We all sat through Ready Player One. We all went to Best Buy two hours before they opened and tried to get an NES Classic. We all witnessed the assorted campaigns designed to bring back Atari and Intellivision. It’s 2018, and the nostalgia train shows no signs of stopping. Keeping with this tradition, today inXile Entertainment announced a comprehensive remaster of the original The Bard’s Tale trilogy that will be available for Windows next week.
Poignantly titled The Bard’s Tale Trilogy, the new collection will include the original three games, enhanced graphics, and optional modernized features. These new features include “automapping for all three games, spell access, and updated equipment/inventory management,” in addition to granting players the ability to “play as male or female across all three games.” Notably, only Tales of the Unknown, the first installment in the series, will be available at launch, with The Destiny Knight and Thief of Fate arriving in fall and winter respectively.
This isn’t the first time The Bard’s Tale has returned. A massively popular crowdfunding campaign started in 2015 will bring the series back from a three-decade-long hiatus later this year. Additionally, inXile released a game in 2004 called The Bard’s Tale; however, this title had nothing to do with the original game.
Regardless of whether or not gaming nostalgia has overstayed its welcome, The Bard’s Tale Trilogy remaster provides a sigh of relief for game preservationists. The remastered trilogy aims to “truly realize the vision that the original dev teams had” and provide a gaming experience, “without the need for emulation or compatibility concerns.” Of course, if you’re a Bard’s Tale purist you can also breathe a sigh of relief, as the game will eventually receive a Legacy Mode that allows players to experience the trilogy without any of the modern quality-of-life updates.
You can watch the trailer for The Bard’s Tale Trilogy below. Additionally, you can check out the game on Steam and GOG.