6 Things We Want to See in The Next Fable

With the announcement of the Fable Trilogy bundle fresh on our minds, it’s the perfect time to look towards the future of the franchise. We already know that Fable: Legends is coming, but that doesn’t mean fans aren’t allowed to hope for others things in its future.

A sizeable amount of long time fans were quite disappointed with the news they heard surrounding the upcoming title. It’s not quite the Fable game most of us are used to. I think it’s quite obvious that a Kinect heavy sequel isn’t the answer either. What should we look for in the next Fable game? How can it avoid a disaster like its third game?

Read on for more Chicken Chaser.

1.) Beyond Albion

I’m not sure if the Aurora desert counts as somewhere Beyond the Kingdom of Albion, but I would love to see other areas as well. Perhaps there are places mentioned in the codex that the new hero can explore. The Fable games have this distinct look and art style that I think could be applied elsewhere beyond Medieval Kingdom. What if you could visit a continent similar to Africa or Asia portrayed through the world of Fable? The possibilities are endless.

2.) Open World

While the map isn’t as expansive as the ones you would find in Bethesda games, Fable gamesare less restrictive than other RPGs like Dragon Age or Witcher. You could go inside houses and what not, but there’s always a limit to where you can go and what you can do. I’m not saying that the map should be as big as what we would find in Elder Scrolls games. Heavens no! The franchise isn’t focused on that so it wouldn’t be such a good idea. Lionhead should simply try to find a way to minimize loading screens and open up the maps a bit more.

3.) Move Forward

We all know that Fable: Legends is a prequel and it’s set in a time before the Hero’s Guild existed. I love the lore of the franchise and it would be nice to see how Albion was before, but at the same time I’m not a huge fan of prequels in general. Fable has always been about choices, exploring morality, and seeing the consequences of your actions. Therefore, I’d like to see it as a continuing saga whether it is fifty of five hundred years after. I want to see Albion and its people evolve because of your choices.

4.) Have an Online Component, but Don’t Heavily Rely On It

I’ll admit that I was sort of disappointed when I heard that Lionhead designed Fable Legends with a focus on multiplayer. I remember reading an article where the developer said something along these lines. It’s not as serious as Sim City’s “always online” then restriction, but it’s still a step away from being a single player like it used to be. Can’t it be a single player game with a co-op component instead of the other way around? Something like Fable II wherein other players can be in your world, but they don’t control your missions/quests or anything.

5.) Have Party Members

The upcoming game seems to have gotten this one right because it will feature four heroes. However, these party members can be controlled by other players, but will be played by an AI in the absence of other people. It would be nice to have party members you can interact and feel a connection with. I guess the dog was a step forward considering I chose to resurrect him instead of bettering the lives of others. In the third game, your character could talk now if I remember correctly so it’s nice to have some dialogue with party members. It would really be cool especially since Fable has a lot of interesting characters.

6.) Improve it, but don’t change it completely

The photo above is Fable II because I think that game was an excellent successor.A lot of people really hated the third Fable and I dislike the game too. It stripped down so many socialization features we knew and loved. The sad part is that Legends seem to be stripping out more of the gameplay elements. The Fable wiki essentially called the prequel a dungeon crawler since it minimizes villager interaction, property ownership, and physical morphing due to alignment. There is a hub called Brightlodge where players can pick jobs and quests. Upon selection, they are immediately sent out to the world. From what it says, it looks like we are only restricted to that hub and the maps for the particular quest. What happened to walking from town to town?

I know I spent a chunk of this ranting about Fable Legends, but I sincerely hope that it’ll still be a Fable game devoted players will love that’s vastly improved from its predecessors.