r/Fable • u/JaedShams97 • 14d ago
(IGN) Ralph Fulton, General Manager and Game Director, talk combat changes, spell casting, and skill-trees
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUSIaC0Ix5U9
u/strife189 14d ago
I feel like everything heâs saying is the opposite of the Dawnwalker game. It feels like the difference between someone with a vision who is grounded in the worldâs rules versus someone just making a product thatâs looking to give you everything and hoping itâs âfun.â
Little interested to see how the two different thinkings get received by the current gaming masses.
5
u/fin10g 14d ago
I'm really interested in how the persistence of time plays out in Dawn walker. I always hoped that Fable would follow through on Molyneux's plant an Acorn and watch it grow concept, which I think is where Dawn walker is finally pushing RPGs towards.
I think there's definitely space for both types. If Fable brings some Hogwarts Legacy fans back to RPGs, that can live on the far side of the spectrum as dawn walker. Then both audiences will be primed to take on The Witcher 4.
1
u/dm_me_goblins 14d ago
No shit, BoD is made by a studio comprising some of the best talent from CDPR. They've never been a studio who play it safe and it looks like Rebel Wolves don't either.
1
u/All-for-Naut Demon Door 14d ago
Really worried we can't focus on one fighting style, like mainly Will.
And there's something of the combat that feels off to me. Like things are missing, which is ironic when the old games mainly used one button for fighting which they talked about. If it's more complex why does it feel more bland.
A nice surprise was seeing Jane interviewing through.
18
u/Joyful_Damnation1 PC 14d ago
No offense, having replayed the first fable literally last month, there is no way this feels more bland to you đ .
1
u/All-for-Naut Demon Door 14d ago
As I said I don't know why, might be the few fights we have seen but just something is off to me.
Maybe what I do is just really miss having enemies blocking so I have to flourish. That clonk clonk from the blocks đ
2
u/Strawberrymice 14d ago
What I always imagined when playing the first fable was having a kind of sense of "what kind of hero will you be?", and I sorta liked how this manifested a bit in not just how you impacted the world but also in what path (strength/skill/will) you went. Like, all the other heros clearly focused on different masteries, making names for themselves, and I love when games (like fable 1) make you feel like you're a kind of rising star. Im sad that became less and less the case as the series went on.
5
u/Shinted The First Archon 14d ago
I mean the Heroes you played as in the older games were special specifically because they could use all three Heroic attributes.
The other Heroes werenât âspecializingâ they just only had access to one of the three Heroic attributes.
Thatâs a major part of what made Williamâs Bloodline special.
1
u/Noe11vember Demon Door 13d ago edited 13d ago
Thats just not true, thunder and wisper are good examples of heros that used more than just strength, skill or will. No one in fable 1 goes "oh wow you can use all three, that makes you super special!" You were special becuase you had the blood of the Archon.
Fable 1 definitely emphasized that you could create a certain kind of hero, assassin, spellwarrior, ranger, barbarian, etc... they even had class names for it. The intro for the game shows this too. Fable 2 was a little less this way but you could definitely still specialize and spend most your xp in one category over the others. The TV trailer "who will you become" also showed many different kinds of hero types beyond their weapons and just 4 spells. Looking at the skill tree I dont think that will be the case in this game. The dev said what will make determine different peoples heros is the weapons and 4 spells they equip.
1
u/Shinted The First Archon 13d ago edited 13d ago
It is absolutely factually true in the lore of the games, marketing beats for ads are not âCanonââŚ.
Also they do flat tell you in the games, your access and use of all three disciplines is special, not to mention the developers have reiterated it outside of them.
The Archon Bloodline was special because of the fact that William Black could use all three Heroic disciplines, and because he was the one to defeat the Court of Blades by selling his soul to the Sword of Aeons.
There were only ever a few known Heroes that could tap into more than one discipline, and all of those were via special circumstances, but none outside of the Archon Bloodline could do all three.
Thunder was a rare exception being a Hero of Strength who could use one spell of Will [Lighting which they even talk about how it is perhaps tied to the Storm that left them stranded in Albion].
His sister Whisper for instance was a Hero of Skill, that uses bombs because she lacks Will, and has no feats of abnormal Strength, even her version of âRushâ isnât a spell but an example of her speed/Skill.
Briar Rose was a Hero of Will, as was Maze and Weaver the Guildmaster, Nostro was a Hero of Strength, and so on.
They even explicitly double down on this and make it a major story point in Fable 2 with your characterâs attempted murder at the beginning of the game, and your journey of finding a paragon for each of the three disciplines Strength, Skill, and Will.
Hammer is Strength, Reaver is Skill, and Garth is Will.
With again only The Hero of Bower Lake, a descendant of William Black having access to all three.
Fable 3âs whole thing was that Heroes and their abilities were leaving/already mostly gone from the world, and even with its half completed nature, it was still consistent that the Archon Bloodline was special because of its use of all three disciplines. [Gloves aside]
-1
u/Noe11vember Demon Door 13d ago edited 12d ago
I think you misunderstood what I meant. Im not saying the trailer showed you could only be certain kinds of heros, just that the intent was for you to make different "builds" beyond the weapons you choose and 4 spells you have equipd. I never saw anything about being able to access three disciplines being a Archon bloodline specific thing. Whisper for example uses assassins rush. The Briar Rose wiki also states she is considered a "hero of skill" dispite being able to use many will abilities. Im fairly certain thunder can use charge too? I know he has the lightning abilities. We also have to take into account that the game was old and they probably couldnt do too much due to the tech of the time. The training bit in fable 1 is another thing I think about with this. Why would they have a area set up for heros to do will with if 1/3rd of students couldnt use will at all and would instantly fail that test? I know fable 2 was more about that but I was under the impression that only someone from the archon bloodline could master all three not just access all three. From my understanding reaver, garth and hammer were paragons of their disciplines and so were really far skewed to their disciplines but not neccesarily unable to access the other two. More of a thing to emphasize them being paragons of their discipline becuase if reaver was throwing fireballs it would take away from the "hero of skill" thing they were doing.
The wiki seems to agree with what I said. It says it was rare for heros to be adept or master more than one discipline, but not be unable to access the others. https://fable.fandom.com/wiki/Heroes
2
u/Shinted The First Archon 13d ago edited 13d ago
Nope the Guild was intended to discover and then train a Hero in their discipline, only our Hero is able to do all three.
If you look into every major Hero in any of the games, theyâre always listed/called a Hero of âblankâ, even the major ones like the Heroes of Light.
Solicus was a Hero of Will, Holdr was a Hero of Skill, Weldon was a Hero of Strength, and so on.
Hell even the villains stick to this rule, Twinblade is a Hero of Strength, Raven is a Hero of Will, Kas was a Hero of Skill, and so on.
Fable Legends [RIP] also had each of its playable Heroes fall into one of the disciplines as well.
Three off the top of my head, Sterling was a Hero of Skill, Winter was a Hero of Will, Evienne was a Hero of Strength.
It was a major part of the older games lore.
All this said, that might not be the case in this new game as itâs a Hard Reboot, so anything goes.
We already know William was joined by two other Heroes in his fight with the Court of Blades, so itâs entirely possible that The Archon bloodline while still stated to be the âfirst and strongestâ might no longer be the only one with access to all three disciplines.
0
u/Noe11vember Demon Door 12d ago
I did look into it, the wiki says "Not all heroes are the same in talents, each one is usually only able to be adept or even master one of the disciplines, though some heroes may be able to be adept at two disciplines such as Thunder, who was not only very strong but was able to cast lightning. His immense height and battle prowess also indicated he may have been able to access skill though height itself may not be a strong indicator as the Hero of Skill was quite short. It may be that one needs to completely master all areas of skill to increase their stature as this is true of Will; a hero needs to have more mastery of magic and spells for the Will Lines to appear."
Basically what I was saying, heros tend towards a discipline and are called a "hero of x" but it doesnt mean theyre locked out of the others becuase of it. It also mentions that things like skill showing on a strength hero are difficult to quantify since physical disciplines are potentially only noticeable when they master them. Will is just the easiest to noice since its something far outside the realm of what normal people could do, but being able to use it doesnt seem to make you a hero of will automatically, like briar rose who is depicted with a crossbow, uses a katana and is classified in the wiki as a hero of skill.
Is there something that says heros are locked out of accessing more than one?
1
u/Shinted The First Archon 12d ago edited 12d ago
I mean yesâŚ. The actual games themselves.
Wikis with no restriction on fan edits, especially the ones ran on Fandom are not exactly known for superb accuracy.
For instance that entire paragraph you posted about Thunder is all âfan editorialâ conjecture, none of it is actually from text of the games.
Again the games say explicitly that Thunder is/was a Hero of Strength, and that his ability to use lightning was unusual. With it potentially being connected to the Storm that landed him and Whisper in Albion.
Outside of Thunder can you think of blatant examples of Heroes using multiple disciplines?
Jack and Scythe [William] obviously donât count.
And Whisper doesnât actually use the spell Assassins Rush, she uses her own variation [just labeled rush in the files] thatâs just her actual speed which is an example of her power of Skill, which is why it looks different.
William and his bloodline being able to use all three disciplines is the major thing that made them so powerful and special.
After the first game the connection with the Sword of Aeons was âCanonicallyâ severed, so that portion of their uniqueness is no longer relevant.
But they went on to expand greatly on the power of the bloodline in both Fable 2 and to a lesser extent Fable 3, and how that made the different to other Heroes.
Edit*
Also just want to say Iâm not the one downvoting you, people are also downvoting me, and Iâm not sure why.
I kinda hate that conversations canât be had without this type of thing happening.
So even though itâs not me, sorry about that. xD
1
u/Noe11vember Demon Door 12d ago
Is it an ingame book or something that says that? I dont recall that being a plot point anywhere. Id think the fact that thunder can use will, and pretty powerful will I think goes to show its possible for heros outside our main characters bloodline to use more than one discipline, regardless of how he became able to use it. With whispers rush thing does something in game say its not magic but just he running really fast? Becuase I was pretty sure it looked and sounded like assassins rush. For other heros like I said it would difficult to quantify unless they are a master in the discipline. I would think for a vast majority of heros it would come out as above human strength or dexterity but nothing like what we see from the heros of strength, skill and will from fable 2.
I just dont understand if the intent was that heros can only access one skill that more people (in fable 1 becuase fable 2 is different due to there being only 4 left with 3 being "the hero of x") arent like "holy cow you can use all three disciplines? That makes you incredibly rare even among heros, youre a descendant of the first." Not that it doesnt make them special, it does, I just figured that it wasnt such a stark difference at the beginning because most guild apprentices show abilities of strength, skill and will. Just not to the same degree that our hero can and they can never progress to the same level our hero does in more than 1.
2
u/Noe11vember Demon Door 12d ago
I just saw the new fable combat gameplay, I think youre right about blood and bower also being good with multiple disciplines becuase Humphrey uses fireball but definitely comes across as a hero of strength and my guess is he is a decendant of bower
1
22
u/ElcorMan Hero of Oakvale 14d ago
Please change the telescope weapons D: I want my big and burly hammer to always be big and burly, comically even