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.
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