What you need to know
- The Bard's Tale is an acclaimed franchise that is regarded as one of the godfathers of the role-playing genre.
- The Bard's Tale Trilogy is a remastered collection of the original three games.
- According to Microsoft, the package is coming to Xbox One in August as part of Xbox Game Pass.
- You can purchase three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $45 on Amazon.
The role-playing genre in video games as we know it started around 1985 when games like The Bard's Tale broke onto the scene. The title offered gamers plenty of choices. Not only are The Bard's Tale: Tales of the Unknown, The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight, and The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate considered cult classics, but they also helped to formulate a genre we love.
In 2018, inXile Entertainment — now owned by Microsoft — worked with Krome Studios to release The Bard's Tale Trilogy. The Bard's Tale Trilogy contains all three games, but they've been remastered. While the gameplay is still the same, the text looks crisper and the graphics look clearer. According to the teams, The Bard's Tale Trilogy "is a chance for old fans to be young once again and for a new generation of roleplaying and dungeon crawler fans to discover why these games matter so much all these years later."
The Bard's Tale Trilogy requires you to rescue a city trapped by a wizard. You must reforge the legendary Destiny Wand and travel across time and space to confront the Mad God. For the first time, you can play as a male or female across all three games. Other quality-of-life changes such as automapping, spell access, and updated inventory management make the experience better.
Today, Microsoft revealed the list of games coming to Xbox Game Pass for Xbox One and PC in August. While everyone knew that The Bard's Tale IV: Director's Cut was being added to the catalog, no one expected to find The Bard's Tale Trilogy there. It's unclear how much it's going to launch for, but hopefully, it'll support the same $15 as it does on Steam. Luckily, the game is coming to Xbox Game Pass so the price doesn't matter.
Xbox Game Pass is a subscription service which costs $10 a month. You gain immediate access to over 200 games. Instead of streaming the titles, you can download them to your console and play natively. Xbox Game Pass is available as separate subscriptions on Xbox One and PC, but the game will be accessible on both platforms.
Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Live Gold in one
Xbox Game Pass gives you access to over a hundred games for one monthly fee. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate also adds Xbox Live Gold to the package so you can play online with your friends. Right now, you can purchase a three-month subscription for $45 through Amazon.
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