A pesky goblin stole your gold! And, as a Bard, you won’t stand for that. That is the story in Bard’s Gold. You must venture into the unknown searching for the goblin, but you end up in an unprecedented adventure. Bard’s Gold is an indie game that offers an old school approach with its graphics, but with solid controls and gameplay, it is an indie game you shouldn’t miss.
Now the objective in Bard’s Gold is simple you need to collect a key in each level to be able to progress to the next. You have to do that while defeating enemies and collecting all gems you can, however, the game isn’t going to make things easy for you. There is no hand-holding what-so-ever, no tutorial, just old school goodness. You are armed with your magic knife, which has limited reach, but you can throw up to three, similar to Ghost ‘n Goblins main character named Arthur. You also possess a double jump to help you get to hard to reach areas, it’s simple but it gets the job done.
Now, there are several ways to play the game, there is the Normal mode with more lives to start with but less gems to find, it also has a “checkpoint”, more on that later. There is the Classic mode, in this the Bard starts with less lives, but it can gather more gems per run, and it also has checkpoints. The last mode is Roguelite mode, in which you have all lives as a health gauge of sorts, and you can find tons of gems but there’s no checkpoint, I recommended this mode for those seeking a challenge. Now the “checkpoint” this is a mechanic put into place that after you lose all of your lives. If you uncover some magic tomes, you can use the gems you didn’t spend to give you permanent upgrades like starting with more lives, or getting more gems per run, so at least those gems that you didn’t use won’t go to waste when you die. This helps a lot because in Normal and Classic modes, you take one hit and you die, so with the limited lives you need to make each run worth it.
On some levels, you can find a Shop where you can upgrade your weapon, purchase items to help you on your quest, like shoes that increase your movement speed, or an extra life. However, you need gems to do so, so it’s important to gather as much as possible. Besides the gems you get from defeating enemies and opening treasure chests, there are some hidden in each level. You can find them with the item Magic Glasses, they show up as shining spots, and if you throw a knife in that spot you’ll get a gem or hidden treasure.
I like the music and the look of the game. And considering the rogue-lite elements the game has, I consider it to be more lenient if we compare it to other games in the genre. As such, I can say that is a good starting game for those looking to venture into the genre. Also all the different upgrades you can get make the game feel really satisfying. I also liked that within the 4 levels in the game there are different sub-levels with a unique boss at the end of each one, even if there are not procedurally generated they offer a good challenge.
Bottom Line, Bard’s Gold is an old school rogue-lite, with tons of elements and upgrades, which make this a game you shouldn’t miss out on. I really liked it and it is a good way to get started on rogue-lites in my opinion.
A Review code was provided for this review.