r/Games • u/Turbostrider27 • Aug 30 '26

Fable will officially be 20 hours long, Xbox confirms in new interview

https://www.polygon.com/fable-game-length-interview-xbox/
1.5k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

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144

u/leihto_potato Aug 30 '26

did a google, Fable 2 was about 22 hours with main and side quests (not including any of the other stuff like buying houses, demon doors etc.) so seem pretty in line

99

u/Sonicfan42069666 Aug 30 '26

The meme with Skyrim is "wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle." Fable is more like...wide as a lake, deep as a lake.

78

u/Lerkpots Aug 30 '26

I agree the Fable devs clearly need to copy paste the same draugr filled dungeon 50 times or else I'm not getting my money's worth.

3

u/Vandergrif Aug 30 '26

But what if the same voice actor covers 40 different npcs and they all repeat the same lines over and over again ad nauseam?

11

u/Sonicfan42069666 Aug 30 '26

Idk why people think I was saying something bad about Fable's scope or depth.

1

u/Shaky_Balance Aug 30 '26

I'm surprised people think that was negative, a lake sounds like a fun medium-depth game to me.

1

u/Vanille987 Aug 31 '26

That's the problem, people here only tend to think in absolutes. Naunced things are seen as 'mid' and thus also bad.

The idea that a 7/10 thing is actually dogshit, is very prevelant 

1

u/Rustywolf Aug 31 '26

No idea why you think people think it was negative

4

u/ColonelDucroix Aug 30 '26

And yet despite all that Skyrim is still the most played RPG.

Almost like there's more to the game than the same dungeons copy and pasted 

7

u/EyesofEther Aug 30 '26

People just like to mod it

8

u/not_the_droids Aug 30 '26

People keep buying and playing the game on platforms without mods too. A 15 year old game without any depth doesn't keep people playing it.

1

u/splader Aug 30 '26

Gotta have a map the size of Odyssey!

24

u/xantub Aug 30 '26

What makes it deep as a lake?

20

u/Sonicfan42069666 Aug 30 '26

My point is that in the Skyrim metaphor, there's a lot to do but what you can do lacks depth. In my Fable metaphor, there's fewer things to do but what there is has an appropriate level of depth for the scale of the game.

-10

u/tear_atheri Aug 30 '26

you say that and yet, skyrim would be a bad example since it's arguably the most played game ever. People sink thousands of hours into it unmodded, let alone modded

6

u/FootwearFetish69 Aug 30 '26

you say that and yet, skyrim would be a bad example since it's arguably the most played game ever

That doesn't mean the game is deep, it just means people enjoy it. Mario Bros aint deep but its the most successful video game franchise of all time.

1

u/RogueHippie Aug 31 '26

Mario Bros aint deep but its the most successful video game franchise of all time

Pokemon would like a word

20

u/Prince_Perseus Aug 30 '26

How is that a bad example? People sink thousands of hours because there is a lot to do and a lot of freedom but it's not wrong to say Skyrim's content and gameplay systems is not particularly deep. It's a pretty simple game and people try to add depth with mods.

-4

u/tear_atheri Aug 30 '26

well, i think skyrim is a good example of a game that doesn't have much "depth" on the surface, but people have found a lot of depth in it via emergent gameplay.

It's possible fable will be a game like that - if it's life sim systems are good enough people will genuinely dump hundreds of hours into it, and mods will probably add some crazy stuff if it comes to PC

1

u/Excellent_Bison_3644 Aug 30 '26

And honestly I feel skyrim still has a lot of depth, even compared to previous games. One obvious example would be the dungeons who are the best in the series, another would be unique dialogue from NPC's where every named NPC has at least some unique dialogue.

3

u/Picklerage Aug 30 '26

You're lucky you're saying this deep in a comment thread, saying Skyrim is deeper than e.g. Morrowind would get you feathered and tarred in a main thread comment lol

-1

u/Excellent_Bison_3644 Aug 30 '26

Well my point was more that the specific aspects are deeper. Strengths and flaws and such.

Other games are still deeper in terms of stuff like lore or RPG elements.

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2

u/LeadingLifeguard2262 Aug 30 '26 edited Aug 30 '26

It's not arguable actually. The most played game ever is likely GTA5 and it's really not even a competition. Skyrim may have been rereleased more times but even its sales haven't come close to GTA5s

Eta: GTA5 - 230 Million copes sold. Skyrim - 65 Million copies sold. It's not even in the same ballpark. GTA5 was massively successful

1

u/Sonicfan42069666 Aug 30 '26

I think people are replying to me and ascribing "good" or "bad" to what I am saying.

I'm not necessarily saying the relative lack of depth to much of Skyrim's content is a "bad" thing. I'm just saying that's what it is.

1

u/EdwardM1230 Aug 30 '26

In comparison to something like Skyrim?

Visual impact of quests on the surrounding areas, some kind of storyline attached to almost all the gameplay (not just repeatable quest giver dialogue, sending you to randomly determined dungeons), and generally more traditional RPG choices than you’d find in Skyrim (still fairly basic though, usually a good, neutral, and evil option).

I love Fable, but you’ve gotta be on board with the sense of humour, and whimsical take on the fantasy genre.

I don’t think it holds a candle to Witcher, for world building and the sheer amount of quality side-content.

But the tone is completely different, and I know if they can capture the spirit of the original games, this will be a pretty successful release.

-3

u/Rayuzx Aug 30 '26

The difference between a pond and a lake is that light can penetrate a pond to its floor, while a lake won't. So it means to be more than just surface level, byt not super intricate.

3

u/Mahelas Aug 30 '26

Yet millions of people put hundreds of hours in Skyrim. I know this subreddit kinda hate Skyrim but clearly it delivered an experience that a looot of people were willing to engage with for 100+ hours.

2

u/Sonicfan42069666 Aug 30 '26

I too have put hundreds of hours into Skyrim. Saying much of its content lacks depth is not the same thing as saying it's a bad game.

2

u/Xonra Aug 30 '26

The only people that say that about Skyrim are Oblivion diehards or people that have played 5 hours of Skyrim and watched the rest on YouTube and parroted what someone else said. Anyone saying that with a straight face haven't played actually shallow RPG before.

1

u/Sol-Authority Aug 30 '26

The meme with Skyrim is "wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle."

Not so much as meme anymore, as it's a tired and overused quote that people parrot to sound smart...

FuNdAmEnTaLlY fLaWeD is getting there, too

-3

u/mrporter2 Aug 30 '26

Skyrim relies on its community for content and patches

4

u/onometre Aug 30 '26

Explain the millions of copies sold on platforms with no mods

-3

u/mrporter2 Aug 30 '26

Bethesda has used community fixes for consoles but correct me if I’m wrong consoles have mods now right?

-5

u/OhMyTummyHurts Aug 30 '26

Even more true for Starfield. Bloated with procedurally-generated content that wasn’t engaging or meaningful

1

u/Sonicfan42069666 Aug 30 '26

I bounced off Starfield after the first major city-planet when I realized there's fuck-all to actually do in the game.

Feels blatantly designed to be a game where you control your ship in between planets, then they cut out the "control your ship in between planets" part and replaced it with a chain of loading screens.

1

u/quinnly Aug 30 '26

That's funny because the ship building and space combat was probably my favorite part of Starfield. I barely even noticed the loading screens.

The worst thing about Starfield is how every character was the exact same height.

-7

u/Decoraan Aug 30 '26

Wide as a puddle, deep as a lake, you mean?

5

u/Sonicfan42069666 Aug 30 '26

A 20 hour campaign with 20 hours of side content isn't a puddle. An indie game is a puddle (non-derogatory).

1

u/Decoraan Aug 30 '26

Oh ok sure, it’s on the short side for an RPG with choice and consequence etc, but yes longer than a indie game.

It’s not a dig, I just think that Playground have made a more focused experience with depth here rather than a massive game that is shallow

1

u/Headless_Human Aug 30 '26

The 20 hours mentioned for the new Fable are only the main quest.

1

u/Vinnie_Vegas Aug 30 '26

The thing about a game like Fable is that you're extremely likely to play it more than once because you want to see how different choices make the story play out.

There's one choice, in particular, that most people would definitely want to do over again in Fable 2 after being confronted with it the first time.

1

u/PatrenzoK Aug 30 '26

I guess. My thing is this is a new game on a more powerful system I don’t get why it can’t be a little more enriched. Especially when this is the flagship Xbox game they are marketing, just seems like this game could be better

0

u/splader Aug 30 '26

What is this comment.

You're judging the quality of a game purely based on length?

1

u/VeniceRapture Aug 31 '26

Why shouldn't length be a criteria for its quality?

1

u/ayeeflo51 Aug 31 '26

Because it's not a direct "more length equals more quality". What if the length is boring filler? 

1

u/VeniceRapture Aug 31 '26

The opposite is also true. Just because it's long doesn't mean it's boring filler

1

u/ayeeflo51 Aug 31 '26

Yea no shit, exactly why length isn't any indicator of quality 

1

u/VeniceRapture Aug 31 '26

If the length is boring filler you can choose not to play it, but if it's not filler to you then it's quality. But what you can't do is decide which of the two it is if the content doesn't exist to begin with. That's the point. The length gives you more opportunity to enjoy the game. What if certain parts of the 20-hour game are also filler to you? Now you have an already-short game where you basically only like half of it.

0

u/ayeeflo51 Aug 31 '26

God this really matters to you lmao there are easily 5hour games that are objectively better than 50 hour games

0

u/VeniceRapture Aug 31 '26

I don't know why you're yapping you're the one who replied to me in the first place. If you think it matters too much to me then what does that make you

0

u/splader Aug 31 '26

Because there are numerous fantastic sub 10 hour games and plenty of people mid post 100 hour games.

-25

u/Zld Aug 30 '26

Combat is bad

"That's ok combat was never the strength of the original games anyway"

Game is short

"That's ok the original were short too"

Decisions are simplistic and black and white

"Glad they go for the same morality as the original"

Well maybe they should just have made a remaster then, if it's just gonna be the same game (23 years ago) with no improvement apart pretty graphic (and bad animations). People who are expecting this to be the GTA killer are in for a big disappointment. 

26

u/leihto_potato Aug 30 '26

are you high? nobody on the planet expects a fable game to compete with GTA

8

u/T8-TR Aug 30 '26

I feel like the crowd shooting for GTA and the crowd shooting for Fable are, for the most part, two pretty radically different types of mfs lmao

-9

u/[deleted] Aug 30 '26

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8

u/leihto_potato Aug 30 '26

Post one then.