Roguelike side-scrolling platformers are difficult to get just right. On the one hand, there are certain expectations that people have about the genre, since it has been a staple of the video game scene for at least two decades. On the other hand, the roguelike genre tries to subvert most of those since it is designed to thwart the player at almost every turn. Games like Rogue Legacy and Spelunky show that it is possible to blend both genres into something that is enjoyable to fans of both camps. Bard's Gold, however, doesn't quite grasp that balance and suffers as a result.

As the story goes, you play the role of a nameless bard. One day, while you're napping under a tree, your satchel is ransacked by a goblin who steals your gold coin. This is no ordinary gold coin, though, as it was a family heirloom that holds a demonic spirit captive. As the one who safeguards the object, you jump down a well to chase down the thief and regain what's rightfully yours.

Interestingly, the game never bothers to tell you any of this. Like a number of games until the middle of the NES era, the exposition is located outside of the game — in this case, the game description on the Steam page. As a result, the story is part of a backdrop that is rather unimportant.

You begin by choosing to go through one of four doors, only one of which is actually open while the rest unlock via natural progression. From there, you navigate each room trying to find a key that unlocks the door that leads to the next room. After completing six rooms, you enter a seventh that contains a boss, and defeating that boss lets you open the next door in the main hallway.

For the most part, your character is pretty simple to understand and deal with. You can run in any direction and double-jump to reach higher ledges. That's the extent of your mobility, though, as you can't duck, a trait that'll be missed as you progress in the game. You've got a dagger that has decent damage, and it can be thrown even though the range is pretty pitiful. You're tough enough to survive long falls, but one hit from an enemy, arrows from traps, or spikes will do you in. Once you spend all of your lives, the game ends, and you're forced to restart from the main hallway with your unlocked doorways intact.

It's important to note that you can only take one hit before expiring since everything is out to kill you. From simple slimes to flying books and large worms, everything takes multiple hits to kill, so even the slowest of enemies is a dangerous threat if you aren't careful. This is especially true with creatures that have erratic movement patterns since some enemies speed up when you're in the vicinity or intelligently duck your daggers. Stages are littered with spikes, including a few that fall from the ceiling and some that pop up from the ground. There are also a few traps with barely visible switches that send an arrow flying across the screen. On top of this, each room has a timer, and while its expiration doesn't mean instant death, fire will rain from the sky until you find the key and leave the room.

It doesn't help that Bard's Gold does a few things from a technical standpoint that makes things harder than they should be. Aside from the barely visible switches, the audio for the tripping of traps or loosening of spikes is barely audible, so there are plenty of chances to be caught unawares. Much of the time, you'll have no choice but to trip a switch that places you in the direct path of an arrow, and you have nowhere to move, so you're forced you to take the hit and the loss. There's a camera you can use to see a little below you, but it doesn't follow you fast enough on a long descent, so you'll usually get killed by an enemy or trap that you never saw coming. The bottom part of the HUD is semi-transparent, so you can get a bit of a preview of what's below you, but the randomizer that appears when you complete an extra power-up set covers much of the upper part of the screen, and you don't want to move it until it eats away a few precious seconds and finishes.

Perhaps the most fiendish thing the game does to make things harder is the removal of any items you gain. Throughout your journey, you'll find things like potions to power up your weapon's attack damage or shoes to make you move faster. You'll even find things like the ability to inflict bleed damage on a foe, perfect for bosses and enemies with strange movement patterns. However, your one-hit fragility means you'll die pretty easily and lose everything in the process. While you'll return to the stage with all of the damage inflicted on enemies, you won't have a chance to regain your lost items and abilities, so you'll spend a majority of the time as weak as you started.

Even with everything working against you almost unfairly, you'll want to persevere, explore all possible avenues and kill enemies because of money. Chests are present in just about every stage, and all enemies drop a decent amount of gems when they're slain. Some stages have shops where you can spend gems on items like shields and weapons. As with the rest of the powers you find in the game, though, death instantly removes the purchased items from the rest of your run unless you buy them again. Should you die with gems left over, you can invest them in perks that can be used for your next run. Though they're rather expensive, you'll be able to start off with things like extra lives and more seconds on the clock. Unlike the items found or bought in the game, these end-of-game investments are permanent, so they're a much better way to spend your gems.

After a while, the game is more of a grind than an adventure. You'll discover that buying items in the shop is useless until you read about what certain items do. With a weak arsenal at your disposal, you'll kill what you can, die, spend the gems to upgrade yourself, and then repeat the process until you're fully powered up to beat the boss. It doesn't help that the stages only have a few templates to work with, so it isn't long before you see the same layouts again and again, except in a different order and with slightly shifted enemy placements. That sense of déjà vu emphasizes the grind and erodes some joy from the game.

What is perhaps most disappointing about the title is that there's nothing it does to make itself stand out from what is becoming a more populated sub-section of the roguelike genre. When you consider some of the heavy hitters, there's always something to make them memorable. For example, Spelunky has multiplayer and lots of procedurally generated levels. Rogue Legacy uses a system where your death means that your offspring inherit some of your traits, so the next playthrough feels new. Vertical Drop Heroes HD, as the name suggests, centers on downward progression until you reach a boss. Here, there's nothing special about the bard or the world he inhabits. Even when you power him up significantly, the bard isn't that spectacular, and the combat is functional instead of exciting. He ends up being a standard hero in an expected game world that, while very difficult, doesn't do anything interesting.

Despite these elements, one thing that will make players come back is the secrets. If you grab the special glasses, you'll see lots of sparkling spots in each level. Shooting at most of them produces gems, but a few uncover special items or platforms after a few hits. There are also some that lead to alternate stages with loads of treasure, and some take you to minibosses and challenge stages that, when conquered, give you powers that can be attained and leveled up after death for your next run. The amount of secrets in the game matches the content, and the fact that you can still access these things by firing blindly into potential spots means that you'll want to keep exploring.

Graphically, Bard's Gold is fine. The game's advanced pixel look is good, and the animations are fine. The color scheme is rather drab, though, and there's a tendency to have some enemies blend in a little too well with the background. The designs for the bard and the enemies there are functional.

Sound-wise, the game is good enough. The music is varied enough between environments, but it is most notable for being calm. No matter the time on the clock or the situation, it maintains a mellow pace that reduces the tension despite its high difficulty. The only noticeable issue with the music is that the looping piece is apparent, since there's some dead air between where the track ends and begins. With the exception of the sound effects for the traps, everything else sounds fine. Sound effects are discernible for things like enemy hits and opening secret doors.

Bard's Gold is decent. The gameplay is good enough, but many will be driven away by the high level of difficulty in the opening stages, especially with a few unfair elements at play. The presentation is fine, and the abundance of secrets gives the game some more elements to look forward to when the grind becomes too much. It doesn't do anything special in the genre, and while roguelike fans will garner the most enjoyment from it, you'd be better served by the more popular representatives — if you haven't already played them.

Score: 7.0/10