The Bard’s Tale
System: NES
Release Date: November 1991
Developer: Atelier Double
Publisher: FCI
Genre: RPG
Save the town of Skara Brae from the grip of darkness in the Bard’s Tale! Mangar the Wicked is an evil sorcerer who took away the happiness of the citizens. He brought forth an eternal winter with monsters roaming the streets. The Adventurer’s Guild was not empty, though. Your crew will be put together from a ragtag group. Can you save the city and the day?
You need to begin by putting together a party. There are six different classes you can create: Warrior, Rogue, Hunter, Bard, Sorcerer, and Wizard. Three of them are front line fighters, while three of them will sit in the back ranks. I ended up with two warriors, a hunter, bard, wizard, and sorcerer. If I were to play again, I may dump the hunter and add an extra wizard. As you select your class, the five stats are automatically rolled. If you like them, sweet. If you don’t, try again. Intelligence directly moves into Magic Points, while Vitality is directly related to Hit Points.
Once you get your party, your first stop should be to Garth’s to outfit them. Each new character gets 300 gold pieces. There is a decent selection of stuff right away (remember to scroll down for more), and you’ll be coming back to upgrade. Main Street also has a bar, where you get your first hint on what to do, a Healer where you can get your health and magic replenished, as well as status issues, for a fee. There’s also the Council who will advance your level and teach you new spells. When you gain a level, you’ll receive a point in a random stat.
Leaving Main Street, you can find yourself in a battle. You’ll face up to three groups of monsters. Your first three party members will fight, while the back three will guard or cast spells. Your bard is special and necessary to beat the game. As long as he is equipped with an instrument and hasn’t lost his voice, he can sing a song. These either have out of battle uses or in battle uses, but you can only use so many before you need to get a root beer from a tavern or take a drop you purchased from Garth. If you target an enemy group that gets killed before your attack, you waste a turn, which I hate.
There are five dungeons that you need to encounter in order. Their states reset whenever you want, so you can farm encounters like the boss in the sewers to get a decent chunk of experience. You need to reach certain levels with good stat increases in order to truly be able to defeat a dungeon. Getting ambushed by tarantulas is almost certain death. I’m not going to lie, I spent about three hours in the Scarlet Bard Sewers trying to level up and I can’t make myself do any more.
Graphics: 2.0
Everything looks okay, but not impressive in any way.
Sound: 2.0
The music is repetitive. Luckily it isn’t terrible.
Gameplay: 2.0
Walk around and get into fights. Be very specific on who targets who, so you can’t mindlessly grind.
Difficulty: 2.0
You can get wiped by the wrong fight at the wrong time, which sucks.
Fun Factor: 2.5
Some more quality of life changes would make this better, which has been done since.
Overall Rating: 2.1
The Bard’s Tale earns a C. This is a solid game, but it’s so much better on the PC. I’m glad they gave us a port on the NES, but it’s far too repetitious.