The Bard’s Tale Preview

GameSpy has put together a two-page preview of The Bard’s Tale, based upon what they saw of InXile’s action RPG at this year’s Gen Con. A snippet:

I got to poke around with a few other summons, too: a “Light Fairy,” which basically served as a flying lantern; a “Shielder,” who was basically a walking, human meat-shield; and a “Thunder Spider,” who took the form of a lighting wisp with electrified legs, who shocked anything that came within five feet of me. I had a few bigger summons at my disposal, but they were more like one-shot, area-of-effect spells than anything else (think Final Fantasy).

These were called “Artifacts,” and in order to be able to use them, you need to acquire special items. Their effects were elaborate and explosive: one of them summoned some kind of seraphic priestess to my vicinity, who completely healed my party. Another caused this brambled, boggy abomination to come ripping out of the ground, heavily damaging any creatures nearby.