
The plot involves "a sardonic and opportunistic musician and adventurer, driven by carnal rather than noble pursuits. The Bard, who is never identified by a specific name nor addressed by anything other than "The Bard," is not interested in saving the world; his humble motivations are strictly "coin and cleavage." His quest is narrated by a mocking, biased man (played by Tony Jay) who cannot stand him.
How it plays
It is played from a bird view / isometric perspective. Its themes are action, comedy and fantasy. It is a single-player game with no multiplayer component. There are 51 achievements to unlock.
Where it sits in the The Bard's Tale series
The Bard's Tale is the fifth of 7 entries we hold in the The Bard's Tale series. It arrived 13 years after The Bard's Tale Construction Set. The next entry was The Mage's Tale in 2017. Its critic score of 77 is 10 points above the series average of 67. That makes it the highest-rated entry in the series.
How it was received
The Bard's Tale holds a critic score of 77 out of 100. That places it above 56% of the 7,525 rated adventure games in our database, which average 72. Games released in 2004 averaged 70, so it scored 7 points above the year average.
What you need to run it
The minimum specification calls for Pentium 4 2Ghz / AMD AthlonXP 2400, 512Mb of RAM and GeForce FX5700 or better / ATI Radeon 9600 or better. At 1GB of RAM, it will run on essentially any working PC — that is below what a budget laptop ships with today. Install size is roughly 6GB.
What it launched against
The Bard's Tale launched on 26 October 2004, within three weeks of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Half-Life 2, The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap and Counter-Strike: Source. All of them reviewed better.
Released around the same time: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Half-Life 2, The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, Counter-Strike: Source.
Cheats and codes
We have not confirmed any working cheat codes for The Bard's Tale yet. Rather than reprint a list we have not tested, this section stays empty until one is verified.
Official trailer
Sourced from the publisher’s YouTube channel.
Screenshots
All media
Dlc
Remasters
Quick answers
The Bard's Tale — frequently asked questions
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