Since the firstFablewas released in 2004, the series has emphasized the importance of choice. In fact, this was a big selling point for the original game, as while other role-playing games released around that time had implemented choice mechanics — likeBioWare’sStar Wars: Knights of the Old Republic— none had done them quite likeFablehad. Rather than simply allowing players an unprecedented degree of freedom in the choices they make,Fablemade it so that a player’s choices affected their morality to the point that it would even shape their physical appearance. The world around them would then respond accordingly, with a player’s playthrough impacted as a result.
Playground Games and Xbox Game Studios are now attempting to reboot theFableseries with a brand-new game set to launch in 2025. Not many specific details have been disclosed aboutFableso far, but the developer has recently revealed a new trailer for the game that refreshingly points to morality as one of its most prominent features. It has yet to be officially confirmed whetherFablewill have a morality system like earlierFabletitles (or whether it will have one at all), but the trailer more than implies how important it is that a Hero considers their choices carefully.
Fable’s Latest Trailer Seems to Indicate a Weighty Morality System
Humphry Emphasizes the Importance of Choices in Fable’s Latest Trailer
While the visuals alone inFable’s trailer are enough to rave about, the breakout star of the trailer isHumphry, the greatest Hero in Albion, albeit a retired one. Throughout the trailer’s nearly three-minute runtime, Humphry tells the story of a young Hero he once took in when she had nowhere else to go, who has apparently now gone down a path he cannot follow, having made choices that now haunt him. This Hero he refers to serves as the backdrop for the whole point of the trailer, which is, in Humphry’s words, “It’s about the choices you make.”
This seems to be evidence enough thatFable, like the earliest games in the series, will feature an alignment system of some kind that is directly affected by the player’s choices. It’s unclear what the extent ofFable’s morality systemwill be, but the trailer alone strongly suggests that this reboot at least honors the original series in the way that matters most. The only thing left for it to do will be to make attempts at improving the morality system from the original series.
Fable Has an Opportunity to Explore Moral Ambiguity More Than Earlier Titles
One of the biggest downsides of the earliest titles in the franchise is that anyone who chose to be more morally ambiguous didn’t benefit fromFable’s alignment system. To truly see the effects of one’s actions in the originalFablegames, one would need to either commit mostly “good” or mostly “evil” acts to see any changes take place in their character’s appearance. The appearance of a morally ambiguous person wouldn’t change all that much unless the player directly altered it by feeding them too much or too little, for instance. This inevitably gave players little reason to explore choices in a much more elaborate way, as they would simply need to either choose the high road or the low road.
The nextFablegame by Playground Games has a chance to explore moral ambiguity more than the earlier titles did — although, in the latest trailer, Humphry says of the hero he once took in that she “made all the wrong choices.” This seems to imply that there will be “right” and “wrong” choices in the nextFable, but, then again, those “wrong” choices could just be seen as such from Humphry’s perspective. Thankfully, no matter what,Playground Games’Fabletitlewill likely have a weighty morality system of some kind, which should appeal to longtime fans of the original series.
Fable
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Fable is an RPG developed by Playground Games and published by Microsoft. Set in Albion, the game challenges players to define what it means to be a hero.
