Bard Idle

Whether this game is your jam will depend on what you want out of a game. I wanted something fairly casual with a little challenge but no requirement that I stay fixed in place. This is very much that type of game. It's silly and, for the most part, easy to play. I enjoy the cartoony old school graphics and the RPG-ish elements throughout. I've played (at this point) over 170 hours of the game (lots of idling, as implied by the game type).

Its central problem is one that everyone else has noted: there are significant aspects of your progression in the game that will be dependent on having the necessary resources. Some of those resources have no in-game mechanism for getting them in amounts that scale up your progression as you move higher and higher in the game. Thus, your only way around the excessive grind or having entire runs go south because you can't re-roll something is to pay. And pay again.

Now, *I* don't mind paying for a game. Once. Just once. But I absolutely refuse to pay insane amounts of money to get access to things that will only marginally speed up my progression -- and it would, from what I can tell, be a marginal improvement. $99.99 for the candy pack so you can get a thingy that earns you a candy per hour is hardly justified for the marginal benefit it will provide. $30 is probably too much, but I might have paid it already if it were that low because I obviously enjoy the game. But if I'm going to pay $99.99 for something I need in a game, I'll buy three other games and play those instead.

I hope they change this. I get it. They need to make money here, but that is simply ridiculous. And until they fix that, I'm not sure I can recommend the game to anyone. I want to because I clearly enjoy it, but most people don't want to fork away 170+ hours of their lives on a game (and then another 170+ hours times ten if they don't want to pay those outrageous prices).

So that's where I'm at. A bit disappointing, really.

You know how its fun to plan the build of your characters and parties in rpgs? Yeah this game will actively stop you from doing that. Instead everything is based off rng, and the game is really slow also.

Also, you can reroll rng results with *cash shop* currency, of course...

This game is just visual clutter with microtransactions and an identity crisis. It's not truly idle until you prestige, and even if you do prestige, there are events that only benefit your characters if you actively play. That being said, there is little to nothing to do in game at any given time and almost all upgrades rely on rng or premium currency, so playing actively feels like a chore that's intended to coerce you into making purchases. From the designer's standpoint, that is optimal, but from the player's standpoint, this is a prime example of what not to do when designing a game.