It's been a long, long time since we've had a Fable game. The last one to see the light of day was the Kinect-exclusive Fable: The Journey in 2012, and the last mainline instalment came two years prior with Fable 3. Unsurprisingly, news of the series' revival overjoyed fans, but we've now gone so long without an update that it's not clear what this new game will look like.
In the absence of any official information, fans are coming together to share what they would like to see in the sequel. From new combat mechanics to a more in-depth family system, longtime Fable players have no shortage of ideas for the next game – whenever it actually launches. One of the most popular suggestions even takes inspiration from God of War Ragnarok, with fans hoping to see developer Playground Games take inspiration from other modern titles.
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Over in the Fable subreddit, one of the most popular posts is a poll on what feature fans want from the next game. The most popular suggestion, sitting at 204 votes at the time of writing, is for the Hero to be able to raise their own Hero children that age enough to be taken on adventures of their own, God of War style.
In second place is the ability to tame and arm monsters such as Balverines, letting you use them to help you in combat. In the original trilogy, the closest we got to this was the ability to raise the dead, although this was only temporary and didn't let you buff the monsters with your own items.
What's a feature you'd want to see in the next Fable? from Fable
Other ideas from the poll include a first-person mode, and a wider range of weapons and monsters. Given how long Fable 4 (if it's even called that) has been in development for, there's a good chance that idea will be in the final game.
In the replies, fans share even more possible features for the next Fable game.
"Landownership, businesses etc. on steroids," proposes Reddit user shawnikaros "Take what old Fables had and turn it into [an] actual gameplay mechanic."
Many would like to see more varied character customisation, but still have it be influenced by our actions like in previous games. "What I really want is for your appearance to drastically change with your morality alignment," says one user. "Imagine being pure evil and you end up looking like Dante's Devil Trigger form from Devil May Cry 4 and 5. Or the other way around, you look like a beautiful angel with wings."
Gamingpro2022, on the other hand, would like to see a return to the old. "My real choice would be, go back to Fable one fighting and levelling system," they explain. "No charge-up magic, and ability to combine magic with melee or archery."
On the whole, those who want to see influences from previous games mainly focus on elements from the first Fable, rather than the dumbed-down combat we got in Fable 2 and 3.
In any case, all we have to go on right now is an incredibly short teaser trailer. With any luck, 2023 will bring us more news from the game's production. But if the reports from last year are to be believed, it's possible that we're in for another quiet year.