Fable III Bugs

Template:Incomplete There are many technical issues (commonly known as 'bugs' or 'glitches') in Fable III; many of them can corrupt save data and make the game unplayable. Some of these bugs will not allow you to progress further into the game, thus forcing you to start over. But some of them are also only disturbing, but harmless and only annoying.

Gameplay Issues

Divorce House Management Glitch

After a player has a divorce, the house that was selected to live in can lose its ability to be sold and if the tenants are evicted after, it will lose all options to do anything making it an unusable house. Glitch occurred with hero to hero marriages in the initial houses selected which were rented out by the player prior to marriage. Unsure if it will cause future issues or if non-hero divorces glitch homes.

Gender Swap Glitch

An inexplicable, game-breaking and extremely frustrating glitch may occur when playing in another hero's world (or even "locally" on sub-profiles on the same console or machine) where if the connection is abruptly cut off, or, even, indeed, if there is no seeming causality at all, for whatever reason, the hero may be returned to single player, or, upon returning to single player after co-operative play, one's Hero identity is mysteriously rendered irreversibly broken and mutilated, incarnated as their opposite gender in a distorted "androgynous" disfiguration. Usually, they will start with no hair, no clothes, and possibly no weapons. The character is rendered truly "formless" and if one's Hero was female, for example, the bodily mannerisms and speech of the female Hero shall carry over into the new male form in a sort of surreal unnaturalness.

It is notable that this is the only way for the male hero to marry Elliot and for the female hero to marry Elise. 

See here: Gender Swap Glitch Video

Time Glitch

The time glitch is a malfunction in Fable III where time does not pass in the game. No matter what the player does (aside from sleeping) time never continues. This means that no more enemies spawn ruining the purpose of the game. It can happen after the player has downloaded Traitor's Keep, but does not seem to be related to the compatibility issues.

• This glitch will occur if the player fast travels mid-way through the completion of any of the main quests in Traitor's Keep. (i.e. Fast traveling to another location immediately after sparing or killing Professor Faraday; mid-way through the 'Like Clockwork' main quest)
• The developers have made it so that each main quest occurs at a specific time of day. (i.e. Like Clockwork during sunrise and The Menagerie from sunrise to midnight)
• Fast traveling mid-way through each of the main quests in Traitor's Keep locks the game time to the time locked for that particular quest.
• Furthermore, it also appears that all five quests are interlocked with each other. Ending Like Clockwork will automatically start The Menagerie
• Therefore, to avoid this glitch it would be best to complete all of Traitor's Keep's main quests; from Throne of Blood to Heroes and Villains, one after another.
• It is not yet known if completing the quests after this glitch has occurred will fix the glitch.
• Doing a side quest where enemies spawn in it via script may re-enable the script to spawn the enemies.
• This glitch will also occur in normal gameplay, e.g. when not doing quests or anything. It can even be manually triggered. The way the glitch occurs is such: the Hero saves inside such a shop, then reloads. The game will never resume time. Therefore, be very careful! Never save your game inside a shop other than a pawnbroker's or a pub!
  • It happens because shops (probably all except pubs and pawnbrokers) will stop time whilst the Hero is inside to make shopping more convenient and not force the Hero to have to leave mid-purchase or be offered the choice of stealing the item instead of buying it. Once the Hero leaves the shop the time resumes.
  • This statement can be verified by observing shadows on the ground while standing just inside a shop and then outside. Pawnbroker shops and pubs do not have this feature, because they don't need it: they are open all of the time.
  • As a side note, furniture shops are the most attractive among shops to save/load inside, because they actually have more stock than they can display, and when one saves/loads the shop will instantly put more items on display (this can be redone until the shop runs out). But do not fall for this trap! Save/load outside the shop!

Lionhead has not made any statement on whether the glitch will be fixed or not.

Trapped in the Sanctuary

This glitch is an error in Fable III that can occur if you save your game while gaining the support of Brightwall, and then load the save. Once the save has been loaded, Jasper will repeatedly tell you that you need do more quests to gain the support of the people. If you go to the sanctuary and and then attempt to exit you will be unable to leave or go to the other rooms and the game will behave as if you weren't in the sanctuary by letting you use spells and weapons.

This bug may not allow you to progress further into the game, thus forcing you to start over; however, setting a different quest objective and traveling to the nearest location has been known in some cases to fix this issue.

Jobs Glitch

This is a bug that can occur after playing Fable III in co-op. The activators for the Pie Maker, Lute Hero and Blacksmith jobs do not appear, making the jobs unplayable for the rest of the game. While this will not affect the overall playing of the game, it does remove one of the major sources of income.

Achievement Counter Glitch

This glitch affects some of the achievements that are based on a counter that is supposed to increase as you perform the relevant actions. If the glitch occurs, the counter will fail to increment after the relevant action is performed, and therefore you will be unable to get the relevant achievement without starting a new game. Starting a new game will reset the counters, and make the achievement achievable again; however, this does not remove the possibility of the bug occurring again.

It is currently known to affect Set Them Free!, Diary Of A Sad Man, Lab Notes and A Revolutionary Idea.

The bug may be due to a Compatibility Issue, since it mainly affects Traitor's Keep achievements, but since it has been known to occur on save files newer than Traitor's Keep, it cannot necessarily be confined to that category.

Jasper Mute Glitch

This glitch causes Jasper (your butler who resides in the Sanctuary) to become silent throughout the rest of the game. Jasper can not be interacted with, will not have an icon to speak with him and will not comment on your actions within (and possibly out of) the Sanctuary. Along side this bug has also been said that the Sanctuary shortcuts (located on the bottom left hand corner of the screen, uses D-Pad) no longer appear and cannot be used.

This bug can possibly be game-breaking in the sense that you may no longer be able receive certain items. However, there is a possible fix for this problem - Jasper Mute Glitch - Fixed!!

This was one of the issues that were addressed in the December patch. If you are currently having this problem, make sure that you have the most recent game patch and re-try. Jasper should be talking once you re-enter the Sanctuary.

Glowing Trail Reappearing Glitch

This glitch will occur when realoading while the glowing trail is turned off in the settings. The trail will just show up despite being off in the settings. Turning it on, saving changes, then turning it off again and saving changes fixes the issue.

DLC Compatibility Issues

These bugs appear to be due to a compatibility problem between Understone and Traitor's Keep. They appear to mainly affect 'old' save files, ones that were present on the console before downloading Traitor's Keep. New games started after downloading both of the DLCs do not seem to be affected as frequently.

The issues are known to Lionhead, but there has been no official statement as to whether they are being addressed or not.

Reaver's Wheel of Misfortune Unplayable

After downloading Traitor's Keep, if a player enters Reaver's Manor and goes into the room with the wheel and tries to spin it the doors will close and the wheel will not spin leaving the player trapped in the room. If the player did not save the game before entering the room the player has no way to get out and has to restart the game.

WARNING: This appears to be a persistent glitch, meaning that it has an extremely high chance of occurring on the affected 'old' saves. Make sure you have a backup save before entering the wheel room after downloading Traitor's Keep, and do not save the game or load another save once inside. Quit to Dashboard or turn off the Xbox and reload the backup save if the glitch occurs.

Mercenary Camp Shooting Range Unplayable

1. After downloading Traitor's Keep, if the player goes to play the shooting range the player will not be able to talk to Lemmy and will just stand there. This can leave the player unable to obtain any prizes that can be won from the shooting range.
2. The player will be able to talk to Lemmy, but when the challenge starts, no targets will appear and the timer will not start. The only way to get out of this is to quit to the Dashboard or turn off the Xbox.

Quest Issues

These glitches appear to be random, and do not have an obvious cause.

Masquerade Bugs

These glitches can occur during The Masquerade quest. They are unrelated to the compatibility issues surrounding the Wheel of Misfortune side quest.

• One glitch can occur when the balverines are released. It is possible to become stuck in the Wheel of Misfortune after the cutscene ends.
• Another can occur after you fight the final balverine. Instead of loading the ending sequence of the quest, there is no cutscene and the Hero becomes stuck in the ballroom.
• After you completed The Masquerade, you may see invisible mercenaries when you are in Millfields.

The 'Return to Samuel' Bug

This glitch can occur during the quest Leaders and Followers when directed to return to Samuel by the village gate. When you enter the glowing circle and get cheered by the villagers, Samuel may not be there. This prevents the player from continuing the game, as there is no way to leave the circle of people. The only known fix for this currently is to start a new game, but this may not always work.

There is a potential early-warning system for detecting this bug. The player can periodically return to the tavern where Walter and Samuel are sitting during the collection of the 30 guild seals to check whether Samuel is still there. However, if the player finds he is missing, and has recently saved the game, there is still no way to fix the bug without restarting the game. Note that once the 30 seals have been collected, Samuel will head for the village gate, and will therefore no longer be present in the tavern.

This issue is known to Lionhead, but there has been no official statement on whether it is being addressed.

The Ossuary Bug

1. There is a potentially game-breaking glitch in the Gone But Not Forgotten quest. After Max begins playing the pipe organ, there is a chance that Sam will not show up to be persuaded to drink. While the searchlights will still spawn Hollow men, no wisps will ever become ghosts, and hence the barrier around the book cannot be breached. If the game is saved during this time, the character will become trapped for good. You cannot leave the room nor can you quit the quest. The only option is to start over.
2. Another game-breaking glitch that can occur in this quest is that the final wisp guarding the Normanomicon may not be released by the pipe organ. This also means that the barrier cannot be breached and the player cannot finish the quest.

These issues were not addressed during the December patch.

In Mourning

A glitch can occur in which the game does not register the completion of the In Mourning quest and does not provide the rewards, even though flowers can later be seen lying on the grave.

Mortar and Mourning

There is currently a known bug with the achievement related to this activity. Sometimes, when the score above 2000 has been reached, no achievement will be given. Some players have found that by repeating the mini-game and continuing to score above 2000 and you may receive the achievement.

The Hobbe Party Bug

At one point the ability to play the jukebox in the mansion at the Godwin Estate may become unavailable, meaning the Hobbes will not spawn. If the player goes to look at the highscores there are none.

Being on Xbox Live may prevent this from happening.

A Day at the Chicken Races

Sometimes if you go to the chicken races, they will tell you to go to Horace to place a bet, but the option isn't available when you talk to him. Note however that the option to place a bet is not present when a race is taking place, and that alone is not a bug. The bug itself can occur when the chickens are lined up in their cages and the betting option is still not available. Leaving the region and returning is likely to clear the bug, but it does not always work.

There's a bug where you place a bet and start the chicken race and get stuck in the chicken cage and can only look left and right, it is unclear if this is a game breaker, going to the dashboard and reloading the game reloaded where it was: stuck in the cage, although leaving the game and loading your save can fix it and place you back at an auto-save nearby.

Find the The Bowerstone Resistance

This is a rare glitch which could be potentially problematic. After receiving The Bowerstone Resistance quest, upon walking into Page's room she does not appear. This prevents the quest from being completed and unfortunately also prevents further Main story quests to appear. Currently it is unknown whether this can be fixed.

Drain Bower Lake

This appears to be a rare glitch which is gamebreaking. During the Weight Of The World quests the player is asked by Reaver to drain Bower Lake and turn it into Millfield Mines. When Walter finishes telling the player what the decision is the camera moves to in front of Page and stays there. Neither Page nor Reaver then says anything and Page just continuously moves her head around. The only way around appears to be to turn off the Xbox or quit to the dashboard.

Lionhead

A title patch was released in December 2010 attempting to prevent and address some of the most major (and potentially game-breaking) bugs in the game along with a few minor ones. Lionhead have stated on their website (link below) that the update will try to fix issues that have already been encountered but it is not a complete guarantee.

For a full list of bug fixes, follow the link to the official Patch Notes Fable III Title Update from the Lionhead Studios website.