Fable devs say they’re aiming to keep the RPG’s combat “approachable” in line with the series’ legacy.
Speaking to Edge magazine, associate director Will Kennedy explained that the combat in the original Fable games “has a legacy of being quite approachable, so that’s something we kept in mind while developing our combat system.” But while that means you’re not in for Dark Souls-style brawls, it doesn’t mean there’s not different forms of complexity hidden in the combat system.
Arrows, for example, can be aimed at certain body parts. If you hit the leg of an undead ‘Hollow’ enemy, for instance, they’ll fall to the ground and crawl towards you. “If you decapitate them,” explains Craig Littler, another associate director, “they don’t know where to go […] When you do that to a ranged enemy […] they’re just firing off in every direction.”
Elsewhere, the pair explain that the ‘Befowl’ spell, which turns enemies into chickens, behaves differently against Hollow; “they turn into undead chickens,” explains Kennedy. “And if you use Fireball on a chicken, they turn into a roast chicken. There are lots of little details.”
The approachability of Fable’s combat is part of a wider move to not rely on fighting. Littler explains that rather than always fighting, some quests will rely on dialogue choices or the game’s reputation system. “There are quests that are much broader,” he says. “More exploration, even a puzzle or two along the way. One of the things we’re really proud about is the variety of activities and how they all harmonize to tell a story that you feel really involved in.”
Fable’s combat shows a lot of promise, but I’m glad it’s not launching this year.