--Updated Review 3--
Hope that sometime in the near future we will see the fourth iteration of this game

--Updated Review 2--
Still continue recommending it for the yearly labor of love nomination. 2 years and still continuing to receive regular updates.

---Updated Review---
This game has continued to receive updates and new content at decent pace. Still highly recommend investing in this game. Recent updates have really increased the challenge of reaching your objective but in a good way.


---Original Review---
First things first, yes there is a free version of this game but it is an earlier version without some of the new features added in the steam release such as race. If your not sure about this game play the free version and after learning from your mistake immediately throw your $5 at the developer.

Second this is a dungeon crawl. You are not guarnteed the same gear or even gear that logically makes sense with your class. Success is earned not guarnteed, similiar to games like FTL. In my first run i nearly died on floors 3 and 4 to ranged emeimes, floor 7 to hunger due to eating all my food to survive the prior flors, and 13 if not for a little dumb luck that leveling up restored my health before more enemies could finish me. Floor 16 i survived simply because i picked the right door and was able to make straight for the goblet before being slaughted by a horde of enemies.

Third this is fact the third version of the game the developer has made. There really isn't a story to the game so you do not need to play any prior version. The prior versions were simply alpha/beta versions of what you get today. The paid version is promising sufficent additional content that i would have gladly bought this game for twice the price and have already purchased it for two of my friends.

I may at the time of writing this only have .6 hours but I have probably 20 to 40 hours invested in the free game. The time I put in was to verify that additional features have already been added beyond the free version that off a new level of dimension to the game. Having followed free version of this game I can see the developer has a track record of reliable releases at a time when it was of no monetary value.

I recommend to everyone get in now. I think with the right amount of visibility this will become the next big game.

General Information:
- 20 to 90 min runs
- Turn-Based Rogue-like
- Best part is outsmarting/figuring out difficult situations or breaking the game
- 10 classes & 8 races (any combination of class/race is possible, though not every is strong)
- Playable with only mouse though keyboard + mouse is preferable
- Pictures in the community hub/store page are heavily outdated, as are most reviews due to the game getting a lot of updates

Good:
- High skill ceiling (the game can be beaten without getting hit once)
- Many viable/powerful playing styles (though you will not instantly feel it)
- No random ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, almost any run can be won
(- Easy to modify and understand code)

Bad:
- Small community (small modding scene, no big youtubers, etc)
- A few bugs due to still being in development
- Difficult to pick up and too easy once you master it (though you can always use the few mods available to make it harder)
(- Graphics)

For anyone curious I actually have closer to 200 hours in the game, its just that most of them were spent playing a modded version. :P

If you are looking for classic rogue-like combat (sans the ASCII interface in place of true retro pixel graphics) that you can complete in a sitting or two, I'd recommend this game. Pixel Forge Games (aka solo developer, Justin Wang) takes what could have been yet another Net Hack clone, originally made as a point-and-click web interface proof of concept, and puts his own spin on it by allowing turn-based combat to be more fast paced while offering an array of tactics you can mixing, matching, and adapt to as you explore and get more powerful.

While this is titled Rogue Fable III, this Steam version is quickly heading towards effectively being Rogue Fable IV in terms of improved mechanics and an increase in content compared to the free web version of the same name. During the past 3 years, each version of Rogue Fable has seen a dramatic improvements from the last, with this Early Access title showing a similar pattern of improvement during its first 4 weeks of development. (at the time of writing this)

The development cycle of this game is very quick, usually less than a week's time, with hot fixes being worked on and uploaded within minutes of discovering a problem (note, the guy still has to sleep). The game still only has a small following on the Steam platform, and it costing $5 might put some people off.

If there is any doubts on how good the game is, check it out the free web version as a sort of demo and see if you like it. People at Kongregate loved it, awarding it 1st place for November's game of the month! If you find yourself playing that for several hours at a time, then you will definitely find this Steam version enjoyable.
(note: the core gameplay will be the same, but this version will have balance fixes and more content and features)

Fun Rogue-like that started life on Kongregate. If you like the genre you'll find enjoyment here. Worth a buy even if not on sale. One of my favorites!

Very nice and compact classical rougelike. A full playthrough takes me about 90 minutes, but different Class/Race combinations plus random talent drops keep it interesting and allow for a few different builds. What makes this game great and had me sink hundreds of hours in it is the well polished mechanics. Everything feels fair, and you can predict clearly what is going to happen next round when stepping here or striking there (in fact, there is a series of impressive no-hit runs on yt, look up the channel of Random595).
Overall, it's not an evening filling game, but always good for an hour or two. For me it was well worth the ten bucks.

I think the hours speak for themselves here, but some highlights:
-High replay value (standard for Roguelikes in general, but some of them lack content; this game does not lack content)
-Good build versatility (uses a 3 ability score system to determine which talents your character can take, multiclassing is not only viable but encouraged to a degree)
-Mostly fair gameplay (attacks are designed to be avoidable, and it's very unlikely you'll encounter a situation that you couldn't have escaped from via better play)
-Streamlines a lot of things that older Roguelikes would make clunky (ie, you open doors by touching them, not by pressing the "open door key", "look at" is automatic by hovering the mouse over a tile, etc.)

Drawbacks:
-Repetitive music (the main dungeon has 1 track that is used for 75% of it, and 3 out of 6 side dungeons share their song as well)
-Achievements are catered to hard core players (it's POSSIBLE to beat the game without taking damage, but so ridiculously difficult it might as well not be for all but the best of players)
-Dexterity is grossly overpowered (Evasion is blatantly superior to all other forms of defense, despite lower damage the range and versatility of talents for Bows make them better than a lot of options, and the concept of Sprint Points, while unique, is agreed to be "too good" by most if not all veteran players).

Overall, do recommend, it's worth the $10.

Roguelikes in the classical style are always a welcome addtion here on Steam, but does Rogue Fable III really bring anything new to the table? Not in the slightest. It's easily worth the small asking price, but I always see potential squandered for doing something new. This is the same old dungeon crawling that you've done throughout the years. The universe is as generic as it gets in every way. All the usual tropes are here. Barbarians are dumb brutes, and rats are crawling all over.

What I do appreciate about this title is shorter runs. Sometimes I enjoy the vast epic tales of NetHack and Caves of Qud, but sometimes I want a coffee break runner. And Rogue Fable III offers that. Beyond what I've already discussed, the only major flaw (and it is major for me) is that you cannot play with just a keyboard. And in fact, you cannot play with just a mouse either. In my humble opinion all roguelikes in the classical style should be playable with just the keyboard. And for this title there is no reason we can't have just keyboard, or just mouse, functionality. It just needs to be fully implemented. In fact controller support would work here as well.

Pros:
+A nice, albeit generic, classical roguelike
+Winning runs are short, and meant to be done in one sitting

Meh:
=It's fun enough, but nothing to write home about

Cons:
-As generic as it gets; you've delved these dungeons before many times
-Controls aren't great; you need both keyboard and mouse when it could easily just require one
-Could use more of a tutorial and/or list of key bindings

For collectors of classical style roguelikes on Steam - you know what this is.

Bought a 4090 to play AAA games, ended up playing this instead

Update for 12/28/2021
I have to say that most, if not all of my original complaints have seemingly been addressed, at least a little bit. Being surrounded by enemies when you first go down a level seems to not be an issue anymore (though there can still be enemies close by). Certain annoying enemies seem to have been tweaked to make them more managable more often. Overall the game seems to have been tweaked to allow skill to be supplemented by luck, as opposed to the other way around. I will also sddress the best change; my mummy necromancer now actually looks like a mummy. 10/10

Overall with the tweaks and updates this game has truly become a fun, quick, little roguelike. Still challenging, but as as involved or intensive as others (like Gungeon or Isaac). And that's not a bad thing.




-Original review-
I want to like this game more than I do (and overall, I do like the game). The reason I don't recommend it YET is that there are some serious quality of life issues. I will also preface this by saying I played and loved the Newgrounds version.

My current and primary issue is that the game relies very heavily on luck. This is normal in rogue-likes, but the luck is there to supplement your skill. In this game if you go down to a new level and the stairs are surrounded by enemies, you better hope you have a hellfire scroll or something or else your basically ♥♥♥♥♥♥. I constantly feel like I'm in situations with no good option or strategy. Aside from that I feel like some enemies have been tuned up from the Newgrounds version. Those trapdoor spiders (or whatever they are) that ambush you in dessert floors are basically instant kills when I play a spellcaster. They move to fast for me to re-position, they do too much damage to trade, and they are surprisingly tough for how early I often run into them. And shamans of any kind are just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ annoying, and though that's basically the same from the NG edition I fee like I seem them much more often. For spellcasters their staffs state they improve by improving your mastery with their element, but I've only seen that option as a very rare enchantment on items. I feel like that's more of a holdover from the older edition. Either give us more readily available tools to improve those elemental magics or re-tool the staffs. I also noticed the Charm spell just does not work. I got it, I would try and cast it, but it would never cast. The box showed that the target was valid, but the click would never work. Tried upgrading it, still nothing.

But not everything is bad. I do like some of the changes made. Having a melee and ranged weapon equipped at the same time is useful. The different races add a nice level of choice for play style (maybe eventually your race choice will alter the class avatar). I personally like the mummy as someone that likes taking there time through a level, but I feel that the game decides to constantly throw fire enemies at me to punish me for this. I overall like getting rid of the wand's limited uses though committing mana for so many different items isn't as good (I miss the trinket/amulet slot).

Meh. I had some fun, but replayability is actually pretty low. Once you know what is happening it is all a bit formulaic.

Current run I am right near the final boss, and I just don't care about finishing. I already know I will win, and I'm not super interested in doing the last few fights.

I don't care about doing speedruns.

Game doesn't even save my past runs correctly (bug). And none of the achievements get unlocked (bug).

Sorta worth playing, but I don't know about all the raving positive reviews...