The Elder Scrolls VI, the next title in the ever-popular Elder Scrolls franchise, is years away from being released at best, but that's not stopping people from talking about it. The most frequently voiced refrain and hope among Elder Scrolls fans is that the Elder Scrolls VI will look and play more like The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, the much-lauded 2002 RPG that catapulted players into an atypical fantasy world of ash storms, mushroom towers, bonemold armor, riding insects, and decadent god-kings/queens.
All the other games in the Elder Scrolls franchise – The Elder Scrolls: Arena, The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – takes place in a classic Western Fantasy setting in the mold of J.R.R. Tolkien and a thousand Dungeons and Dragons games. These open world RPGs invariably have European-styled knights, wizards, orcs, elves, kings, queens, dragons, and dark lords threatening to destroy it all.
Conversely, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind broke from the western fantasy mold by dropping players into the Dark-Elf homeland of Morrowind, a vibrant setting blasted with volcanic ash, ruled by scheming noble houses, and filled with exotic, alien wildlife. The ideas Morrowind introduced left their mark on subsequent Elder Scrolls titles, and many fans of the franchise want to see even more elements of the Morrowind experience returned in The Elder Scrolls VI.
A Weird, Morrowind-style World For Players to Explore
The weird lore of Morrowind – much of it birthed from the brain of designer Michael Kirkbriede – gave the third Elder Scrolls game a distinct, dreamlike feel. As the maybe-reincarnated Nerevarine hero, players in Morrowind could discuss philosophy with gods, wear armor forged from insect shells, infiltrate a floating asteroid prison, and brave the ruins of a high-tech dwarf civilization to destroy their killer robots. Without outright recycling these concepts, many Elder Scrolls fans hope to see a similar weird fantasy aesthetic in the Elder Scrolls VI – alien flora and fauna, exotic weapons, and philosophical musings on the nature of existence.
Elder Scrolls VI Should Return Spears, Custom Spells, Levitation, Etc.
As the Elder Scrolls franchise expanded from PC to console, several cherished gameplay features fell by the wayside. Skyrim, for instance, lacked the spell customization mechanics from Morrowind and the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which let players create spells with unique attributes and areas of effect. Teleportation, levitation, and weapons like throwing stars and spears were also stripped away from the Elder Scrolls franchise post-Morrowind, limiting diversity of play-style. With the Elder Scrolls VI and its latest engine, Bethesda has a chance to reintroduce these old concepts, polished and integrated into their latest character creation/combat system.
Give Elder Scrolls VI Players Freedom Of Choice (Even If They Break the Plot)
In Skyrim and Oblivion, NPCs essential to the story are rendered invincible to keep bored, ultra-violent players from breaking the plot. In Morrowind, though, it was possible to kill any and every NPC, from the local spymaster of the Blades to the warrior-poet Vivec, God King of the Tribunal. The game would always inform players whenever their actions created "a doomed world," but never negated the player's choices. Ideally, the plot of The Elder Scrolls VI would mimic the freedom Morrowind gave players to explore anywhere and do anything, letting them choose to follow the main story, ignore it, or reject it entirely.
There are, to be fair, quite a few features from Morrowind that fans would not like to see in the Elder Scrolls VI. The Cliff-Racer enemies, for starters. The awkward walking animations. The probability-based combat system which caused PCs to fumble their spell-casting attempts over and over. More importantly, fans don't want the Elder Scrolls VI to be a glorified remake of Morrowind, as the upcoming "Skywind" Mod for Skyrim already has that covered quite nicely. Players just want to have their expectations confounded – for Bethesda to surprise them with a new world that breaks the rules of fantasy and engages their sense of awe once more.
Source: Inverse