Bard’s Tale Sequel Announced

With Wasteland 2 released and Torment: Tides of Nemenera on the way, Brian Fargo is returning to yet another classic franchise for his team’s next project: The Bard’s Tale IV.

Fargo began work on The Bard’s Tale, after creating his own studio in 2002. A comical reimagining of the franchise’s tropes, that would be released in 2004. The Bard’s Tale IV is a proper sequel, though, marking the first since 1988’s The Bard’s Tale III: Thief of Fate.

Details about the game are still light, but Fargo did say the team will be pulling from the original. From a story perspective, players will be returning to Skara Brae. But on the gameplay side of things, Fargo is planning a deviation.

“Traditional turn-based combat,” as Fargo calls it, bases turns on varying factors, creating battles in which different characters attacked at different times, often alternating between opposing sides. But in The Bard’s Tale IV, teams attack all at once. This increases the pace of the combat, and allows for a different set of tactics than the traditional system might allow.

“There will be plenty of combat diversity and depth. You look at something like Hearthstone, for example. It’s sort of that going back-and-forth process, and you see the complexity and detail and strategy and nuance that can happen. It’s really an amazing system. I love those modern influences. I took a lot away from that, and see things we need to do with our combat system.”