Oh yes, that as well. Most of the screen is filled with empty, blurred looking backgrounds.

They could also make the picture frames bigger and fill them with more detailed artwork, but that would require some actual work and effort.

Anyway, for me the biggest problem is that the artwork and level of detail looks like some amatourish mobile game, not a proper remaster made by people who know what they're doing.

From playing the beta:

- MMO/ARPG style skill tree which restricts your character building/forces you to pick things you don't want to advance to the next tier.
- You can only use 3 skills/spells per character in combat.
- Only 4 classes.
- Horrid 3D artstyle which looks cartoony (like Fable or something).
- Very few spells/songs compared to the original BTs.
- You cannot create your whole party at game start like classic BTs.
- Complete lack of randomness, all abilities/spells/weapons do exactly the same damage/effect, meaning combat has very little variation.
- No random encounters (or respawning) (which were probably the main component of classic BTs) so theres almost no room for experimentation or getting XP/loot from alternate sources (ie not from quests).
- No day/night cycle (which was very important in original BTs).
- Extremely linear and story-driven structure.
- Quest markers, and what's worse the game is not designed to be played without them, so if you turn them off they'll be no NPCs to give you directions exactly where to go for quests.
- ARPG/MMO-style itemization where your attributes only come from what items you have equipped, theres no putting points into attributes or skills when you level up.

Basically the game is completely casualized and beyond it being a first-person, party-based RPG, there is almost nothing about it like classic Bard's Tale games.

The devs basically have completely ignored taking inspiration from the original BTs or even from classic Western blobbers like Might & Magic and Wizardry and have designed it like it's a casual MMO or ARPG (and the devs have been pretty open about this, you'll see in interviews they mention games like Hearthstone as inspiration but never Classic CRPGs). InXile made a really bad decision by outsourcing it to another studio.

I hope it lets us play the games out of order because I know I beat the first two but don't think I ever beat 3

The day/night cycle didn't really do much. It only matters when outside, whereas the game mostly takes place inside dungeons (and outdoor dungeons are non-existent in 1 and 2 and extremely rare in 3). It was more of an annoyance than anything else, when you go to certain shops in town only to find out that they're closed. It did affect SP regen, but SP regen is so slow that you end up using Roscoe's (in 1 and 2) or Harmonic Gems (in 3) to restore your SP quickly. (It's faster to get the money to restore SP via Roscoe's than it is to let it regenerate on its own.)


In the classic games, you had no control (other than save/reload) over which stat would increase at level up. (At least the game wouldn't waste the increase on a maxed-out stat, except in 16-bit versions of BT3, which are horrendously buggy anyway.)

Are you kidding, day/night was very important because all the nasty monsters came out at night, early in the game this was a big deal and added challenge, not to mention it added so much atmosphere.

Also, glad you mentioned Spell Points regen, because BT4 also did away with that entirely, there's no resource management angle of you having to be careful about how many spells you use while in dungeons (so you don't blow them all too early). Roscoe now only sells items, there's no spell points to buy. But the question is; if you have the opportunity why not make the sequel more complex and add more character customization, which is certainly in the spirit of 80's and 90's CRPGs. And even so, attributes still did things in the originals. And the only stats in BT4 are Constitution, Armor Class, Strength, Spell Points and Intelligence, but only TWO of those are actual attributes in the proper meaning (Strength and Intelligence), Constitution in BT4 is just hitpoints - it has no other uses, Armor Class is of course just what armor you're wearing so not an attribute either, and Spell Points are just how many SP you can use in combat - so again not an attribute. So really the game just has two attributes, which is extremely simplified for a CRPG, you can't argue it's not.

The day/night cycle only mattered early in the game.

Also, in 8-bit versions of BT3, Harmonic Gems were really common, so you could easily restore your SP anytime it's necessary. Add in a couple staves that cut SP cost in half (one of which is found in previous games, the other one is not), and SP isn't an issue in BT3. (In 16-bit BT3, Harmonic Gems are much rarer, but those versions have so many other bugs that I don't consider them to be representative of how the game is meant to work.)

It's also worth mentioning that, in BT1, by the later part of the game you have lots of SP, and there are no spells with high SP cost (even the spell that fully heals the entire party costs a measly 12 SP), so SP becomes a non-issue toward the end of the game. (BT2 has a few spells that are expensive enough to be a problem, including the dreamspell that costs 100 SP, but is really powerful.)

I would rather have Roscoe selling items than have a situation like BT3, where there is *nobody* who will sell you items (well, except drinks from a tavern, but there's a weapon available early that makes them obsolete).

More complexity isn't always good. Consider that Daggerfall was probably too complex for its own good; Bethesda was right to simplify things for Morrowind. (Of course, Morrowind's level up system is an abomination with perverse consequences; skills increasing on their own works well (aside from the fact that it takes too long to reach high skill levels), but the way level up stat growth works is not that good.)

Except that:
* In BT1 and BT2, attributes only matter past 15. In BT3, I believe a score of 15 gives a small bonus (the same as 16), but anything less is still the same.
* In BT3, the stat cap is 30, but there's no difference between 26 and 30.
* Also, the to-hit and saving throw mechanics are broken in BT2, and to-hit is broken in BT1 (at least in the DOS versions). After a while, enemies can't hit you until the final dungeon. In BT2, except for beginning characters, your characters can't be hit by enemy spells (enemies can (and do) bombard your party with Mangar's Mallet spells (wouldn't it be nice to have one in your party?), but they never work.) From what I have read, in the Commodore 64 version of BT2, after a certain point your characters can't hit the enemies with physical attacks, at least not without major magical assistance.

By the way, one funny bug in the DOS version of BT2: Anti-magic zones prevent regular spell casting from party members, and prevent enemies from casting spells or using ranged weapons, but that's all they do. A monster in the party can still cast spells and have them work. Meanwhile, an enemy might throw a spear at one of your characters and have it fizzle. (Does that make any sense?)

Oh, I did not see that. They are not listed under goodies, but it's mentioned further down on the game card. Thanks for the info!

Good Old Games indeed!

Gog has one hand in the past to bring it in the present while preparing for the future! Gog>steam>ubishite>origin

Ok. What is this about outsourcing?

Maybe he's confusing BT4 to the Remastered Original Trilogy? This is the first I've heard that inXile was outsourcing BT4 and I've been following its development pretty closely.

Me too, I was surprised to never heard about it.

I also think day and night was a really good thing, as hitpoint grow in day , monsters is harder at night, I now it is only in start of the game, but it is a part of the gameplay that get people to play it and the random fight is a must, I have made a that as NEED in the game. Else it will be closed and liniar and that in not the way The Bards Tale games are played.
They are more flexible and you deside what to do and you can get to easy area and go over and over if you want. I did not complete the games, was close really close, but for me it was gameplay and get the party to be level MAX and go around and beat all.
But lest see as you will be able to go to harder places even that you cannot win. But to continue to level with random chars. that was one on the main thing of the games! You deside!

Day or night has nothing to do with hit points.

The first and third games were quite linear. The second allowed you to tackle the dungeons in different orders (arbitrary orders if you have a certain item from the first game and know the riddle answers, or (for versions without mouse support) if you happen to know the Dreamspell's code and can cast it), but each dungeon has stronger enemies than the last, so there is a clear intended order to the dungeons.

That's not going to happen. Depending on the game and version, either:
* The level caps at 255, but if you level past that, an integer overflow will take you to level 0, allowing you to level up infinitely (as long as you don't get level drained)
* The level caps at 65535. I do not know if you can reach that before experience overflows, but HP and SP will overflow at some point before then.

Some other overflows exist: In BT2 DOS, Hunter and Rogue ability success rates can overflow. (I think Rogue ability success rates don't matter as I don't think Rogues work at all, except, of course, if you transfer to BT3.) In BT3 DOS, a Monk whose level is very high (like 100+) will eventually end up with high AC (as in, over 100, in a game where low AC is better and 10 is the AC of a low DEX non-Monk character wearing no armor).

As you can see, there are bugs in these games, and I hope that the remaster fixes most of them without introducing new serious bugs. Once I am able to play these remasters, expect me to look for bugs.

(By the way, in the IIgs version of Bard's Tale 1, try taking your high-level party to the Mad God's Temple and saying that the Mad God's name is "burger". BT3 has a similar easter egg, but minus the danger, so it's appropriate for a beginning party. Try it!)

Do Want!

You are right in many of the thing you write. But you miss my point as the game will not be close to the other Bards tale. It is about Gameplay. Noe I have played the Beta so much over 50 hours. And there is so much changes in the game compaired to the old games. I played over 300 hours just in Bards tale II. I do not thing Bards tale IV has that in it. I hope I ma wrong!