In 1986, The Bard’s Tale 2: The Destiny Knight won the Origins Award for the best fantasy or science fiction computer game of the year. Obviously, Interplay Productions had a hit with the Bard’s Tale series. This installment is a direct sequel to the initial Bard’s Tale, and was designed and programmed by Michael Cranford. It is a role-playing game with medieval themes and a fantasy setting.
The Destiny Knight picks up almost immediately where The Bard’s Tale left off. Having defeated the evil wizard Mangar, the user is taking a bit of a well-deserved rest.
In 1986, The Bard’s Tale 2: The Destiny Knight won the Origins Award for the best fantasy or science fiction computer game of the year. Obviously, Interplay Productions had a hit with the Bard’s Tale series. This installment is a direct sequel to the initial Bard’s Tale, and was designed and programmed by Michael Cranford. It is a role-playing game with medieval themes and a fantasy setting.
The Destiny Knight picks up almost immediately where The Bard’s Tale left off. Having defeated the evil wizard Mangar, the user is taking a bit of a well-deserved rest. The break is short-lived, however. The wizard Saradon contacts the hero character to inform him that an evil Archmage, Lagoth Zanta, has stolen the Destiny Wand. He has broken
it into several pieces. The Destiny Wand is a mysterious force that keeps the lands peaceful and united. Without the Destiny Wand in place, chaos is sure to reign. The user must find the seven pieces of the Destiny Wand, each one guarded by a complex puzzle room termed “a snare of death”. After reforging the artifact, the user’s character must battle Lagoth Zanta in a final showdown to restore the lands to peace and prosperity.
Creating a party has many options in this game. Because the game uses a familiar engine, the user can create his own character, select from a list of predefined characters, or he can import them from several other games. Characters can be brought in from the original Bard’s Tale, as well as Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, and Ultima III: Exodus. With custom creations, the user has a choice of seven different races, ranging from human to gnome, and ten hero classes, ranging from hunter to conjurer. It is said that the game skews in favor of the mage classes.
The game plays very similar to its predecessor, but it does have some notable improvements and differences. First of all, the puzzles are considerably harder, some bordering on tedious. There is a new and huge wilderness area that is filled with dungeons, and the towns now feature banks where money can be stored. There are casinos in the towns, as well, and blackjack is the featured mini-game. The addition of the archmage class is new to The Destiny Knight, and there is more of an emphasis on ranged attacks, such as spells and archery.
In short, this is a very nice sequel. The awards people don’t pull names out of a hat, so it stands to reason that this title has some merit in the world of beginning RPGs. Bear in mind that it is dated, but it still has a lot to offer.
