Fable Has A Staggering Number Of NPCs With Their Own Detailed Lives

Grand ambition is the calling card of the Fable series, and the newest installment is promising even more than the original trilogy did. Not only is the new game tackling a full open world for the first time, but it's also intent on populating that world in a way that sounds impossible to pull off.

According to the latest Xbox Developer Direct, livestreamed on YouTube Fable will have over 1,000 NPCs, each with their own schedules and behaviors. The developers at Playground Games refer to the NPCs as "the living population" of Albion, claiming that players could follow any given NPC around for a day "and just watch them live their life."'

Fable's 1,000 NPCs Can All React To Player Choices

Even more impressively, Playground promises that every NPC is capable of "fully voiced conversations," and these interactions can differ depending on the players' actions. It's possible to buy every business in Albion, for example, which means that NPCs might end up working for the player character.

Some interactions seem fairly minor, like NPCs shouting out compliments as a hero with a good reputation passes. These characters can also be affected by the darker side of Fable morality, and the Developer Direct showcase shows one NPC living on the streets after the hero evicted them from their home.

Pulling Off Fable's Promises Could be Tough

NPC routines can add a lot to any RPG, but finding a game with robust support for that kind of detail is difficult. Bethesda famously delivered on this potential in games like The Elder Scrolls, but the studio's most recent outing, Starfield, heavily minimized the number of NPCs with schedules.

Even Skyrim reduced the complexity of NPC schedules compared to Oblivion, and at this point, it seems unlikely that Bethesda will ever go back to the previous heights of the system. In the meantime, games like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 have picked up the slack.

Fable is promising even more NPC complexity than Bethesda has ever achieved. It's difficult to imagine that the level of reactivity on display here will live up to everything that Playground is promising, but even getting close could create a memorable experience.

I tend to favor the depth and idiosyncrasy of games like Oblivion to streamlined RPGs like Avowed, so Fable's focus on NPCs has me intrigued. At the same time, the size of the cast raises some concerns about how much complexity can be afforded to each NPC. Hopefully, Playground can manage to pull it all together by the time that Fable releases this autumn.