'' is a Video Game for Xbox . It was developed by Big Blue Box , a satellite of Lionhead Studios , and was published by Microsoft . Shipped to retail on September 14 2004 , ''Fable'' was well-received by critics for the quality of its gameplay and execution, even as they lamented its failure to include many of the features promised by creator Peter Molyneux .1 The game's music was composed by Russell Shaw , and the opening title theme was composed by Danny Elfman .
An extended version of the game, '''', was released for Windows , and Xbox on September of 2005 .
In the game, the player controls the main character from a third person perspective. The character can be made to interact with people and objects, and in battle can be made to attack and execute skills by utilizing user-defined Keyboard Shortcuts .
Fable features a unique character customization system based on the concept that everything the character does affects him. If he eats too much, he will gain weight. if he doesn't block in battle, he will have scars, and if he stands in the sun too long, he will tan, Having the character drink too much beer will make him throw up and cause the screen to become blurry.
The method of combat affects the hero's appearance, a warrior who uses heavy weapons will find his musculature and size increase, an archer will be lean and sleek, a mage will have glowing hands and can gain access to blue tattoos.
Every article of clothing the character acquires will change his in-game appearance. He can be further customized through a variety of haircuts, facial hair, and tattoo cards which allow for a range of Body Modification options. The clothing, hairstyle, and tattoos the character wears will affect the way he is seen by the Non-player Character s.
The actions that the character makes will award either good or evil points. Killing Monster s or saving villagers will result in achieving good points. Committing a crime, killing an innocent person, or getting a spouse to divorce you will accumulate evil points. These affect not only the responses of the non-player characters, but also the appearance of the character. A hero with an abundance of good points will soon find a Halo surrounding his head, Butterflies swarming around him and his hair will turn blonde. An evil character will sprout horns, emit a red haze from around their legs, draw wasps, and have glowing red eyes, in addition to getting a receding hairline. As he grows older, whether he is good or evil, his hair will start to turn white. The apparent age of the hero is related to the core skills he acquires. the higher he raises his level, the older his appearance becomes.
The player is able to buy property, or rent it out, and, of course, live there. In each of the larger towns, there is a marital house that the player can buy. The player can also kill citizens of the town, and the deceased person's house or shop will appear for sale. When bought, the player can decorate the house and place trophies on trophy mounts to increase the value of the house. This value increase is especially beneficial if the house is being rented out. For houses, each day results in rent amounting to 5% of the value of the house, with shops and taverns having a lower percentage.
Throughout the game, a player has to earn experience points in order to purchase or upgrade abilities and statistics. Points earned have four categories: General, Strength, Skill, and Will. General points are gained through completion of quests and killing enemies and creatures. How the player goes about killing those creatures will affect in which of the other three categories they will gain points. Making the Hero use melee weapons to attack an enemy or making him eat healthy food earns Strength points. Firing the bow or engaging in trade earns Skill points. Using magic often earns Will points. The experience the character gains can be multiplied during combat through the combat multiplier. As the character successfully hits an enemy (melee, ranged or will attack) their combat multiplier increases. If the character is hit by the enemy, the combat multiplier drops down to the next multiple of five, or zero if below five. For example, if twelve experience points are earned and the combat multiplier is ten, the actual experience awarded is 120. Leveling up also ages the Hero.
The primary method of defense in the game comes from the types of clothing that the Hero acquires and wears. In addition to providing defensive properties, clothes also affect the way the Hero is perceived by the various NPCs throughout the game.
Light-colored clothing makes the Hero look more noble to the townspeople, and thus cause them to praise and respect him. Dark-colored clothing causes the Hero to seem evil or threatening to townspeople, and cause them to fear him.
The game centers on the only playable character, a male referred to by his title or only as the Hero . Players are able to buy new titles throughout the game such as "Ranger", "Chicken Chaser", and others including ones that can only be earned. The Hero lives in a land known as Albion .The name Albion is the ancient name for Great Britain . The period wherein the story is set is similar to the Middle Ages , but the history behind it - the land being ruled by one king through an ancient bloodline which leads directly into the current chaos - is clearly not. As a child, the Hero's village was raided and destroyed by bandits. A Hero named Maze saves him and brings him to the Heroes' Guild to be trained to become a Hero. He then embarks on a journey to discover the reason behind his village's destruction, discovering his destiny and the true fate of his family along the way.
- - The main character of the game, whose birth name is never mentioned during the game (though players may purchase a title from vendors throughout the game). His appearance is customizable, and thus depends on the players' preferences. For instance, the hero can get different haircuts and facial hair, and can get various tattoos. His height varies, presumably, from 5'8" to 7', as compared to the sizes of various NPCs. His height depends on the level of his Skill, and his overall musculature depends on the level of his Strength. The Hero is able to become the strongest Hero in Albion because of his ancient bloodline connected to Archon, the royal bloodline of the Old Kingdom.
- - The Guildmaster is one of the oldest Heroes alive. He operates the Heroes' Guild and is in charge of training Hero apprentices. The Guildmaster watches over every step of the Hero's journey through the Hero's Guild Seal, often offering advice and issuing orders along the way. In '''', the Hero is given the option of killing the Guildmaster to collect his soul.
- - An old '', the Snowspire Oracle reveals that as a young boy, Maze's parents were killed by Balverines, but Maze was saved from certain death by Jack of Blades and two Heroes (Jack killed the Balverines that were about to kill Maze, and then killed the Heroes). Maze was never able to escape from Jack's shadow. Maze is voiced by Alexander Spencer .
- - The Hero's friend and sometimes his rival, an '', if she is spared, she will realize the Hero is a much greater hero and will leave Albion for her distant homeland. Later in the game it is hinted that the Hero has a soft spot for her.
- - A large, heavily-armored man, standing over 7 feet tall in his full armor. Thunder is one of the few Heroes who conquered the Arena without taking a break, and is thus honored as Champion of the Arena. He is initially disdainful of the Hero, and continues to look down upon him throughout the game. Thunder is in love with Lady Grey and obsessively courts her, and thus develops a grudge against the Hero when Lady Grey becomes interested in him instead. If the Hero kills Whisper in the Arena, Thunder will hate him even more. Thunder makes a brief appearance near the end of the main story to aid the Hero in fighting off some of Jack of Blades' monsters. Near the end of '''', the player is given the option of killing Thunder to collect his soul. The player may also fight him (but not to the death) during a quest to marry Lady Grey.
- : - A very powerful and intelligent female Hero. In '''', Briar Rose helps the Hero decipher the ancient glyphs in Archon's Shrine, and the player is given the option of killing her to collect her soul.
- - The seductive but villainous Mayor of Bowerstone, and also possibly of Oakvale, due to the location of her now haunted mansion and the appearance of a mayoral figure in the game's first fresco (seemingly her father). In her youth, Lady Grey was convinced by Jack of Blades to murder her older sister, Amanda, so that she could inherit the position of Mayor. In the original game, the Hero is given the option of marrying or not. In '''', the Hero may also expose her villainous deeds and take her place as Mayor. Although the parts of the quest that involve exposing her as a murderer are in the original Fable, the player cannot act on it even when finding proof.
- - The Hero's mother. She was once a famous Slayer of Balverines, and was respected as Champion of the Arena and the greatest female Hero. When she was severely injured by Balverines during a particular battle, Scarlet Robe was found and nursed back to health by Brom, and the two of them fell in love, got married, and raised a family. She is eventually killed by Jack of Blades to activate the Sword of Aeons. Near the end of '''', the Hero can ask Scarlet Robe to give him her soul so that he can activate Archon's Shrine and fight Jack of Blades' new form.
- - The Hero's older sister who has prophetic powers due to their ancient bloodline. During the Oakvale raid, Jack of Blades blinded her, and she was found by Twinblade and raised by bandits, eventually becoming Twinblade's second-in-command due to her prophetic powers. Despite her blindness, Theresa possesses '', after the battle with Jack of Blades, she headed off to the mountains and was taken in by a nomad who later tried to steal her prophetic powers. Theresa killed him and moved off to live in the east. Oddly enough, though she is the Hero's older sister, one of the cutscenes in the game shows the Hero as a young boy and Theresa as a baby.
- - A gigantic ex-Hero who left the Guild to unite a dozen bandit factions and become the King of Bandits. When Maze alludes to him being responsible for the raid on Oakvale the main character then enters into his camp and defeats him personally. Before finishing the duel, the hero is interrupted by his sister, who reveals that it was Twinblade who found her after the raid, and saved her from the eventual death Jack of blades (the real commander of the raid) left her for after cutting her eyes out. Teresa then leaves, and the hero is given the choice of eliminating or sparing him. Either way, Twinblade or his followers later hire a band of assassins to kill the hero.
- - Scythe is an ancient Hero and one of the oldest beings in Albion (only Jack of Blades is said to have seen and done more than Scythe). Scythe is obsessed with cheating death, and he has only managed to live for so long due to supernatural means. He is a withered shell of a man, resembling a tall, mummified corpse. At the beginning of the game, he leaves for the distant Northern Wastes to guard the Oracle of Snowspire. He returns after the defeat of Jack of Blades to seek the Guild's help in battling a new threat to the Northern Wastes. He is the only Hero in the game the player is never given the option of killing (which is strange because Archon's Shrine askes for the oldest soul and only the Guildmaster and Nostro are considered for this position, and Scythe is older then them as he existed long before the guild) . He only appears in ''''.
- - Described by the Oracle in '''' as one of the few people with a genuine academic interest in the Old Kingdom, the Archaeologist seems to perpetually be in hiding. His hiding place is compromised by the Hero on at least one occasion. According to the Oracle, the Archaeologist moved away and became a trader, and he never opened a book or dug up a fossil again.
- - A deceased hero, once known as "The Gatekeeper". When he was alive, Nostro founded the Heroes' Guild, but was only happy with a blade in his hand. In '''', he is shown wearing bronze-colored armor. It is revealed that he had not died the way he wished to, as he had died at the hands of his assistant, who had poisoned him. Because of his manner of death, his soul wanders Lychfield in perpetual torment. The hero has a choice of collecting Nostro's soul and to use it to feed the Bronze Gate.
- - Jack is widely known as the oldest and strongest of Heroes, as well as the most evil and feared. His face is perpetually concealed by a white mask with a strange pattern. The Hero eventually learns that it was Jack who destroyed his hometown and killed his father. Jack seeks the power of the Sword of Aeons, which can only be activated by the Archon bloodline found in the Hero's family. Once he uses Maze to gain the key to unlock the sword, Jack lays siege to the Heroes' Guild and nearly kills the Guildmaster. After Jack takes the Sword of Aeons, he kills Scarlet Robe and engages in battle against the Hero, during which he is slain at the end of the original game. In '''', it is revealed that Jack was never a hero or even a mortal man, but a malevolent being who predates the age of gods and demons by millennia. Jack's spirit lives inside the mask, which he forged of pure evil to gain immortality, and has used countless host bodies to influence Albion from century to century. After his initial defeat, Jack's soul escapes and takes the form of a large dragon sealed behind the Bronze Gate near Archon's Shrine. The Hero uses Jack's mask to gather three Hero souls and open the Bronze Gate, then proceeds to slay Jack's new form. The player is then given the final task of casting the mask into the vortex and destroying it, thus banishing Jack from the living world forever (the 'good' path). Alternativeley, the Hero can wear Jack's mask and take over Jack's identity and reign of terror (the 'evil' path).
Note: There is some ambiguity as to the story of Jack's mask. Some claim there was only one Jack of Blades who was, at one time, a Hero (which can be proven by finding the statue of Jack at the Guild gardens), while others claim the mask existed before the age of humanity. The game alludes to many of these theories, but who or what Jack of Blades was is never specifically stated.
- Many of the gamemaker's names (over 25) can be found on the gravestones throughout the game. In , Peter Molyneux's grave can be found in Snowspire village saying he tamed lions and always reached for the stars. A gravestone of Russell Shaw can be found in Hook Coast.
- A few cameos are made on gravestones within the game. In the Lychfield Graveyard the hero finds a grave that reads: "Cpt. J. Sparrow. A wind at your back forever, sir". This is a reference to . The grave mentions that this person gave support until the end. Another grave reads "No man can hold his breath for ten minutes," referencing Guybrush Threepwood of the Monkey Island series. Also in the Lychfield Graveyard, a gravestone near the gate reads, "Here lies Brom. Lost his family and his life to bandits." This is most likely the Hero's father's grave, although there is a cemetery in Oakvale for victims of the bandit raid.
- This game won two Dubious Honors in GameSpot 's Best & Worst of 2004: "Most Light Bloom" and "Biggest Disappointment."23
- In the expansion, '''' the teacher of the school in Bowerstone will make a reference to a popular author. If he is handed the book 'A Hero's Journey 3', he will comment on its author Jack Stevenson. In real life, there actually is an author named Steve Jackson (who wrote the 'choose your own adventure' books series known as '' Fighting Fantasy '').
- In one of the houses in Oakvale, it is possible to find a book called "The Trials of Aarkan". It talks about the story of a young man whose village is destroyed, who is taken in and trained by a wise old man, and who grows up to defeat an ancient evil. This is both a self-referential description of the game's plot, as well as a joke about how many RPGs have the same basic story.
- Found in the expansion endgame, the expressions learned from the glyphs of inquiry spell "YMCA". When used, these expressions will make the hero perform the YMCA dance.
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