Game News Fabled Lands books a release

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Fabled Lands; Prime Games

Fabled Lands is now out on Steam for those looking for a low fi but more classical CRPG. It boasts several classes, a gigantic amount of quests, an open world, turn based combat, multiple ways to play, a permadeath option, and boats. Lots and lots of boats. Who doesn't like owning a boat? Anyway, here's the trailer and such:

The original Fabled Lands gamebooks, written by Dave Morris and Jamie Thomson, and beloved by many, have been transformed into an epic, digital adventure of interactive fiction with a massive game world. Be anyone you want: explorer, merchant, priest, scholar, thief, wizard, or soldier of fortune. Buy ships, goods, and townhouses, join a temple, risk desperate adventures in the wilderness, or embroil yourself in court intrigues and the sudden violence of city backstreets. Undertake missions that will earn you allies and enemies, or remain a free agent and choose your own objectives. With hundreds of quests and locations to explore, the choices are all yours.​

Since I mentioned it in the last news bit, the reviews are Mostly Positive as of the time of this post, so I guess people like it. For those that like movie length Let's Plays in order to see what the game is like, there's this video from Nookrium. It's almost three hours long, so hit the bathroom before viewing and grab the popcorn.

 

[PompiPompi]

"have been transformed into an epic, digital adventure of interactive fiction with a massive game world. Be anyone you want: explorer, merchant, priest, scholar, thief, wizard, or soldier of fortune. Buy ships, goods, and townhouses, join a temple, risk desperate adventures in the wilderness"
The trailer shows so little content compared to what is described here.
It's like enough that the explorer gets a fishing pole in the start equipment to check mark the "Explorer class".

 

[Late Bloomer]

Its always the Paladin/Priest. Every. Single. Time. I guess Diablo 3 with their Witch Doctor is the last of the bunch. The games looks ok enough. I'll keep an eye on it for the inevitable 5 dollar sale.

 

[Tavernking]

Save yourself time and money by getting the free Java version: http://flapp.sourceforge.net/

 

[Curratum]

Guy who did the art on this thing is a friend of mine. I was on their discord for a while, before it was even in EAccess, but the alphabet crowd started flooding in, asking for more than 2 genders in the menu, the dev said he was planning to accommodate for this and I sorta left.

Glad to see he has come to his senses and there are indeed just two genders in the char gen showed in the release trailer.

 

[Late Bloomer]

Guy who did the art on this thing is a friend of mine. I was on their discord for a while, before it was even in EAccess, but the alphabet crowd started flooding in, asking for more than 2 genders in the menu, the dev said he was planning to accommodate for this and I sorta left.

Glad to see he has come to his senses and there are indeed just two genders in the char gen showed in the release trailer.

How did the Priest look pre EA

 

[vazha]

Atrocious art style.

 

[Curratum]

Atrocious art style.

Wouldn't say atrocious, but nothing exciting or great either. Very very safe and by the numbers.

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

I have to admit I still don't understand why anybody would play Fabled Lands on any computer. By playing a computer game you'll never be able to understand and realize what a tremendous achievement these books are. FL was and still is the boldest experiment that has ever taken place in book form. The sheer marvel of being able to "travel" from one book to the other, while every book you purchase in addition opens up new vast spaces of the world, can never be felt by such a game. The dice chuckling, while rather basic and simple, is another part of the feeling of these books. And writing and managing your own inventory, char sheet, questlog... I still have my written adventures here. There was that most useless guy who wasn't able to withstand his own curiosity and dared to enter these ominous ruins at the southern coast of Golnir and never left again. And there was the other guy who tried to rob a mighty Shogun of his treasures, got caught, sold into slavery, transported to Uttaku (in another book), became a famous gladiator and later on died somewhere in the northern plains of book 3 in search of a lost city. This world is so unbelievably full of ways to adventure, find glory and wealth, become famous - or die. And all of that is possible in a friggin' book! That's the real wonder and achievement of Fabled Lands.
Man, it's high time I start a new adventure...

 

[oldmanpaco]

Just looked this up on Amazon and saw there are 14 books in the series. Anyone know if this game complete or is there DLC in the works?

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Just looked this up on Amazon and saw there are 14 books in the series. Anyone know if this game complete or is there DLC in the works?

There's an expansion in the works.

 

[Grauken]

Atrocious art style.

Wouldn't say atrocious, but nothing exciting or great either. Very very safe and by the numbers.

Looks like a flash game gameplay-wise

 

[Shin]

I have to admit I still don't understand why anybody would play Fabled Lands on any computer. By playing a computer game you'll never be able to understand and realize what a tremendous achievement these books are. FL was and still is the boldest experiment that has ever taken place in book form. The sheer marvel of being able to "travel" from one book to the other, while every book you purchase in addition opens up new vast spaces of the world, can never be felt by such a game. The dice chuckling, while rather basic and simple, is another part of the feeling of these books. And writing and managing your own inventory, char sheet, questlog... I still have my written adventures here. There was that most useless guy who wasn't able to withstand his own curiosity and dared to enter these ominous ruins at the southern coast of Golnir and never left again. And there was the other guy who tried to rob a mighty Shogun of his treasures, got caught, sold into slavery, transported to Uttaku (in another book), became a famous gladiator and later on died somewhere in the northern plains of book 3 in search of a lost city. This world is so unbelievably full of ways to adventure, find glory and wealth, become famous - or die. And all of that is possible in a friggin' book! That's the real wonder and achievement of Fabled Lands.
Man, it's high time I start a new adventure...

I get that you experience fuzzy feelings of nostalgia due to experiencing these CYOA books as an innocent youth, but why would anyone still play this 'in a book'? It pretty much sounds like you're describing a video game. (but to be fair, there are those, even among close friends, who'd rather buy "a book" so they can "smell the paper" rather than just downloading an e-book, I guess this is in the same vein)

 

[Tavernking]

I have to admit I still don't understand why anybody would play Fabled Lands on any computer. By playing a computer game you'll never be able to understand and realize what a tremendous achievement these books are. FL was and still is the boldest experiment that has ever taken place in book form. The sheer marvel of being able to "travel" from one book to the other, while every book you purchase in addition opens up new vast spaces of the world, can never be felt by such a game. The dice chuckling, while rather basic and simple, is another part of the feeling of these books. And writing and managing your own inventory, char sheet, questlog... I still have my written adventures here. There was that most useless guy who wasn't able to withstand his own curiosity and dared to enter these ominous ruins at the southern coast of Golnir and never left again. And there was the other guy who tried to rob a mighty Shogun of his treasures, got caught, sold into slavery, transported to Uttaku (in another book), became a famous gladiator and later on died somewhere in the northern plains of book 3 in search of a lost city. This world is so unbelievably full of ways to adventure, find glory and wealth, become famous - or die. And all of that is possible in a friggin' book! That's the real wonder and achievement of Fabled Lands.
Man, it's high time I start a new adventure...

The Java app isn't so bad. It lets you know when you're travelling to a new book, which lets you see a whole new area map (taken from the book) as well. It handles all the dice rolling for you, but shows you what you're rolling and is true to the book's combat system (I think).

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Guy who did the art on this thing is a friend of mine.

Can you tell him to throw in a few barbarians?

 

[Catacombs]

They made a native build for Mac but not for Linux?


(I'm not opposed to running wine)

 

[luj1]

Atrocious art style.

visual presentation of a mobile game

which is now most games posted on front page

 

[Cleveland Mark Blakemore]

At least it's got turn based combat.

Got a very pleasant art style, the game is clearly meant to be softcore roleplaying.

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

Just looked this up on Amazon and saw there are 14 books in the series. Anyone know if this game complete or is there DLC in the works?

The series hasn't been finished as of yet. There are only the first seven books available.

I have to admit I still don't understand why anybody would play Fabled Lands on any computer. By playing a computer game you'll never be able to understand and realize what a tremendous achievement these books are. FL was and still is the boldest experiment that has ever taken place in book form. The sheer marvel of being able to "travel" from one book to the other, while every book you purchase in addition opens up new vast spaces of the world, can never be felt by such a game. The dice chuckling, while rather basic and simple, is another part of the feeling of these books. And writing and managing your own inventory, char sheet, questlog... I still have my written adventures here. There was that most useless guy who wasn't able to withstand his own curiosity and dared to enter these ominous ruins at the southern coast of Golnir and never left again. And there was the other guy who tried to rob a mighty Shogun of his treasures, got caught, sold into slavery, transported to Uttaku (in another book), became a famous gladiator and later on died somewhere in the northern plains of book 3 in search of a lost city. This world is so unbelievably full of ways to adventure, find glory and wealth, become famous - or die. And all of that is possible in a friggin' book! That's the real wonder and achievement of Fabled Lands.
Man, it's high time I start a new adventure...

I get that you experience fuzzy feelings of nostalgia due to experiencing these CYOA books as an innocent youth, but why would anyone still play this 'in a book'? It pretty much sounds like you're describing a video game. (but to be fair, there are those, even among close friends, who'd rather buy "a book" so they can "smell the paper" rather than just downloading an e-book, I guess this is in the same vein)

I didn't actually play these books in my youth. I discovered them some years ago, about 2013 or so, far beyond my 30ies. So it hasn't anything to do with nostalgia. For me the Fable Lands were an incredible experience because what they try to achieve actually works in a book, in this most ancient medium. To see that there is a way to experience a solo RPG in an open world where you can do tons of stuff without the need to sit in front of a screen suprised and astonished me. And still does so. And in addition I do confess that I'm one of these book sniffer creeps who like the smell of printed paper.

The Java app isn't so bad. It lets you know when you're travelling to a new book, which lets you see a whole new area map (taken from the book) as well. It handles all the dice rolling for you, but shows you what you're rolling and is true to the book's combat system (I think).

The Java app isn't bad indeed. I like the simple and most basic form of the app. Imagination is a fundamental part of the original game books and the Java app takes this into account.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

the alphabet crowd started flooding in, asking for more than 2 genders in the menu, the dev said he was planning to accommodate for this and I sorta left.

They made a smart choice there. Most of those people who beg and demand stuff like that probably won't invest in the kickstarter regardless or buy the game. Same thing goes with comics. Marvel and DC make people in their books gay, and the "coming out" issue might sell well due to collectors, but then the sales drop like a stone because the fags that demand it don't buy the books and turning people gay drives off the people who normally do buy the books.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Just looked this up on Amazon and saw there are 14 books in the series. Anyone know if this game complete or is there DLC in the works?

The series hasn't been finished as of yet. There are only the first seven books available.

I see now. Amazon lists the first book as 1 of 14.

 

[Sin2x]

Save yourself time and money by getting the free Java version: http://flapp.sourceforge.net/

This is actually very much incline. Don't forget to download the illustrations from 1.0 folder on Sourceforge.

 

[Mortmal]

Uninspiring,no depth , low budget, looks like a phone game, softcore roleplay... Another day , another release in the computer rpg genre, a sea of mediocrity.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Is it comparable to Vagrus in terms of genre?

 

[smaug]

Combat and graphics