For those who love the Fable series and love card games similar to Magic the Gathering, Fable Fortune will be an easy recommendation. Blending the art and good/evil theme from the Fable franchise, Fable Fortune allows players to take on epic quests and choose their allegiance in a strategic card based title. Players can take on battles in cooperative play with others or face down opponents online in heated duels. With hundreds of cards and several heroes, Fable Fortune gives gamers a rich deck building experience with cards based off various Fable elements found in the series. Pick your hero, build your deck and enter the world of Fable Fortune crafting your own legend.

Similar to the Fable series, players of Fable Fortune should expect the humor, themes and concepts found within the long running RPG series. Each game—whether it’s co-op or one vs one—will make players think about every action and choose cards according to various situations. Do you spend gold coins in game—basically the mana of Fable Fortune—to make a card able to defend or save up to unleash a powerful slew of spells and cards? Equally, players will have to choose between Good or Evil each with potential effects for your characters changing the flow of combat in your favor. If you wish to become the victor in Fable Fortune be prepared to use your wits and skills lest you want to see a lose screen.

Fable Fortune has no true story other than having themes centered on the Fable universe. Characters, quests and even the world of Albion are mixed into this card game based game. Players will have to think one step ahead of other players or AI bosses to use the best possible movements in a turn. Do you focus on defense this round while building up gold to gain more troops or do you leave your hero wide open as you unleash spells and attacks on the enemy? Fable is known for having a theme of every choice has a consequence and that same theme is found heavily ingrained in Fable Fortune. Will you be the strongest card user ever or fall to others constantly? The choice is up to you player, now go into Fable Fortune ready for a brutal battle of wits, luck and cards!

Fable Fortune’s strengths and weaknesses lie within its easy to learn card game mechanics. If you’ve ever played a game of Magic the Gathering then you’ll find it won’t take long to settle into Fable Fortune. At times, it’s this mechanic we love in Fable Fortune—as some of us here at Honey’s Anime have dabbled with Magic the Gathering heavily before—but in equal measure, this is also what kills Fable Fortune for being a title everyone will love. First though, let us discuss what you’ll be doing in a typical match of Fable Fortune.

Each game starts essentially the same. You choose from one of several main hero cards, each having different ingame perks such the Knight who can summon a 1/1 soldier when his power is activated or the Merchant who gives extra gold each turn—just to name two of the several available—and enter the match. Similarly to most card games, each player is given 5 cards and then either goes first or second. However, this is where Fable Fortune changes the game up a bit by adding quest cards that the player must choose. Each quest gives the players tasks to complete as they play for example summoning specific cards or using special attacks a set amount of times. Upon completion of these quests, Fable’s good versus evil system comes into play.

When a player wins a quest, they are given a choice at being good or bad, the effects don’t have much effect in the whole game but in the match they can shift the game quite quickly. Usually choosing to be a good hero means you’ll get some riches of some sort—maybe a special card or two—and choosing evil can possibly give you new cards to summon that are more about dealing damage than defense. Each quest has different perks that become available and it’s really up to the individual to see what will work for them in a given match. We really loved this element of Fable Fortune because it truly reminds us of the Fable series when events like this occur.

Now for better or worse, matches are basically the same deal as a game of Magic the Gathering and while we mention this a lot, obviously it’s the best way to envision how the game flows. Players are given gold—which acts like mana—where they can use said gold to summon warriors or use spell cards. The player’s goal is to take down their opponent’s life—which is 30 health—in whatever way possible. Players will need to really choose wisely what they do in each turn as like any card game luck and skill play a nice mixture in determining who wins and losses. Fable Fortune doesn’t reinvent the wheel too much in its gameplay but it has nice altercations that make it more than just a clone of other card games.

If you grow tired of doing one versus one games, you are freely able to join a cooperative game where you and a friend—or random—team up to defeat big enemies akin to bosses. What’s even more pleasant is that as the seasons change—a number of real life days must pass—new events and bosses become available. This removes a glaring issue found in the older Magic the Gathering titles where you only had a set amount of enemies to take down in co-op play, now the sky’s the limit and we’re eagerly awaiting what the developers of Fable Fortune have in store for us. We also hope that new heroes will release as the PVP and co-op seasons change, that would really make Fable Fortune feel as if time is passing in a grand adventure. However, as it is at the moment, Fable Fortune plays well enough that even after several hours of matches, we haven’t gotten bored of playing alone or with friends.

Let us also mention another thing we loved about Fable Fortune: the deck building. While deck building in any card based game can be scary when it’s an option—older card based games did include such a feature—Fable Fortune is easy and robust. Choose one of the several heroes and then begin to add and subtract cards you feel work well with that hero. Obviously the Merchant can be used with a wide range of card options but a Knight for example needs to mix in attack and defense cards over spells and high costing gold. You don’t need to build a deck in Fable Fortune—as the game already has several pre-built ones to use—but if you’re one to want to control a battle a bit more, then you’ll definitely want to build a deck. There is a lot of freedom to be found in Fable Fortune’s deck building and that is a truly impressive feature all by itself.

Visually and audibly, Fable Fortune is a sight for sore eyes for those who love Fable’s design. Cards in game, summoned pieces and backdrops look incredible and give the game a wonderful fantasy vibe. The music is also soothing which is a plus if you loved the music found in Fable titles. Never once did we here at Honey’s Anime feel like muting the music and finding our own songs to play but we do understand that music is subjective so if you’re looking for a more epic tone you may want to find some tunes to play instead of the in-game melodies. Regardless of your choice though, Fable Fortune truly is an awesome looking and sounding game.

If we had any major complaints about Fable Fortune it would be the sometimes overuse of Magic the Gathering themes and the obviously niche gameplay. No matter what we say, card games are both loved and hated in the world of video games. Fans of Fable may have issues that Fable Fortune isn’t an epic adventure filled with magic and sword combat but instead with cards that look like an RPG scene. Equally we wished sometimes the game wouldn’t make it seem so obvious that most of the mechanics were ripped from Magic the Gathering but we understand this might have been the best course of action. Card games like Fable Fortune can sometimes try to add too many newer gameplay mechanics and that can over complicate the game as well. Thanks to Mediatonic and Flaming Fowl Studios, Fable Fortune is an easy to pick up and play card game title and still retains enough complexity to make it not just a simple clone of other turn based card games.

Fable Fortune is honestly a nice and simple card based title but with some unique twists and ideas that make it unique. We loved how each battle felt like a quest within a Fable title and that it was easy to understand quickly. The cards themselves look really cool and you can clearly see developers Mediatonic and Flaming Foul Studios wanted to stay true to the style and aesthetic found in all the Fable games. For only $14.99, Fable Fortune won’t break your bank and we feel it’s worth the price of admission. Obviously, Fable Fortune suffers from the same issues any card game can have such as being overly slow at times and lacking in some minor design choices but overall we find very little wrong with Fable Fortune.

We won’t lie folks; we were very surprised by Fable Fortune. The simple card based gameplay seems deceiving at first but thanks to the good/evil theme and the various quests, matches feel like events found in the Fable games. At times, because Fable Fortune mirrors Magic the Gathering in dozens of ways, it can feel overly simple and lacking some depth but these aren’t reasons to not play Fable Fortune. We fully recommend Fable Fortune for those who love turn based card games and love the Fable franchise despite it not being another RPG in the Fable series. Now before we go into another online match in Fable Fortune, we would love to know your thoughts on the game. Are you planning on picking Fable Fortune up or are you giving it a pass? As always we here at Honey’s Anime are working hard to deliver to you the best possible gaming reviews so be sure to return for even more soon to launch.