The Road To Rule Needs Repaving

I finished Fable 3 a week or two ago. There are still money-making quests I could do, but I'd beaten the big challenge, and earned enough seals to open all the chests. That's good enough for a game I didn't really want (it was included with the console, if I'd known that, I would have asked if they could take it out and replace it with Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3).

I hadn't played a game in the franchise since the original Fable. Back then, I'd gone into the game convinced I'd be the most evil person ever. Then I found myself constantly rationalizing not taking the evil choice. Which was frustrating. I went in with no such plans this time, preferring to simply make whichever choice seemed right at the moment. Even that didn't go as planned. If you're still working through the game, this will likely contain SPOILERS for the storyline, so be advised.

I overthrow my cruel tyrant of a brother and become ruler. Then the mysterious sage who's been providing cryptic advice on the otherworldly "Road to Rule" tells me the living darkness I encountered in Aurora will launch an attack in one year. Before then, I need to raise money to prepare my country for its attack. Each gold piece will save approximately one civilian life, so I need 6.5 million gold. This is what my brother was supposedly trying to accomplish with his harsh rule. As ruler, I will, however, be able to make policy decisions that can raise the funds. Like turning the shelter for the less fortunate into a brothel

Problem: The decisions that make money will often require me to break promises to the very people who helped me overthrow my brother. I refused to do this, with two exceptions (letting them dump sewage in the swamp, and turning the lake into a strip mine. Some biologist I am). I felt like crap about both of them, and what's worse, it made no difference. Not only had I not raised the necessary funds by year's end, I was in the hole 400 grand.

Still, I faced the Infinite Darkness, and crushed it. Because I'm a boss like that. All my friends and allies congratulated me, the credits rolled, and at the end, told me that I'd left my kingdom woefully unprepared, and the few remaining survivors would remember me as the ruler who let her (I decided to play as a girl, cause why not) kingdom die.

What?

Then what the hell was the big celebration about? The final chapter had been titled "The Ends Justify the Means?", and apparently the game was saying "yes, it's acceptable to be a bastard and make people suffer to save them". In the real world, I might accept that. In a fictional world, where I'm a HERO, in capital letters and that's supposed to mean something*, no, I don't. I ought to be able to save them without there needing to suffer. Sure, that's unrealistic, but so is giving me only two options on what to do with my brother (pardon or execute). What about a lengthy prison sentence? What about community service?

That was exasperating, and roaming the streets of my kingdom, empty of anyone except soldiers and bandits, didn't help. I swung between finding gameplay depressing and infuriating. Was the game telling me I had to compromise my morals to save people? If that was the case, why bother having me oust my brother? He was doing a fine job of that already, and don't give me any guff about needing a true hero, since clearly my being one didn't help much. I put every cent I'd made into the treasury, but it barely made a dent. Was I supposed to rent out properties, play Lute Hero for 5 hours, make pies? I wasn't interested in any of that, any more than I had been in starting a family.

Two things happened, one which softened my stance, the other just confuses me. The first is I found my way to the Sunset House, having finally bothered to look up what it was and how to get there, since it was on the map. I found 10 million gold there. Maybe it wouldn't have been there if I found it when I needed it, but it might have been. Missed opportunity on my part. The second is the people began to reappear. Bearing gifts, no less. It makes no sense, given what I was told about casualties and my kingdom's doom, but it's as though everyone respawned after a certain amount of time. I don't know what to make of that.

It occurs to me I haven't said anything about the game beyond the story. It looks nice, the quests can be a bit repetitive, but you don't have to play all of them if you don't want to. The combat is a lot of fun, and pretty simple to grasp. There were times it felt almost as smooth as Beyond Good & Evil, which is probably the best game I've ever played in terms of a creative fighting system that was easy to use. The game doesn't it take itself too seriously, with all the smart alecky remarks at the completion of quests, which is appreciated, if a little surprising, given the apparent dire stakes. It isn't gallows humor, more like the creators of the game expect the players to see the flaws or quirks in what we're doing for quests.

* When approaching a resistance leader in the city for help, my instructor, Walter, tells her I'm a hero. When she dismissively replies, 'Then give her a medal,', he says, 'No, I mean she's a HERO'. Clearly there are heroes, and then there are HEROES, and the latter have something truly special.