On June 11, Summer Games Fest hosted its Xbox Showcase, during which one particular franchise rose from the dead and finally gave us something to properly look at. I’m talking Fable, of course, the beloved series about heroes and villains, all set within a deliberately self-aware yet fantastical British setting.
It’s been over a decade since we’ve gotten a “proper” entry in the Fable series, and the last time we got a teaser was two years ago. At this most recent showcase, we finally got a proper trailer, with in-game footage, no less:
Playground Games (known for their Forza series) will be spearheading this reboot, which looks gorgeous and like a good-spirited return to the series’ sense of humor and whimsy, without sacrificing originality. The little touches in the trailer that hearken back to the original series—from the egomaniacal nature of playing as a Hero to the time-honored tradition of punting chickens across Albion—made me smile, because that’s Fable, baby.
Of course, the addition of Richard Ayoade as a vegetable-tending giant named Dave was absolutely brilliant. Ayoade’s sense of humor is a perfect fit for the series, and unlike the celebrity cameos in the last Fable game, they’re letting Ayoade really run free with his own comedic voice here. Don’t get me wrong, though. Those actors did a great job in Fable 3, and the series has always been bolstered by its cameos. They just didn’t really get a chance to literally play themselves like Ayoade will be doing (for instance, Michael Fassbender apparently played the older brother in Fable 3, which I never knew until now).
Now, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the backlash against the trailer, which was as predictable as it is laughable. Not only was Ayoade’s appearance met with accusations of the game becoming a “woke hipster” bastardization of the franchise (which is hilarious, because Ayoade’s humor is as British as it gets, and what even is this franchise without painfully British humor?), but of course these people had to have a go at the featured protagonist’s appearance, too.
What’s wrong with her appearance? Literally nothing. She’s a woman without makeup, blonde hair, or blue eyes. That’s it. She looks good in my opinion, like a regular human woman, and a definite step up from the female protagonist in Fable 3, who felt the need to jut her boobs and butt out whenever she was standing still. While there are many things we can criticize modern video games over, refusing to set the feminist movement back several decades is not one of them—and yes, this extends to games like Forspoken, where the game’s alleged faults had nothing to do with having a Black woman as its protagonist. Trying to put two and two together there is just the laziest form of racism and misogyny.
So hey, massive cheers to what looks like a phenomenal return to Albion, where we can actually be any kind of hero we want, and bother a massive Richard Ayoade over his vegetables in the process. I look forward to seeing more about this reboot in the future!
(featured image: Playground Games)
