The Elder Scrolls VI: What Bethesda Could Learn From Oblivion, Skyrim And Fallout

The Elder Scrolls VI was announced forever ago (in 2018) and we still don’t have concrete information on the game. The last new mainline game released for the series was Skyrim in 2011, which is now more than a decade old. Everybody has experienced Skyrim in some capacity, even your dog probably played it on your smart fridge. The game was a smash hit in both reviews and sales, widely known as one of the best games in the business since. 

Despite all the success, Skyrim suffers in a few areas when compared to previous releases or other series. Followers in Skyrim were fairly low quality even in comparison to other games that had been released either before or around it. Magic feels too simple despite the lore. The questlines do not offer enough choice. In an ideal world, Bethesda has spent fourteen years cooking up solutions to these issues for their upcoming The Elder Scrolls VI, but if they haven’t already then here’s what Bethesda should learn from their previous releases, including both their successes and their mistakes.

Make Followers responsive

Let’s start with the most immersion breaking fault of Skyrim that we need to see fixed for the next entry, which is that followers do not respond to any of the player’s actions in meaningful ways. Morally upstanding followers will assist the player in the assassination of NPCs for the Dark Brotherhood. They’ll break into the homes or stores of NPCs for the Thieves Guild. Followers from the Companions faction are the biggest example of these followers. As the faction denounces actions associated with thieves or assassins, during the quest “Proving Honor” the Dovahkiin is tasked with retrieving a fragment of Wuuthrad while being observed by Farkas, a senior member of the Companions. Farkas during the span of the quest will sneak through the tomb with the player with no comment being offered on the behavior.

It doesn’t make sense based on the writing of Farkas. An honorable warrior wouldn’t be caught dead stealing from the poor. Perhaps it’s partially excusable because it was 2011 and it’s possible that the consoles couldn’t handle followers being that advanced. They could’ve done more with them still though, as their own output in the same period has proven. For comparison, 2010’s Fallout: New Vegas followers were able to react to whichever faction the player supported. Arcade Ganon is very vocal in his disdain for Caesar’s Legion. If the player decides to support the legion, Arcade will leave the player’s service unless otherwise convinced.

Bethesda seemingly learned their lesson after Skyrim. In 2015, Fallout 4 cut the number of followers by 75%, from 73 including DLC and Creation Club content to 17 including DLC. As a result, the quality of the followers went up massively. These followers react to the player’s dialogue or which factions the player chooses to support. Deacon isn’t in support of actions aiding the Brotherhood of Steel. Preston refused to speak to players who wouldn’t go after the Nukaworld raider gangs despite being Fallout 4’s failsafe ending. X6-88 directly attempts to kill the player if they become an enemy of the Institute. It makes the player’s choices feel like they have meaning, and so world-building is improved due to the residents of that world feeling like they have their own opinions of the politics in that world. We’d love to see this make a comeback in The Elder Scrolls VI.

Make Followers distinct

Followers in Skyrim aren’t that interesting visually either. For every Teldryn or Serana there are two or three Calder or Lydia-likes. A large portion of followers don’t have a unique armor set to make them stand out; it’s always steel armor or mage robes. They really look too alike. Most of them don’t look visually distinct from NPCs in the game, and whilst I’m not saying we need a design like Mehrunes Dagon to be used on followers, what we do have is lacking, and Elder Scrolls VI could really use a revamp.

Bethesda’s over-reliance on human NPCs hamstrung their ability to create interesting followers in Skyrim. The world of the Elder Scrolls is diverse but it’s not often reflected in their companion follows. Fallout 4 largely solves this issue by followers not being the same species. Some followers are robots, others are dogs, and whilst he’s mostly a human, Nick Valentine is missing part of his face. That’s memorable, and it’s awesome. Certain followers are only capable of wearing certain sets of armor, and Nick and Strong can’t wear most armor sets. Strong will only be able to wear super mutant armor while Nick can only wear power armor. Dogmeat can only wear dog armor, but that one might be more understandable! Another example comes with Danse who will only be shown wearing power armor regardless of Brotherhood status. All of these show that Bethesda was more interested in the memorability of the followers rather than having as many as possible.

Another improvement that should be carried forward for followers is specialized skills. Skyrim has a surprisingly diverse set of reactions for followers completing tasks. For example, most companions won’t loot dead bodies. They can be broken into four categories: willing to commit crimes, willing to wrong hostile NPCs and commit property crimes, will only commit theft, and won’t commit crimes. We need that to carry forward. It helps to make them feel like people rather than being copy/paste place-fillers. Fallout 4 features followers better suited for tasks compared to each other, such as Nick who can hack terminals and Cait who can pick locks. Bethesda needs to continue this trend going forward in The Elder Scrolls VI. I’m a mage, not a sneak thief. I don’t pick locks, but I want the dead guy’s 3 Septims anyway.

Expand the Magic System

This has been a topic of discussion since Skyrim released, but I want to add onto the outcry. The simplification of the magic system from Oblivion to Skyrim was one of the worst decisions Bethesda has made since horse armor. You read a book once for the same spell to be cast until its effectiveness runs out. Fear spells become useless to players over Level 50 unless they want to invest into enchanting as well. Magic in Oblivion feels like a genuine magic fantasy. Finding spell effects allows you to craft better spells than can be found in a tome. The player can craft spells that continue to be effective into the late game, but in Skyrim the wonder of magic is greatly reduced.

The sense of progression has been removed by taking away minimum skill requirements. Dumping points into magicka or enchanting armor to remove cost isn’t an interesting form of progression. It takes less thought from the player to produce a better spell that feels more impactful later into the game, that is if the spell is even effective late game. Certain spells like the aforementioned fear or a spell like dead thrall don’t work with the uncapped leveling system. You’re not a true scholar of the mystic arts.

Quests are too simple

For as open as Skyrim is, it feels like the quest lines are too simple. I think the biggest offenders are the Companions and Dark Brotherhood. Starting with the Dark Brotherhood, the lack of quest content going against the Brotherhood is disappointing. Destroying the long-standing and all-powerfulDark Brotherhood shouldn’t be as simple as a general knowing the password to the magic door. Clandestine killers should be harder to track down. An ideal scenario would see a similar approach to New Vegas’ “Ghost Town Gunfight”. The player meets a down on their luck faction that is struggling to survive in the changing times. Their enemies knock on the door with threats of death if they can’t fight back. That vague description of a faction describes Goodsprings and the Brotherhood.

The opposing factions aren’t 1-1 though. The Powder Gangers of New Vegas have a plan to secure the supplies they need to take over the town. “Run Goodsprings Run” is practically the same quest. It just gives the courier a chance to be evil. They don’t magically have the supplies. The courier needs to strongarm the townspeople into giving them up. The Penitus Oculatus should have had quests focused on finding leads to prevent the assassinations. With the Brotherhood not having a listener they would leave more leads that could naturally lead back to their operatives.

The Companions are very similar in that regard. In the aforementioned ‘Proving Honor’, the Dovahkiin fights the Silver Hand. The enemy faction never gets fleshed out beyond hunting and executing werewolves. Their profession makes them the natural enemies of the Companions, so the player should have the option to join the Silver Hand if they don’t agree with becoming a werewolf. It would present an opportunity to explore the darker side of the Companions as their adversary rather than their ally. At the very least, we hope The Elder Scrolls VI won’t force the player to become a werewolf to continue a quest line.

Bethesda’s recent releases seem to suggest a positive trend for their games going forward. Sticking with followers that have properly developed differences between them creates more interesting worlds for players to return to time and time again. Giving more content for players to potentially miss out on based on their choices drives engagement for the game by creating clicks to see what they missed or replays to try it themselves. Bethesda doesn’t lose a thing here beyond more time in development, and we’ll all benefit from it. They’ve already waited fourteen years, so what’s a year or two more for quality?