Playground Games founder and general manager Ralph Fulton has confirmed that the studio's upcoming Fable game will allow players to romance 1,000 NPCs in the game, with very few exceptions. This Fable tidbit will come as great news to players who love to engage with the romance elements in these types of RPGs.
Romance has always been a key feature of previous Fable games. In the mainline games, players are able to court NPCs by improving their opinion of the hero. Gamers would need to find out important traits of each NPC, such as the type of gifts they like to receive, and act accordingly to begin a relationship. This could lead to marriage, where players would be able to purchase property for their spouses to live in. A marriage that wasn't going well could even lead to divorce. In previous titles, most NPCs the player met on the street could be married, which sounds great in theory, but could lead to a lack of depth. This is at odds with how most RPGs do romance nowadays, with in-depth storylines that really lead to an emotional connection with players. However, these broad mechanics have remained very similar since the start of the series, and Fable looks set to continue the tradition.
Fable May Dodge a Bullet With its Name on It
Recent news suggests that Fable's release target may get a shake-up but it could ultimately be beneficial to the long-awaited RPG.
Fable Will Let You Marry Pretty Much Anyone
Speaking to IGN following Fable's showing at the recent Xbox Developer Direct, Playground founder Ralph Fulton said of the game's characters: "There's 1,000 of them in the game. You can go and speak to every single one of them in fully voiced conversations. You could marry, it'll be a bit of work, but you could marry them all. You can have kids with them, you can hire them, you can fire them, they are just great fun. And also they act as this sort of Greek chorus, if you like, reflecting your choices and your morality back at you. So, as you walk around, that's classic Fable, isn't it? People catcalling you in the street, telling you what they think of you. It's a brilliant thing in our game as well, but it's a great way of tracking how popular your decisions have been, your choices have been."
Fulton also confirmed that all of these NPCs are hand-crafted, so players won't be marrying characters that simply don't have the human touch. He did mention that "we maybe once thought we could procedurally generate them, but we abandoned that idea quite a long time ago... It's important to the player that they can get to know unique crafted NPCs." With having so many characters for players to marry, Fable is right in line with the rest of the series. However, this could raise some concerns about a lack of depth. For obvious reasons, Playground Games is not going to be able to handcraft romance storylines for 1,000 NPCs - it's simply not feasible. There could be concerns that Fable's romance mechanics could lack the same depth as its predecessors, so it will be interesting to see how the developer tackles the challenge.
You could marry, it'll be a bit of work, but you could marry them all. You can have kids with them, you can hire them, you can fire them, they are just great fun.
Romance stories have always been important to RPG players, arguably more so as games have given them more care and attention. There are tons of examples of amazing RPG romances, including the likes of Baldur's Gate 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 in recent years. The concern is that games that have gone with a quantity over quality approach have often fallen flat, as seen in a game like Skyrim, where the sheer volume of romance options makes any real depth difficult.
Following Fable's appearance at the Xbox Developer Direct, players now have a much better idea of what to expect from the game. The showcase confirmed the rumor that Fable is coming to PlayStation 5 at launch, further breaking down the walls of exclusivity for major Xbox properties. With a Fall 2026 release window now cemented, the wait is on for the release of Fable.
- Released
- 2026
- Developer(s)
- Playground Games
- Publisher(s)
- Xbox Game Studios
- Engine
- unreal engine 4, forza tech
- Franchise
- Fable
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG, Adventure
