The Elder Scrolls is an RPG series with astronomical expectations, leaving Bethesda with little choice on whether to implement meaningful player decisions with impact.
Elder Scrolls 6 is currently an enigma, with little information revealed beyond a title card with a desert terrain in the background. It’s unknown if this still accurately depicts the game’s final image, but it’s currently all fans have to go on. However, fans and news outlets have consistently speculated on game details, isolating mechanics and gameplay opportunities that Bethesda could improve in the sequel. While Bethesda released little information concerning Elder Scrolls 6’s story, player choice could vastly improve the narrative quality. Bethesda might also want to innovate diverse outcomes in its story to compensate fans for their decade-long wait.
Player choice can be challenging to implement, but has appeared through various games like Dragon Age’s Approval system, Mass Effect’s Paragon or Renegade ratings, and Fallout’s Karma system. As players’ actions or dialogue choices build up, NPCs’ perception of their character impacts gameplay. Fantasy RPGs like Dragon Age have also gone a step beyond, implementing two completely different levels in Dragon Age: Inquisition for players who sided with the Templars and those who sided with the Mages. While different endings can enhance Elder Scrolls 6’s storyline, Bethesda cannot implement a singular method to make player choices meaningful.
Elder Scrolls 6’s Story Needs Factions And Dilemmas
Perhaps the most infamous choice in Skyrim concerns Skyrim’s Civil War and the choice between Stormcloaks or Imperials. To this day, the fandom vehemently debates on the "correct" choice while factoring in history, biases, strategic soundness, and more. While the missions remain largely the same and involve storming various fortresses, Holds, and enemy encampments, the choice decides who becomes Skyrim’s High King. Compared to other decisions made throughout Skyrim’s campaign and side quests, Skyrim’s Civil War provided an opportunity for players to see the consequences of their actions.
Elder Scrolls 6 needs to embrace factions through guilds or warfare to replicate this impact, placing players at the forefront of combat, political intrigue, and history itself. The Elder Scrolls’ Aldmeri Dominion has long reigned as one of the franchise’s most frequent villains, conquering previously independent territories and eliminating their competition in violent invasions. Their cruelty came to a head in Skyrim's Great War and White-Gold Concordat, where Thalmor Agents covered the landscape to subdue the population. Allowing players to cripple the Dominion, or to their twisted cause, could pave the way forwards to The Elder Scrolls’ climax.
While choosing a side in war offers a form of freedom, fighting enemies with different designs only delivers on a fraction of the immersion within warfare and rebellions. Elder Scrolls 6 needs intense moral dilemmas, which leaves players shifting between options for minutes on end. RPGs usually allow players to be the hero, providing an obvious "good" choice and an "evil" choice. Bethesda should leave these elementary labels behind and embrace more complex paths to make gameplay and story progression more interesting. The Witcher 3 provided several difficult player choices which could inspire complex dilemmas in Elder Scrolls 6. Choosing between the deaths of two individuals or deciding to save one town over the other could test players’ allegiances and alter TES6’s open-world permanently in the playthrough. Not only would these choices encourage players to think carefully about their outcomes, but it could also increase TES6’s replayability, expanding its lifespan outside of remasters and remakes.
Player Choice Begins With Elder Scrolls 6’s Character Creator
The Elder Scrolls has a history of embracing character creation in many mainline games, with only a few spinoffs providing a static protagonist. For player choice to matter in Elder Scrolls 6, the story’s setting and ing characters should be impacted by how players craft their characters. Skyrim displayed a basic form of this, with Argonian and Khajiit players suffering racism at the hands of Nords or threatened by bandits with being turned into a rug or belt. Becoming a fully realized Dragonborn provided one way of shutting these individuals up, but it impacted little else in-game. By choosing certain races or implementing an origin system into Elder Scrolls 6, players could feel the effects of their origins in different places. For example, selecting a Khajiit in Hammerfell might stir some suspicion, given the species’ alignment with the Aldmeri Dominion, but could earn sympathy and respect from other Dominion races. Additionally, choosing a race native to the setting could provide a smoother method of interacting with locals.
Elder Scrolls 6’s character creator could also affect in-game prophecies and locations. For example, in Skyrim, players could find wall carvings that depicted the Dragonborn’s battle against Alduin. In addition, if Elder Scrolls 6’s protagonist becomes another heroic figure ed throughout history, ancient statues, scrolls, and paintings could depict the character’s appearance and name. This would not only impact how player characters are perceived throughout the world but increase story immersion. While it’s unlikely for Bethesda to record the millions of names in voice lines, finding depictions of a created character throughout the world avoids the repetitive "prove yourself" quests and advances the storyline more efficiently.
Elder Scrolls 6 Should Embrace Multiple Endings
Unbeknownst to most, The Elder Scrolls once implemented several endings in mainline games. The habit died out as Bethesda’s projects became more mainstream and raised public expectations. The downside of a dedicated following and growing world meant the creative team needed a set canon to continue development. While more consistent pieces of lore, like Elder Scrolls’ Daedric Princes and weapons, are easier to develop and maintain, storylines become more challenging to determine. Bethesda’s most difficult ending concerns Skyrim’s Civil War and choosing a canonical victor. With such an important event that many fans are still ionate about today, it’s unlikely foreign countries wouldn’t have heard of its outcome. With the difficulty the Civil War continuity poses, it’ll be difficult for Elder Scrolls 6 to embrace multiple endings in major quests and storylines. However, Skyrim has proven that adequately dividing storylines in the Dark Brotherhood questline and the Civil War can increase popularity and result in continued conversation long after the game’s launch.
Elder Scrolls 6 needs to expand on Skyrim’s choices to prove Bethesda’s continued work on the franchise is worth the decade-long wait. Skyrim’s Civil War and Dark Brotherhood questlines depended on a single-player choice that created a ripple effect for the rest of the missions. Choosing Imperials or Stormcloaks and killing Astrid or one of her victims provided players with the only meaningful choice throughout the storylines. Elder Scrolls 6 needs more impactful decisions that influence the outcome and vital NPCs present throughout the story. Whether Elder Scrolls 6’s country or setting has a King, Queen, or other authoritative figures who can form an opinion on the player’s character, or whether a player’s cumulative actions culminate with karma, Bethesda has options to make dozens of small choices that result in a fulfilling finale.
Bethesda and Todd Howard have remained hush-hush concerning Elder Scrolls 6 details, with the company’s full attention placed on Starfield for the time being. As a result, it’s unlikely for ES6 to release before Starfield, setting the former’s release date at some point past November 11th, 2022. This marks the distance between Skyrim and Elder Scrolls 6 as the longest waiting period for fans between installments in the franchise since its beginnings. With luck, Elder Scrolls 6 will live up to the hype cultivated by a patiently waiting fanbase.
