Why did the fable series turn to shit? The backstory of the game seemed really interesting

Why did the fable series turn to shit? The backstory of the game seemed really interesting.

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Peter Molenyeux got a bit up his own arse and a lot of dumb design decisions were made.

Also once they got to a victorian kind of era they couldn't go any further without messing up the aesthetic.

They could have stopped at Fable 2 and just did a prequel starting with the first Archon creating the old kingdom and challenging the Court of Blades. All this juicy backstory and they do fuck all with it. Why is Molyneux such a sack of shit ruining something that could have been good?

>white protagonist
never again

The mullattos of fable were kinda cool though.

Bump, I wanna talk about fable damnit. Reminiscent the memories and forget It's corpse is being used for a fucking card game.

I remember following the development when I was 12.

>dude the trees are gonna grow in real time! LMAO
>few months pass
>"ahem.. err if we made the trees grow we wouldn't have any cpu power left for the game, we had to scrap this feature"

I always imagined them actually coding and getting it all working. Then watching it running on the O.G Xbox at 1 fps.

Because Lionhead ruined my innocence. I'll never forget that feeling of being lied to, of being manipulated and cheated.

Remember when Peter Molyneux eliminated menus once and for all by having you teleport to a room and manually run around to select items and gear.

> model tree sapling
> model tree
> Put in timer to replace tree sapling model with tree model when the player leaves the map and returns

WOW FUCKING HARD

Fable was never good

Never really bought into the Xbox so I never fully experienced the lies of the fable games but when I did play the first and second they were very fun and the backstory was really interesting. Yet as the games went on the fantasy aesthetics was being stripped more and more to the piece of shit 3 that ruined magic and main enemies became gay pirates and fucking dogs, oh and everything was a legendary weapon.

can people stop complaining about this and focus on the real issues the game has

like how there isn't feasibly enough money to maintain all the promises, how much of a fucking slog the first two hours are, the horrible pacing of the build-up to war, and how much of a letdown the actual war was

like fable 3 has so many things bogging it down but people keep harping on the menus as if it's genuinely game-ruining

I legitimately think Fable TLC being as good as it was was a fluke, brought about by artists with a vision and a terrible boss. Once Peter caught wind, any sequels had to progress in TIME and have GUNS and DOGS.

I still fucking love TLC.

>fable 3
>at the ruling part of the game where you make decisions
>have to pick "good" or "bad" decisions
>good decisions make people happy but make you less prepared for the giant shadow monster invasion
>bad decisions make people angry but make you more prepared for the giant shadow monster invasion
>no option to just give a speech to your people explaining hey we gotta do all this shit you hate but it's gonna keep us all from getting exterminated by monsters

I know it didnt/wouldn't affect how the game sold, but it always annoyed me that they backed off on character choices changing the way you looked. All fable 3 had was good pale or evil pale

>no option to kill reaver
They did a good job portraying him as a piece of shit in 2, yet you can't even give him what he deserved in 3.

You can only be a good person if you have tons of disposable income.

>dump all my riches in the vault for shits
>end game comes and I'm fine
>brother decides to wait to put money in
>gets fucked by the last jump to invasion day and civilians die
Many laughs were had on my part

and you can only gain that income from doing the blacksmithing mini game 1000 times

Great design molyneux you're truly a visionary game developer

Because it's the stupidest decision, the game is shit but he focuses on removing menus from an RPG, a complaint nobody ever made.

The worst part of the game is the fucking time skip, don't even have a time management system if you randomly take away half your time without warning.

Ahkshully you get your income from buying shops and then houses and keeping up the rent all the way up. You get evil when you do it but once you get all your money you lower the rent way down and then become good again.

>Not just having the foresight to build a real estate empire and leaving the game on overnight to amass a huge fortune before the endgame timer begins.

>No option to tell people that they only have to put up with martial law for a year and then after everything will be fine
>The entire moral decision making process is rendered irrelevant anyway just by being a bastard of a landlord and leaving your xbox on overnight

Fable 3 was just awful. Hell all the Fable games were but 3 had more awfulness than redeeming qualities.

the fact that you have to do it this way was really disappointing

The game very clearly wasn't balanced around someone deciding to just buy up every single property in the world and charging max rent for it and then fucking off for 6 - 8 hours. You didn't have to do it of course, but everyone with a brain did because why wouldn't you?

>An unimaginable ancient evil will destroy everything in its path
>The world is doomed unless you do everything you can to prepare for it
>THE ANCIENT EVIL IS HERE!
>Run out of your house, up the road and hit it to death
>Great job hero but you didn't save enough money so now half the NPCs in the game are permanently gone

3 was the steaming pile of shit out of the other 2. Ruining the thing that made these games fun the magic. Holy fuck it was so terrible bring stick with only two glove bullshit instead of freezing time and vaporizing everyone with lightning or using chaos. And enemy variety was gone, the fucking pitiful arena mission showcased all the enemies in the game, I think six.

oh, of course, i obviously did it too, but again, my issue is that it was the most viable solution despite it being a cheap move

they should've have the player been able to get income from somewhere else or lowered the costs

Fable's highlight was having a world based around heroes and the heroes guild, the setting wasn't that interesting but it made up for it by being laid back and humorous. The game wasn't that long or deep but you could feel the sheer amount of potential to make a sequel that was on a more elder scrolls-like scale based around taking jobs from the heroes guild and being able to develop your character around it based on what you wanted to do and who you wanted to be.
Killing off heroes as a concept in the second game was a huge mistake that wrote them into a corner because from that point on you'd have to come up with contrived explanations for why the protagonist has super powers. In addition, killing the heroes guild solidified the shift into a more linear third person RPG. The first game was pretty linear too but it felt like there was stuff they could work with that the second game threw out.
I still enjoyed Fable 2 but they had nowhere to go from there, they flushed the parts of the first game that I liked down the toilet and left behind a series whose defining characteristic is being "charming" with nothing to show for it

>that complete FUCK YOU without warning the player about the point of no return let alone putting behind the implication that your dude just fucks off for half an entire year

The worst part was having to do upkeep for every piece of property but they didn't have the foresight to have a "repair all" button

That would require Peter Molyneaux to be something other than a talentless hack, so it was never going to happen

>The fucking glove bullshit
I'd honestly managed to suppress that memory, fuck you for reminding me how terrible magic was in 3.

>buy every house in the game
>realize my rent comes in once every five minutes
>leave game running when I go to bed
>have way more than I need when I come back

BRAVO MOLENEUX

they did actually have a repair all button
on a controller it was 'X' on the world map
don't feel bad i didn't notice on my first playthrough either

>You get evil when you do it but once you get all your money you lower the rent way down and then become good again.
yeah iirc it took about two hours or so in-game of rent at the lowest for them to like me again

They kinda explain that why you have hero powers because your from the bloodline of the first hero Archeon. And they really did write themselves into s corner because they were removing more and more fantasy elements to the point fucking wolves are a main enemy. They don't even re-use trolls because of some shit hammer nobody used. Thry should hsve just stopped at fable 2 and did what said. I wanna know what the Queen and Knight of Blades looked like, or the place where Archeon got the sword of aeons from.

>unspeakable evil
>looks like a bird from the dark crystal
>beaten back by a torch tossed at it

Fable 3 was still better than Dragon Age: Inquisition though

I feel like the game not taking itself nearly as seriously helped with that

well, fuck me then

again, don't feel bad. the game never actually tells you and i don't recall it being in any help menus of any kind

(yet another huge problem with the game)

Two things bothered me about that, the first being that the whole "Ancient Evil is coming to destroy everything" plot point was a huge cop out to make the stupid "promises" have some weight. Bullshit weight at that, because as you said you can't just tell everyone what's going to happen.

The second thing was that fixing the promises would've been easy, just have the ancient evil fuck shit up and then implement the popular/necessary dilemma as part of the recovery operation after the war is over. Like you could grant the Gypsies their land, but you also need the forest cut down to rebuild all the homes that got destroyed. Or how child laborers would be necessary because so many other people had died there were simply no other hands available to do the work. That would've been an actual system with moral weight, and you couldn't cheese it with rental revenue because all of that would've been used to fight the war and in the aftermath your real estate empire would be in ruins.

Fuck Molyneaux. Guy couldn't design his way out of a paper bag

FABLE BTFO

youtube.com/watch?v=KW1Xs9cFcWo

The menus WERE a real issue. Sure the game lets you down constantly with its shitty pacing, awful combat, and terrible dialogue, but the fact that ANY TIME you want to access the menu it teleports you to a fucking zone puts it FIRST on the list of grievances this game has.

>sure the game is awful but not being able to immediately change my clothes is a bigger issue
ok

I miss them old games like fable and fallout and mass effect when morality was a big deal.

This is kind of meta, but disappointment in Fable was so palpable back in the day that it kind of set the table for Sup Forums to be bitter and angry and distrustful about everything, kind of a proto/v/. I need to stop drinking.

I never said it was a bigger issue you tard. I said it was a constant reminder of how shitty the game is. You don't constantly run into plotholes and garbage dialogue, but you run into a fucking loading screen every time you pause the game and a loading screen to get back to the game.

>why do people talk about this glaring issue all the time instead of hurr
Is this that hard to understand?

shit engine
shit combat
which lead to shit bosses. seriously, one of the cool things about Fable 1 was how nearly every boss was some kind of unique monster which led to a visually interesting array of trophies. in F2 and 3, its all just generic humans, werewolves, and those fucking lame-ass golems that can only be killed by popping all their pimples
all creative flair just evaporated. shit like "plant an acorn, and years later it becomes a tree" were implanted in the least engaging way possible. most people who played Fable 2 didn't even notice the tree when they came back after the timeskip, and it wasn't even the hero that planted it but one of the side characters.
and the whole 'starting from nothing, becoming Mr Very Important' loses its oomph when both sequels establish from the get-go that you're one of the last decedents of super amazing lineage

>big deal

You mean shallow and tacked on right? the way these games handled morality was a fucking joke.

I do. I was disappointed when Peter backpedaled on just about everything he ever said about Fable. I don't understand how people kept falling for it.

Fable 1 was still great. TLC made it better if only for the fact that you got to kill Weaver.

>Fable
>Good
Pick one.

>Fable TLC great
>fable 2 good
>fable 3 piece of shit
Better?

Really holding out for Fable 2 Anniversary with fully featured mod support for Fable 2's anniversary next year.

>half the decisions had no reason you shouldn't be able to do both if you had enough money, building a new factory and an orphanage etc

Lionheads dead and the franchise is being used as a Card game by Microsoft. I wouldn't keep your hopes high. I find it insulting that Jack is being used as the fucking mascot for this hearthstone cash in.

If that came it would be done by the same hacks who did Fable 1's remaster.

Fable 1's remaster wasn't THAT bad. The pointless cosmetic DLCs were weird since you can still buy Solus Greatsword the second after you finish the arena and it's better than anything else in the game.

That's okay, Fable TLC already ruined Jack, I'm aware that Lionhead is gone, I remember distinctly that Microsoft tried to sell just the studio and none of it's IPs with it and was dumbfounded that they couldn't find a buyer, really reveals their incompetence as a publisher.

Still better than no Fable 2 on PC.

>this is our King. he's a swell as fuck guy. oh don't worry about how he looks like the devil himself, someone dared him to eat a dozen live chickens last week and he hasn't gotten around to gifting people random shit he's carrying to atone

>already ruined Jack
I've played TLC so many times I've almost forgotten Jack's old creepy voice.

>like how there isn't feasibly enough money to maintain all the promises

Just buy real estate you dummy.

Yes it was. It looks worse than an early 2000s game.

Why does everyone keep saying TLC ruined Jack? His old voice made him sound like a creepy pedophile.

...

Fuck you, old Jack voice was good, and I mostly hate what TLC did with Jack as a character, he was great in base Fable, you know when he was the man behind the mask, and not the mask itself, unless he was always the mask in original Fable and I somehow missed that.

TLC felt tacked on in general, the only real value it held was seeing the other heroes a few more times, since they just appeared randomly throughout the story, and in general felt cheap as fuck.

>not exploiting glitches to dupe up infinite gold then being an asshole anyway

Fable was pretty much the Spore and NMS for me, the game that got me hyped and everything was cut or a goddamn lie.

With that said, I don't think the original Fable is necessarily bad, just way, WAAAAY over-hyped for what it was. I think Fable 2 at the very least was closer to what I envisioned the original Fable to be, and Fable III shit on everything and dumbed a already pretty casual series down even more.

The "man behind the mask" looked like the typical faggot from muh animes. So it was a good thing to just focus on the mask which was his actual body.

I probably only like Fable because I never read the hype about it, it sounds like if you knew about it beforehand you were destined for disappointment.

Nope.

Yes.

No, Nu jack is as compelling as the antagonist of Fable 3, even if you don't like True Jack he's still a more compelling and interesting Villain than Nu Jack da Ancient Evil WeWuz bad, because ancient be bad.

>Peter Molenyeux

List the key differences between pedophile Jack and Nu Jack please.

does the first one hold up? I've never played through an entire fable game.

It's a pretty good game so long as you weren't there for the original promises meme.

Old Jack is mysterious man who's fame preceeds him, he is only really recognized as the icon Jack of Blades, not as the individual Jack of Blades, Nu Jack has a shitty voice and is an ancient evil because ancient evils are always the laziest fucking excuse for an antagonist.

Even the old man in Fable 2 was a better antagonist than Nu Jack.

Because a game titled Fable needs to have morally grey edgy grimdark morality choices doesn't it?

Something a little better than give a starving african child a cigarette or light him on fire.

What were the promises other than the tree one?

A blast from the ass.
youtube.com/watch?v=oSaw85bliyQ

But Jack was always the "ancient evil" his story was he managed to survive being killed by Archoen while Queen and Knight died, went into hiding and resurfaced just now with an army of hijacked old kingdom minions. I don't see how his voice from being the creepy pedophile janitor to edited dark voice changes this.

Dumb fuck, it is called Fable. I understand your complaint if it were just about any other game but having such black and white morality for such games makes complete sense and even adds to the charm of these games. Now if you are arguing you want more choices to be stereotypical good or evil that is a different story. But if you are seriously saying such games need morally grey choices then fuck right off with that nonsense.

Imagine how good a Fable 4 or Fable 2 AE would look using Legends graphics

But nah, cancel everything

Also yes I got that shitty reference you made from that shitty forgotten game.

Fable 1 and 2 were good. They aren't close to best games ever but they were good. They needed some better gameplay design and more open world but honestly it isn't worth dwelling on that since these games were still good all things considered. They just admittedly had a lot of things holding them back from being all time greats like many other games we talk about regularly here on Sup Forums. One of the biggest issues for these games are they were way too easy. I never played 3 and heard it was awful so no comment on that. Someone needs to make a spiritual successor to these games besides that kingdom of alumar game.

Fable was broken from it's Magic system, and that's what made it fun. Fable 3 was so horrible on many fronts but it's fucking pathetic magic with the stupid fucking gloves made the game a slog. You were forced into dogshit melee and gun attacks that did fuck all.

Everything combat related was broken in the games. I mean no matter what you do the games are easy enough. Its basically like picking between easy, easier and easiest with your choices for combat.

It's how black and white it is, to the point where many evil morality decisions don't make any fucking sense except hurr evil, even having a good vs bad is fine, if they could actually make most of them fucking logical, even against the games own mechanics evil is pointless, it gives you nothing but gold which is not hard to acquire, at best it exists as a shallow novelty that wears off well before you've finished your first playthrough.

The steam age was a mistake

Im dumb but I still felt bummed by Lionhead getting axed. I thought they could maybe learn from 3 and make a good fable game.
>after this vr bullshit, then comes the real fable game
>okay, maybe after this multiplayer bullshit they'll make a real fable
At least I have closure now I guess

I even asked if he was always the ancient Evil, I haven't played Fable 1 in years, his nu voice still sucks shit, and if that's the only difference than fine old jack is still better than nu jack.

>go arcane/skill glowing amazon in fable 2
>two shot the spire shard
I usually say the shard was the final boss of fable 2, not the old fuck, but I had forgotten about two shotting it

Fable 2 was a good blend of it. 3 took it too far getting rid of pretty much all the original shit for wolves, gay pirates and angry towel head roasties.

>TLC felt tacked on in general, the only real value it held was seeing the other heroes a few more times, since they just appeared randomly throughout the story, and in general felt cheap as fuck.

Most of it was cut content they re-added. It was impossible to take the 3 missions in the quest map system when you first take the Orchard Farm mission because you couldnt go to Hook coast that early in the game, you were supposed to meet Briar Rose or whatever her name was but she wasn't in the base game. It bugged a lot of people that you couldn't take those missions.

I remember looking forward to playing an evil character for the second playthroughs, but there's just no fun in it in any of the games. It's just bullshit like proving you're evil by eating a live chicken or killing someone. Sure, there's the occasional human sacrifice in there, but let me be evil without just killing people like a tard.

Fable 3 tried do sorta fix that with the choices you make as a king, but they completely fucked that up.

Gotta get that skorm's bow 2 hours into the game and your first legendary weapon by eating 8 crunchy chicks, yo.

Playing evil early on is the best way to play.

...

It came out when I was 12. All I knew is that you could be evil and kill people and have sex so it must've been the coolest thing ever. At the risk of sounding just as edgy as I was back then, that game taught me a valuable lesson: you can be the cruelest most evil son of a bitch alive, as long as the public perception of you is stronger than those accusations.