The upcoming Fable reboot from Forza Horizon developer Playground features a morality scale, but the game does away with the morality-based "morphing" system from previous games. In older Fable players, the physical appearance of player characters would change depending on moral alignments, and players who were evil enough would even sprout horns.
Peter Molyneux, who created the Fable series and designed many of its trademark elements, told IGN that it's a "real shame" that the Fable reboot is ditching this system. "I don't know why they've done that," he said. It might come down to the work involved, Molyneux theorized.
"To do that and to allow different genders, that doubles and triples your work. But I wonder if there is going to be a little bit of evil alignment and good alignment in there. I hope so," he said. "It's hard to do that because to do it well in today's incredibly high-definition world just makes it more tricky."
Playground boss Ralph Fulton said the morphing feature was a "central part of the original games," but the developer chose to not carry it forward with the reboot.
"There is no objective good and evil. And the original games were predicated on there being an objective good and an objective evil, and you were somewhere along that scale, and that's what determined how your appearance changed," Fulton said. "But for us, that doesn't really work."
The Fable reboot's morality scale will see NPCs reacting to your actions in the world, and the morality system takes into account the NPCs' own values as well. "You're different things to different people based on what they like or what they choose to value. So, that's one reason that it didn't work," Fulton said about bringing back the classic morality system.
"You couldn't do that if you walked in with horns and a trident. Your reputation would precede you in that instance. And honestly, that ability to be completely in control of your identity and thus what people think of you felt more important to us than that legacy feature," Fulton said.
The new Fable game is set to launch this fall on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. It will represent the Fable franchise's first appearance on PS5.
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Peter Molyneux, who created the Fable series and designed many of its trademark elements, told IGN that it's a "real shame" that the Fable reboot is ditching this system. "I don't know why they've done that," he said. It might come down to the work involved, Molyneux theorized.
"To do that and to allow different genders, that doubles and triples your work. But I wonder if there is going to be a little bit of evil alignment and good alignment in there. I hope so," he said. "It's hard to do that because to do it well in today's incredibly high-definition world just makes it more tricky."
Playground boss Ralph Fulton said the morphing feature was a "central part of the original games," but the developer chose to not carry it forward with the reboot.
"There is no objective good and evil. And the original games were predicated on there being an objective good and an objective evil, and you were somewhere along that scale, and that's what determined how your appearance changed," Fulton said. "But for us, that doesn't really work."
The Fable reboot's morality scale will see NPCs reacting to your actions in the world, and the morality system takes into account the NPCs' own values as well. "You're different things to different people based on what they like or what they choose to value. So, that's one reason that it didn't work," Fulton said about bringing back the classic morality system.
"You couldn't do that if you walked in with horns and a trident. Your reputation would precede you in that instance. And honestly, that ability to be completely in control of your identity and thus what people think of you felt more important to us than that legacy feature," Fulton said.
The new Fable game is set to launch this fall on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. It will represent the Fable franchise's first appearance on PS5.
Source