Weekend Confirmed’s Garnett Lee agrees with me, Fable 1 is the best of the series. I dunno if we come to the conclusion in the same way, but we agree on that much.
I felt that the change from F1 to F2 was far too big. The combat system was completely reworked. Melee/ranged combat is better with F2’s system, but F1’s magic system was far, far better. F3 adjusted the magic system from F2 to be more enjoyable. Feature wise, I prefer most of F1’s mechanics over F2 or 3 otherwise. I enjoyed F2 a lot, but the HUGE shift in the story bugged me. The idea is that it takes place 200 years later. My problem? it’s far, far more than 200 years later. More like 1500 years later, minimum. F1 is more like a Author/Merlin era story, and F2 is more Robin Hood, maybe even past that. There’s so little to do with the first game.
So, I had an idea. A series of thoughts. To understand this, you have to have played Fable 1, at least. Fable: The Lost Chapters would be better considering the longer story arc. I’ll also be referencing mechanics from the second and third games, so … really, if you haven’t played all of them, you probably won’t get this.
I want a Fable prequel MMO on the console.
The basic story:
In Fable 1 we learn that the Guildmaster took over the Hero’s guild, allowing for heroes to do as they wish. No forced goodness. You’re a “Hero-classed” person, but you can be a hero or a villain. I want the prequel to take place around this time, of the guild being “refreshed.” Maybe the “starting zone” is the actual fight to take over, you’re helping the Guildmaster. Then the Guildmaster goes “kk, we won. Go out in the world, do stuff, help the Guild rebuild a name with the people… or whatever.” Then you’re out, leveling, doing stuff. Evil or Good, your choice.
One of the problems I had with F2 and 3 was that the new environments/maps/zones/levels or whatever you want to call it, at best, have little “nods” to a zone in the previous game. Example: In Fable 2, when you’re running around Wraithmarsh, you run over a bridge… The bridge from Oakvale in the first game. Otherwise, Oakvale doesn’t exist, at all, whatsoever. In Fable 3 Bowerstone has been COMPLETELY reordered, the only thing that looks familiar is the “center” of Bowerstone Market, the clock tower, the bridge, the stupid pig statue thing even got moved to another area. Brightwood’s lake is now Mourningwood, but developed with housing and whatnot.
Obviously, places like Bowerstone will grow/expand over time. That’s fine. The MMO could include “ancient” versions of all of the zones from each of the three games, interweaving them bit by bit so if you’ve played them you can go “OOOHHH, so Darkwood is east of Brightwood…” Part of the problem with each game is certain zones have names VERY similar to previous games, but they’re very different zones. I’d like to see some sort of thing along the lines of “It’s not that these zones changed so much in 50 years, it’s just you weren’t going thru them.” Why am I, as the gamer, stuck trying to figure out “ok… so Bowerstone’s here, but this new zone… where the hell was this in the last game? It looks COMPLETELY different, there wasn’t a lake here…” I understand it’s a new game, you can’t just rehash old maps with new textures because people will be pissed… but it still bugs me.
Mechanics:
Four person parties. A tank, healer, and two damage. Four people so that you can use the d-pad to target your party members to heal or buff.
Use the targeting system for melee/ranged combat of the first game, but for magic use the system from the third game. Bring back gear that effects your stats, not just how handsome/pretty you are. Plate is for tanks, +health stuff. Mail increases ranged attack stats, leather for melee stats, and cloth for “caster” stats.
The magic system from F2, where they merged spells into “don’t target it for AoE, or target it and it hits one guy” was a great idea. I like that a lot. the problem is it’s too hard to change spells on the fly. Bring back Fable 1’s use of a modifier button (pull a trigger, your A B X Y buttons now cast spells instead of … whatever else) for more spells for casters/healers. Add in some more spells that are some kinds of buffs, or change them so they’re in some way specific to filling a roll. Like, ghost swords do crap damage but do loads of threat. Multi-arrow for ranged damage, double swing for melee. Then things like lightning/fire/etc are for caster dps.
I wouldn’t want to see WoW style talent trees in a Fable MMO, but you could get the same effect with something like Global Agenda’s method of talents. I’m thinking for Fable, being x level means you have y number of spells to get. Besides gear, the only thing that “defines” you as a class is the spells you can cast. You can have 4 spells (effectively 8 if you can tinker some for balanced “target a mob for direct damage or no targeting for AoE”), that’s it. So, caster’s and healers wear the same gear, but they’ll use very different spells.
Otherwise, it’s all a matter of blending in standard MMO tropes (read: rip off WoW) and blending in your Fable-ness. You already have zones, you can pretty easily do a sort of “instancing” like WoW does. You have a rich story with lots of background to build off in many different directions. You can do things in a sort of Global Agenda method of “generic bosses at end of dungeon” or you can do a sort of Fable/WoW blend of bandit dungeons, hobb dungeons, balverine dungeons, etc, etc with specific bosses at each end. You can keep the strong Good vs. Evil vibe of all Fables pretty easily. Everyone’s a member of the Guild but the Guild is factioned. Continuing on WoW references, the Guild is your Shattrath/Dalaran type places, and Temple of Skorm/Temple of Avo are your Orgimmar or Stormwind.
Anyways, for me part of why I think Fable 1 is the best of the series is it’s story. It’s not the best gaming story ever, but it was perfect for what it was. It hit every point it was trying to, weaved wonderfully with the game mechanics, and really made for a fun game. I think a Fable MMO, blending together mechanics from each of the three games, could be amazing. I really think that the story would have to a prequel to the first game, though, because 2 and 3 have gone in such a far direction it’ll be leaving the realm of “classic fantasy.”
