Fable is one of the earliest games I can clearly remember beating on my own, without my older brothers helping me. It’s also one of the first open world games that I’ve ever played with a morality bar. Needless to say, it’s very dear to my heart, and I hold it as a standard whenever I come across another game in that template. I know I shouldn’t, I should enter every game with an open mind to best appreciate it. But it’s hard not to compare everything to your first, nostalgia be damned. But we’re here not to talk about some other video game, but Fable. And if you’ll permit me, I’d like to take you into the world of strength, skill, and will that captivated my young heart.

The game starts off with you as a young boy, and as was popular with RPG’s of the time, no one bothered to name you. You’re called everything but what could actually be a name. Anyway, you’re woken up by your father who tells you to get up as fathers are known to do. He informs you that your mother is coming home soon and it’s your sister’s birthday. Being a kid you have no means to get money to buy her a gift, but fret not, your father tells you that there’s chocolate for sale at the store. For every good deed he hears you do around your village, he’ll give you a gold piece.

You’re then released into the world for the first time, you explore the village and interact with the various people there. Opportunity to do good or evil soon arises as you overhear a man with a woman who’s certainly not his wife. After catching them in the act, the man offers you a gold piece not to tell his wife. This is one of many decisions that will shape your hero. You can accept the gold piece, and keep quiet, or go and tell his wife. Instant gratification or doing the right thing? The choices are your, but mean little at this point in the game. Once you get three pieces and buy the chocolate to give to your sister who’s playing in a field; all hell breaks loose.

Your sister senses something wrong and shortly thereafter you both see a man running for his life. He’s promptly killed before you by a bandit. Soon your village is overrun with bandits murdering anyone in sight. Your sister tells you to stay hidden, but you decide to go look for your father. You run through your village, various houses are set ablaze, and you hear screams and swords clashing. You find your home and your father therein. You fall to your knees in grief at the sight of your dead father, only to be interrupted by a bandit. Before he can kill you with his sword, he’s interrupted by a bolt of lightning in the back.

In walks the legendary hero: Maze, he tells you to take his hand and he teleports you away to the training grounds of many famous heroes; the Heroes Guild. There you meet the Guildmaster, who’s far kinder than the callous Maze. He shows you around the grounds, and leads you to your room that you share with another student named Whisper. There you cry over the loss of your family, your entire life being changed in an instant. And it is there that your story truly begins.