So taking a break from Morrowind, I decided to complete the last things major quests I needed for Oblivion. Primarily, Shivering Isles and the Thieves Guild.
(SPOILERS Ahead)
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First of all, the ending of Shivering Isles was pretty great. I found it sort of an easy boss fight though? Maybe it was because I used Shadowrend and other stuff. Regardless, it was fun.
Also I’m Sheogorath now so that’s freaking awesome. This of course was for my warrior character, Erik Shield-Bearer.
As for my other character, Justine Pelagia, I finally finished the Thieves Guild, and I gotta say, I’m quite satisfied with this ending. The last quest was long and challenging, and then you get the pay off of learning the Grey Fox was the husband of Countess Umbranox the whole time!
And then I was rewarded with the Grey Cowl, so that was neat. Justine is the Grey Fox now!
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Also bonus: I made Caius Cosades in Oblivion and intend to play the main quest with him. He was going to the Imperial City, after all.
I retract most of my negative comments about ESO; it’s improved a ton since launch. The worst thing is how expensive it can get to be, but if you wait for sales it’s not too crazy.
Also, I’ve come to the conclusion that my most fundamental issue with Skyrim is that it’s almost monomaniacally combat-focused. While all TES games are primarily action/adventure games, Morrowind (and I think Oblivion, though I haven’t played it in awhile) let you spend a lot more time talking to NPCs and doing things other than dungeon delving. Not that Skyrim doesn’t let you do those things, but most quests don’t exactly encourage them.
Definitely started becoming a bit much in Skyrim, and completely dominated Fallout 4’s gameplay. Their whole obsession with making activities feel as generic as possible lately is starting to make me worry about the future of their IPs if left to continue on this path in their hands…
I just started Morrowind a few days ago after getting free for the 25th anniversary, and after playing Skyrim it was above Oblivion on my list of Elder Scrolls games I wanted to play. So I installed some graphics mods to update the look of it and the official plugins and ran with that, and it’s all ready in my top five favorite games. The storytelling is wonderfully woven into the world, and the lack of map marker with instead vague clues leading you about is my new favorite way any game has done quests. Instead of having a big red/white arrow point me in the dorrection I wanted to go, I must instead figure out where the the Temple of Vivec is and then walk around the back to meet my informant, forcing me to ask around Vivec as to the location of the Temple. And don’t get me started on the armor and weapons. The layered armor system that dissapeared after this game until Fallout 4 is fantastic offering way more customizeability to your character. As well as this chain mail makes a prominent appearance among the imperials, something I have yet to see another fantasy game do. And the weapons, inatead if just “sword” as we see in Skyrim, one can choose from a long sword, a saber, a short sword, or a Katana. And that is just one handed swords, not even mentioning the spears, maces, axes, bows, crossbows, throwing stars and throeing knives. I have yet to even try the enchanting and spellmaking. And while a lot of people dislike the dialogue system, I love it. The interactive wording makes it feel like your asking about a certain event, instead of listening to someone only to then say, “tell me more about Balmora” after the conversation. And th journal is a very immersive way of keeping track of quests, making it feel more like something your character is writing instead of just a game menu. Really, a lot of this game is making Skyrim seem like a step forwards in some ways, but a step backwards in more. Overall, I give Morrowind a 7/10, and with mods, a 9/10.
Welcome to the club! Just wait until you see how the game handles all the different guilds and factions–it has much more verisimilitude than the approach of later games, both in terms of how the factions work internally and how they relate to each other. The main quest is also much better than its counterparts in later games, though it’s a bit on the long side.
I’ve been a fan of the Elder Scrolls series since Skyrim came out all those years ago, though that led to me playing all the games backwards. If I had to rank them: Skyrim > Morrowind > Oblivion > Daggerfall.
Skyrim was my first experience with the series, so it will always hold a special place for me. Morrowind has the best lore and world of any of the games, but the gameplay has aged like. That’s not including graphics, that I can forgive. But how come the PC moves like a snail on glue, all your attacks are RNG, and you’re constantly attacked by diseased and blighted animals every ten feet? Oblivion is fine, but it’s the most generic Tolkien-inspired fantasy out of the three. Cyrodil just feels… boring compared to Skyrim and Vardenfell.
And I never finished Daggerfall. Too archaic.
Anyway, what really got me back in the series was this video by Allinall. (CW: Lots and lots of animated blood.)
My understanding of the lore was basic but nothing that deep. Watching that video, even though I never played the Knights of the Nine DLC, made me want to know everything about the character. Which lead me down the rabbit hole that is Elder Scrolls lore. Now I know that Tamriel is video game, not just in real life, but in-universe as well. Reading up on Khajiit lore also elevated them to my favorite race now. It inspired me play as a Khajiit martial artist in Morrowind, with the sole goal of defeating Dagoth Ur purely hand-to-hand.
It also let me get back into some fan works, such as the homestuck-inspired webcomic Prequel (which I recommend checking out before flash is nuked), and allowed me to discover the madness that is young scrolls. Can’t even say ironically at this point, I listen to Zoom just about every week.
