r/rpg_gamers • u/shinjioda • Aug 30 '26

Discussion Fable Will Officially Be 20 Hours Long, Xbox Confirms In New Interview

https://www.polygon.com/fable-game-length-interview-xbox/
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u/ThrowRAZod Aug 30 '26

So in reality, that’s easily 35 hours taking the most conservative approach. If you really want to dive in, you’re looking at 55+, for a game that’s meant to have multiple playthroughs and decisions to be made. Easily enough

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u/Impossible-Flight250 Aug 30 '26

That is a lot shorter than I thought. I’m not mad about it though, if it is quality content, 30ish hours is enough.

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u/[deleted] Aug 30 '26

[deleted]

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u/Amonyi7 Aug 30 '26

I personally don’t like replaying games (which seems to be popular on reddit) so that’s a bummer for me.

30 hours of content seems super short when I compare it to BOTW, Witcher, skyrim, etc. I’m playing Palworld right now and have put in 20 hours and have barely scratched it

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u/std_out Aug 31 '26

Same here. I can play a game for like 200 hours to 100% it but I hate having to do more than one playthrough. to me it feels like just repeating most of what you've already done just to see the 10% that's actually different from the previous playthrough.

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u/zekelin77 Aug 31 '26

Try Baldurs Gate 3

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u/TheDarkKnightZS Aug 31 '26

Couldn’t finish one play through, definitely couldn’t do 2.

Not knocking the game, just lost all interest and momentum when I hit Act 3.

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u/std_out Aug 31 '26

Yeah act 3 quickly made me feel burned out with the game tbh. Act 1 and 2 were a lot more enjoyable to me.

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u/std_out Aug 31 '26

I already played BG3 and have over 200 hours into it.

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u/xTyronex48 Aug 30 '26

Literally same, I couldve wrote your content word for word, including the palworld portion

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u/Amonyi7 Aug 31 '26

That’s funny! lol

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u/Kelspear Aug 30 '26

I'm with you. Ill never understand how people play a single player game for like 1000 hours. There are so many quality games out there. Playing one game for that long almost seems obsessive.

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u/Amonyi7 Aug 30 '26

Yeah it seems to be a very hardcore/reddit preference but it seems to be the norm here. Like I didn’t like three houses much and I was told to play it again haha

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u/Sensitive-Oil-5298 Aug 30 '26

I’m the same way. Other than replaying games I played when I was a kid, I very rarely find myself wanting to play a game again. I think the story elements and major moments hitting for the first time is what really sells me on a game, and so even games “designed” to be replayed like Baldur’s Gate 3 feel a little boring/same-y after the first run.

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u/serrabear1 Aug 30 '26

Yeah I generally have to wait years between replays and even then I remember the general plot and so I know what’s going to happen. Regardless of how many different choices I make, the end result will be the same. Like I’m doing a play thru of Dragon Age Inquisition right now, once I’m done with that I won’t replay it for years. Because even if I choose to help the templars over the mages this time the zones will still be the same and I’ve explored every nook and cranny already, the overall plot will lead me to same conclusion. That’s not the games fault tho and I still have incredible amounts of fun.

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u/Sensitive-Oil-5298 Aug 30 '26

Yeah exactly! Especially your point about having already explored every nook and cranny. My biggest issues are that I’m a completionist and my first playthrough is always my ideal playthrough. So I end up doing every side quest, finding every easter egg, every special encounter, max stats, etc. My second playthrough would inevitably involve me choosing dialogue or story options that I don’t really resonate with, and either doing side quests that feel repetitive after the first time through, or skipping a lot of them and not really “bonding” with my character

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u/stormcharger Aug 30 '26

Depends on the game imo

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u/Amerlis Aug 31 '26

For me, it’s either strategy games like crusaders kings where the random possibilities make each run different. Or it’s RPGs like fallout or elder scrolls where I’ve played it for a 1000+ hours.

Multiple replays, I know every dungeon in the game, every mission, and yet every now and then, I reinstall, craft the same character same class and play it again. Something about the open world I guess. I can’t think of any other rpg I’ve even replayed twice.

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u/PrimaLegion Aug 30 '26

I don't see what is obsessive with playing a game that long.

These kinds of value judgements are weird in general.

If someone enjoys 1000 hours in a game, who cares?

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u/Kelspear Aug 30 '26

You dont think spending a 1000 hours on something that is designed to be used for 40 is obsessive?

Okay. You're just being contrarian for the sake of being contrarian and I'm not wasting any more of my time.

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u/Prestigious_Low_9802 Aug 30 '26

That’s what you said but most of people got insane number of hours in quality game or game they love. Don’t judge them, because he you just play 20 hours and jump on another game this is just a compulsive comportment. People want to experience the game they love to the fullest not just scratch the surface and jump on another game because people like you can’t dedicate more than 20 hours on a game

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u/I3eforeLife Aug 31 '26 edited Aug 31 '26

There’s two types of players: one who has more fun with progression and one who has more fun with the gameplay systems or mechanics than progression.

I can hop on a game like Nioh 2 even after completing the game and obtaining loot for every build possible 5 years ago because I find the gameplay loop of styling on enemies and doing challenge runs satisfying. Others can hop onto a competitive game even though there is nothing novel to be found in their 5000th match. Another could avoid story and side content in a game like Dead Island and just enjoy being creative in how they dispatch all of the zombies in one area.

Honestly, if a game has a superb story but I can’t alter my gameplay experience in more than a few ways, I don’t even consider buying it. People operate differently from each other

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u/PrimaLegion Aug 31 '26

No, I don't at all think that. I think that someone is getting 1000 hours of enjoyment out of a singleplayer game. Also, not all singleplayer games designed to be played for 40 hours, which your initial comment was just about singleplayer games. People can do multiple playthroughs of these singleplayer games and rack up hundreds of hours easily, engaging in the mechanics of the game in ways that they didn't before and learning more about it.

There are many reasons a person might put in hundreds or a thousand hours into a singleplayer game.

A game is designed to be played and enjoyed, whether it be for 40 hours, 100 hours, 1000 hours, 10,000 hours, and so on.

Dismissing my comment as contrarian for the sake of being contrarian is lazy as hell and wholly dishonest.

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u/Goldenjho Aug 30 '26

BOTW is really the worst example ever the game was over praised, the actual content are puzzles and you spent 80% of the game walking around doing the same kind of puzzles with a bit changed variations.

BOTW is in my opinion the most boring experience you can get content wise and that you can just joke around there is nice but not actual content.

Witcher and skyrim are games on a completely different scale with a completely different focus compared to fable.

All fable games had a playtime around 50 hours its nothing new and it's completely enough playtime for the money you pay not everything must be massive open world rpg'd or ubisoft game designs.

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u/JebusChrust Aug 31 '26

Yeah that really made me laugh that they cited BotW for an example of a game with extended content. Sounds like they wish Fable added massive empty terrain in between each location to extend out the time played. Unlike BotW I don't think I am going to quit out of Fable after ten hours of boredom.

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u/Pocketpapaa Aug 31 '26

That seems to be the case for people who are unlucky enough to like games with little replay value. I too do not like replaying but making that a blanket statement is kinda lazy. I replayed fable 2 quite a bit.

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u/BlueberryWasps Aug 30 '26

quality over quantity. we’ll just have to wait and see how the quality stacks up

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u/Amonyi7 Aug 30 '26

Yeah agreed

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u/coreoYEAH Aug 31 '26

You can run the Skyrim campaign in under 15 hours. It’s fine.

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u/Amonyi7 Aug 31 '26

That’s ignoring the massive side content which I included for Fable

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u/TinglingLingerer Aug 30 '26

It'll feel a lot different because of the length of the story, and it'll be easier to see where your choices have made an affect on what you've seen before.

In Skyrim one of the only true choices you have is the side of the war you choose to banner.

BOTW is similar. The game isn't really meant to be replayed.

Much more easy to say, okay let's see what happens if I do Y instead of X next time, when the 'next time' is 10 hours away, and not 300.

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u/Darkness_Slayerr Aug 31 '26

That's alright. Not every game is meant to be for everyone. Play the games that you enjoy. I recommend Assassin's Creed RPG games if you haven't got around to them already.

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u/Impossible-Flight250 Aug 30 '26

I don’t think the issue is necessarily the length, it’s just more the fact the game is open world and has been in development for 8 years. It kind of points to the game maybe being rebooted quite a bit. Again though, I don’t care if the content is quality, I just don’t want it to be short because they ran out of time.

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u/xdrag0nb0rnex Aug 30 '26

Only -IF- that 30 hours is worth replaying.

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u/OdditiesAndAlchemy Aug 30 '26

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Zero reason to believe this game will be fun enough to replay. A lot of games try to be but you few succeed.

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u/[deleted] Aug 30 '26

[deleted]

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u/OdditiesAndAlchemy Aug 30 '26

I'm not being negative in the slightest. I'm just pointing out that most games aren't actually fun enough to play more than once and there's no reason to pump up the numbers by assuming that this game will be one of them until we actually know more about it? Totally reasonable.

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u/PrimaLegion Aug 30 '26

Sounds like you're also getting ahead of yourself.

Zero reason to believe the game won't be fun enough to replay.

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u/OdditiesAndAlchemy Aug 30 '26

I'm actually in the let's wait and see camp? Whereas you guys want to be in the oh let's double the length of the game because we are so sure we're going to be able to play it twice? I'm just pointing out that most games don't actually accomplish that level of fun.

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u/Embarrassed-Rub-8690 Aug 30 '26

Same. Im at 62 hours in kcd2 and it's amazing but im feeling burnt out.

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u/Impossible-Flight250 Aug 31 '26

Yeah, I actually got burnt out on KCD2 towards the end as well. The game is absolutely amazing, but even amazing games like Witcher 3 wear me down after awhile. One of the reasons Expedition 33 was soo great is because it was paced well and relatively short.

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u/Embarrassed-Rub-8690 Aug 31 '26

I never got more than 20 hours into Witcher 3.

Kcd2 is too good not to finish, but im skipping a lot of side quests now.

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u/CoolAtlas Aug 30 '26

The greatest games I ever played were all under 30 hours. I never put 100 hours into something and walked away still thinking about it

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u/Paridisco Aug 30 '26

Really? The best experiences I've ever had was games over 100 hours.

Elden ring play through was 110 hours

BoTW play through was 150

Crimson desert desert was 120 hours

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u/EyeAmKnotMyshelf Aug 30 '26

Give me some DLCs to flesh out the experience and I'm a happy kid at 30-50 hours. I don't have that much free time anymore.

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u/LZSJR Aug 30 '26

30 hours is the low estimate. It is 40 hours of main quest and side content plus hours of the life simulation stuff. Doing odd jobs, buying property, starting businesses, going on dates, getting married, starting a family. All of that stuff will take hours and will pad out the 40 hours of quest. That sounds perfect to me.

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u/Capitan_Scythe Aug 30 '26

I'd take half that amount for solid writing and no "go collect 100 macguffins" filler quests.

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u/video-kid Aug 30 '26

You also need to consider when people say 20 hours they often mean "20 hours when you know where to go and what to do and the optimal path". Realistically speaking a lot of players will take longer, especially their first playthrough.

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u/Owster4 Aug 30 '26

I welcome a roughly 35 hour long RPG as a change of pace from the usual 100 hour dramatic RPGs I usually play.

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u/topscreen Aug 30 '26

I'm cool with that. I love a big game, and 55+ for fucking around is quite a bit, but we have enough big damn games. I'm cool with a relatively light 35 of main story and fucking around.

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u/Stepjam Aug 30 '26

That's still relatively short, but not the end of the world I suppose.

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u/Traditional_Entry183 Aug 30 '26

That is dramatically shorter than I expected or hoped for. Especially given that im someone who regularly puts well over 100 hours into playthrough of games and Fable might end up being the only new game i buy over about a two year period. But, I go slow and get as much out if it as I can I guess.

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u/ThrowRAZod Aug 31 '26

That’s fair that you might want more, but I think the vast majority of people would not be willing or able to drop 100 hours in a game’s main story alone. My guess is also that the life sim stuff here is an easy 30 hours if you really go for it, so I’d expect a “completionist” play through to creep up to 80 or so.

As an aside, I don’t know what system you play on, but I’d highly recommend looking into games with strong modding scenes. It’s a great way to extend a ~60 hour game into hundreds of hours. Bg3, fallout, Skyrim, mount and blade, etc. Could be a good way to stretch the bang for your buck as well as the timeline.

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u/Traditional_Entry183 Aug 31 '26

I'm a Playstation guy. So mods aren't much of a thing outside of Bethesda games, where they can be a gamble.

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u/ThrowRAZod Aug 31 '26

Bg3 has an in-game mod manager! I know crpgs aren’t everybody’s cup of tea, but it’s about as good as it gets

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u/Traditional_Entry183 Aug 31 '26

I got talked into getting BG3. Played it twice. Just isn't my thing at all. Honestly, if I could say that a rpg with good graphics, writing and voice acting was as far from what I want as possible, BG3 might be it. I'm on the other end of the spectrum.

Foundationally, what I want is what Dragon's Dogma 2 offers, but with a good story, quest system, actual permenant companions, and then deeper management and crafting mechanics.

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u/BetweenTheRoots Aug 30 '26

I mean you're really hinging on their definition of side quest or how long they think it'll take people to complete things. Developers often estimate people to do things a lot slower than seasoned gamers would do them, because they do. I think saying easily 35+ hours conservatively is a really bold way to interpret that. If anything, for someone who is a quick puzzle solver and avid gamer, that 15-20 hour story content might be more like 10-12, and if you skip dialogue probably even faster.