GDC09: Just how many words were in Fable 2?

by Justin McElroy { Mar 29th 2009 at 6:30PM }

The answer? A lot.

...Oh, you were hoping for something a bit more concrete? Well, as we just learned in a GDC session, the talky action-RPG included some 370,000 words, totaling 38 hours of speech. No, really, you can read it for yourself just above. And that, friends, is why Fable 2 was our 2008 Game of the Year: All those words.

Tags: fable-2, gdc-2009, lionhead, voice-over

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

InFaMoUs1- @ Mar 29th 2009 6:39PM

Lame...

Powaqqatsi @ Mar 29th 2009 6:39PM

I don't know, man. That co-op was whack.

Cj @ Mar 29th 2009 6:46PM

For a game all about making your guy and experience unique, they end up giving us preset characters. WTH is that? Ugh, Fable 2 was a let down.

ice~ @ Mar 29th 2009 6:40PM

I wanna know how many Fallout 3 or Mass Effect had...definitely 10 times more...no doubt about it.

Mister Bogus (Mr. ESC) @ Mar 29th 2009 9:33PM

Fable 2 is 10 times shorter :(

Seriously the first half is Epic but after the Hero of skill quest the game falls apart and there aren't that many side quests either. Fallout 3 story was also shorter than I imagined but everything was very well executed so it was a satisfactory game and there are plenty of side quest , unmarked quest to and places to explore plus the DLC support and there are different characters to create.

Then again Fable 2 was a good game and if you like short and simple RPGs is a very recommendable.

tonicboy @ Mar 30th 2009 4:50AM

I predict that publishers will soon start marketing games based on "megawords" - the number of thousands of words in a game - and sites like Joystiq will write rants about how more words does not necessarily mean better words.

aggrazel @ Mar 30th 2009 10:23AM

My thoughts exactly. Fallout 3 was all around a much better game than Fable 2. I'd imagine it has more than 30 hours of speech and has its own big name actors. (although I must admit, having Shepard Book in Fable was fun)

But you can't say a game is GOTY because of all that crap listed up there. As they say in sports, Fable 2 can't carry Fallout 3's jockstrap.

ice~ @ Mar 30th 2009 4:17PM

@aggrazel: Um, picturing my extremely large, horned, fat fable character (who drank the gender bender potion) holding a jock strap is, quite possibly, the worst image I've had in my head in a long time...

Deck @ Mar 29th 2009 6:41PM

Seems like a lot, but considering the main story wasn't THAT long.. I would expect other games (such as Mass Effect or Fallout 3 like Ice~ said) would have much, much more.

DaveMcRae @ Mar 29th 2009 6:41PM

All I ever wanted, all I ever needed is here, in my Xbox 360

Foetoid @ Mar 29th 2009 6:46PM

That of course will apply if Mad World is ported.

Reuben @ Mar 29th 2009 7:19PM

Words like violence, break the silence, come crashing in...

Markez @ Mar 29th 2009 8:06PM

Maaadwoooorld is verrrry unnecessary, it will only dooo haarm. (because that lil disc would get lost inside ur xbawks)

Viol8tor Mode @ Mar 30th 2009 1:19PM

May I ask, why a Depeche Mode song got referenced in a post?. :)

Phantom @ Mar 29th 2009 6:45PM

How much does MGS4 have?

Foetoid @ Mar 29th 2009 6:50PM

I'm the hugest fan of Fable 1 but a lot of people i have spoken too have said that Fable 1 is far better than Fable 2 and the ending for Fable 2 is crap. Can anyone confirm or deny these reports?

The Dark Wayne @ Mar 29th 2009 7:14PM

inb4 justin smacks down your hate of the ending with a righteous fury

edhe @ Mar 29th 2009 7:56PM

Fable 2 is far greater than fable 1, and the ending is downplayed by philistines who seem to require some sort of boss battle. It's an emotional ending, and it works.

Then it unlocks the best quests.

More fable please!

mcatrage @ Mar 29th 2009 7:50PM

Fable 1 had a better overall story and an epic final battle (well TLC at least had 2 good boss battles). Fable 2 I think was better in terms of controls and setting up a huge economy with everything for sale.

So I think Fable 2 expanded on a lot of the things Fable 1 was good for but the end story just wasn't amazing. I still recommend the game a lot though.

Markez @ Mar 29th 2009 7:56PM

I'm starting to feel things are going the way GTAIV went. Where everyone and their grandmother came out of the woodwork to blab how it was terribly overhyped, didn't live up to expectations, wasn't that great a game, blah blah blah etc.

Except I'm starting to notice that consistently, people are now coming out of the woodwork, thinking it makes them sound cool or hardcore, to go 'ohhhh what a letdown Fable 2 was, Fable 1 was the better game. Fable 2 sucked, the original had such a better story'

Am I the only one noticing it?

Markez @ Mar 29th 2009 7:57PM

Didn't mean to pick on mcatrage here, as he actually had a thought out response. Just seems the tide of douchey gamer opinion is starting to sweep up this mass of people going OH FABEL 2 SUCKED DOOD, FABEL 1 IS GREAT

Quattro @ Mar 29th 2009 8:01PM

I believe Fable II sucked, but I wouldn't say Fable I was any better.

devilsei @ Mar 29th 2009 8:06PM

Or, perhaps Markez, and this is just an opinion.
What if its true? What if people honestly hate the generic spells, the overpowered rifles, the easily abusable exp potions, the mundane jobs, the lack-luster economy, an anti-climatic ending, and a penalty-free death?

And edhe, what is emotional about it? The fact you lose your dog and the expansion trivializes that "consequence" by letting you revive it? By killing off your family, which was nothing different than the first, besides the lack of douwrys?

I loved Fable 1, it wasn't up to the hype Molyneaux spat out, but it was fun. I even beat the game and kept playing.

Fable 2, I haven't even bothered rescueing the second hero. The combat itself is dull. The only boss is the troll, which is an exercise in annoyance, not skill. I heard the same 5 lines throughout the entire game, and sorry, but there is only 8 voices, generic man, generic woman, tobi, the villian, theresa, reaver, hammer, and the Will hero.

Oh, and being evil was actually hard in the first game. That was dedication, being evil. You didn't just bite a chicken a few times, go evil, then go right back to good with some money. Fable 1 also had better legendaries. At least they weren't outclassed by a bunch of buyable weapons.

F1: Basu Gasu Bakuhatsu @ Mar 29th 2009 9:12PM

@Devilsei
Really? Your actually questioning the ending when you yourself admit to not playing it through to the end?
Let me tell you this; when a game that capitalizes on immersion and then uses said immersion for its ending, that is signature of a great game. Fable 2 played to its strengths by taking the gamer off the couch and yanking them into its world, showing off an ingenuity that in itself is rare in games.

Mister Bogus (Mr. ESC) @ Mar 29th 2009 9:49PM

I don’t know I never played Fable 1 but I finished Fable 2 and the mayor problem is that while its simplicity can be forgiven because the game is well pretty and interesting the game ends very abruptly.

After (again) the Hero of skill quest it seems the developers noticed they were short on time and maybe decided to focus on the DLC instead so it could be ready for Christmas making the story mode shorter than it should (My cynic theory).

About the ending well depends my Legal Evil character got the ending it deserved as it was immensely rich and powerful making everyone jealous (Too bad the real amount of gold you get is quite lame) but that lasted like 2 hours or so because NPCs can be entertained with Fart jokes and Puppets so the day after everyone loved me (Yeah after a while my Legal Evil changed to Legal good, I assume is because all those incentives I gave to small business and tax cuts when I was declared King also I killed every criminal making criminal activities fall a 80% reaching an all time low.)

Is hard to talk about the ending without giving spoilers so spoilers after this point

***Spoilers***

What makes the ending suck is that there is a point in the game where you loyal companion dies in a gratuitous way about 30 minutes from finishing the game. When you finally get to the final boss he is pathetic at best, I mean really, really sad so there isn0t a good revenge fight or anything.

The endings are these:
Evil ending: Money, NPCs hate you..for a while and your Dog remains dead (Unless you buy the DLC).
Best ending (Normal ending actually): Your family is resurrected and that includes your dog, that’s it.
Sh*t ending / Good ending: You spawn more retarded NPCs.

Stupidiot @ Mar 29th 2009 10:58PM

I'm siding with Devilsei.
I also found the first one to be immersive, since it was just so much more engaging, particularly the story and quests.
I found the false sense of care/love that Fable 2 tried to instil to be quite distracting, to be quite honest.

devilsei @ Mar 29th 2009 11:59PM

F1 Basu, theres a nice thing called youtube where you can look videos up.
Also, my sisters, who never played the first one, beat Fable 2 so i saw the ending that way.
Honestly. The entire last hour or so is one big letdown. The perfect world dream isn't based on your character, its just some generic bull to make you waste time. Seeing your dog die, is well, great actually. I'm a dog lover, and i didnt care.
And beating Lucien with a music box the peaceful (and only) way, is about the most anti-climatic ending ive ever seen.

DeoWulf @ Mar 29th 2009 6:52PM

If video game quality starts to depend on the number of words I need to seriously reconsider my dream job as a game writer...

DeoWulf @ Mar 29th 2009 7:57PM

Then again, the biggest thing they always emphasize about writing scripts is SHOW, not TELL. So it should really be the opposite.

Botasky @ Mar 29th 2009 6:59PM

38 hours of speech? Yet everyone sounds exactly the same.

Hyams @ Mar 29th 2009 6:59PM

Joystiq wuv their words.

superklye @ Mar 29th 2009 7:01PM

Next time they should focus more time, resources and energy on making a menu system that doesn't suck ass.

Although, I guess that was like a metagame: navigate back through the clusterfu--forest of options to drink ANOTHER potion before getting kicked out of the menus! HOURS OF FUN!

LaughingTarget @ Mar 30th 2009 10:52AM

If you spend enough time in the menu, you'll see a Minotaur.

Derek @ Mar 29th 2009 7:04PM

Well I guess that explains why there were no resources left for main character design. That is the biggest ripoff of Link that I have ever seen.....

Kenny @ Mar 29th 2009 7:41PM

Hahahaha, what!?

bvhj @ Mar 29th 2009 7:15PM

I will give like £10 to anyone who makes a single sound file of all 370,000 words playing at the same time

The Dark Wayne @ Mar 29th 2009 7:17PM

you...you know you dont always look like that in the game right? Also the only thing I can see in common with link is the youth everything else is wrong. He's got brown hair, big red boots, a gun, a ponytail, and a big buckled strap. Not to mention he isnt even wearing any green clothes