After 27 years, the classic dungeon-crawling PC series is getting a proper continuation with The Bard’s Tale IV.

While many gamers may be more familiar with the 2004 PS2 and Xbox title, the series began in 1985 as a Dungeons and Dragons and Wizardry-inspired RPG on the Apple II. The success of the original game, Tales of the Unknown: Volume I – The Bard’s Tale, eventually spawned two more titles, with the entire trilogy releasing as an MS-DOS compilation. The series was revived in 2004 courtesy of The Bard’s Tale III Director Brian Fargo and InXile Entertainment, with The Bard’s Tale for PS2, Xbox, and as of last year, PC. Due to legal issues, the re-imagined game had no ties to the classic series; instead, the new top-down action-RPG was a satirical take on the original series, and common tropes of older dungeon-crawlers.

Following his work on Wasteland 2 (Director/Producer) and Torment: Tides of Numenera (Director/Producer), Brian Fargo revealed that he was working on a new game- The Bard’s Tale IV. According to Fargo’s Twitter activity, the new Bard’s Tale will be a “proper sequel of the trilogy”, coming nearly 27 years after the release of The Bard’s Tale III (1988). The upcoming chapter is set within “Skara Brae” of the original games, though The Bard’s Tale IV will have new gameplay mechanics; as Fargo puts it in an IGN interview, the new features include “plenty of combat diversity and depth”.

While details are scarce, InXile Entertainment will take The Bard’s Tale IV to Kickstarter for a crowdfunding campaign.

Sources: Twitter, IGN
Image courtesy of Interplay Productions, EA