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Forums » Smalltalk » 25 years of the Elder Scrolls

Huzzah, huzzah, and huzzah again! The Elder Scrolls is officially 25 years old today! Being one of my favorite franchises (if not my absolute favorite), I wanted to post an announcement and see if anyone else is excited about this, or your opinions on the Elder Scrolls games themselves. Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, or ESO, anyone?
Happy birthday to it I suppose. 🎉🎂
Raised hand for Skyrim: Congrats Dragonborn :)
Arcol Topic Starter

I’ve played all 4, myself; I still need to try the earlier games, but I don’t have them yet.
I've only ever played ES 5 so I'm like, super behind on all the lore from the past games. I honestly hate the trailer for the new game they are making which probably wont come out for another decade or so, because all it is is a mountain that doesn't even state where it is. What's the name of the new one they are making again, omg I can't remember.
Arcol Topic Starter

From my information, and based on the pattern since Daggerfall, I believe the next game may take place in the Illyac Bay (Illiac?), and the Adamantium will be the next tower to fall; in fact, I think all the games may be leading to a final game in which the hero must protect Tamriel, and all of Nirn, from being absorbed into Oblivion after every tower is deactivated. That’d be pretty sweet, right?
Seth

@Arcol
Final game? Never!
Never underestimate the amount of card games, MMOs and mobile games they can spinoff out of a franchise. But yes, the idea you mentioned would be pretty great, but I find it unlikely.
Arcol Topic Starter

You do have a point; maybe it’ll be another epic chapter in the ongoing saga of the Elder Scrolls. May it never die!!! Legends and Blades, I forgot to mention earlier.
I have played Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, ESO, and that card game.

Skyrim for the win.
Arcol Topic Starter

Has anyone ever played some of the unofficial spin-off games; Shadowkey, Stormhold, Dawnstar, Redguard, Battlespire, to name a few?

I’ve only met one person who has; he’s a good friend of mine.
Kildra (played by Libertine)

Just Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim for me! But I put hundreds of hours into each. They all had a huge impact on my imagination growing up.
Arcol Topic Starter

Same here; I feel like I’ve become a new person since starting Skyrim, and going back to Oblivion and Morrowind, as well as ESO and legends/blades. I can’t wait to see what comes next.
Arena, Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim and ESO I've played. Morrowind takes the cake for me, it has the best story, the most fleshed out fantasy society and the most unique scenery and aesthetics. Plus it pretty much started the whole deep-diving metaphysics of the franchise, all the stuff about CHIM and Towers and the Psijiic Endeavour and Numidium and ALMSIVI and TALOS and Mantling and the Enantiomorph and Dragon Breaks. All the stuff I love.

Viva la Vivec!
Arcol Topic Starter

I agree with you somewhat; I’ve tried to play through it, but I became so accustomed to fast travel and not having random Cliff Striders attacking me that I’m still working on it. The metaphysics, however, I do agree with you on that point, as well as the scenery, the music, the story, and Yagrum Bagarn.
Hooray for The Elder Scrolls! It's my absolute favorite fantasy setting, and it means a lot to me personally. As far as games go, I've played Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, and ESO. I want to try Arena and Daggerfall but I can't figure out how to set them up properly. I'm not interested in TCGs, so I probably won't ever play Legends, and whether or not I play Blades depends on the nature of the microtransactions it's bound to contain.

I don't know if I have a favorite TES game; they're all good for different things. Morrowind has the best writing and my favorite setting of the main series games. I love the alien feel of the landscape, the non-traditional fantasy culture, and of course, the weird metaphysical lore that Morrowind introduces to the setting. Even though Michael Kirkbride is awful and most of it was written on drugs. Unfortunately, Morrowind's gameplay is prohibitive to a lot of players.

Skyrim, on the other hand, is the most approachable and easiest to pick up and play, and has the most forgiving gameplay of the main series games. Its writing isn't as good as Oblivion and Morrowind, but it's fun and I enjoy it greatly. It was my introduction to the series, so I also have a soft spot for it in that regard.

Oblivion has the best mix of gameplay and story, with a simpler and less RNG-dependent version of Morrowind's skill and combat systems and quests that are fun, unique, and very memorable. The main game has a more bland fantasy European setting, but the Shivering Isles expansion is to die for. Shivering Isles alone might be my favorite content out of the entire Elder Scrolls series.

Then there's ESO. I'd say that ESO probably takes the cake for graphics, from what I've seen of others' screenshots (I've only ever been able to run it on absolute minimum graphics). The ability to explore all of Tamriel is something I have always wanted (Arena doesn't quite count because most of the lore hadn't been established yet). It's an MMO, and has MMO gameplay, but it's still quite enjoyable as long as you ignore the rampant balance issues and don't try any endgame PvP or PvE content (the endgame PvE community in particular is super toxic, and the endgame PvPers aren't much better). I think my favorite ESO content is probably Clockwork City, though I really want to play Murkmire once I get a new computer because the Argonians are my favorite.

Special mention goes to the books, The Infernal City and The Lord of Souls. They're a wonderful glimpse at the period just after the Oblivion Crisis, and though there are some legitimate complaints that some of the characters (namely Annaïg Hoïnart) are Mary-Sues, the books are a thoroughly enjoyable read. I especially love how weird and beautiful Umbriel is, and some of the implications of the story with regards to the structure of the Aurbis and the origins of the Hist...
Arcol Topic Starter

Malachite wrote:
Hooray for The Elder Scrolls! It's my absolute favorite fantasy setting, and it means a lot to me personally. As far as games go, I've played Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, and ESO. I want to try Arena and Daggerfall but I can't figure out how to set them up properly. I'm not interested in TCGs, so I probably won't ever play Legends, and whether or not I play Blades depends on the nature of the microtransactions it's bound to contain.

I don't know if I have a favorite TES game; they're all good for different things. Morrowind has the best writing and my favorite setting of the main series games. I love the alien feel of the landscape, the non-traditional fantasy culture, and of course, the weird metaphysical lore that Morrowind introduces to the setting. Even though Michael Kirkbride is awful and most of it was written on drugs. Unfortunately, Morrowind's gameplay is prohibitive to a lot of players.

Skyrim, on the other hand, is the most approachable and easiest to pick up and play, and has the most forgiving gameplay of the main series games. Its writing isn't as good as Oblivion and Morrowind, but it's fun and I enjoy it greatly. It was my introduction to the series, so I also have a soft spot for it in that regard.

Oblivion has the best mix of gameplay and story, with a simpler and less RNG-dependent version of Morrowind's skill and combat systems and quests that are fun, unique, and very memorable. The main game has a more bland fantasy European setting, but the Shivering Isles expansion is to die for. Shivering Isles alone might be my favorite content out of the entire Elder Scrolls series.

Then there's ESO. I'd say that ESO probably takes the cake for graphics, from what I've seen of others' screenshots (I've only ever been able to run it on absolute minimum graphics). The ability to explore all of Tamriel is something I have always wanted (Arena doesn't quite count because most of the lore hadn't been established yet). It's an MMO, and has MMO gameplay, but it's still quite enjoyable as long as you ignore the rampant balance issues and don't try any endgame PvP or PvE content (the endgame PvE community in particular is super toxic, and the endgame PvPers aren't much better). I think my favorite ESO content is probably Clockwork City, though I really want to play Murkmire once I get a new computer because the Argonians are my favorite.

Special mention goes to the books, The Infernal City and The Lord of Souls. They're a wonderful glimpse at the period just after the Oblivion Crisis, and though there are some legitimate complaints that some of the characters (namely Annaïg Hoïnart) are Mary-Sues, the books are a thoroughly enjoyable read. I especially love how weird and beautiful Umbriel is, and some of the implications of the story with regards to the structure of the Aurbis and the origins of the Hist...

I think we’re cut from the same cloth on that note; I love the lore, the world, and the games themselves. I’ve already played Murkmire, and it was amazing, coming from an Argonian’s point of view; you won’t be disappointed when you get it, I’m certain.
To any of the curious people in the thread about Morrowind, Bethesda is giving it away for free:

https://bethesda.net/en/article/zTLJdDWzVy0Ak7SMatqNG/celebrate-25-years-of-the-elder-scrolls

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