A story about gaming… A fable about Fable, if you will.
There’s a YouTuber named Mortismal Gaming who covers CRPGs. You know those old-school, stat-driven, PC-centric kind, and he loathes Fable III. Anytime he posts a list of disappointing sequels or games that failed to live up to their potential, Fable III is trotted out like a sacrificial chicken. And to be fair, from a traditional role-playing lens? He’s not entirely wrong.
The Fable series has long been a punching bag for CRPG purists. Some of this comes from the fact that Fable II and III are notoriously inconvenient to play on PC, which immediately biases a large chunk of the CRPG community. But a larger part is structural: they’re not really RPGs. At least not in the way Interplay or Obsidian make RPGs.
To understand why, consider Mass Effect: on paper it’s a role-playing game, but functionally it’s a romance simulator with guns, wrapped in a space opera with a clear beginning, middle, and end and a relatively fixed protagonist. Fable is similar. One person’s Fable game is going to at least at a glance look very similar to another person’s runthrough.
So why do I adore Fable II and Fable III in ways Mortismal and the rest seem unable to?
Because I don’t play them as RPGs.
I play them as bigamist landlord simulators.
And in that genre, they are unmatched.
The Landlord King of Albion
Here is my self-imposed challenge in every Fable run:
- Acquire a spouse in every city.
- Purchase every piece of real estate.
- Become a benevolent (or bemused) ruler through sheer rental income.
- And in Fable III, where you’re literally crowned king?
I still insist on owning all the property, anyway. A king should diversify. Hell, I make my King’s decisions based on their effect on land values rather than “good” or evil” (Which is better for gentrification, an orphanage or a bordello?)
Once you play Fable like you’re managing a sprawling medieval Airbnb empire, the game clicks. Suddenly the story isn’t about the Darkness or the Crawler or Theresa’s cryptic speeches. It’s about whether the Bowerstone Market property bubble is maturing on schedule. Can you jack up the margins in the jewelry stall, and how will turning a township into evil wraiths effect on-time rental payments?
But beyond my own real-estate shenanigans, Fable has other charms. Chief among them: Stephen Fry, who delivers one of the funniest villain performances in gaming. Reaver is a monster, yes, but a delightful one. The humor throughout both games is underrated, sharp, and genuinely unique.
Combat isn’t difficult. In fact, in one recent playthrough I had forgotten your character could die when I put the controller down, walked away, and returned half an hour later to discover some woodland creature had murdered me. I was genuinely shocked.
The games also share some CRPG-style flaws: both contain a dreaded “trudge section,” the kind every RPG seems to insist on including. Dragon Age has the Fade; Fable II has the Spire; Fable III has that tedious desert. None of them skippable on replays.
But that doesn’t matter because Fable isn’t about the story you’re given. It’s about finding that sweet spot on rental prices and shop margins.
Sandbox Thinking: Why I Play Games “Wrong”
There is a thread connecting most games that I truly love.
- In Mass Effect, I play it as a space-travel dating sim, not a tactical shooter.
- In Fallout 4, after 500 hours, I still haven’t found the baby. I’m far too busy designing suburbs in the wasteland. Why go fight mutants when I’m trying to negotiate crop rotation between settlements?
- In The Sims 4, I couldn’t care less about goals. It’s basically a Cinemax after dark simulator with Hollywood celebrities.
- In Crusader Kings 3, do you really think I’m concerned with ruling Europe? I’m planning weddings.
- In Skyrim, I’m building a house, adopting children, and occasionally killing a dragon out of obligation. (Unless I am playing as a vampire, then I am hunting for a mod to make doorways larger. Who am I kidding? 90 percent of any Skyrim playthrough is perfecting my mod load-out)
- In GTA or Saints Row, the main story is the thing I do accidentally on my way to seeing if I can hijack a plane or climb Mount Chiliad as a coyote.
This is what makes some games magical. The ability to ignore the plot entirely and carve out something delightfully pointless, personal, and creative. Some of these games are true sandboxes, like The Sims. Others are basically sandboxes with a story like Fallout. Still others, like the Fable games, are straightforward games with definitive stories and endings but with enough room to muck around and make them your own.
Many players live whole second lives in Red Dead Redemption 2, fishing and drinking coffee in camp, never bothering to advance Arthur’s story.
Why?
Because the narrative in your head is better than the one any developer can script.
So… Are Fable II and III Good?
Objectively?
They’re flawed.
They’re uneven.
They’re not “proper RPGs.”
They have awkward mechanics, pacing issues, and deliver a lot less than was promised.
But subjectively, for a player like me, who relishes open-ended creativity, domestic chaos, and real estate empires?
They’re 10 out of 10.
They’re not just games.
They’re little playgrounds full of personality, humor, charm, and Stephen Fry monologues.
They let you make your own joy.
And in a world full of games obsessed with being cinematic epics or tactical spreadsheets, the ability to be a multi-married medieval landlord is precious.