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[rabadi]

First of all, I have never played the original 1985 Bard's Tale, or any subsequent ones in the Bard's Tale series.

Secondly, let's not include inXile Entertainment's 2004 The Bard's Tale game from the discussion, since from what I read in the reviews the gameplay is so much different from the original Bard's Tale series.

Thirdly, I don't know whether the original Bard's Tale is abandonware or not (meaning protected by ESA), but that is beside the point since I am not requesting for it anyway. I am merely wanting to know more about it.

Fourthly, I think this is going to be a bit long post, so I hope everyone reading it won't get bored. You have been warned! :bleh:

So... in my own quest to find First-Person RPG which will not gave me headache or simulator sickness (see Dizziness/Headache from FPS or FPRPG, Simulator Sickness thread for more background info), I have been browsing the net, looking for any *modern* FPRPG which does not shy in using the good old tile-based movement (such as used in Lands of Lore 1, Anvil of Dawn, Eye of Beholder series, etc.). Undercroft is certainly one of them, except that it is mainly for Pocket PC (see No Such Thing As Free Rpg For Pocket Pc? thread for more info on my other quest :bleh: ), and the window version is not even scaled to full screen.

Then I came across that wikipedia article on the original Bard's Tale. I was quite interested, but since the quest is on *modern* games, I decided to search further for any games that pay homage to the series. It was then that I stumbled upon Conlan Rios' The Warrior's Tale. It is a freeware, so all seemed good. Alas, I have a poor sense of direction (even more so in real life, when I am driving a car, I will have to make sure I am already familiar with the route I will be taking or otherwise I will get lost ), and so I gave up that game after only an hour or so. I could not find my way around the city, all the buildings look the same to me. It got worse since saving the game is only allowed in the tavern, and well... I could not find my way back to the tavern. There is no mapping feature in the game as well.

So I stopped playing The Warrior's Tale, and continued looking for alternatives. I then found Shifting Suns Studios' The Devil Whiskey. Well, it is not freeware, so I just downloaded the demo. Anyway, this time I can differentiate the buildings better. Saving is also allowed anywhere, which is good, if only that there is only one save game file possible. But the problem is that my party died way too easily. It is difficult to progress when my party members kept dying all the time from each encounter. The battle system is also slow (I much prefer real-time combat to turn-based combat, but hey lately I have been giving games with turn-based combat more and more tries, so I start to get used to it anyway, but still the battle system here in The Devil Whiskey is rather too slow for my taste). Most of the time my party will encounter 10 townpeople, or 5 dwarves, and got slaughtered just like that.

Now, I was wondering whether the gameplay style is also like that for the original Bard's Tale series? As I said above, I have never played any of the original series, but a lot of people seem to praise them. If the gameplay is similar, how do you cope with the slow battle system, or one saved game file, or the difficulty to survive in the beginning? How do you like the original series? Please discuss. Thanks in advance

(back to preparing to restart playing The Spirit Engine for now)