Fable Legends: Sounding out the latest entry in the saga

If you’ve been paying attention to Fable Legends, then you’ll already be aware that players have a range of Heroes to choose from before they start the game. These intrepid saviours of Albion will come in many flavours, but what’s important to developer Lionhead Studios is to make each one feel like its own character, with their own unique skillset and characteristics. We found how deep this attention to detail goes when we took a trip to the studio recently and spoke with the game’s associate audio producer, Steve Brown, who gave some insight into the process of using sound to distinguish each of the Heroes.

“Glory is this prim and proper protagonist there’sa lot of stuff in her backstory about how she potentially killed her dad because she wanted to be this evil magic lady,” enthuses Brown. “But she’s pretty, and she’s high-class. We got the heels out to get her footsteps, and we got the stone we shot everyone else’s footsteps on, but then we realised that this wasn't pretty enough for her, this wasn't expensive enough. So we shot it on solid marble.”

“It’s encouraging to know that Lionhead is still investing the same level of incredible detail into every facet of the world”

Brown also amuses himself recalling stealing the Foley artist’s Burberry bag to get the right sound of Glory’s own arm luggage. “Glory is high-class,” he says, “and it’s all these small details you should be able to hear that’ll help you understand that.”

Much of the sound recording is done at Pinewood Studios the legendary home of British cinema where the likes of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and the latest Bond film are being made.  It’s here that Glen Gathard, head of recording at Pinewood Studios steps in to help with the recording on  Fable Legends. “Oh, I’m with the Heroes, all day long,” he replies when we ask whether he prefers working on the sound of the Heroes or the Villain. “I love the minutiae and the detail we get to put into them. Everyone in the film world expects me to like setting fire to things and blowing stuff up. But I really like detail.”

And while we’ve known for a that Fable Legends changes the template of the franchise from its RPG roots into a co-op third-person action game, it’s encouraging to know that Lionhead Studios is still investing the same level of incredible detail into every facet of the world as it always has done. In short: it sounds amazing.