The Bard's Tale

The Bard's Tale from inXile Entertainment arrived on mobile in 2012 as a port of an action RPG that openly mocks itself and the entire fantasy genre. The player takes on the role of a cynical wandering bard whose only real weapon is a sharp tongue and cunning, moving through a parody fantasy world full of deliberately broken clichés about brave knights, kidnapped princesses, and saving the world from a dark lord.

Combat plays out in real time with simple touch controls — attacks, dodges, and special abilities are triggered by tapping virtual buttons placed around the screen's edges, while a virtual joystick on the left side of the display handles movement. The humor rests mainly on richly voiced narrator and character lines that constantly comment on genre clichés, the player's greed, and the game's own mechanics, which remain among the title's most quoted and funniest moments to this day.

The mobile version is noticeably more modest in scope than the 2004 console and PC original, but it carries over the humor, voice acting, and core gameplay fairly faithfully and without major compromises. It was precisely this self-mocking, at times almost absurd tone that made The Bard's Tale an exception among the earnestly-toned fantasy RPGs of its generation, and that holds true for the mobile port as well. Progress through the game also comes with gradual weapon and ability upgrades, so battles keep changing as the hours add up rather than staying the same throughout.

Why play it: recommended for players who enjoy a parody of the fantasy genre and don't mind a somewhat simplified action RPG controlled by touch instead of a classic gamepad.