Fable Anniversary | The Completionist

expectations can be a killer which is a lesson we've learned over and over in the world of video games back when people first came out in 2004 though it had a lot of promises to live up to but the choice driven fantasy adventure RPG still went on to be a massive success by the time fable anniversary was released a full decade later with improved graphics and the inclusion of the Lost Chapters there had been two equally successful sequels that made the original feel more like a test run for what the series would eventually become lots of people loved it though so I thought it was about time for me to complete fable hey everyone and welcome back to another brand new episode of the completionist today is a day that we are completing fable and up to this point of my life I feel like I've made some pretty good choices I'm a good person who makes good choices I think I think I'm a good person who makes good choices yes [Music] while games have been toying with the concept of choice for forever Babel promised a living breathing world to an extent that was guaranteed to blow everyone's mind people were hungry for an immersive RPG that they could sync their time and emotional investment into much like I'm hungry for I don't know some apple pie you can't eat an RPG without some ice cream man while some of fables choices may look a little quaint from here in the futuristic year of 2018 us cavemen back in 2004 were hyped as hell for a fantasy adventure that took the leash off and really set us loose in a strange world with nothing to guide us but our own shaky morals and trust me my morals are shaky at best when fable was first announced under the name project ego everyone was hype than what was promised because we hadn't yet learned that developer Peter Molyneux of Lionhead Studios likes to just say things that are going to be in his games before he knows whether it's true or not like when he said the game would include a revenge system or the ability to have children but he was out there talking all kinds of big game and by the time the game came out years later it had been built up to almost a mythic proportions people were stoked hyped foaming-at-the-mouth even or maybe that guy at games table just had rabies I don't know so it should come as no surprise that when fable came out it sold like hotcakes which is a stupid expression that no one should say anymore it sold well though is what I'm getting at and was well-received by critics to boot while there were some saying it didn't live up to the hype plenty of people found a unique experience in fables consequence oriented world building and it kicked off a trilogy that consistently did well critically and commercially which is why in 2014 we got fable anniversary a refurbished version of the original for the Xbox 360 with new graphics extra missions and locations from the lost chapter edition game and of course access to achievements that's the version of the game that I'll be playing on Xbox one thanks to the magic of backwards-compatibility fable anniversary has a whole lot going on you guys in order to complete it I'll first be making sure to get all of the games good and evil endings because shades of grey are for wimps next up I'll be beating all of the games missions which includes the main storyline for Lost Chapters and various other random tasks around I'll be on that you can either pick up at the heroes guild or from various farmers in towns folk on top of that already daunting ass task I'll be getting all of them sweet sweet achievements which also means getting all the games collectibles of which there are a lot of from books to keys to legendary weapons and even dolls some of the game's most famous heroes now some of those will be a piece of cake but others like the silver Keys will be way harder to find many of the games non collectible related achievements will allow you to make a choice which I'm beginning to think is a major theme of this game or something they offer two routes to unlocking these achievements with those options sometimes giving you a choice between good and evil but sometimes allowing you to choose how much effort you feel like putting in since the game itself offers up this choice I'll be doing what it takes to unlock each achievement but I'm not gonna be worrying about unlocking it both goddamn ways since technically you can only get it once anyway this games all about choice and that's my choice goddamn it because I'm an adult kind of and lastly the main thing that stands between me and the accolades that will surely rain down upon me when I successfully complete fable anniversary is an achievement requiring you to connect the game to the Xbox 360 smart glass app which isn't really a thing anymore it apparently helps you locate some of the games collectibles and some people report that it's still possible so I'll be doing whatever it takes to track that thing down to get it working I'm sure it'll be fun and not lead to any frustration of any kind because we all know what happens when I get frustrated with the game [Music] alternating between specificity and a generic every fantasy world ever vagueness fable anniversary is an enjoyable but frustrating update that puts a glossy new coat of paint on the original game but leaves plenty of technical issues intact even the main plot beats feel more like playing in a sandbox than participating in an actual story of any kind the story follows a nameless hero in the fantasy world of Albion who watches his village get burned to the ground as a child and is taken in by the hero's guilt which is exactly what it sounds like assuming you have a pretty flexible definition of the word hero once he grows up the hero sets off into the world in search of fame and fortune eventually uncovering secrets about his family and a potentially world-ending plot by a notorious never do well named Jack of blades alright so everything about fables main storyline feels haphazard and thrown together with plot twists coming out of nowhere but in the bad way there's a reveal or two that work but otherwise every turn of the story is drowning in a feeling of fantasy vagueness without ever letting us know why we should care about what's going on jaca blades never solidifies as an interesting villain spending the game instead as a random apple in a mask who's trying to get his sword so we can do some stuff and you have to stop him because reasons you could certainly make an argument that the main storyline isn't the draw of the game but the game itself seems invested in it's haphazard fantasy adventure even when the player would rather be running around kicking chickens it's awesome to see your character bear the physical mark of your actions but it would be even more effective if the player could feel those effects on an emotional level rather than just see them The Lost Chapters which takes place after the original ending widen out the world a bit and add some fun wrinkles but still just feel like a series of tasks leading to a series of battles with no real cause and effect to pull you through the story feels like the game is worried about trapping you with specifics because it's so concerned about being a sandbox that lets you do whatever the hell you want but as a result the story feels almost entirely incidental to the game itself some of the side missions are wacky and fun but none of them any real investment either leaving that up to the player and their own personal investment in the choices they are making it's a choice that pays off sometimes but it's hamstrung by how replaceable everything feels for instance the hero's guild that doesn't care whether you're good or evil and literally just sends you out to do stuff and get famous it's all just generic fantasy detail and it leaves the process of creating a unique experience entirely up to the player I wanted to use my imagination I'd go out and play outside fable one thing that the world of Albion does have in its favor is a sense of humor that has been described by some as Monty Python esque but you know not as good as that sounds it's great that nothing in this world takes itself too seriously in a decent amount of the jokes land especially in the side quests tell them you smash their to fit if they won't be friends with you know Billy threatening people is not really a good way to make friends with them but it's always jarring when the game suddenly tries to convince you it's a serious fantasy epic again as a result I found myself sort of checking out during some of the cutscenes and interactions because of that lack of investment even in its cutscenes the game never achieves an epic feel pulling back after certain milestones so a narrator can fill in the gaps for you he's got a good narrator voice and the story cutscenes look fine and are never too long but they're not anything I can imagine anyone getting excited about this also extends to the endings which are like fine the same goes for the overall visual style of the game which is a solid update from the original but still feels mostly functional the NPC's and the enemies all look alright but there's a shockingly small number of models unless I missed the part of the lore that explains that Albion's populated by a bunch of identical twins or that all the trolls you face are actually just one lonely troll who follows you around trying to be your friend and doesn't understand why you keep hitting him with an axe [Music] asked for your character himself he does change with the game as you participate in good or evil actions and is decently customizable but still looks like some version of a generic fantasy trope no matter what you do although one of my guys basically looked like Kratos by the end so if you feel like pretending that you're playing God of War that's an option the locales can basically all be boiled down to either snowy mountains forests or slightly creepier forests and the towns feel pretty similar to each other as well I understand why each location is as small as it is but combined with that same eNOS it really keeps the game from ever achieving that epic grandiosity that it feels like it's going for fortunately it's got a cool theme song by Danny Elfman though once I found that out I was mostly upset at the fact that I can't play as an actual elf named Danny Elfman the rest of the music is done by Russell Shaw and it's all you guessed it pretty much fine it never made me feel like a badass and it never made me go what the hell is this choosing instead to coast along in the middle of the road fantasy groove just like pretty much everything else fortunately a lot of the voice acting in the game is very committed which makes it memorable even when it's not necessarily um what's the word good my spirit dwells at the bottom of the sea bah and my poor wife is left a destitute and haha the minor characters definitely stand out more than the major ones though and it's a problem when a random farmer is a more fun and interesting character than the game's main villain to make it even worse Jack used to have a more interesting but less menacing voice and they changed it for this edition of the game scene it's now in complete solitude crash I have failure to save her family long ago she lives now in complete solitude crash by her failure to save her family long ago the game's performance was usually fine though it did freeze up on me a few times and would bug out a bit when I tried to teleport from location to location apparently most of the performance issues are holdovers from the game's original version which you think it'd be a priority to fix when issuing a fancy new re-release overall everything about this game style is just kind of there if you want to feel like the hero and generic fantasy quest number 517 and that's great but if you're looking for a world with a personality of its own then you're not going to find it in Albion it's a shame because the moments of specificity that the game gives you in that regard are weird and cool but they're just too few and far between which I find really really frustrating hey man we ain't got no many more of those [Music] when it comes to gameplay fable does a great job of predicting a lot of the trends that would come to dominate the fantasy RPG genre in the years to come without really pulling any of them off in an exceptional way apart from a decently fun combat multiplier system its content to coast on its ambitions and those ambitions are so great that it's almost enough the main thrust of Babel anniversary is earning experience in order to upgrade your skills you can do this by killing enemies completing missions or accomplishing tasks that push you further to the good or evil side of the moral spectrum once you've got those sweet sweet experience points you can spend them in three categories physical strength which also includes health and your ability to take a hit skill which includes things like sneaking and archery and to magic which includes shooting lightning out of your hands like Emperor goddamn Palpatine [Music] okay so you can also do a bunch of other stuff too but I was really into shooting lightning at people it's a game where the character customization process is ongoing and sometimes even accidental as opposed to being front loaded to a menu at the beginning of the game which is actually pretty cool the core concept of changing to reflect your actions is neat and definitely gives you some ownership over your anonymous hero it's too bad that the world doesn't have that same fluid feeling because it almost feels like a series of walkways through forests and lakes with the occasional town along the way it's all very functional but there are no wow moments to be found in any of the games various regions to a certain extent that feeling also extends to your various weapons and abilities which will shift depending on where you focus your skills I opted for hitting guys with a big old axe and my main magic spell was one that made my axe hit multiple enemies every time I hit someone with it it was very efficient playing as a magic user actually brings a little more variety to the game than hacking and slashing your way through just because there are a reasonably large number of spells compared to the weapons which are mostly slight variations on a few common types now that there's anything wrong with hitting werewolves or the big oil axe but it's nice to have option regards to how you complete the game's missions as opposed to just picking up good missions or evil ones even the legendary weapons are just basic weapons with slight modifications and lots of damage and it's a bummer because the core kernel of a combat here is solid well a lot of the game's other controls require a lot of sifting through menus to assign items and expressions to the right button the combat is just deep enough to reward people who feel like getting good at it but also allows you to just barrel your way through if that's just the type of guy that you are and it's definitely the type of guy I become the second someone puts an axe in my digital hands if you want to dodge around and play with your style to get your multiplier up go for it if you want to run in screaming into a horde of enemies with lightning erupting forth from your finger tips then you do you the game's emphasis on choice carries into the combat but it still feels like they could have gone even further with it that's even truer of the enemies who not only come in a pretty small variety but are fairly limited in their combat capabilities you can employ a lot of similar strategies for pretty much all of the enemies in the game in a fantasy world like out beyond there's no reason we shouldn't be coming up against some truly weird the boss fights also have a similar problem and that they tend to stick to strict patterns which feels at odds with the game's emphasis on choice and can make you feel like you're careful allocation of skills didn't really add up too much as for collectibles the stuff you have to gather up is usually just like laying around unless you have to win it in some contests of some kind like cards or archery there's not any sort of real risk reward balance and to get many of the keys that open loot chests you sort of just fish for them at one point you need to gather up a whole bunch of books for a teacher at school and you sort of just find them on bookshelves cool there are also big creepy talking doors called Diamond doors that require a little more effort to open but even then it doesn't feel like there's that much of a correlation between that efforts and what you get for going out of your way to satisfy the demands of an extremely needy diamond or it feels pretty good to get a unique weapon or a piece of armor but not as good as it would feel if you were being compensated for a difficult task with something truly useful as a result the task of collecting that stuff feels tedious just like wandering from place to place until you come across what you're actually looking for there are a couple of joke items that are pretty fun like a pimp hat or a chicken mask but the novelty of those things wears off pretty fast too the only real exception to this is the stuff you get from the minigames which can be found in towns some of them are games of skill like archery some of them are card games where you have to prepare or order cards quickly and some of them are just tedious like catching fish or kicking chickens which sounds like way more fun than it actually is wait No hold on I swear I've never actually kicked the chicken in real life that I can recall all those little mini games are fun once or twice but outside of the achievements none offer any reason to return to them other than fishing which is necessity if you want to find all the keys by the end of this game I never wanted to see another fish again unfortunately mastering these minigames and finding all the collectables that have been strewn about is necessary if you want to pick up all of the games 'chief mints as I mentioned before so many treatments offer you a choice as to how to complete them and it's a fun way of adhering to the game's major theme while also giving a little bit of flexibility to the act of collecting achievements but that brings me to the last achievement the one called see the future that requires you to connect the game to the xbox360 SmartGlass which is apparently now-defunct some people out there claim it's still plausible but I just couldn't make it work and it left me feeling sad and annoyed I tried connecting the current version in the Xbox app which didn't work and the older version has been taken out to pasture like the app equivalent of Old Yeller eventually I just gave up though because life's too short man even more unfortunate though is the fact that the SmartGlass feature is apparently super helpful when it comes to finding all the silver keys look at the end of the day maples full of fun ideas all of which feel cursory and half-assed there's stuff here to entertain you if you feel like throwing yourself into it but the game never offers you any real incentive to do so assuming instead you'll be content to run around either flirting the people or slaughtering them there is a great game hidden in here somewhere and while it's possible they may have found that game in the sequels which I haven't played as someone who sunk so many hours into this game though its refusal to live up to its potential is well you guessed it super frustrating stupid event won't fit in there [Music] outside of the experience the only real thing you unlock for complete missions is some trophies you can show off to people and all that collecting stuff gets you is some occasional loot that as I mentioned before doesn't really end up having as much an impact on gameplay as you oh the same goes for a hundred percent bonuses of which there aren't any when you beat the game's original ending you can get one of two legendary swords depending on whether you're good or evil they're not even as strong as some of the other legendary weapons you can get and when you beat the game's second ending after the Lost Chapters you can end up wearing Jack blades mask which also doesn't really end up doing anything besides giving your character less personality cool by the end of fable anniversary I'll be honest I was eager to get out of that world there are other more interesting worlds out there to explore and life's too short to spend it killing the same four bandits over and over and yet I did it because I'm the VAP generic hero that this vague nerd fantasy world deserves while I complete a fable anniversary edition there were 15 demon doors opened 30 silver Keys collected 49 out of 50 achievements unlocked thanks to xbox smart ass 40 hours of total playtime and twelve controller's destroyed because I am full of boundless rage feeble anniversary's emphasis on choice is great and it's awesome RPG trends coming from way off but it doesn't commit fully to its world or its gameplay choices and as a result I got tired of playing in its sandbox long before I'd exhausted all the things and had to offer me to shame too because fable is full of great ideas but they all just got lost in the shuffle so there you have it fable let alone fable the anniversary edition as someone who has no nostalgia attached to this game it is rough around the edges I think that if you had played fable when it first came out you're gonna love revisiting this game and experiencing the nice facelift the extra added content and all that fun great stuff however ask someone who doesn't really care about fable I didn't really have that great at the time it was fun sure but I don't know if it would influence me enough to try fable 2 or fable three so with that of my guys I give this game my completionist rating of play it flipz that's all coming over today guys so please as always let me know what you thought about today's episode somewhere on the internet if you liked what you saw hit that like button leave a comment some suggestions for the future of the show if you're very new here and you like what you see hit the subscribe button hit the bell notification so you get all notifications we do videos on Wednesdays and Saturdays now and hey if you missed last week's video you can give it a click or tap right here I've been Gerrard and I'll see you next week my wife my wife

Channel: The Completionist

Views: 597,860

Keywords: fable, fable anniversary, fable the lost chapters, fable review, fable anniversary review, gameplay, fable gameplay, review, fable anniversary gameplay, anniversary, video game review, game reviews, gaming, fable 1, fable 1 remake, fable the anniverary, completionist, fable 2, fable 3, old games now, best old games, lionhead studios, ign review, peter molyneux, ign, fable 4, the lost chapters, jack of blades, albion, RPG, RPG game, anniversary edition

Id: W2Ibtq8yOvs

Length: 22min 53sec (1373 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 21 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/KnightThyme]

I'm glad that this game was given to me as a gift from a friend and at the time I'd never heard of Peter Molyneux or his lies. Going in with no expectations made it a genuinely great experience for me.

But hoo boy, if you thought the first was bland, just wait until you play the others. 2 was okay I suppose, I wouldn't begrudge anyone who liked it better than the first, but 3... oh man, 3.

[u/roboticsneakers]

Even though Jirard didn't love it I appreciate him talking about it.

I spent so many hours in the original and lost chapters when I was younger.

[u/XaeroDumort]

I love all three Fable games, I really do. I wish Jirard had enjoyed his time a bit more, but I think when it comes to the first one, most people had to be younger, ie enjoy it when it first came out. Those are the ones who mostly purchased Anniversary. 2 I think he would enjoy more, especially if he plays sooner rather than later when more story elements are on his mind, and while I love 3, that one can be a bit of a slog.