The Bard's Tale

This article is about the video game series. For the 2004 game in the series, see The Bard's Tale (2004 video game).
The Bard's Tale
Genre(s)Role-playing
Developer(s)Interplay Productions
inXile Entertainment
Publisher(s)Xbox Game Studios
First releaseThe Bard's Tale
1985
Latest releaseThe Bard's Tale: Warlocks of Largefearn
2022

The Bard's Tale is a fantasy role-playing video game franchise created by Michael Cranford and developed by Brian Fargo's Interplay Productions (1985[1]–1992)[2] and inXile Entertainment (2004–present).[3][4] The initial title of the series was Tales of the Unknown. The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight dropped the Tales of the Unknown series title, as did all ports of the original game after 1988. From then on, the series was known as The Bard's Tale series. Both Cranford and Fargo have refuted the assertion that the original projected titles for the second and third installments were The Archmage's Tale and The Thief's Tale.[5][6]

After the first three games, work on a fourth installment began but it became an unrelated game, Dragon Wars, at a very late point in development due to rights issues when Interplay parted ways with their publisher. The series was not continued for many years and is thus still often referred to as the "Bard's Tale trilogy". In 2018, Alex Santa Maria stated that The Bard's Tale was "One of the most classic franchises in PC gaming".[7]

  1. ^ "1985 Index" (PDF). Computer Entertainer. Vol. 4, no. 10. January 1986. p. 6.
  2. ^ Barton, Matt (February 23, 2007). "Part 2: The Golden Age (1985–1993)". The History of Computer Role-Playing Games. Gamasutra. Retrieved March 26, 2009.
  3. ^ "The Bard's Tale Compendium". Game review. 2004. Retrieved February 24, 2011.
  4. ^ Madan, Asher (August 13, 2019). "Cult classic 'The Bard's Tale Trilogy' warps on Xbox One, supports Xbox Play Anywhere". Windows Central. Retrieved September 6, 2019.
  5. ^ Cranford, Michael (1985). "The Bard's Tale [Commodore 64 game manual]" (PDF). Museum of Computer Adventure Gaming History.
  6. ^ Cranford, Michael (1987). "The Bard's Tale [Apple IIGS game manual]" (PDF). Museum of Computer Adventure Gaming History.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Maria was invoked but never defined (see the help page).