Fans have been waiting for more news aboutThe Elder Scrolls 6ever since the game was announced back at E3 2018. Aside from the occasional comment and rumors, almost nothing has been revealed about the next game. Its full title, story, and setting remain a mystery to fans of the franchise.
After years of waiting, it’s time for fans ofThe Elder Scrollsto accept thatThe Elder Scrolls 6may not be as good asSkyrim. Doing as such could be better for the final product and even fans as well.
RELATED:10 Most Believable Elder Scrolls 6 Fan Theories
Bethesda Since Skyrim
It has been nearly a full decade sinceSkyrimreleased, and since then both the franchise and Bethesda itself have seen some huge changes. First, the release ofThe Elder Scrolls Onlinerevealed areas of every province in Tamriel, something that hadn’t been done sinceThe Elder Scrolls: Arena. WhileThe Elder Scrolls Onlineremains a popular game, revealing so much of the continent could make it much harder forThe Elder Scrolls 6to take fans back to Tamriel and make them experience the same sense of wonder they felt playing their firstElder Scrollsgame.
Bethesda itself has undergone some big changes since the development ofSkyrim.Fallout 4released, and while receiving generally positive reviews, it was criticized for its main story and an overall lack of character depth compared to many contemporary RPGs.Fallout 76attempted to transfer theFalloutfranchise to multiplayer, and the end result was a game Todd Howard has since admitted “let a lot of people down.”
In fact, it has been speculated thatThe Elder Scrolls 6was announced at E32018 to help cover any flakFallout 76’s announcement might receive. As the years pass, that assessment seems all the more likely. Regardless, Bethesda has made moves sinceSkyrim’s release that may lead some fans to question the studio’s judgement when it comes to developingThe Elder Scrolls 6.
The Industry Since Skyrim
Microsoft’s acquisition of Zenimax Media Inchas led to even more doubt. It has been announced that some future Bethesda games will be Xbox exclusives, though the games in question have not been specified.Skyrimwas hugely popular across all platforms, and if Microsoft is willing to make the nextElder Scrollsgame an exclusive, it raises questions about the influence of Bethesda’s new owner on other aspects of development.
Expectations have also changed sinceSkyrim, in no small part due toSkyrim’s immense success.The Elder Scrolls 5inspired many RPG studios to attempt to integrate open worlds into their franchises. SinceSkyrim’s release, some RPGs found a far better balance between open-world exploration and tight, character-driven storytelling thanSkyrimwas able to achieve.
Skyrim’s world barely reacts to the player, presents them with few impactful decisions beyond whether or not to complete certain quests, and has been criticized in the past for its lack of story depth. The true star ofSkyrimwas its world, butThe Elder Scrolls 6now has to live up to the immensely impressive worlds and stories ofgames likeThe Witcher 3: Wild Huntwhich released after the lastElder Scrollsgame. AfterFallout 4andFallout 76, the studio has yet to prove that it’s up to the task to make the next steps.
RELATED:Skyrim Mod Shows One Thing Elder Scrolls 6 Needs To Change
Succeeding Skyrim and Managing Expectations
What few details have been revealed aboutThe Elder Scrolls 6do have many fans excited. AtBrighton Digital 2020, Todd Howardrevealed that the next game would make use of procedurally generated landscapes to create a large world and potentially more realistically sized cities and towns. However, procedural generation was also used to create parts of the countryside in bothOblivion’s Cyrodiil andSkyrim, so this reveal doesn’t actually give fans a great idea of the next game’s scale.
The events ofSkyrimalso poseThe Elder Scrolls 6with some big challenges. The outcome ofSkyrim’s Civil War, for example, has huge implications for the balance of power in Tamriel and the Empire’s survival. This would be felt no matter where in Tamriel the next game is set. UnlessThe Elder Scrolls 6allows players to import old decisions as series likeMass Effectdo, it’s hard to see how the next game can do anything other than ignore the few big decisions players got to make inSkyrim.
This scratches the surface of one ofThe Elder Scrolls 6’s biggest challenges - growth. It’s difficult to see how a series likeThe Elder Scrollscould have a developing world without the same kind of character-driven storylines found inseries likeDragon Age. Indeed,The Elder Scrolls Onlineshows that Tamriel has been more-or-less the same since at least the Second Era.
Similarly, Bethesda will have to make some big decisions when it comes to new features and priorities inThe Elder Scrolls 6. In order for the game to feel like a worthy spiritual successor toSkyrimit could include a more character-driven story, but this might come at the cost of player freedom. The world could be even larger and the player given more freedom than before, but this may make that world feel even shallower thanSkyrim’s. There are risks no matter which directionBethesdadecides to go down, and the right path is far from clear.
Skyrimmay simply have been a unique game, releasing at the right time to influence RPG development for years to come. Fans hoping forThe Elder Scrolls 6to match or surpass theSkyrimexperiencemay be disappointed if they put all their eggs into one basket. Instead, with all of this in mind, it’s better to temper and manage expectations than trumpingTES6up to be something that is arguably impossible. Just as no looter shooter has ever been a “Destiny Killer,” there’s no game that can really replace Skyrim for its impact, even from Bethesda itself.
If the release of much-hypedgames likeCyberpunk 2077has taught RPG fans anything, it’s not to get their expectations up too much, regardless of the IP or studio involved. At the end of the day, accepting this possibility and being surprised is better to hype it up and it not meet expectations. Accepting that the quality could be better, worse, or simply unknown may, in the long run, be better for fans and the game itself.
