Looking towards TES VI

 

With Shattered Space out of the way a lot of eyes are not turning towards the horizon. More specifically, to Elder Scrolls VI. I think the consensus was to follow the Starfield yearly train for a while until TES VI was closer- but considering that is what the team consider billable content for their ailing game, I'm pretty sure most people have finally written off Starfield entirely. The game could be saved, no doubt- but Bethesda aren't interested enough in receiving feedback to do it. They're happy with the small base they got and consider them the Starfield fans, who are content with that level of output and thus do not require any catering to. Thus Starfield probably will never be worthy of being considered a main Bethesda franchise. Maybe when 2 rolls around in 2040- who knows? Either way, now the pressure is back on The Elder Scrolls.

Maybe pressure is the wrong word. Too light. It might be more appropriate to say that the weight of all the stars in heaven are beaming down on TES VI with an expectant glare. Bethesda seem to really struggle with developing on themselves, lovers of one of their games will find something essential missing in the next one along and it's making it very difficult for hardcore fans to stay attached to a developer that either doesn't understand what won them over to begin with, or are simply driven by some inexplicable vision that grows increasingly anathema to the rest of the Roleplaying world. I won't deny that Bethesda games truly are unique, but I'm starting to worry that in times to come that uniqueness will be best described in the way they cram endless monetised content farms into their entirely single player RPG worlds.

I was down for the idea of paid mods a long time ago- but they don't care enough to make that idea a respectable one. They've already grown tired of it and are moving on towards the next implementation of the system in the next game. It kind of reminds me of an irritable creative without expectations and deadlines, free to pick up and drop an idea at the change of the wind- never quite riding great designs and concepts to completion. All of which is why personally, I'm expecting The Elder Scrolls VI to break a lot of hearts when it finally arrive and finally tells us all what we don't want to hear- that Bethesda just don't have it anymore. That special spark which made Skyrim a generational masterpiece- which has been slipping since Fallout 4- might be finally gone from their eyes.

But then the stubborn delusional side of me wants to cast all that aside and say no- Skyrim was such a special game and you would have to be a straight fool not to see why! The tangible world space, living stories, space to paint whatever adventure you could imagine on the canvass of creativity. Even before the word 'mods' enters the conversation Skyrim was so very ahead of it's time. But let's talk about mods for a second. Skyrim was so very accessible to mod in a way that Starfield is proving... difficult on. Lacking official animation tools (cross fingers they're coming) animators are currently incapable of even porting old kits over. (Unless they use a tool that relies on the Script Extender, but Starfield's new paid modding system has literally cut a giant swathe through the community that many mod creators are avoiding third party compatibility tools so they might remain compatible with consoles. It's a whole mess right now.)

What I think The Elder Scrolls could do with, going forward, is a change up in their scenario management. Honestly, I think the assumption that a tight and excellent story can't fit into an open world RPG game in the style of Bethesda's is frank under ambition talking. Get a half decent fantasy writer on the payroll and let them go nuts, reign in the delivered product where needed and squeeze the rest of the simulation around that. The impact of a great narrative isn't just a solid boon nowadays, it's expected to get people through the door. Bethesda's best storylines have been Morrowind, which relies entirely on the quality of the world building, and Skyrim's- which is so simple and straight forward it doesn't have a chance to sag. All the others, their Fallouts, Oblivion, Starfield- all suffer under weak writing, soft scenarios or lacking commitment. They're so afraid of railroading players, when what they should be caring about is giving enough motive that players will give their RPG characters into the scenario. Ultimate freedom sounds good on paper- but few games that pursue that end up in the annals of history. 

Of course, we also need a total revision to the way combat works. First person melee combat is always a conundrum to solve- but Bethesda have never been there. Morrowind's combat was a mistake that was realised into the fall game for some reason, Oblivion's combat had some small promise but lacked commitment, Skyrim's was a regression of Oblivion's for some reason. Bethesda's latest games have shown a surprisingly solid grasp of their combat, with Starfield and Fallout's FPS touches- we can't go back to the land of noodle swinging come TES VI. It's just not possible. Give us just some of the basics. Dodges, parrying, stance breaking- I know I'm starting to sound like a Souls-nut but to be honest- Souls has established the bare minimum for satisfying medieval combat- this should be the foundation that a game like TES VI builds from. But considering modern Bethesda and their bar of 'quality', I'm just praying they even hit the industry bare minimum at this point...

 And most importantly I think that TES VI could really use some more focus. As much as Bethesda want to pretend they're making vastly different games between their three series- the truth is that Bethesda really carry the same basic bones from game to game, build upon that and then try and squeeze a new genre out of it on the backend. Most early fundamental working is fixing up the allgame under all the nonsense. Which is why I have to beg Bethesda not to get lost sticking in another superfluous settlement builder mode. It just doesn't fit The Elder Scrolls. Hearthfire was limited and focused- it was designed to fit into the world. Starfield's settlements serve little to no real purpose in the fantasy of the game- keep your focus, Bethesda- please!

I am scared for the next Elder Scrolls game, and that's because I've not really seen the hallmarks of the trendsetting Bethesda for a very long time now. But what scares me even more than that is just how delusional they seem to be internally about that. They still think of themselves as leaders within DLC, despite CDPR soundly trouncing them in that department over two of their most recent releases. They consider Starfield the best game they've ever made in some respects- which defies belief. They call Shattered Space the product of veteran talents who's work really shows on screen- which reads like an actual insult levied against them. Is this the Bethesda who has it in them to change the trajectory of their company and become a leader once again? I hope so. I really do.

Bethesda's biggest gap

 

With Starfield out of the way and now in the hands of the content delivery team who are said to be on the game for the next ten years- at least until the going gets rough and they decide to abandon the game at year 3 and then pretend they never said 'ten year plan' to begin with- (Bungie flashbacks galore) we can look unto the future. With Todd Howard pretty firmly declaring that he doesn't believe in spin-offs because he believes all those gameplay verticals can fit into a main line Fallout game (which he is horrendously wrong about, by the way. The day a Creation Engine game produces a half-decent stealth experience is the day I eat my hat.) the next title is most definitely going to be that Elder Scrolls VI game that was announced last decade, and with that comes my concerns, once again, that Bethesda are going to drop the bag.

Now to be very clear with you, I would consider myself a Bethesda fan. I think they have been extremely instrumental in establishing an identity to the entire western action RPG genre and have revolutionised the way that many games function as a result. Meaningful RPG visual customisation through the equipping of armour sets, fully immersive simulation worlds to experience loosely guided open worlds that let the curious explore- they wrote the book on all of that. And unlike many others out there, I don't actually believe that Bethesda has at all regressed from what they once were. What I think people are observing but not quite clocking, is the rest of the industry jumping forward by leaps and bounds whilst Bethesda hang around with their tackle out wondering how to proceed.

One manner in which Bethesda has consistently failed to make a splash, for which they absolutely must revise should they wish to have any remote foothold in the current RPG market- is combat. Fallout 4 enjoyed a total revision to the way Fallout 3 and New Vegas played in order to make it a half decent shooter. Starfield doubled down on those improvements to become a mostly decent shooter. But that's different. The path to making good shooter games is mostly linear and very well paved by the leading shooters of the games industry before them. Call of Duty. Destiny. Wolfenstien. There were models for Bethesda to base themselves after and shoot towards aping. Not so much with fantasy hack and slash,

There are dozens of ways to bring such combat to life and it just so happens that Bethesda have tried a few throughout the Elder Scrolls life-cycle... and none have been really all that good. Arena and Daggerfall had an innovate but quickly depreciating click and drag weapon swinging system that aged worse than the Nazi's before the Ark of the Covenant. Morrowind had a 'hit or miss' calculation system which ran in the background and basically made the early game unbearable and simply failed to account for anything late game- being overall useless. And Oblivion and Skyrim just went for simplified wet-noodle slap systems which got the job done, but never felt satisfying to play. But there's no real excuse for experimentation anymore.

As much of a predictable cliché it might feel to read- fantasy melee combat has largely been solved in the modern age and those plaudits belong to the very successful Souls genre. The tight hit-box, swing and dodge/parry/block foundation presented by Demon Souls presents a tactile and dynamic system of combat which has been remixed and iterated on incessantly over the past half decade without growing tired or style. It is a foundation to base a genre off and honestly should probably expand outwardly. Maybe not to the extent of totally ripping the tactical core out of previous tactical party based RPGs- but I suppose that ship has already sailed seeing the gutted out remains of 'Dragon Age: The Vielgaurd'.

Now of course I'm not saying that The Elder Scrolls VI should be a souls-like, absolutely not! But there are fundamental lessons of control that could be built upon from the basis of how those games play- but iteration is definitely key in this discussion. One of the key-most pillars of how Elder Scrolls games is the fantasy of power which Souls-style games actively work to downplay in the way they play and control- so there are certainly some liberties that would need to be taken on Bethesda's end to make a game like this feel as good as it can. And in that vein, I actually might have an idea of what kind of game they could also learn from- although you're gonna have to bare with me for a second as I explain myself.

So the best third person action games for selling into that extreme power fantasy has to be the Devil May Cry games- for the way they present a challenge of combat mastery with a reward of total combat control. I'm not saying that we should be able to literally juggle our enemies around like putty in Elder Scrolls VI, that would be taking it too far- but there's a level of combat complexity present in Devil May Cry that is achieved with precious little controller real estate. Most of the extreme content that each of the Devil May Cry weapons offer are achieved with two buttons and sticks flicks- and the wealth of combat value they add fuel an entire franchise. I don't expect Elder Scrolls VI to rival the deep thought-out complexity of DMC's best- but capturing some hint of that level of intrinsic combat mastery, combined with a more ground Souls-Like basis, would create a unique vision of gameplay that both fits the Elder Scrolls mission statement and evolves so far beyond the basis to shoot this franchise back into the headlines.

Of course I speaking on supposition and dreams here- but in my mind you're really going to need to shoot big to be competitive in the modern world. Bethesda no longer offer the biggest or most detailed open worlds, they no longer offer the most reactive feeling RPG spaces, they no longer achieve unparalleled world simulation and I'm argue they no longer have the benefit of the doubt to flub their way through despite all that. The next Elder Scrolls need to be competitive in real terms, and I somehow don't expect the company to suddenly bridge that gap with world-tier storytelling or graphical aplomb. Something core has gotta give. And that something has to be Bethesda's lacklustre approach to putting the sword in their fantasy player's hands.

A change of plans for the Exclusivity industry?

 Of Execs and Exclusivity

The Stetches of time

 Tick tock

Transcribe the past and map the future

The best techniques are passed on by the survivors - Gaiden Shinji: 1E no one can agree

2021 is already off a lightning start, eh? After a year of absolutely nothing useful spilling out of Bethesda studios in regards to it's many high profile, and as of yet, unreleased projects, we are greeted in the new year by an entire graphic on Twitter with a cryptic message. And why- it's an Elder Scrolls themed graphic to boot, which is amazing considering that Pete Hines and the team have been very clear that Starfield is due out years before The Elder Scrolls 6, so what's all this about then? I mean, I'm still happy; but maybe that's because the more I hear about it, the less interested I become in the promise of 'Starfield' and it's somewhat unenthusiastically conventional take on science fiction. (Give me aliens or give me death!) So let me return to quite possibly my favou- you know what? No. My actual favourite fantasy world of all time, The world of Nirn. And interacting with the audience through hints? Why- that's also been my marketing dream! I love this sort of meta "What could they mean?" sort of posts and I just can't wait to dive into this graphic and see everything that I- Wait, why is it a map of Skyrim? Oh god no... not again...

Nah, I'm just fooling. This isn't another re-release of Skyrim. If it were trust me, they wouldn't bother hit up the graphics team to make a teaser for it, they'd just slap that on whatever new system they wanted and be done with it. No, this is something brand new that's using the asset of Skyrim's map (Which I am intimately familiar with at this point; having a burlap version of it hanging above my desk for the past decade) to hint at something deeper. Whatsmore we have a tagline to interpret with this image that was tweeted alongside it; "Transcribe the past and map the future", which is pretty implicit in saying that wherever the series is to go next, the past is certain to be of import. Now I believe this to be rather obvious, given that Skyrim left the state of the world as under a rather new anti-religious dictatorship with hints of rebellion sparking in some of the more hardy provinces. Could we be looking at a game which finally takes the fight to free Tamriel? We can but wait and see. 

Wait, tell a lie. We can also speculate incessantly. Because as you can see from the picture above, what we have here is a map with 3 candles on it, a couple of Septims to the north and what looks like a mini Christmas tree lying in one corner. I assume that the tree is irrelevant, unless Christianity is looking to make a big crossover into the Nirn universe. Now of the three candles (which I think are easily the biggest standouts from the image) we have three highlighted locations, and decoding their significance is the key here. To the north we have one above the Morthal Swamp and another situated directly in the Sea of Ghosts, theories and speculations have already run wild with these two but I'll touch on those later. To the south, however, we have a candle right on where Hammerfell would be, seemingly confirming that which we had assumed for a good long while now, that the Redguards would be the heroes of the next game.

Now for context, Hammerfell is the only region that we are told has maintained significant and long lasting resistance to the occupation of the Thalmor, so if this next game is going to be tied into that arc there's no way that we can't visit the land of sands and swords. That couples with the rumors which were abuzz during the winddown of Skyrim's DLC, that a trademark had been filed for "Redfall" (an amalgamation of 'Redgaurd' and 'Daggerfall') although what ever became of that is anyone's guess. Perhaps we are looking at a the first dual region Elder Scrolls Game (at least since the original) but I get the feeling that if that does end up being the case, then it would be much smarter for Bethesda to take the Rockstar route and have Skyrim be the other playable region. Afterall, it's a home that a lot of us are endeared to, Bethesda have touched up three separate times now, maybe it's time for Skyrim to become a constant in the Elder Scrolls universe? (But I'm just spitballing right now.)

What makes matters more confusing are those aforementioned coins sitting in the Ghost Sea, because as people have mentioned; that marks the separation between the lands of Skyrim and Atmora. Now Atmora is known as 'the birthplace of man', and so it would make sense that if we need to 'transcribe the past' we would touch upon the progenitors of society, but the Redgaurds actually have their own progenitor mythos. That's right, the Redgaurd people actually find themselves descended from the western continent of Yokuda, which is why so many of their gods and traditions differ from the rest of the Tamrielan pantheons; they didn't inherit their gods from the places that everyone else did. So why would the Atmorans be important in a story about Hammerfell? It just doesn't make any sense. And then there is the fact that if any far away continent is finally going to be bought into the story; it has to be Akavir. I mean, we've been talking about 'Akaviri this' and 'Akavir descended techniques that' for seemingly ever now; isn't it high time that became something?

Now backing up to that image which sparked everything, some have noted how the map in question is actually dated; 4E 182. Now seeing as how Skyrim is set in 4E 201, this has led people to speculate that this must be evidence at how this is a prequel to Skyrim, I mean; why else would the map say that? Well, I hate to be the barer of bad news but it's high time that I pour water on those there embers. Do you want to know why the map said that? Because this isn't a composite image like I implied, that's an actual map with real mock Septims which has been photographed. And that map? It's the exact same burlap map that I have had hanging on my wall since 11/11/11. Yeah, my map too is dated 4E 182, and is signed by Nataly Dravarol. (Clearly a Dark Elf name) No, I'm pretty sure this was just a map they had to hand, the game is going to be set further down the line.

Now that we've analysed all there is, what do I want to see from Elder Scrolls 6? Well it's pretty much what I've said in this blog; I'd like the next game to go multi regional. Now the reason that I say this isn't because I think Skyrim was stifling at all, I just think we've reached a point where setting an entire game in one environment is antiquated. Yes, Hammerfell is known to have some green alongside it's deserts, but that's the exception over the rule; Hammerfell is mostly a desert-filled land built atop the ruins of the Yokundans; so why not have us change things up by visiting Daggerfall as well, and Skyrim on top of that? Ideally, I'd like ESO 6 to be the start of a tradition; more regions each game until all of Tamriel is playable, (Which will likely happen after we're all long dead) not for the sheer size of the thing, but because the scope of the story is destined to swell to such a size.

I love talking about this sort of stuff, speculating is my life. One might tut in the sage old voice of Master Yoda and warn how expectation leads to hype which lead to disappointment which lead to suffering; but I can't help playing with fire and I'm sure a lot of you can't either. Unfortunately, we're not going to get a chance to compare the results of our wild guess until several years down the line, Starfield is due first, but that just leaves more time for clues to be dropped and sights to narrow. In the meantime I'll keep whittling down my vision for the perfect Elder Scrolls game (I literally know exactly what the story would be from beginning to end) and setting myself for a fall when the final game is just alright. Oh Bethesda, never change.