The Bard's Tale IV: Director's Cut

Sounds like music to my ears. I did not rightly know what awaited me when I started out with this game. Having watched CohhCarnage play this back on release I did not really remember much of anything of the story or the world. I mostly remembered scenes and a bit of the combat. So when I bought the game the title very much put me in the mood of a poppy, light hearted adventure like the bards like to tell it. Colour me surprised when the story starts with a religious riot and what amounts to a lynching. Now don´t get me wrong, Bard´s Tale 4 is by no means a grimdark story of misery and woe but it also does not pull its punches when it comes to the plot. The world is very much typical medieval fantasy but with some good twists to the formula and a nice seasoning of Irish folklore to set it apart from a lot of the other games in its genre. And one major part of its style is of course the music. Everywhere you music will be your companion, may it be raucous battle themes with chanting warriors or women and children singng together. This gives it a very alive feeling and encourages you to just sit a minute and listen. The game is not especially pretty but offers some lovely scens and vistas. The cast of characters I encountered is quirky and lovable with some good inter-party dialogue between the members as some will argue and even clash over their idiologies while others joke together and get to know each other better. Gameplay has a low skill floor but encourages you to experiment with party composition, different builds, positioning and synergies that you can mix together. I did not look up a guide and still was very easily able to put together a party that never felt underpowered. Enemy encounters are colour coded from Green to Red but with enough gusto and know how even Red will not scare you too much. At least on Normal difficulty. Though I will admit that I did tweak difficulty for two fights. Outside of combat you are offered a nice combination of exploration and dungeon crawling with puzzles to solve and traps to be avoided or disabled. There is a good deal of optional content that rewards you for paying attention and turning over every stone. Though I felt like the amount of side quests is more front loaded than spread out. I did not have any crashes or game breaking bugs but performance did suffer a bit at times despite my hardware being more than up for the task. There are rare chances of getting stuck but a reload usually gets you out of there no problem. Bards Tale 4 is a fun entry for fans of classic dungeon crawling experiences and newbies alike. (As suaul this reivew has been written without the use of AI of any kind)