Prince of Persia and Fable II in Review

[samuraimarmoset]

So while at my brother's righteous bachelor pad this week, chillaxing for my Reading Week (that's basically our Spring Break, yo), I managed to beat two of the games that I got for Christmas. As the title indicates, they were the new Prince of Persia, and Fable II. I shall now sum up my feelings regarding each and their endings!

Comments

[samuraimarmoset]

Yeah, exactly. If you've been smart about buying up property (though the game does tend to favour Good or Neutral characters in that regard over Evil; increasing rent only works short term, and generally, if you're evil, there's a lot less property to buy in Bowerstone Old Town, Oakfield gets destroyed, and you probably don't help Barnum develop Westcliff), there's absolutely no benefit to the Needs of the One. Though if you've been dedicated Evil, and thus you've lost out on the properties Good characters can get in Bowerstone Old Town, Oakfield, and Westcliff, it's not such a bad idea. You probably won't get the Ruler of Albion, but you can still buy Fairfax Castle and become Mayor.

I could have cared less about my character's dead wife. The real draw to me in the Neutral Ending is getting your dog and Rose back, since the dog is your emotional link to Albion (and the Neutral ending the only way outside of Knothole Island to get him back), and Rose actually does manage to have a hell of a lot more personality than most NPCs. They pretty much through the Great Shard fight in Bloodstone at you to make up for the fact that Lucien isn't a proper last boss at all, yet they felt there had to be a proper fight at the end.

The bandit attack when you buy Fairfax Castle triggers a quest that culminates with the ability to drink a potion that can change your character's sex permanently...if for some reason you wanted to do that. But aside from that entirely optional sidequest, buying Fairfax Castle offers you nothing except...'Hey! I've got a castle!'

The devs have commented they want to do more DLCs that deal with the other Heroes more...for example, DLCs that let you control Hammer, Garth, and especially Reaver as the main character (much like the GTA4 DLC changes main characters) would be especially entertaining. Part of the problem, is that Fable II suffers from the same problem PoP did, in that there's probably going to be a third game (Maybe all the way up to Fable V if Molyneaux has his way), which is why the ending of II was so unsatisfactory.

A lot of it has to do with...just what the hell is Theresa up to, anyway? Word of God states she's a Hero, but her actions say otherwise...she sets up Rose and Sparrow finding the music box (and thus Lucien killing Rose), and as the game progresses, she starts to look more and more pale and withered, which are hallmarks of Evil characters, until finally, somehow, the Spire restores her youth, at which point she goes 'Okay, mine now, GTFO!'. The explanation I heard is that Theresa's seeress abilities allow her to see every possible outcome of every possible decision at every possible point in time, or something along those lines, so it's entirely possible she's committed to making some great future for Albion...even if she has to do some pretty darn evil things to accomplish it. But I don't know, really. XD

Yes, there is a way in Knothole Island to revive your dog if you chose The Needs of the Many or Needs of the One. And for the Demon Door that requires your dog to perform tricks, if the dog is dead at that point, its ghost appears to help you out (which is kinda sad...). ^_^