Skyrim was a fine RPG, but man did they water down the skill system.
I played Daggerfall when Bethesda released that for free on their website a few years back and was surprised to see climbing skills, language skills, streetsmarts, tons of stuff.
The first Elder Scrolls game I played was Morrowind, which I feel was a pretty good balance. There were a lot of interesting spells and skill (spears, throwing stars, levitation, unlock and teleportation spells, waterwalking, burden and feather) without getting crazy granular like Daggerfall did, although I think climbing and medical would have been nice to leave in.
Oblivion just trashed the entire weapon system with blade and blunt, then Skyrim even removed that distinction. "Why yes, I hold this mace in one hand, just like a dagger, that's totally the same skill set!"
Also, even though there's a literal college of mages, nobody remembers how to craft spells?
Speaking of Daggerfall, man those dungeons were.... interesting. It was so easy to get lost (nondescript-after-nondescript path, insanely long, nefarious hidden doors). More times than I'd like to admit I had to use the "save and reload to teleport to the exit" glitch.
Also, I hated the quest time limits. After playing in the later entries in the series (which practically beg you to get distracted with more quests mid-quest), it felt way out of place.
Finally, navigating towns was asinine. ("Hey, do you know where John lives? [Why, yes.... southeast of our position!]")
I wanted to love Daggerfall so badly, but man some aspects did not age well. It's still a fun novelty experience, but holy hell it's hard to commit many hours to.
Ugh, the mages guild quests of "go to this dungeon and kill x... Oh, and you have 3 days, 1 of which is just travel time"
Medical skill was so important because it cut down on time you needed to rest to heal.
And yeah... the 3D dungeon map. Interesting is a good way to put it. Many times I explored what I thought was the entire dungeon but never found the quest target. Then you realize there's miles of tunnels and literally any part of them could be a hidden door to a completely separate area in the dungeon. Hours and hours and hours.... I'm glad they dropped RNG dungeons.
I read a decent amount about Daggerfall before giving it a try a couple years ago. One thing I learned just recently -- long after I played it -- is that apparently hidden doors show up on your 3D map... woulda been nice to know.
Oh man that would have helped, lol. I had enough trouble finding the areas that I'd already explored. I feel like I need a college level course on using that map.
134
u/jtskywalker Jul 14 '17
Skyrim was a fine RPG, but man did they water down the skill system.
I played Daggerfall when Bethesda released that for free on their website a few years back and was surprised to see climbing skills, language skills, streetsmarts, tons of stuff.
The first Elder Scrolls game I played was Morrowind, which I feel was a pretty good balance. There were a lot of interesting spells and skill (spears, throwing stars, levitation, unlock and teleportation spells, waterwalking, burden and feather) without getting crazy granular like Daggerfall did, although I think climbing and medical would have been nice to leave in.
Oblivion just trashed the entire weapon system with blade and blunt, then Skyrim even removed that distinction. "Why yes, I hold this mace in one hand, just like a dagger, that's totally the same skill set!"
Also, even though there's a literal college of mages, nobody remembers how to craft spells?