Brian Fargo announces The Bard's Tale 4

27 years after the release of The Bard's Tale 3.

News by Wesley Yin-Poole Former Editor-in-Chief

Updated on Jan. 26, 2015

27 years after the release of The Bards Tale 3, Brian Fargo has announced plans to return to the cult classic fantasy role-playing series for a sequel.

It's official.. And I'm very personally excited to be working on this. More details to follow. pic.twitter.com/OegeiAU28B
— Brian Fargo (@BrianFargo) January 24, 2015

Fargo, whose studio inXile Entertainment successfully crowdfunded Wasteland 2 and Torment: Tides of Numenera, will again take to Kickstarter, this time to raise money to develop The Bard's Tale 4.

The last game in the fantasy role-playing series was inXile's 2004 action RPG The Bard's Tale, which was a comedy spin-off of the original, Interplay-developed games. Fargo indicated The Bard's Tale 4 would be closer to the original games than the humorous spoof, calling it "a proper sequel to the trilogy".

As much as I enjoyed our little Bard's Tale comedy romp, Bard's Tale IV is a proper sequel of the trilogy.
— Brian Fargo (@BrianFargo) January 24, 2015

The Bard's Tale began life in 1985, with Interplay's Tales of the Unknown: Volume One. The Bard's Tale 2: The Destiny Knight followed in 1986, before The Bard's Tale 3: Thief of Fate came out in 1988.

There's not much to go on right now, save a few tweets from Fargo that hint at the direction he'd like to take with The Bard's Tale 4.

We have such plans to dial up the atmosphere for the Bard's Tale. I really am excited to get this baby going.
— Brian Fargo (@BrianFargo) January 24, 2015

I wonder how many of you still have your old character files for import into a new Bard's Tale, No promises but it would be kind of cool.
— Brian Fargo (@BrianFargo) January 24, 2015

And what of a console version? Fargo said the PC is where inXile will focus its development effort, but console versions are possible.