Bard's Gold

Note: I was given early access to the game. Bard's Gold is a slow-paced platformer with a high difficulty. It stars Bard (the player) attempting to get his family heirloom back from a nasty goblin who stole it. Bard must travel through four worlds, each containing seven levels in an attempt to obtain his treasure. The game is fairly hard and punishes you for making a mistake, but it's not the kind of punishment that would make you overly upset. Patience and level memorisation is required in completing this game. The game currently features four worlds with seven levels in each. The first six levels are levels full of secrets, traps, and enemies. Thankfully, not everyone wants you dead, as some of these levels have shops that sell various goods to help you on your quest, such as better weapons such as a chakram, the ability to run faster, weapons dealing more damage, extra lives, and more. These are very handy powerups, but not necessary to complete the game (though it makes it much easier to accomplish!). All of these levels have secrets in them. Most of them reward you with currency, but some reward you with something better, in particular, a map piece. The first six levels have one map piece in them. Collect them all, and you are rewarded with something great. If you have difficulty finding secrets, buying the glasses from the shop will help you greatly. The game features a currency called Gems. Gems are found by shooting daggers at pots, opening chests, secrets, and killing enemies. Gems can be spent on powerups in the Shop. If you lose all your lives and die, you are given the ability to spend your gems on upgrading your character. By obtaining various Skill Books, you can upgrade your character on things like more starting lives, longer weapon range, more level time, and more. If you're having difficulty finding some, remember that each boss drops one when defeated. Bard's Gold features lots of enemies with different AI. There's a Blue Goo with a simple AI path that makes him go back and forward. There's the Green Goo that follows the same path, but immediately rushes into the direction it was attacked from. There's the bat that moves horizontally, and there's a variation that bounces off walls. There's also the evil Harry Potter tome books that fly around vertically. These are just some of the enemies the game features. They really make game interesting. Overall, I would consider Bard's Gold to be a very fun game. The soundtrack is simple yet great, the controls are great, the difficulty is high, and the joy you experience finding something interesting or completing a difficult level is a great feeling. The developer is a great guy and is always open to constructive feedback. It is clear he has spent a lot of time crafting this game to the best of his ability. It's unfortunate that this wonderful gem is suffering from obscurity. If you enjoyed the game, do spread word of it. It deserves some recognition.

My recommendation is somewhat reserved. While the game is enjoyable and has a few flaws. The biggest is how dying appears to remove all your powerups. Only after playing for a while do you realize certain items block this, and you don't actually lose everything. Still, even with a bubble around you there are still plenty of instant deaths it seems. The game is rather short once you get the hang of it. There is no reason to use a weapon other than the knife, and the game is completeable with very few of the "death" upgrades. The bosses are zero challenge if you arrive at them with a 3-knife fully powered up. I like the secrets, including assembling the map. There does feel like something is a bit off though; on the first level if you find all the secrets you get a bonus heart. This doesn't appear to repeat on any other level of the game. The hit-boxes of the monsters (for character contact) are unforuntately quite generous. Quite often I died without any visible pixels actually touching each other.

射撃・ジャンプ・二段ジャンプを駆使して 鍵を拾って扉を開けてステージをクリアしていく趣旨の オーソドックスなアクションゲーム｡ 最初期だと敵は固く､ステージは孔明の罠だらけで 高難易度ゲーに感じられるかもしれない｡ しかし､稼いだ資金で自キャラの各種性能を強化していけるため プレイを繰り返すほど強くなり､攻略が楽になっていく｡ この成長していく過程が､気持ち良さを感じられる上手い塩梅に 仕上がっているため､繰り返しプレイが苦にならない｡ のんびり遊んで全実績解除まで10時間程度｡ 本作だけが持っている強みのようなものはないが 遊び尽くしてみて素直に楽しかったと感じられた良作｡

I can't in good conscience give this a bad review. It is very well done, polished and generally fun. I agree with virtually everything the other positive reviews say. But it is easily the most annoying game I have played in recent memory. EDIT: The last couple of patches have helped with several of the annoyances. Ledges are *just* high enough that you can't shoot over them, so you have to double jump and shoot on the way down to hit something on a ledge. The arrows shooting from the edges of the screen are completely unavoidable in many cases, sometimes even by design, unless you know where they are. The floating books are usually just out of reach and a pain to hit. Don't get me started about the Tower of Patience. Take a look at my library. I have played and beat many "hard" games including Mr. Bree, Super Meat Boy, Bloody Trapland, etc. What you won't see there is many permadeath games. Even though this has lives, it's still game over when they are gone. This, coupled with the difficulty is just too much for me. I don't mind trying a level or boss 30 times. I do mind having to do the previous 6 levels over and over to do it. So, given that I don't care for permadeath games, take my opinion for what it's worth. If you don't mind permadeath + lots of redoing of levels, it really is a fun game overall. Edit: I wanted to clarify that when all your lives are gone, it's not exatly "Game Over". You can spend what you earned to increase a skill permanently (slowly...), but you then have to restart from the first level of that area.

Soooooo good! It's a classic platformer: simplistic, challenging, REALLY challenging. It reminds me of playing Mario games as a kid. They weren't easy. They took strategy and effort, and you felt like you earned every foothold. This game is going to keep me entertained for ages!

[h1]Запуск игры под SteamPlay/Proton[/h1] [b] Не для казуалов как я, довольно таки сложный платформер с гриндом, придётся проходить один и тот же уровень по нескольку раз чтобы собрать золотишко и прокачать персонажа, а также перепроходить уровни чтобы выбить свитки дающие нам те или иные улучшения после смерти. Музыка раздражающая, так что её через полчаса советую выключить. Играть с геймпадом! Ибо с клавиатурой это те еще страдания. [/b] Тестировалось всё на Ubuntu Mate 18.04.3 и ноутбуке: CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2540M @ 2.60GHz RAM: SO-DIMM DDR3 16Gb 1333MHz SSD:SAMSUNG EVO 850 120Gb Video: Intel HD 3000 + Nvidia GeForce GT 540M(Fermi) Версия proton 4.11-12

Controls are stiff, you die frequently and your inventory is lost when you do. And they have B.S. invisible traps that spike you from off screen. Not a lot of fun.

Bard's Gold is a classic platformer. You know the kind of thing; platforms, jumping, double jumping, boss battles with attack patterns, collectables, shops, themed levels and so on and so forth. Unlike many classic platformer styled games, the platforming in this is solid. There is a standard double jump mechanic at play here, but it affords a great deal of tactical use and makes for some tense leaps of faith. There are traps and enemies galore in each level and it is essential to pay close attention to your surroundings if you wish to survive. Death is sudden and harsh, but usually feels fair. Sound cues are also very helpful. One of the traps is a pressure activated arrow trap. More often than not I stepped on the trigger switches, but the sound design almost always let me hear my mistake and counter with a well timed jump. The levels while not procedural, change layout on each play through; there are a limited number of designs and you will eventually be able to learn the locations of traps and enemies. It will still require some patience, skill and a little luck to beat the game. Each of the four worlds has six levels and a seventh boss level. Bosses follow the classic standard of having fairly discernible attack patterns which will eventually allow you to avoid their attacks and exploit their weaknesses. There are also a few hidden bonus levels to find, within the standard levels, but these are not essential to finish the game. In fact, there are quite a lot of hidden bonuses on offer, but only someone who possesses magical eyeglasses will be able to spot them all. This brings me to the power ups. Our protagonist starts with a basic throwing knife attack, a set number of lives and a determined look on his little pixelated face. Collecting gems allows you to purchase upgrades in the shop which appears in a few of the levels. New weapons are available, stronger attacks, more lives and a few other standard items (including said magic eye glasses) to make your journey a little more bearable. There are also a number of secret tomes of power hidden throughout the worlds. Some are found by defeating certain enemies. Some from other specific criteria. These tomes can then be upgraded by spending your remaining gems after you have met an untimely death. This allows for permanent upgrades to your character and eventually gives you an upper hand against the menagerie of foes. Graphics are cartoony and vibrant. There is quite a lot of variety in the worlds and although a number of enemy sprites are reused, there is never a dull on screen moment. The sound design is fine, and indeed very useful for avoiding traps. The music is quite catchy and I enjoyed the ice cave music so much that I bought the soundtrack. I've enjoyed many hours of gameplay. A little surprised to see I've pumped 16 hours into it, but it's the kind of game you can dip into now and then. I'd highly recommend this to anyone seeking a well crafted lighthearted platforming action adventure title.