On the 30th anniversary of the original Bard's Tale, what better time than now to go on an adventure worthy of song?

The Bard's Tale IV will feature labyrinths and dungeons chock-full of dangerous traps, puzzles, and challenges, as well as the winding streets of the city of Skara Brae and its outlying environments. Exploration will take place in the first-person dungeon crawler style of the original trilogy. With full rights to everything from the original games, the story of The Bard's Tale IV will center on a new Skara Brae built upon the ruins of the old, returning familiar gameplay concepts such as No-Magic Zones and Magic Mouths.

Utilizing the Unreal 4 engine, The Bard's Tale IV will also represent a graphical leap forward in the genre, immersing you in a highly detailed and lush world you'll want to map to its farthest reaches. The Bard's Tale IV enriches the setting from the original trilogy with Scottish culture, including a soundtrack inspired by Gaelic music.

inXile Entertainment announced The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows DeepWishlist Initiative, an evolution in the relationship between an indie developer and its fanbase.

In a project that is the first of its kind, gamers who wishlist The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows Deep on either the game’s Steam or GOG.com pages add to an overall counter that unlocks bonuses which reward all purchasers of the game now and in the future.

At 100k wishlisters, inXile will partner with Red Hook Studios to provide an in-game version of the iconic torch from Darkest Dungeon. According to Red Hook Studios Co-founder Tyler Sigman, “Darkest Dungeon has its roots in classics like The Bard’s Tale, so to be a small part of helping to bring the series back is a real treat for us as fellow game devs and especially as fans.”

At 300k wishlisters, the retail price will drop from $39.95/£29.99 to $34.95/£27.99.

At 500k wishlisters, two amazing tiers will unlock: first, the retail price will drop to $29.95/£24.99, knocking a full $10 off the original price. Secondly, a free DLC will be created and released for all game owners called “The Haernhold,” which finds characters adventuring in the dwarven realm of Kinestria.

In "The Haernhold" DLC, players gain the opportunity to travel beyond Caith to another dimension - Kinestria, realm of the Dwarves. Therein lies the Haernhold, home of Daeglish, one of the characters that can join the player’s party in the main game. All is not well - the tomb of a Dwarven king has been defiled, and only the heroes from Skara Brae have the power to face the darkness that has been unleashed. The only portal to Kinestria resides in Fort Garendon, and it is there where the player’s cross-realm odyssey will begin.

inXile plans to use photogrammetry to create in-game 3D objects from photos of architecture, taken right in Scotland. With such detailed assets, The Bard's Tale IV will have intricate interactions, allowing for detailed physical puzzles in the game world, or while inspecting your own items in your inventory to find hidden compartments, latches, and more.

Of course, Skara Brae is not always a friendly place. The Bard's Tale IV will update the classic gameplay of the originals, featuring a dynamic phase based combat system. Combat will utilize the complex decision-making opportunities of traditional phase based combat, but with a constantly evolving enemy strategy and a pacing that keeps you on your toes.

Key Features:

• Return to a Land of Magic and Mystery: 100 years after The Bard’s Tale III: Thief of Fate, Skara Brae is once more in danger from shadowy forces. Recruit a party of renegade heroes and rise in defiance of the dark powers that be to save the world from its greatest threat yet
• Build a Team of Heroes: Assemble a party of up to six adventurers tailored to your distinct play style. Level up your companions and customize them with new skills and gear to survive
• Multi-level Tactical Combat: Fight cultists, goblins, giants, wraiths and other mythical creatures in turn-based battles that reward strategic positioning, clever thinking and masterful combos
• Delve Deep Into Deadly Dungeons: Journey to ancient ruins teeming with creatures, traps and mysteries. Unravel over 200 challenging puzzles and reap the rewards for your advantage
• Solve Riddles to Upgrade Your Weapons: Hunt for legendary artifact weapons whose true powers can be unlocked by solving the many clever puzzles etched into them

The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows Deep will launch for PC on Sept. 18, 2018, and is expected to arrive later this year on the PS4, Xbox One, Mac and Linux.