Just rented The Bard's Tale the other day, for PlayStation 2. It is entertaining, I'll give it that. I am only two night's worth of play into and feel like I won't get half-way done during the 5-day rental period.It is not your typical RPG, though has elements of it: leveling up, attributes, choices, summoning spells.
It is more about (as the box states) coin and cleavage, than being the hero. The voice of the bard is done by Cary Elwes (of The Princess Bride fame - Wesley). He does a good job of capturing the wit, sarcasm, etc. that is meant for the part ... a little bit of Captain Jack Sparrow meets Captain Barbosa 
The only "choices" (aside from weaponry, armor, etc.) you have are in interaction with other in game characters, when talking. You get to a point in dialogues where you choose how to respond: snickety or nice. These sometimes mean: smartass or nice, lie or tell the truth, threaten or coax, etc.
The "choice" doesn't seem to influence the final outcome of a situation, just how you get there.
There is a ton of in game humor, very tongue in cheek, a bit reminiscient of the old Wizardry days. For instance, you get to one dock, that is made of hickory, and is described as sometimes slippery .... yes, you guessed it, you could see it coming a mile away ... a slippery hickory dock.
Also some original songs (that take a couple minutes to listen to), like the drunks sing "Tiddly beer, beer, beer" ... a tribute to the man who invented beer.
Control is very much like recent "RPG" games, like the hobbit and LOTR. Top down view, graphics from average to excellent in some cases. Fighting the wolves, boars, and forest bad guys gets a bit monotonous at times, but with the right summoned help you can win through.
All in all, I wouldn't pay list price (about $50) for it, but will likely either rent it again to finish it, or perhaps buy it used. I don't see it having a lot of replay value. It is fun to save, then play through each choice of dialogue ... but I would not say, play the whole game as skickety, then play it again as nice.
Tools for Wizardry(r) 7
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