The Bard's Tale

"A good old-school text RPG"

The Bard's Tale: Tales of the Unknown (hereafter referred to as The Bard's Tale) is a NES port of a computer game from the mid-80's. As such, it has more in common with similar games like Wizardry rather than Dragon Warrior or Final Fantasy. For those unfamiliar with such games, this means that there's little in the way of graphics besides monster portraits and a 3D view of the current dungeon. The tile based maps and character sprites typical to a console RPG do not exist here, and most of the action is largely resolved through text.

Story: 5/10

The storyline in The Bard's Tale is rather light, as is typical for an early RPG. The evil wizard, Mangar, has locked the city of Skara Brae in an endless winter, trapping the citizens who are threatened by the hordes of monsters that rampage through the streets. The player assembles a party of six adventurers who attempt to reach the good wizard Kylearan who was trapped in his tower by Mangar so that he can give the party what they need to defeat Mangar and free Skara Brae. Although this isn't much of a groundbreaking plot, this is an early RPG, and so the focus is on battling monsters rather than a plot, and The Bard's Tale handles this well.

Nintendo of America's attempts to shield children from objectionable material rears its head a little in this game. In the original game, the Bard could recover his songs by having a nice mug of ale or beer at the local tavern. In the NES port, this is changed to root beer (fine Canadian root beer no less!) Similarly, the wine stored in the cellar of one of the taverns (the first dungeon in the game besides Skara Brae itself) is changed to grape juice. It's all well and good to try to discourage underage drinking, but really any player old enough to handle the concepts of this game really should be mature enough to handle the fact that the local pubs sell beer and wine. This little bit of silliness costs the story section a slight penalty.

Graphics: 5/10

There's really nothing good or bad about the graphics. The game screen is divided into two main sections and a brown border surrounds these sections. In the lower section, the party statistics are constantly displayed whether in combat or moving through the dungeons. The upper section changes depending on whether the party is fighting, navigating through the game, or investigating a special feature in the dungeons. While navigating, the left side of the upper section displays a 3D view of the dungeon. On the right side, an overhead map of the area is displayed with an arrow indicating the party's direction. The game menu replaces the overhead map when the player wishes to rearrange the party, equip items, heal characters, and so on. When shopping at the store, healing characters or visiting one of the other facilities in town as well as encountering a special feature in the dungeons, there's a small static graphic on the left depicting what the party sees and a menu on the right. In battle, the monster portraits are displayed across the top of the screen with a menu on the far right.

Overall, the graphics aren't terribly impressive, but they get the job done, and they're not ugly or painful to look at which is all that really matters in a game like this, since the action is mostly text-based.

Sound: 7/10

The game's sound effects are about as rudimentary as the graphics. There's a thunderclap when you enter battle, a few sound effects for combat actions and spells, and a few other effects here and there. The effects are more or less average and get the job done.

The music however, is a bit more dynamic, and there's more attention given to the soundtrack. Most of the songs are good, taking into account that they're using the NES's music capabilities, and when the Bard sings certain songs, the current song playing in the game changes, and there are slight variations on the song depending on the type of musical instrument he is playing. Since the Bard is such a central character to this game, it's only appropriate that his songs are developed like this, and the bard songs are done well.

Gameplay: 8/10

Since the biggest focus of this game is on the actual gameplay, this is the most important aspect of the game. Overall, the gameplay is good, with a few minor flaws here and there.

When starting a new game, the player is in the Adventurer's Guild in town where the characters are created and named, parties are formed, and the game is saved. Six types of characters are available. The Warrior is the party tank, capable of dealing large amounts of damage and having high HP and defense. The Hunter is similar, although unable to equip all the best gear like the Warrior, he has the ability to kill enemies with a single hit. The Rogue is the fastest character, and while not as strong as either the Warrior or Hunter, is able to detect and disarm traps on the treasure chests the party occasionally finds. The Sorcerer and Wizard are both spellcasters, the Sorcerer tends to cast illusionary or mind-affecting magic while the wizard has most of the major damage and healing spells; like most RPGs, these spells are cast from a pool of MP. Last, but not least is the character, around whom the game is focused: the Bard. While the Bard is a decent fighter, somewhere between the Hunter and the Rogue, his main ability is his voice and the power of his songs. To use his abilities, the Bard must equip a musical instrument, and while these abilities are few, they can be powerful. When first created, a Bard can only sing one song before his voice goes hoarse, at which point he needs to drink some, ahem, root beer to recover. As he gains levels, he can sing more songs before he needs to down another cold one.

Although a party can hold only six characters, there is a seventh slot in the party lineup. This is for an AI controlled party member. The most basic way to fill this slot is for the Sorcerer to summon an illusionary monster to fight with the party. However, the bard can charm an enemy into filling the slot with one of his songs, and the Wizard can cast a spell which turns certain enemies into magical dolls. These dolls can either be sold for money, or used later to summon a monster of the same type. Although the Sorcerer's illusions are generally stronger and tougher, the monsters can sometimes be better; especially if they can cast powerful spells or has special combat abilities, since the illusions are mostly just tanks.

The area just outside the Adventurer's Guild is safe with no encounters, and here the party can shop at the local store, have their wounds healed, and have their deeds judged by the review council of city elders. The review council is where the characters level up after gaining enough experience and spell casters can pay for more powerful spells here at the appropriate level.

Beyond this area is the rest of the city of Skara Brae, and the locations which you must explore to proceed through the game. With the exception of Skara Brae itself, the dungeons are dark and must be lit up with a torch or a spell; otherwise the 3D display is solid black. The overhead map shows the party's current location, however with the exception of Skara Brae itself again, only the main passages are shown on the overhead map and the player must use the 3D display to navigate in the side areas. The player is encouraged to make a map of the dungeons to avoid getting lost.

Occasionally, the party will encounter enemies; the enemies appear in up to three groups of up to nine enemies for a maximum of 27 enemies. However, only the first monster in each group can actually attack, so the party won't face more than three attacks per round. By default, only the first three members (as well as any AI controlled allies) in the party lineup can fight. The last three characters can't attack, but can't be attacked in return. The player can adjust this setting and have all the characters attack, but this leaves the weaker spellcasters vulnerable, and it's best to leave them in the back where they can use their magic safely.

The only gripe I have with the gameplay is how spells are distributed between the Wizard and Sorcerer. The Wizard gets most of the good healing and combat spells, and while the Sorcerer's spells are very useful, they just don't seen as effective as the Wizard's, beyond the illusionary monsters and some status curing and death reversing spells. Even worse, the Wizard tends to use up more MP than the Sorcerer, but the Sorcerer gets more MP overall. There's been many times when I had to return to the safe areas because the Wizard ran out of MP while the Sorcerer still had plenty left. Still, this is a minor complaint, and it doesn't ruin the game overall.

Overall, this is a classic sort of dungeon-crawling, monster-bashing, treasure-hunting game from the old days, and it does it well. It's the kind of game that inspired later hits like Diablo and Dungeon Siege.

Replay Value: 8/10

Players who like dungeon-crawl RPGs will probably enjoy playing through The Bard's Tale again and again. Players who don't like this type of game will probably not even bother to finish it in the first place.

Overall: 7/10

The Bard's Tale is a good, old-school style text-based RPG with a few interesting twists. Anyone who likes this sort of game will probably enjoy this game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/02/07