6) Fable Legends
Even being responsible for one of the most uniquely-styled and revered RPG series of all time isn’t enough to keep you safe from closure, it seems. Somehow, Lionhead Studios, the UK-based institution co-founded and headed by Peter Molyneux until his departure in 2012, closed its doors for good in 2016 at the behest of Microsoft, leaving behind, among other things, I’m sure, an unfinished project that, may, in fact, have been responsible for its demise.
Owing to its adopting the Fable name, Legends was to take place in the series’ fantasy universe several hundred years prior to the events of the original trilogy while still retaining the familiar aesthetic and uncompromising British sense of humor that helped to cement its initial success. Only, beyond that, this was an entry far removed from the usual formula.
Billed as mini, bite-sized adventures, the central focus of Legends was on facilitating social play through teamwork and camaraderie. Put simply, five players were to be split into two uneven teams; four heroes and one villain. The former would work together in order to complete quests and objectives, while the latter would do its utmost to hinder that progress.
On paper, it’s an inherently simple idea, but I’m of the mind that Legends never received the attention it deserved due to a combination of miscommunication and bad timing on both Lionhead and Microsoft’s part. This wasn’t, and was never intended to be, Fable 4, and if that fact had been made clear, Legends may well have gotten off on a much better footing than it did.
