First let me say I am a big fan of the Fable games. I own Fable TLC, Fable 2 and Fable 3 collectors edition. I've played through Fable TLC from start to finish eight times, Fable 2 four times and Fable 3 once. I have thoroughly enjoyed all three games. Having said that Fable 3 had a few issues that I'd like to see fixed for Fable 4.
Now let me be clear and say that Fable 3 did have some great things about it. The wide open areas, weapon morphing and voiced PC were all great. All things I want to see return in Fable 4. Infact Fable 3 could easily be my favourite Fable if not for a few things.
1:
Character morphing in Fable 3 plain sucked. I have always considered character morphing the signature feature of the Fable series. It's one of the things that kept me playing through Fable TLC and Fable 2 multiple times. Watching my character morph into an angelic or demonic being based on their actions was great. Fable 2 greatly improved over Fable and Fable TLCs character morphing. It was my hope that Fable 3 would again improve over Fable 2 systems. I was hoping for twice as many morphs as in previous games. I was hoping I'd finally be able to have my character turn into that red demon that's on Fable 2s box.
Sadly Fable 3 did not improve on the character morphing system. It instead stripped it back to almost nothing. In fact nothing would have been better then what we actually got.
My character hardly morphed at all during the game. No pearly white smile, halo, demon horns or demonic scars. What little changes happened were terrible. My characters face got pale and not the cool vampire/goth type pale but some sort of hideous paleness that should not exist. She (yes I was playing the princess) also lost her eye brows. It was terrible. Towards the end of the game you finally unlock your wings. Finally I thought, my character would morph into somthing awesome. Alas this was not the case. Now I wont say that the wings don't look awesome, they do. However they almost never get seen. You only get to see them when you flourish or use certain expressions. Because you only get you're wings at the end of the game though you only get about an hour (if that) of gameplay to enjoy them before it's all over. I mean sure you can keep playing, running around killing beasts and making friends with villages but at that point you may as well start the game over again. I'd also like to briefly critique that the evil and goods wings were far to similar. The evil wings were just red versions of the good wings. They really should have been far more demonic.
With all that in mind I'm really hoping Fable 4 brings back character morphing and greatly improves it. Add in all the morphs from Fable 2 and then more. Have full on angelic forms where our characters glow and have bird wings. Have full demonic forms where our characters have red, firey skin and bat wings. In fact have multiple demon and angel forms, multiple wing types and multiple things in between. Zombie and Vampire morphs for example. Also add an ability to save your current morph. Once saved your character keeps what they currently look like no matter what actions they take. This way someone can create the sort of character look they like and then not have to worry their zombie might become a demon because of a few corrupt actions they take.
2:
Lack of weapon types. Fable had a big range of different weapons. Two handed axes, swords and hammers. One handed swords and Katanas. It was awesome. Fable 2 cut back on weapon types (no more 2h swords for example) but still kept a nice range. Fable 3 gave us two types of melee weapons (1h swords and 2h hammers) and two types of guns (pistols and rifles). This sucked. Simply put Fable 4 needs to add back in all the different weapon types from the first game and then some. Two handed hammers, axes and swords. One handed swords, axes and hammers. Katanas and cutlasses. Pistols, rifles, blunderbusses, crossbows and long bows. Don't take this suggestion of more weapon types as me suggesting that weapon morphing should be removed. Weapon morphing was cool and should stay. It could perhapes use a bit of twinking though. Having your weapons actually change during play while you're using them instead of changing after you buy a weapon upgrade would be a good start.
Also Staffs.
3:
The dog in Fable 3 felt tacked on and pointless. In Fable 2 the dog was a nice change from the standard interface. The dog was also written into the story and felt like it belonged. It was somthing you could care about. In Fable 3 the dog felt like it was there for no reason other then to be there. It wasn't part of the story at all. This was a great shame. If a dog is included in Fable 4 it needs to be written into the story.
4:
No reasons to change clothes (and a serious suggestion). Ok this is kind of a joke reason and it's sort of a compliment to the art team. I picked the practical princess outfit for my princess to wear and it was just such a good looking piece of gear I played through the whole game wearing it and never wanted to change it at all. Simply put none of the other clothing in the game could hold up to that outfit. I find it funny given that Molyneux actually wanted people to change clothes: http://kotaku.com/5493244/peter-molyneux-wants-fable-iii-players-to-change-their-clothes
While I changed clothes in Fable and Fable 2 and created my own look I never changed in Fable 3. In Fable 4 they need to add in more cool looking clothes that I actually want to wear. Also bring back the practical princess outfit. That thing was awesome.
The serious part of this reason/suggestion thing is that in Fable 4 they need to add more armour clothing. Fable 2 had no armour. Fable 3 tried to fix this with the soldier armour and some DLC armour. Fable 4 needs to give us access to the clothing of Fable 2 and 3 but the heavy chain and plate armour from the original game. Note that when I say armour I mean purely looks. It wouldn't add defence or anything.
5:
Legendary weapons sucked. There was no reason to use them. In Fable 4 I'd like to suggest that legendary weapons are the best in the game but that they are also very hard to get. That only people willing to put in the time and effort will be using them. Instead of just finding them behind demon doors or inside silver key chests they should be gotten through epic and hard quest chains, puzzles and optional boss kills.
Also give me back the Solus Greatsword and Berserker spell. Those rocked.
______________________________________________________________________
SPOILERS FOR FABLE 2 AND 3 BELOW! DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT BEATEN FABLE 2 AND 3!
______________________________________________________________________
6:
Both the revolution and the shadow invasion felt very lackluster. The revolution didn't really feel like a revolution but rather a small group storming a city. There should have been cut scenes showing people all over Albion rising up and attacking officials.
The shadow invasion sucked. It wasn't even an invasion. Some of Bowerstone got covered in sand and there were some shadow men running around. The whole thing felt miniscule in the grand scheme of things and was over in minutes. It should have been an actual invasion. The shadow should have slowley taken over different parts of Albion with you either out there on the front lines fighting back or commanding troops from the back.
What ever the ending of Fable 4 is it had better be a lot better then Fable 3s.
7:
The end boss fights for Fable 2 and Fable 3 both sucked. The end fight for Fable 2 was a giant crystal that spammed mobs at you and the end fight for Fable 3 was Walter with a shadow skin. Both fights were very boring and easy. Compare that to the original Fable were you fight against a demigod with an all powerful magic sword or TLC were you fight against a Dragon. Fable 4 needs to have an epic and worthy boss fight. A real challange for a hero.
______________________________________________________________________
SPOILERS END HERE!
______________________________________________________________________
I thank you for taking time to read my post. I know it might come across as some pointless whining and you may be tempted to just say "well if you don't like it don't play" but the thing is I do like Fable 3. I just feel it had some issues that I'd like addressed in future installments. I really do hope that there's a Fable 4, 5 and even 6 and that they continue to get better and better and I hope, though I know it's very unlikely, that Peter Molyneux or really anyone from the dev team reads my post and considers what I've written. Even if they don't read my post I hope the issues I have are on their minds and they're thinking about ways to fix them for Fable 4.
Now let me be clear and say that Fable 3 did have some great things about it. The wide open areas, weapon morphing and voiced PC were all great. All things I want to see return in Fable 4. Infact Fable 3 could easily be my favourite Fable if not for a few things.
1:
Character morphing in Fable 3 plain sucked. I have always considered character morphing the signature feature of the Fable series. It's one of the things that kept me playing through Fable TLC and Fable 2 multiple times. Watching my character morph into an angelic or demonic being based on their actions was great. Fable 2 greatly improved over Fable and Fable TLCs character morphing. It was my hope that Fable 3 would again improve over Fable 2 systems. I was hoping for twice as many morphs as in previous games. I was hoping I'd finally be able to have my character turn into that red demon that's on Fable 2s box.
Sadly Fable 3 did not improve on the character morphing system. It instead stripped it back to almost nothing. In fact nothing would have been better then what we actually got.
My character hardly morphed at all during the game. No pearly white smile, halo, demon horns or demonic scars. What little changes happened were terrible. My characters face got pale and not the cool vampire/goth type pale but some sort of hideous paleness that should not exist. She (yes I was playing the princess) also lost her eye brows. It was terrible. Towards the end of the game you finally unlock your wings. Finally I thought, my character would morph into somthing awesome. Alas this was not the case. Now I wont say that the wings don't look awesome, they do. However they almost never get seen. You only get to see them when you flourish or use certain expressions. Because you only get you're wings at the end of the game though you only get about an hour (if that) of gameplay to enjoy them before it's all over. I mean sure you can keep playing, running around killing beasts and making friends with villages but at that point you may as well start the game over again. I'd also like to briefly critique that the evil and goods wings were far to similar. The evil wings were just red versions of the good wings. They really should have been far more demonic.
With all that in mind I'm really hoping Fable 4 brings back character morphing and greatly improves it. Add in all the morphs from Fable 2 and then more. Have full on angelic forms where our characters glow and have bird wings. Have full demonic forms where our characters have red, firey skin and bat wings. In fact have multiple demon and angel forms, multiple wing types and multiple things in between. Zombie and Vampire morphs for example. Also add an ability to save your current morph. Once saved your character keeps what they currently look like no matter what actions they take. This way someone can create the sort of character look they like and then not have to worry their zombie might become a demon because of a few corrupt actions they take.
2:
Lack of weapon types. Fable had a big range of different weapons. Two handed axes, swords and hammers. One handed swords and Katanas. It was awesome. Fable 2 cut back on weapon types (no more 2h swords for example) but still kept a nice range. Fable 3 gave us two types of melee weapons (1h swords and 2h hammers) and two types of guns (pistols and rifles). This sucked. Simply put Fable 4 needs to add back in all the different weapon types from the first game and then some. Two handed hammers, axes and swords. One handed swords, axes and hammers. Katanas and cutlasses. Pistols, rifles, blunderbusses, crossbows and long bows. Don't take this suggestion of more weapon types as me suggesting that weapon morphing should be removed. Weapon morphing was cool and should stay. It could perhapes use a bit of twinking though. Having your weapons actually change during play while you're using them instead of changing after you buy a weapon upgrade would be a good start.
Also Staffs.
3:
The dog in Fable 3 felt tacked on and pointless. In Fable 2 the dog was a nice change from the standard interface. The dog was also written into the story and felt like it belonged. It was somthing you could care about. In Fable 3 the dog felt like it was there for no reason other then to be there. It wasn't part of the story at all. This was a great shame. If a dog is included in Fable 4 it needs to be written into the story.
4:
No reasons to change clothes (and a serious suggestion). Ok this is kind of a joke reason and it's sort of a compliment to the art team. I picked the practical princess outfit for my princess to wear and it was just such a good looking piece of gear I played through the whole game wearing it and never wanted to change it at all. Simply put none of the other clothing in the game could hold up to that outfit. I find it funny given that Molyneux actually wanted people to change clothes: http://kotaku.com/5493244/peter-molyneux-wants-fable-iii-players-to-change-their-clothes
While I changed clothes in Fable and Fable 2 and created my own look I never changed in Fable 3. In Fable 4 they need to add in more cool looking clothes that I actually want to wear. Also bring back the practical princess outfit. That thing was awesome.
The serious part of this reason/suggestion thing is that in Fable 4 they need to add more armour clothing. Fable 2 had no armour. Fable 3 tried to fix this with the soldier armour and some DLC armour. Fable 4 needs to give us access to the clothing of Fable 2 and 3 but the heavy chain and plate armour from the original game. Note that when I say armour I mean purely looks. It wouldn't add defence or anything.
5:
Legendary weapons sucked. There was no reason to use them. In Fable 4 I'd like to suggest that legendary weapons are the best in the game but that they are also very hard to get. That only people willing to put in the time and effort will be using them. Instead of just finding them behind demon doors or inside silver key chests they should be gotten through epic and hard quest chains, puzzles and optional boss kills.
Also give me back the Solus Greatsword and Berserker spell. Those rocked.
______________________________________________________________________
SPOILERS FOR FABLE 2 AND 3 BELOW! DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT BEATEN FABLE 2 AND 3!
______________________________________________________________________
6:
Both the revolution and the shadow invasion felt very lackluster. The revolution didn't really feel like a revolution but rather a small group storming a city. There should have been cut scenes showing people all over Albion rising up and attacking officials.
The shadow invasion sucked. It wasn't even an invasion. Some of Bowerstone got covered in sand and there were some shadow men running around. The whole thing felt miniscule in the grand scheme of things and was over in minutes. It should have been an actual invasion. The shadow should have slowley taken over different parts of Albion with you either out there on the front lines fighting back or commanding troops from the back.
What ever the ending of Fable 4 is it had better be a lot better then Fable 3s.
7:
The end boss fights for Fable 2 and Fable 3 both sucked. The end fight for Fable 2 was a giant crystal that spammed mobs at you and the end fight for Fable 3 was Walter with a shadow skin. Both fights were very boring and easy. Compare that to the original Fable were you fight against a demigod with an all powerful magic sword or TLC were you fight against a Dragon. Fable 4 needs to have an epic and worthy boss fight. A real challange for a hero.
______________________________________________________________________
SPOILERS END HERE!
______________________________________________________________________
I thank you for taking time to read my post. I know it might come across as some pointless whining and you may be tempted to just say "well if you don't like it don't play" but the thing is I do like Fable 3. I just feel it had some issues that I'd like addressed in future installments. I really do hope that there's a Fable 4, 5 and even 6 and that they continue to get better and better and I hope, though I know it's very unlikely, that Peter Molyneux or really anyone from the dev team reads my post and considers what I've written. Even if they don't read my post I hope the issues I have are on their minds and they're thinking about ways to fix them for Fable 4.