In 2020 the fifth Fable game was announced, tentatively just called Fable. Unlike the other main Fable games, this is not being made by Lionshead Studios. Lionshead Studios shut down in 2016 and their last game, Fable Legends, was cancelled. This time Playground Games is working on the franchise. This is their first project that isn’t Forza related.
What is Fable?
Fable and its sequels are RPG games. The stories are all mostly standalone with the world being the same one, just progressing through time through each game. In the three main games of the series, Theresa, a blind seeress is related to the hero, first as his sister, and subsequently the hero is a descendent of her brother. Fable: The Journey, which is a Kinect spinoff game, has Theresa appears again, this time not related to the main character. In Fable: The Journey, Theresa dies and the hero, Gabriel, becomes the new seer.
What about the new game?
Besides a trailer in 2020, nothing is confirmed about the new game. Since Fable was announced, Microsoft finished the acquisition of Bethesda Software, which focuses heavily on RPG games. They’ve made the Elder Scrolls and Fallout Series and in early 2023, they will be launching Starfield. It’s possible that Xbox wanted all eyes on Starfield when that launches, which is why we haven’t seen anything regarding Halo in a few years. My bet is that the next time we see it will be at E3 2023, after Starfield launches. It may even be one of the biggest games shown at next year’s show.
There’s speculation that it is a complete reboot of the series, either taking place many years after the four games where no character is connected to the past or that it will start from scratch and the previous games never happened. The trailer was just a tease and nothing has been confirmed or denied so far. It could be a remake of the original Fable game as well for all we know.
What’s on my Fable wishlist?
I love Fable. Even though I didn’t play the sequels until earlier this year, but the original game I put a lot of time into. I never did play the Kinect game though and I think a lot of people are the same. It may not have been bad, but you needed a Kinect on the Xbox 360 meaning that the game was on rails. If you’re going to do an RPG it needs to be as open as possible, in my opinion. I put a lot of time into Skyrim when I played it last year, mainly because I kept finding new and exciting things to do. I don’t see how you could do that on a Kinect game. So what is my ultimate wishlist for the next Fable game?
Don’t reboot the franchise
Let everything that happened happen. Seeing the old Guild hall through the centuries was one of the best parts of the series. I love how it goes from this place where heroes gather and get quests to destroyed in the second one to the old kings secret santuary in the third one.
Maybe not everything
Theresa was a huge part of the series. She guided the hero whether it was her brother or a king, she was there to show them the way. If that means that they need to pretend that Fable: The Journey never happened, so be it.
Make it truly open world
Going from area to area would be an amazing experience in that world. Even if the cities would be separate and the inside would be separate from the world map, like Skyrim, it would be great to go from Bowerstone to Oakfield without needing to load into multiple areas.
More side quests. When you have Bethesda as a partner under Xbox, consult with them if you need more side quests. On top of side quests I’d love to have more jobs too. In Fable 3 making the pies was great and being a blacksmith in 2 was pretty fun as well. The main game can be a lot of fun, but people get lost in side quests and it would make people play the game that much longer.
Customizable characters
Part of the fun of Fable 3 was going around fighting in a chicken suit. I’d love to be able to mix and match outfits. We should also be able to choose our gender like in the second game. Any weapons, hair styles, etc should be available within those shops and not found on the map randomly. If anything some outfits and hairstyles should be unlocked by doing certain missions.
Weapons, Weapons, Weapons
Fable 3 was odd in that your weapon grew more powerful and changed appearance. Give us choices of weapons, weights of hammers and swords. Ability to choose two handed weapons or single handed weapons and a shield. Maybe even two single handed weapons in each hand. If you’re going to have guns in the game, have them alert the enemies when it’s shot, but if you use a bow, let it be more stealthy. Maybe ability to customize the weapons via skins as well, I’d love to hit people with a tiger print sword.
What is on your Fable wishlist? Are you excited about the new game? When do you think it will be released? Let me know in the comments.
