The moral of this fable is buyer beware, and newer isn't better.
The key word for this game is downsized. In their attempt to streamline gameplay and remove all the menus they killed almost everything that I liked about the game. First, the interactions are set now, so you find yourself earning friends by dancing, hugging, and tickling people you may not be comfortable doing so with. That alone kills the atmosphere, but it doesn't end there.
The process of freedom of interaction is limited by the development tree, which now includes buying property, the different interactions, and job performance level. It simply stunts the growth of the world to be so artificially limited.
Then there's the storyline elements that try to give you options for good and evil, but don't really play out in any meaningful way. Good and bad is more political, but not in a fun, mega altering way. The middle section is mind numbing, as are many of the side quests required for building relationships.
Yep, I have to say I'm sorry to have gotten this title, and would advise fans to wait to pick this up until it's in the $10 bins. Even then I would only consider it if you're a die hard fan of the series. Otherwise just pretend Fable 2 was the finally.