Focusing on fantasy over any other genre sounds great for Fable 4. Playground is wise to bring the franchise back to basics, especially since this is its first RPG; a standard high fantasy experience will allow Playground to stretch its legs. Perhaps more importantly, returning to the basics could help Playground expand the fundamentals of the Fable world. While the previous Fable games included plenty of fantasy creatures, Fable 4 is a great opportunity to make that roster even more diverse, pulling from British folklore and other European myths to give players memorable combat encounters and NPC interactions.
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Fable’s Fantasy Creatures
There’s plenty of fun takes on classic fantasy creatures in the original Fable games. Balverines spring to mind immediately as a type of werewolf with multiple forms. Swarms of Hollow Men provide a spooky undead threat to players, meanwhile hobbes threaten the player in forests and caves, much like goblins. Like most fantasy RPGs, Fable features plenty of human enemies like bandits and highwaymen, but the various monsters that also crop up in Fable encounters keep combat more interesting since developers can only come up with so many variations of bandits.
Monsters and magical creatures can have more unique attacks than human enemies because of their magical talents, so Fable 4 should work to bring more of these creatures into the franchise. The game is supposedly taking a lot of inspiration from Great Britain, so it’d be great to see stories about the fae and other magical entities result in a litany of new creatures for Fable players to encounter. Maybe there will be more minor dragons to battle in Fable 4, deceptive fae who trick players into dangerous situations, or woodland witches who summon malevolent forces to attack Fable 4’s heroes.
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Playground’s New Fable Brand
Bringing more fantasy creatures into Fable as a part of Fable 4 would help Playground establish itself as the franchise’s new developer. While Playground hasn’t gone into detail on whether it’s going to reuse the original trilogy’s land of Albion or not, odds are that Albion will look very different if it does return. Playground’s Fable team will certainly have a different vision for the franchise than the original developers at Lionhead Studios. Since change is inevitable, Playground ought to lean into that change and find creative ways to leave its mark on Fable.
Fable may have its share of goblins, fairies, and werewolves, but these only scratch the surface of potential fantasy creatures that can populate Fable 4’s landscape. Digging deep into European mythology will help Playground come up with all kinds of compelling new monsters that support the setting’s British theme. Ideally, Fable 4 will revive some of the franchise’s most beloved concepts like its morality system, while introducing tons of new content that builds on top of those core features. New monsters and magical creatures referencing some of Great Britain’s oldest myths and stories would help create memorable characters that players can work with, as well as notorious enemies who are always satisfying to defeat.
Fable 4 is in development for PC and Xbox Series X/S.
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