With The Elder Scrolls 6 looming on the horizon, the series could definitely learn a few things from both of its past two entries, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim and The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion. This puts a lot of pressure on The Elder Scrolls 6 to deliver after their success.
Both titles are amazing RPGs in their own ways, but there are some aspects of each respective game that the upcoming game in the series could learn from, as well as improve upon. Here are just a handful of both good and bad things that the next Elder Scrolls game could learn from the past titles.
The Best of Skyrim: The Massive Scope
Skyrim exceeds where very few other open-world RPGs do, which is perhaps why so many gamers come back to it over and over: it has an absolutely massive scope. The game world is huge, and is filled to the brim with content. The player is free to do whatever they would like, in whatever order that they wish. With a seemingly endless amount of quests, from the game's main storyline and the various different guilds to side-quests,and other random events, the world of Skyrim feels alive. The game succeeds more than any other Elder Scrolls title in feeling incredibly real, by offering a ridiculous amount of variety.
One of the most important things that the next Elder Scrolls needs to achieve is build upon the massive scope that the series is known for, and grow in new and unique ways. Skyrim introduced new ideas into the game, such as dragons and other new creatures, Dragonborn shouts, and more. There are certainly areas of Skyrim that could be further fleshed out, such as the purchasing and building of homes, which was only lightly touched upon in the game. If The Elder Scrolls 6 manages to add additional diversity and further increase its scope, then it could truly become something even greater than past entries.
The Best of Oblivion: Class System
One great aspect of Oblivion that felt seemingly abandoned in Skyrim was the game's class system. In Oblivion, players are able to choose their player's backstory, choosing the character's name, race, birth sign, and class, and creating a character with a real identity. Skyrim mostly gets rid of this, by entirely removing classes. One could argue that this allows the player more freedom, by not being restricted by a class, but on the other hand, this makes the game's leveling-up system feel less focused. Bringing back the old class system in Elder Scrolls 6 would allow for players to once again create more distinct and defined characters, and make the title's leveling system feel more focused.
The Worst of Skyrim: Story
The Elder Scrolls series has never been known for having an amazing story, but with that said, the story told within Skyrim felt particularly weak compared to its predecessors. The tale of the Dragonborn is pretty cliche, and it really feels like the Elder Scrolls universe has the potential to tell a tale that is far more thought-provoking and dramatic. That's not to say that Skyrim's story is bad; it just feels a tad bit shallow and lacks character depth. The Elder Scrolls 6 could truly set itself apart from the series by introducing a deeper story that focuses less on legends and wars and become more character-driven.
The Worst of Oblivion: The Beginning
One of the biggest annoyances that players had with Oblivion that Skyrim fixed was its extremely long beginning. Before the game really starts, the player must first sit through the game's beginning section, which acts as somewhat of a tutorial for the main game. The series' next entry, Skyrim, somewhat fixes this problem by having a much shorter beginning and throws the player into its massive open-world far sooner. The sixth entry should learn from Skyrim by also offering a shortened beginning, and let the players learn how to play the game by simply exploring it themselves without too much hand-holding.
The Best of Oblivion and Skyrim: The Giant Open-Worlds
One thing that both Oblivion and Skyrim exceed in that the next Elder Scrolls should continue with is their massive open-worlds. The Elder Scrolls series is perhaps best well-known for having giant open worlds that are free for the player to explore, allowing for endless possibilities in terms of player exploration and freedom.
One of the best parts of the series is the giant, sprawling worlds that the player can explore, and the biggest goal for the next Elder Scrolls game should be to ensure that it too will be just as big, if not even bigger, than past games in the franchise. On top of this, it'll be important that the massive world is filled with varied towns, villages, enemies, and NPCs that offer a ranged variety of quests and world-building features. A good open world isn't necessarily defined by its size, but also the contents that are featured within its world.
The Worst of Skyrim and Oblivion: Voice Acting
One of the issues that plagues both Skyrim and Oblivion is their lack of voice acting variety and questionable quality. As just previously mentioned, the Elder Scrolls series is known for having massive open-worlds filled to the brim with content. Large worlds mean lots of NPCs and enemies, and one of the most distracting parts of both past games was the lack of varied voice actors. Skyrim in particular seemed to use the same handful of voices, and it can sometimes be incredibly distracting to hear many different NPCs all use the same voices. Hopefully, the next Elder Scrolls game will feature a bit more variety in terms of NPC's voices, and make the world feel more realistic and varied.
None of the Elder Scrolls games are perfect and, as just illustrated, both Skyrim and Oblivion feature some great and not-so-great things that the next entry into the series could improve upon. If handled properly, the sixth entry into this long-running franchise could very well become the best Elder Scrolls game thus far.
The Elder Scrolls 6 is in development.