Posted at April 29, 2020
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Let’s Talk About Fabe 4

If you follow gaming news, you probably remember the Fable 4 “leak” that popped up last June. Gamesradar did a full write up on it here, but the short version is that Fable 4 is going to be an Open-World RPG set thousands of years after the previous game.

At some point after Fable 3, a mad King awakened an ancient source of magical energy called the Spire and used it to destroy the world of Albion by smashing it with a meteor. The main plot of the game will involve preventing a second meteor impact. The leak also states that Fable 4 will include space and time travel to some extent. In true open-world fashion, Fable 4 will also allow players to ignore the main plot entirely, never discovering your character’s heroic destiny. Other features are said to include a return to the original Fable’s medieval setting, co-op multiplayer, and a return of Fable 1 villain Jack of Blades.

Leaks being what they are, Fable 4 may end up nothing like the game I just described. It could also turn out to be 100% true. In fact, it’s technically possible that Fable 4 isn’t happening at all. There’s been no official announcement, the game got no mention at Microsoft’s E3 2019 showcase, and the “leaked” Fable 4 gameplay video has been exposed as a hoax.

But I’m not here to rule on the reliability of Reddit posts. This article isn’t about whether or not the leak is real, by why I hope it isn’t, and other Fable fans should feel the same way.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I really want Fable 4 to happen. It’s a genuinely unique franchise, and Microsoft would be making a huge mistake to let one of their most successful IPs sit around collecting dust when it could be printing money.

My problem is with this specific vision of Fable 4, because, in my opinion anyway, it misses a big part of what makes Fable, Fable.

Let start with the asteroid continuity reset. There are several reasons this is a bad idea. First among them is that it renders all the preceding games moot. Oh, what’s that? Jack of Blades is going to destroy the world with an ancient artifact? It doesn’t matter because Albion’s going to get creamed by a meteor in a few hundred years anyway. Lucien wants to activate the Spire so he can destroy the world. Who cares; basically the same thing eventually happens off-screen anyway. I understand the desire to start from a pretty much clean slate but destroying the world I’ve already saved three times rubs me the wrong way.

If it’s just a new setting you want the are ways to do that without hitting the planetary reset button. The novels and in-game books describe several lands that have never appeared in the games. Heck, the Edgelands from Fable: The Journey might be worth exploring in something other than a Kinect exclusive rail shooter.

Speaking of setting, this is where we get into potentially unpopular opinion territory. According to the leak, Fable is once again set in a standard medieval fantasy land, and it seems like a lot of fans think this is the right direction for the franchise to be moving.

I disagree. In my opinion, the further Fable moves from a standard medieval setting, the better. I’m not saying I want a modern Fable with internet and smartphones (actually, that sounds pretty cool), but the later time periods are part of what made Fable unique. Watching the city of Bowerstone grow from a dozen building to a bustling metropolis gives the world of Fable a sense of continuous history that you don’t get from most franchises. It makes the world of Fable feel alive in a way you don’t see in a lot of fantasy games and stories.

Giving that up because you prefer swords and crossbows to swords and pistols feels like missing the forest for the trees. Yes, guns in Fable 2 and 3 were unbalanced, but Fable’s combat was always kind of unbalanced, and I’m not sure it was an unfixable problem. Greedfall and Assassins Creed: Black Flag are both games that managed to incorporate Firearms into largely melee-focused combat engines.

But, okay, maybe the developer really likes the medieval setting and were going to do it one way or the other. I’m not going to argue that their subjective opinion is wrong. What I will argue is that that they should absolutely, under no circumstances, have Jack of Blades return as the main villain.

But he’s cool! Yes, I agree. But he has a sweet mask! Also, true. He is also a boring villain.

Jack of Blades is a demon who lives in a cursed mask. He wants to destroy the world because he is a demon. He’s the quintessential video-game bad guy, an irredeemably evil villain who shows up once or twice to twirl his mustache before running off to wait in the final boss arena. He’s Bowser in a creepy mask. Apart from nostalgia baiting, what is there to gain from bringing him back?

And this brings us to my final point, and the part that worries me the most about the direction Fable might be heading. Going back to a familiar setting and bringing back an old villain don’t sound like things you do to bring new life to a dormant franchise. They sound like pandering.

Under Lionhead, Fable was a very experimental franchise. Did the experiments always work? No. Of course not, but do you really want them to just keep repeating the same characters and stories forever? Wouldn’t you rather Fable remain a vibrant, colorful franchise instead of a stagnate series too afraid to try anything new?

None of this to say the Fable 4 will be a bad game. Playground Games is a talented studio, and I’m more than willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Maybe you agree with everything I said here. Maybe you think I’m some ranting lunatic who needs to have his computer privileges revoked. All I’m saying is that when it comes to reviving a dead franchise, we should be careful what we wish for.

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