Thoughts/opinions on Elder Scrolls game series in general

[Lokkrin Zhataros]

Don't know where to go with this or how to maintain a topic like this. This topic was sort of inspired by a previous discussion on a different post about how the Elf races in the Elder Scrolls got their own unique racial terms/names and this discussion led into how the TES games evolved. That post was transferred here since it was irreverent to the previous topic. In that post I was speaking mostly in generalities and I'm not exactly sure how to continue with the topic here other than turning it into a general TES series discussion topic. I may stop by once in a while to interact, but I hope the DFU community has fun with this!

I suppose to start with, I am curious what people in the Daggerfall community and forum here think about the Elder Scrolls series in general. What has been your experience? What did you find most interesting about the series or game? What were favorite games and aspects of the games? What was enjoyable and disappointing about the games?
etc. etc. etc.

This isn't about arguing or judging. Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions about anything Elder Scrolls.
HAVE AT IT!


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My general TES thoughts/opinions to get started... (a slightly altered version of notes I wrote for myself)

I found it interesting that Bethesda made a very ambitious and "risky" attempt with Morrowind to make their fantasy "rpg" game series less "generic" to make it stand out more, only later to reverse and go back to the more traditional, D&D/high fantasy themes. I think some of what they achieved in Morrowind turned out pretty good for the series and what was added gave a certain level of depth that the series truly needed. Of course there are lots of changes to the games that I can't help but feel disappointing about.

After playing thousands of hours in each title of the main series, I simply can't come up with a personal favorite game. I have enjoyed every single game and enjoyed each game differently and for different reasons. Each game has things I like and appreciate while having things I'm disappointed in and hate. It's always a trade-off for me. This is why I could really never play one Elder Scrolls game forever. Once I reach a point in time when playing a particular TES game to where the bad outweighs the good and my play-throughs get boring and/or frustrating, I quit and move on to a completely different game for a while. In my opinion, the Elder Scrolls games in general are hardly the best RPG games out there. In fact compared to some, they are the worst at being RPGs. With that said, here is a list of what I think is the best overall aspects of each game:

TES 1 Arena: The best villain in the series.
TES 2 Daggerfall: Best RPG system, largest game world, best political/reputation system, best court/crime system, best money managing system, best/most flexible character creation system and best overall "fantasy life simulator".
TES 3 Morrowind: Best main story-line and best quests.
TES 4 Oblivion: Best high fantasy atmosphere and landscape and best combat/magic systems.
TES 5 Skyrim: Best graphics, best/most flexible modding system and a decent/responsive combat system.
TES Online: Decent MMO, not a good TES game (in my opinion).

In each game you are gaining and losing something. Never really cared about graphics quality myself, though I like Skyrim because of it's very flexible modding system and modding community. I can simply mod the crap out of Skyrim to make it something enjoyable and different. I can appreciate what each game has to offer while being aware and disappointed in their many flaws. While I can't pick a personal favorite, I would say that in my observations, DFUnity makes Daggerfall by far the best Elder Scrolls game.

But unfortunately Bethesda never made my "ideal open world fantasy game" nor will they ever.

This is just my crazy rant/ramblings.



----Old Post----

Spoiler!

Post as many pics as you want. . I really like your Dunmer...uhh Dark Elf vampire! Your Nord female is not bad either, gives a bit cleric vibe for me.

ps: The terms Altmer, Dunmer and Bosmer came with later games right?

Dang, you're right. Maybe I should use the official/canon racial terms, though I do seem to find others use the two Elf term variations interchangeably. I suppose living in the Daggerfall game for the last few months has distracted me from the overall lore of the later games. Games after Daggerall added a LOT of depth to the world that I generally appreciate. Some good, some bad.

Morrowind was Bethesda's most ambitious attempt at making their fantasy rpg game series less "generic" fantasy and make it stand out more from everything else. Lots of lore was changed/added (hence the addition of unique Elf racial names and culture). Some of the changes turned out well, others not so much. Still to me, their achievement was commendable. Games after Morrowind kinda went backwards toward "generic" fantasy. It's somewhat understandable, but I can't help feeling disappointed in how it was executed. Just some thoughts triggered by your comment. This is probably all old news to most elder scrolls players. But I digress.

[Aleryn]

You're not alone in your general conclusions on Elder Scrolls lore, Lokkrin. I fell pretty similarly and kind of pick and choose what I enjoy and ignore past Morrowind. I felt things improved a little in Skyrim over Oblivion, but I still have similar reservations. Especially in the... varied directions the Online game went. Thats just MMOs though, I guess. See the good and bad weirdness of Final Fantasy XIV and World of Warcraft in comparison to their older 'offline' games.

Bosmer, Altmer, Dunmer though... good stuff. Ken Rolston helmed a fine ship in Morrowind.

TES in general; I'd say go with your personal head-canon when goofiness arises.

[Lokkrin Zhataros]

I agree Aleryn, head canon all the way!

[Jay_H]

I personally have no dog involved at all, but based on your wish to keep the other topic on track, I split this off pre-emptively Feel free to change the topic name as you prefer.

[Lokkrin Zhataros]

Thanks Jay_H for changing it to it's own topic! That would be my second topic I sorta hijacked, unintentionally.

Not sure how I could maintain such a broad/general topic though on my own. May just make a general topic summery and let the rest of the community hash everything out while I engage in it occasionally.

[Seferoth]

After playing Morrowind and Oblivion about 9000 hours combined, terms like Altmer,Bosmer and Dunmer are the more natural terms for the races for me. I even use term Saxhleel for Argonians sometimes. . Also, now that we are talking about races my favorite race in the TES lore is Imperial(sniff, not in Daggerfall). Oblivion's Imperial Guards might have something to do about it.

[Lokkrin Zhataros]

After playing Morrowind and Oblivion about 9000 hours combined, terms like Altmer,Bosmer and Dunmer are the more natural terms for the races for me. I even use term Saxhleel for Argonians sometimes. . Also, now that we are talking about races my favorite race in the TES lore is Imperial(sniff, not in Daggerfall). Oblivion's Imperial Guards might have something to do about it.

Yes, Imperials are my favorite race as well.

For whatever reasons, once I start playing a particular game for a length of time I end up concentrating so much on that game that I mix-up the lore/terminology etc a bit. Even after playing thousands of hours in each game.

[Lokkrin Zhataros]

What's sort of funny is my gender choices for my character when playing each game in the series. In Area and Daggerfall I usually go for female characters. In Morrowind and Oblivion I choose male characters mostly. In Skyrim I'd say it's about half-&-half. Don't know what this says about me, but it's kinda odd.

[Jeoshua]

I think the male/female has to do with the art. I experienced the same thing, and came to the conclusion that Daggerfall females looked decent while the men looked weird, Morrowind and Oblivion the females looked horrible while the men looked okay (if puffy), and in Skyrim everyone looked great. I don't like playing ugly characters, basically, is what I came to realize.

[Lokkrin Zhataros]

Yeah, maybe it is just the art style. I didn't think about it that way but it's true. I do like my characters to look really good, maybe too good (my style in clothing is not so great though). In Oblivion and Skyrim I spend extra time to get the characters to look just right. Maybe a bit OCD?

It's still hard for me to find a decent female face in Daggerfall sometimes. I'm trying to work on a collection of custom face replacements for my characters using photoshop. It's tedious work though.