The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight
A sequel expanding the Realm with wilderness and new magic.
The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight, a fantasy role-playing game from Interplay Productions in 1986, was the first sequel to The Bard's Tale and the final series entry designed by Michael Cranford. It won the 1986 Origins Award for Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Computer Game.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Interplay Productions; Krome Studios (remaster)
- Publisher
- Electronic Arts
- Pony Canyon, Inc. (NES, PC-98)
- inXile Entertainment (remaster)
- Producer
- Joe Ybarra
- Designer
- Michael Cranford
- Artist
- Todd J. Camasta
- Composer
- David Warhol
- Released
- 1986: C64
- 1987: Apple II
- 1988: Amiga, IIGS, MS-DOS
- 1991: PC-98
- 1992: NES
- Series
- The Bard's Tale
Facts from the source article.
Plot
In The Bard's Tale II, a party of adventurers hunts for the seven fragments of the broken Destiny Wand across the land known as The Realm. Hostile mercenaries roam freely and block their path. Success requires collecting every piece, defeating the Archmage Lagoth Zanta, and reforging the wand. The character who accomplishes this becomes the immortal Destiny Knight. An optional starter dungeon in Tangramayne lets players develop weaker characters before they begin the main quest. The party then searches for wand segments in dungeons such as The Tombs, Fanskar's Fortress, Dargoth's Castle, the Maze of Dread, Oscon's Fortress, the Grey Crypt, and the Destiny Stone. Each dungeon holds a Snare containing one segment. Once the seventh segment is found, the party can assemble the Destiny Wand and fight Lagoth Zanta. The Realm enjoyed 700 years of peace thanks to the Destiny Wand, forged by the Archmage Turin, until it was stolen and shattered. The game includes a large wilderness area and six cities: Colosse, Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, Tangramayne, and Thessalonica. Every city contains taverns, banks, and dungeon entrances. Players form a party of up to seven active characters at any city's Adventurer's Guild. Characters can be imported from The Bard's Tale, Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (on Apple II versions), or Ultima III: Exodus. New characters can be created as human, elf, dwarf, hobbit, half-elf, half-orc, or gnome. Monsters can be added to the party indefinitely, a feature only temporary in the first game. Starting character classes include warrior, paladin, rogue, bard, hunter, monk, conjurer, and magician. Sorcerer, wizard, and archmage classes are not available at the start. Archmage is a new class that requires at least three levels in the four other magic-user classes. Character attributes—strength, intelligence, dexterity, constitution, and luck—are randomly generated between 1 and 18 and affect gameplay. Empty party slots can be filled through random encounters, spells, or figurines. The Bard retains magical singing abilities, with seven songs that aid the party during exploration or combat.
Gameplay
The interface resembles the first game, with a character list, a visual interface on the left, and interactive text on the right. Graphics are similar but include updates such as animated character images. Bard songs have more depth. Gameplay draws from Dungeons & Dragons and appeals to fans of dungeon crawling and mapping. Combat has more depth than Bard's Tale I, with range extending to 90 feet. Handheld weapons work at close range; ranged weapons and spells change effects over distance. Early in the game, fighters are important, while spellcasters dominate later due to monster strength. Some powerful monsters have over 1,000 hit points. The game features 79 spells, including battle magic, teleport, the Scry Site spell (showing the party's location), light spells, and summoning monsters as allies. Spellcasters typically occupy bottom character slots, with fighters in front. Some items also cast spells. Parties must develop an archmage to succeed. Players explore wilderness, cities, and dungeons. The wilderness contains new monsters and non-player characters such as the Sage, who gives advice for a price. Players can teleport between cities with a spell. Cities vary only in internal layout and feature banks and casinos, new to the series. At Garth's Equipment Shoppe, players buy, sell, or identify items. Parties can withdraw money from Bedder's Bank for the Bold and gamble at a casino. They can lament losses at a tavern and buy bartender advice. In dungeons, parties fight monsters and gain experience to advance levels. After returning to town, they can heal or revive at a temple. Roscoe's Energy Emporium restores spell units at high fees. Characters advance levels at the Review Board. Unmarked buildings may contain monster encounters.
Reception
The Bard's Tale II won the Origins Award for Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Computer Game of 1986. Critical reception was mixed. In Computer Gaming World, Scorpia noted improvements such as an easier start and more recognizable buildings, but found the snares excessively tedious, interactions with the Sage challenging, and gameplay skewed toward mages. She recommended it with reservations. In a 1991 review, Scorpia called it the worst of the series. James Trunzo echoed complaints about repetition in snares and frustrating Sage interactions requiring precise wording. Charles Ardai called it a fine sequel. Bob Guerra in RUN praised new enemies and animations, calling it an irresistible challenge. James Trunzo in Compute! said it lived up to its predecessor's reputation, describing it as a very difficult game requiring great fortitude, and suggested beginners avoid it. Ahoy!'s AmigaUser called it a completely worthy successor, at least as good as the first and even better in some ways. Hartley and Patricia Lesser in Dragon indicated fans would like this sequel much better, stating its scope is mammoth and highly recommended. Michael Bagnall in 1987 said that due to new features, it is its own game, familiar enough for veterans but with unique elements to challenge them.
Legacy
The remastering of the original Bard's Tale trilogy for Mac and Windows began as a partnership between inXile and Rebecca Heineman's Olde Sküül during the 2015 Bard's Tale IV Kickstarter. Development hit a deadlock, so the work was handed over to Krome Studios. On October 23, 2018, Krome released a remastered version of The Destiny Knight as part of the trilogy remake, which brought updated visuals and a new automap. A legacy mode was added afterward. The full remastered trilogy came to Xbox One on August 13, 2019, after Microsoft bought inXile, and it supports Xbox Play Anywhere. The game had earlier releases on PC-98 in September 1991 and on the NES in January 1992. In 2018, Alex Santa Maria described The Destiny Knight as belonging to one of PC gaming's most classic franchises. A 2020 review from Old Game Hermit gave it 55 out of 100, pointing out repetitive gameplay and labeling the difficulty as extreme, but also noting that the sense of achievement from beating it is unmatched. Scott Orgera in 2023 named the Bard's Tale trilogy, including this game, among the ten best offline RPGs to play that year, calling it the best old-school RPG.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who published The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight?
The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight was published by Electronic Arts, Pony Canyon, Inc. (NES, PC-98) and inXile Entertainment (remaster).
What platforms is The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight available on?
The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight was released for Amiga, Apple II, Apple IIGS, Commodore 64, Commodore 128, MS-DOS, Famicom/NES and PC-98.
Who composed the music for The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight?
The music for The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight was composed by David Warhol.
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