# The Bard's Tale — user reviews > 382 indexed App Store user reviews of The Bard's Tale by inXile Entertainment, rated 4.50/5 from 657 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/the-bards-tale/id480375355/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/the-bards-tale/id480375355.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 515 · 4★ 62 · 3★ 21 · 2★ 14 · 1★ 45 ## What do users think of The Bard's Tale? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 🚀 Great game - 👍 Funny and entertaining - 👍 Good value for money - 👍 Nostalgic for old fans - 👍 Smooth gameplay - 👍 Good voice acting and music **Cons** - 🐛 Crashes and bugs - 🐛 Glitchy save system - 🐛 Compatibility issues with newer devices - 🔋 Performance issues on older devices - 👎 Repetitive gameplay - 👎 Difficult without in-app purchases **Commonly reported bugs** - Crashes on startup - Dialogue options not showing up - Saved games getting corrupted - Compatibility issues with iOS 14 and newer **Most requested features** - Improved graphics and visuals - Better tutorial and onboarding - More save points and checkpoints - Ability to restore in-app purchases ## Newest reviews (10 of 382) ### 4/5 — A little clunky at first *2025-09-09, version 1.9.3* Once you figure it out the game is really pretty good. I keep collecting diaries and I still don’t know if they do anything but for a fun dungeon crawler it’s great. ### 2/5 — Don’t waste your time *2025-09-06, version 1.9.3* I hate this game; even on easy mode it’s hard. I play to relax and enjoy. I don’t care about challenges. It’s very difficult to save the game and mobs will often times block you from doing anything. Spells take forever to cast. And you have to use the spells to summon guardians or buffs/heal very frequently. It’s very very annoying and frustrating. The movement button is very buggy and you stop very frequently and will die quite often. ### 3/5 — Needs more save spots! *2025-07-16, version 1.9.3* Fun and funny but only has one save spot so you can easily miss key matters and cannot go back to redo so that’s really frustrating! ### 5/5 — Got to Play!! *2024-04-15, version 1.9.3* This is an awesome game. A stylish combination of comedy, storyline, combat and great dialogue. Play for 5 minutes and you’ll be hooked. Do yourself a favor and download it - you will have many hours of enjoyment from this classic ios game. ### 2/5 — Original Games don’t seem to work *2024-03-16, version 1.9.3* I purchased this game for nostalgia purposes to play the original I played as a kid. The Bard’s Tale 3 appears to get stuck once I put the character disk in and it asks me if I want to continue with my saved game. I have chosen both yes and no, and nothing happens. Maybe, I am doing something wrong. Can anybody help? I would hate to request my money back, but I could use help with this. ### 2/5 — Unplayable: the game freezes *2023-08-10* ENG: The game freezes after killing the big rat, when retuning to the tavern, during the cinematic with the maid. The game looks funny but is unplayable without a fix. iPhone XR, iOS 16.6 FR: le jeu bloque après quelques minutes lors d’un cinématique, il est injouable. ### 5/5 — Supergut *2023-08-08* Exzellentes altmodisches RPG mit einem klasse trockenen Humor. Wer keine langen Dialoge mag, sollte einen Bogen drum machen, die sind der halbe Spaß an dem Spiel 🙃 ### 5/5 — Excellent Game. *2023-07-29, version 1.9.3* Love this game. It’s a streamlined RPG. You won’t really have to deal with selling a bunch of loot or min/maxing your character. The gameplay is pretty straight forward. The graphics are pretty decent, except for the cutscenes. As far as I know, all of the bugs that are mentioned in other reviews have been fixed. I haven’t had any issues with the game. I definitely recommend it if you’re looking for a simple fun adventure rpg. ### 5/5 — Definitely worth more than $6 *2023-05-21, version 1.9.3* The storyline is great, the sing alongs are are so funny, just and overall enjoyable game to play. I’ve had the game for over two years and I’m playing for the forth time and still have fun playing and discovering things I have missed previously. ### 5/5 — need chinese *2023-05-19, version 1.9.3* nice game but no chinese ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Original trilogy fail *2026-03-01, version 1.9.3* Loved the og games when I was a kid, so I figured why not have some fun…and I did, right up til the third game 1 and 2 worked great, but when I try to play 3 it went south real fast First and worst, it won’t let me bring my characters from 1&2 over, and I spent a lot of time building up a strong party Ok, I can get over that, the will still be fun, right? Wrong Second, it forces you to use keyboard mode only, no mouse or touch screen options Alright, annoying but doable if you want to put in the work, just have to get used to looking at an even smaller screen, thankfully the graphics are up to par…oh wait Third they used a really bad version for the final game, looks like a 1970s 4-bit console game Play the first 2 for fun if you want, just be prepared for a Soprano-esque ending ### 1/5 — Beware *2025-07-07, version 1.9.3* The 2025 version sold on the apple app store hangs in video sequences and support site does not exist. Nb apple will not refund purchase. ### 1/5 — Black bars impair gameplay on iPad 11“ *2025-04-10* I loved Bard‘s Tale on PC and was very happy to have found it here, for a steal of a price. Unfortunately, for me it is unplayable due to black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, which block out subtitles and dialogue options when talking to NPCs. I don’t know if this issue is with iPad 11“ only, but I am very sad not being able to properly enjoy this gem. I highly doubt this will be fixed on an old game like this, as it seems to be on the App Store for some time, so I would recommend not to purchase it here and play the PC or console version instead, if possible. ### 1/5 — Crash de la sauvegarde *2025-01-15* Au bout de 9h de jeu, impossible de charger la sauvegarde, le jeu quitte aussitôt que je la sélectionne. Apparemment c’est un problème connu mais les développeurs n’ont rien fait pour remédier. Dommage car j’avais bien accroché… ### 1/5 — No sound, no support *2024-11-05, version 1.9.3* Why dis happen? Waste of monees 😾🐒🦍🦧 ### 1/5 — Friert auf ipad ein *2024-11-01* Direkt im Keller der „betrunkenen Ratte“ nach dem Erwerb vom Spinnenlied. —> UNSPIELBAR ### 1/5 — Absolutely fabulous! *2024-08-13, version 1.9.3* I’ve played a ton of RPG’s such as BG 1-3, Planescape: Torment, Fallout 2-4, etc…good graphics, apt (and funny) dialogue, good UI, map, and controls. The music is varied and the fidelity is decent. As others say, the game’s funny too. Definitely worth the price! UPDATE: Not once, but twice, the game set me back to a much older save, wasting hours of my time - it’s like two steps forward and 1 step back. I was really enjoying the game, but can’t bring myself to play over the same material over and over. I’m going to try to get a refund. ### 1/5 — cut scenes… *2024-02-06, version 1.9.3* can’t get past the rat cut scene, super frustrating, basically makes the new game worthless. ### 1/5 — Unplayable *2023-10-04, version 1.9.3* 6 minutes into the game and it freezes. ### 1/5 — Too buggy to play *2023-07-27, version 1.9.3* Couldn’t even see the conversation options from the very beginning. Unplayable. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Good port *2026-02-23, version 1.9.3* Just like classic bard’s tale ### 5/5 — Great Game *2025-12-02, version 1.9.3* I played this back in the 90s. I loved it then and more now. ### 5/5 — Good old school RPG fun! *2025-07-24, version 1.9.3* One of the funniest ARPG there is. They should create more ARPG’s like this. ### 5/5 — Wonderful *2025-06-23, version 1.9.3* How I’ve never heard of this game until now? I came across TBT looking for a legit mobile rpg and was pleasantly surprised to find this port. The writing, voice acting and music are top notch, and I’m loving the atmosphere. Also, thank you for including controller support! More games need to do this. I’m still early into the game, but I’m already hooked. Wonderful job, inXile! ### 5/5 — One of the funniest and best RPG‘s *2025-05-26, version 1.9.3* The bards tale is easily one of the funniest RPG’s ever sometimes it can be really challenging, but it can also be very easy. It’s a very fun game. I wish you could customize your character though, and you could and you could customize your name but other than that, it’s a really good game and I find it very sad that not a lot of people know about it. I give it a five stars.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ### 5/5 — Excellent game *2025-04-18, version 1.9.3* Make another, just like it! ### 5/5 — One of the most funny and best RPG’s ever *2025-02-18* This game is so much fun and it is really fun and I really like it. It’s funny and serious at sometimes you can also be challenge and it’s really fun and I really love it and I hope they make a sequel just like this just like this game I really love it and it has one of the most funniest endings ever. I really love this game. ### 5/5 — Great game. Hilarious and many ours entertainment *2024-12-28, version 1.9.3* For a person that truly loves the RPG experience. The game is loaded with content and has enough side quests to keep you entertained for many hours. Speaking of entertaining, the dialogue in the games is so funny and Cary Elwes does an excellent job as the voice of the bard. This game is a must buy and is the only game I’ve ever paid for (well worth it)! ### 5/5 — Good ol fashioned fun *2024-11-17, version 1.9.3* I’m having way too much fun here. Love it! ### 5/5 — Nostalgia “Retro” *2024-07-29, version 1.9.3* Not for the low self esteem. Old school simpler style RGP, But with a lot of adult humor. (NOT for the younger crowd.) You get to choose how the plot develops for the most part. Lots of running around and destroying and looting everything. Narrator constantly is telling you how bad you are for all of your horrible decisions. Over all a great time killer for the sarcastic. If you hiding in your safe place right now because the world is not fair and giving you what you want without working hard or breaking a sweat…… Just NO!!! STAY AWAY from this game!!! Stay under your Powerpuff Girls blanket, in your Mom’s house, at 27, not paying rent because you still work at the pizza place. You cannot even figure out why you have not made manager in the last 11 years or find a girlfriend. Still wondering why all the other guys laughed at you for wanting to play Soft ball with the girls in the 6th grade. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-12.*