Fable is truly one of my all-time favorite games. I have countless fond memories of it, and it’s hard to put into words just how much this epic journey, infused with lots of humor, means to me. Yes, the game has aged, and the gameplay might seem simple by today’s standards, but there’s a timeless charm, care, and attention to detail that make this game nothing short of a masterpiece in my eyes. It's an undeniable classic that I’ll always love.

My journey with Fable began when the original came out for Xbox in like 20 years ago. Prior to DLC and what not, I only got exposed to The Lost Chapters much later with Anniversary. You will find I throw Anniversary under the bus more.

First point: The only reason I would recommend Anniversary over Fable: The Lost Chapters is if lack of controller support is an issue. If you do not mind keyboard controls, I 100% think this is the preferable option. Having played Anniversary and went back to this, I have a few points.

The graphics I find more appealing than Anniversary. While yes, some of the environments in Anniversary are more touched up, they really botched the NPC appearances. They just look so weird. Just look up a photo of Lady Grey from The Lost Chapters, and put it next to the Anniversary version, and you'll see what I mean.

I get a more stable frame rate with The Lost Chapters, but not in a "My Hardware is weak" kind of way. It almost feels like Anniversary was poorly optimized. Some of the spell effects are just bad. Enflame looks awful, Physical shield has trouble rendering half of the time. The mana regen effect when received from an Augment messes with the mana bar. Just weird stuff like that.

The Anniversary results in the loss of Hero Saving, which is a nifty little tool that, when used properly, can remedy the old sack of potatoes your Hero becomes. Although it also means you can't save in the middle of quests, which I suppose you can give a point to Anniversary if that matters to you. Realistically, very few of the quests are major time sinks, so I would just recommend budgeting your time accordingly.

Gameplay wise, both games are identical, with the hero save change being one of the major changes.
If gameplay is your only metric, I would say it doesn't matter, but I personally have found The Lost Chapters to be smoother and better optmized. That's just me though.

Summary:
If controllers matter, go Anniversary.
If controllers don't matter, go The Lost Chapters.

maybe the worst game ever made