The Bard's Tale Trilogy on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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The Bard's Tale Trilogy is a complete remaster of the iconic series that helped define the RPG genre. Featuring updated graphics and optional quality of life gameplay features, this is the ideal way to experience the dungeon crawling challenge that made the original games beloved classics.
The Bard's Tale Trilogy is a rpg, dungeon crawler and classic game
developed by Krome Studios and inXile Entertainment
and published by inXile Entertainment.
Released on August 14th 2018 is available on Windows and MacOS
in 6 languages: English, French, German, Spanish - Spain, Polish and Russian.
It has received 1,423 reviews of which 1,355 were positive and 68 were negative resulting in an impressive rating of 9.0 out of 10. 😍
The game is currently priced at 2.49€ on Steam with a 80% discount.
The Steam community has classified The Bard's Tale Trilogy into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
Get an in-depth look at The Bard's Tale Trilogy through various videos and screenshots.
System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS *: 64bit OS, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8 / 8.1, Windows 10
- Processor: Intel Core2 Quad Q9300 / AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ / Intel Core i5-2500K or higher if using integrated Intel GPU
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: Graphics card with DX10 (shader model 4.0) capabilities
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 1 GB available space
- Additional Notes:
MacOS
- OS: OS X (10.14)
- Processor: 1.4 GHz Intel Core i5
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: Integrated Intel HD Graphics 5000
- Storage: 1 GB available space
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
OK, it's old-school, but I had a lot of fun playing these back in the '90's, and I'm playing in Legacy mode, so some of the characteristics that other people might find frustrating (the Save Game mechanic, for example) are nostalgic for me. So, it's primitive by 2020's standards, but so am I.
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If you like "you kick down a door" dungeon crawls, this might be a game for you. It doesn't have any intricate quests. It is definitely not story-rich. It won't feel like you're "getting to know" any NPC or joining a community. But if you just want to pretend you've hooked up with several other adventurers in a tavern so that you can go off and eventually save your world, then you'll probably enjoy this game. The classes all have their own strengths and weaknesses, and most have some relatively unique ability. Very few are ever essential (there's a place where you simply must have a bard in part 1, and you need a thief for an achievement in part 3, for example), so you can experiment with different party combinations or even go solo. Even in those places were you do need a certain character, if you don't like playing with that class in your party, you can leave him parked in the tavern until you need him. I had fun figuring out which combo of spells or abilities mixed with which bard songs and such in order to best take on this or that mob. I enjoyed collecting the mostly-useful (there are some places where I'd seriously change the loot tables) loot. I ended up rolling in gold I couldn't find anything to spend it on. The blackjack in part 2 was fun and I missed having a casino in part 3. The game got a little grindy in part 3, but I leveled up just about all of my party members (and an extra or two) just messing around and doing a full exploration of the dungeons. My only "this isn't fun anymore" complaint is that a couple of the dungeon floors in one tower of part 2 sometimes cross the line from "difficult" to "tedious" for traps and teleports that hinder you. If you are a map-nut like myself, you want to mark every single square ... but that one left me logging out to do something else just to clear my head. I put this game series thus far (I haven't played part 4, and I'm cheap so I won't get to it anytime soon) as being a weird mix of just above and just below Elder Scrolls Arena/Daggerfall. In fact, it's easy to see how this was probably inspiration for Elder Scrolls: Arena. The final ending of the series at part 3 was . . . underwhelming . . . but I had probably way over-leveled because I'd spend so much time messing around and just spanking mobs to spank mobs. Leave it to me to be dissatisfied with ascending to godhood.... ;) I got over 300 hours of amusement out of it (you can probably actually complete the game series in like 30 hours, but I like to be silly and make/remake different characters and such), and I definitely feel it was money well spent.
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This is a great remaster that makes these games more approachable than they've ever been. If you want to play any of the three Bard's Tale games, this is the way to do it. That said, if you're a curious newcomer who doesn't already have a taste for sadistic maze crawling nonsense with minimal story and maximal testing of patience I could never recommend this. I doubt there are going to be that many newcomers to the series, so I'm going to recommend it anyway on the basis that it does the best possible job at what it set out to do. But these games really do embody all the worst parts about the birth of the genre. Bring lots of different types of mages, cast lots of compass, and make sure your bard is constantly singing a song about light in the darkness... and then pull your hair out when you walk over your 10,000th anti-magic, anti-music, anti-trapzap tile placed right on top of a chokepoint for no reason other than to make you lose 5mp and have to faff around in menus for a while longer.
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Note: This game was played in its entirety on a Steam Deck. Both controller, and keyboard+mouse were used. TLDR: 6.5/10. A lovely remake, but some old warts remain. The rose tinted goggles of nostalgia come off fairly quickly in Part 3. So, The Bard’s Tale has always been an interesting series of games for me. I think, among every game I’ve ever owned, I’ve owned this series “the most”. By that, I mean I’ve owned the first title for my C64, Amiga 500, PC, Mac, NES, and probably some other systems I cannot remember at the moment. It would feel like as soon as I got a new system, I would have to get The Bard’s Tale as my inaugural purchase. The same holds true for Parts 2 & 3, though not to the same extent as Part 1. And despite owning this many copies, I have never finished any of the games, never, until now. Unlike many other reviewers, I found my playthrough to be almost an inverse experience to theirs, enjoyment-wise. I had the most fun in Part 1, despite it being the simplest game by far. The plot logically flowed from one location to the next, and you definitely felt your party growing much stronger as the adventure neared its conclusion. Item progression was the ABSOLUTE best in this game, by far. You start out with almost nothing, and by the end of the game your characters feel like gods. (Spoiler: right at the end is an optional weapon. You can get multiples by running the dungeon multiple times without killing the final boss. Get this weapon for ALL your melee characters, and more if you plan to change your party). The second game really expands on the first. It’s a huge thrill to go “outside” and into different cities. But the best part, for me, were the timed puzzles bookmarking each chapter. Most people hate these (and reviews reflect this), but I always found them fascinating. The clues to each are in plain sight, but they can be extremely difficult to figure out. These “snares” were the highlight of Part 2. What I didn’t like so much was: 1) character progression, 2) item progression, and 3) combat. 1) You were probably already max stats from Part 1, and Part 2 expands on this in such a minor fashion that you’ll be max stats again after the first dungeon. There isn’t much to look forward to, with few spells and songs to buy/find. 2) Similarly, there are almost no new items in this game. There are a handful (probably only around a dozen or so), but they are all outclassed by what you could have gotten in the first game (if you chose to do so). The shocking truth was that from the start of the second game until the penultimate dungeon, I had made exactly ZERO changes to my equipped gear. Finally, in the last two dungeons, I did find some (minor) upgrades. 3) The combat in this game just drags on and on and on. You were already godlike at the end of the first game, so they had to make the enemies so much stronger to compensate. Combats will be over in either two seconds or will be a long slog for several minutes (with no danger to your characters, everyone will just be missing both attacks and spells). In the end, I did enjoy this game, just not as much as the first. The third game was my least favorite. It was also my least played when the originals were released, so almost everything in this game was new to me. Like before, the monsters get even more of a glow up, but thankfully you are given more room to grow in the final adventure. Itemization is “ok”, with, again, few upgrades in the first third of the adventure. In the second third, I received some great upgrades, and then in the final dungeons again a few upgrades. Combat is an absolute slog this time. The worst part is that you’ll need to rely on bard songs for damage, but unlike spells, there is no convenient “recently used” category to make casting/singing easier. So this becomes a huge drain on your hands to have to select the same song every turn of combat, for multiple turns, for each combat. It’s annoying and with all of the other quality of life improvements to the game, I really feel like they missed the ball on that. The final combat (no spoilers) was both a delight and an annoyance. Looking back on the over one hundred hours I played on this version, I’m glad I did, because I finally got to see everything in these games that I have owned for probably close to 40 years now. The remake is competently done, with no crashes, and only a few minor hiccups that, for the most part, do not detract too much from the game. Thank you for reading this far!
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10 year old me watched my Dad play The Bard's Tale in the late 80s, I didn't understand the appeal at the time. 44 year old me understands it big time and is loving every minute of it. My Dad passed away in 2015, I'm hoping to finish this trilogy for the both of us.
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Frequently Asked Questions
The Bard's Tale Trilogy is currently priced at 2.49€ on Steam.
The Bard's Tale Trilogy is currently available at a 80% discount. You can purchase it for 2.49€ on Steam.
The Bard's Tale Trilogy received 1,355 positive votes out of a total of 1,423 achieving an impressive rating of 9.01.
😍
The Bard's Tale Trilogy was developed by Krome Studios and inXile Entertainment and published by inXile Entertainment.
The Bard's Tale Trilogy is playable and fully supported on Windows.
The Bard's Tale Trilogy is playable and fully supported on MacOS.
The Bard's Tale Trilogy is not playable on Linux.
The Bard's Tale Trilogy is a single-player game.
The Bard's Tale Trilogy does not currently offer any DLC.
The Bard's Tale Trilogy does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
The Bard's Tale Trilogy does not support Steam Remote Play.
The Bard's Tale Trilogy is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for The Bard's Tale Trilogy.
Data sources
The information presented on this page is sourced from reliable APIs to ensure accuracy and relevance. We utilize the Steam API to gather data on game details, including titles, descriptions, prices, and user reviews. This allows us to provide you with the most up-to-date information directly from the Steam platform.
Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates| Steam data | 11 June 2025 19:19 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 10 June 2025 21:53 |
| Steam price | 15 June 2025 04:20 |
| Steam reviews | 14 June 2025 12:04 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about The Bard's Tale Trilogy, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about The Bard's Tale Trilogy
- SteamCharts - Analysis of The Bard's Tale Trilogy concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck The Bard's Tale Trilogy compatibility
Game modes
Features
Online players
41
Developer
Krome Studios,
inXile Entertainment
Publisher
inXile Entertainment
Release
14 Aug 2018
Platforms