The Bard's Tale Interview
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GB: How many bard songs do you plan on implementing into the game, and can we expect to see some of the original Bard's Tale ones like Lucklaran or Falkentyne's Fury? What type of effects will the various bard songs have? Eric: The Bard has 16 different songs that he can play during the game. Each of these songs summons a different companion into battle for him. These companions range from an Armored Knight to a wizened old explorers who finds traps for you the hard way. Unfortunately we were unable to include any of the songs from the original Bards Tale game.
GB: Tell us about some of the environments and obstacles players will encounter during their journey. Any favorite areas you'd like to talk about?
Eric: From undead vikings in a frozen tomb to some very angry Druids rampaging through the streets of a city, the Bard is never lacking in obstacles to overcome. One of the most interesting situations has to be when the Bard pays a trip to a farm owned by a crazy old Butcher. You see the dead have been rising from their graves and of course the animals that the Butcher has done his work on aren't very happy about how they've been treated in the past. You just haven't lived until you've fought off a horde of undead cows, chickens, and sheep. That's not even mentioning the big pit that the Butcher used to throw all his unused animal parts into, best steer clear of that.
GB: What types of creatures will players be going head-to-head against? Will there be "boss" enemies, as well as normal opponents? Any particular baddies you can give us some background to?
Eric: Along with the aforementioned undead vikings, druids, and zombie animals the Bard will also encounter things like evil ambulatory plants, clockwork soldiers, finfolk (nasty water dwelling creatures), and other things too horrible to mention. There are quite a few bosses and special characters that the Bard fights over the course of the game. One of the early bosses is an evil Bugbear that has been terrorizing the locals in Houton (the first town you come to). The locals of course would like the Bard to intervene on their behalf and if they come up with enough the money the Bard just might be willing to help, of course like most things in our game the Bugbear situation isn't quite as straightforward as it might seem at first.
GB: How will travel work in the game? Will players be required to walk to all locations in the game, or will there be quick transportation like horses, boats, or even a teleport spell?
Eric: Although there are a few raft/boat rides and a mount of sorts later in the game, The Bard will spend most of his time walking. Individual locations are tied together by a world map, complete with encounters both voluntary and involuntary. In general we tried to design the game so that the player never felt as if they were doing a lot of walking for the sake of walking. We provide shortcuts or even change the nature of the level as often as we can whenever the player has to travel through an area multiple times.
GB: What do you feel will make this new Bard's Tale stand out from the other console RPGs available on the market and where would you like to take the franchise in the next several years?
Eric: While we feel like we have succeeded in making a very solid action RPG with a lot of interesting mechanics there are quite a few of those on the market. In the end our sense of humor and character is what sets us apart. We really tried to make everything in the game (fun) for the player from our interface screens to the game itself we attempted to go that extra step to imbue our game with as much personality as we possibly could. The Bards Tale has really been a labor of love for everyone here at inXile and we can only hope that players will appreciate and enjoy our efforts.
We'd like to issue our thanks to everyone at inXile Entertainment, especially Eric, for taking the time to answer our questions!
