The Elder Scrolls 6 Can’t Compete With Other RPGs Without Major Changes

The Elder Scrolls 6 has a huge uphill battle to fight in the wake of other great RPGs. For years, Bethesda was a leader in the western RPG space. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Fallout 3, and then Skyrim catapulted them to new levels of success with Game of the Year wins and nominations, commercial success, and long-term support from fans through modding. This run of games also defined Bethesda’s style, cementing a certain kind of formula and expectation from the studio’s games. They’re a bit janky, have awkward dialogue, and in the case of Fallout, they even developed a separate mechanic in the form of VATS to make combat a bit more bearable.

For what it’s worth, this was part of Bethesda’s charm for years. However, that charm began to wear thin over time. Fans still mostly accepted the shortcomings with Fallout 4, but The Witcher 3 ultimately stole Bethesda’s thunder that year. Ultimately, fans began to lose their patience with the long-awaited release of Starfield in 2023. Almost a decade after the release of Fallout 4, Starfield let a lot of people down as it retained a lot of the jank Bethesda is known for without much depth to make up for it. This then allowed Baldur’s Gate 3 to overshadow the sci-fi RPG. Now, The Elder Scrolls 6 is on the horizon, and Bethesda can’t afford to be complacent anymore.

The Bar Has Raised for RPGs Since Skyrim

There have been some truly game-changing RPGs released in the last decade, pushing the genre forward since the release of Skyrim. The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II all serve as great examples of genre-defining RPGs that have meaningfully innovated and continued to give players reasons to spend hundreds of hours in their world. The visual fidelity of some of these games is unparalleled, the worlds have the depth of an ocean and allow you to get lost in them, and the writing is extremely strong, with most of these games even featuring voiced dialogue from the protagonist.

These games have created high standards for players. They expect these worlds to have NPCs that feel like they’re living and breathing, they expect the writing and acting to be engrossing, and they expect the gameplay to be fulfilling and powerful. While we can’t expect The Elder Scrolls 6 to have star power like Keanu Reeves in Cyberpunk 2077, fans do expect that if a game is going to take this long to make and be as costly as it is, it should go beyond stiff performances where the characters stare at you with their dead eyes and try to express all of their emotion through their voice while very little of it shows in their face or body. It’s one thing to have a pretty world, but that will only take you so far if the people and characters that populate it feel wooden and lifeless.

People have also come to expect more ways to just live in the world as well. Sometimes you don’t want to do a quest. You want to kill time, find ways to passively make money without killing someone, or just immerse yourself in the universe the developer has created. While not necessarily a traditional RPG, a game like Red Dead Redemption 2 has blackjack, poker, dominoes, and Five Finger Filet in addition to hunting. RPGs like The Witcher 3 have games like Gwent. It’s important for Bethesda to find a way to tap into this, as they can become one of the most memorable parts of said game. Gwent even got its own standalone spin-off game because players loved it so much.

How Bethesda Can Improve on Its Formula for The Elder Scrolls 6

Bethesda already has a solid foundation for its RPGs. These worlds are made to be explored and the lore is already so rich. Now, it’s time to give it the backing it deserves. Invest in making more nuanced animations that allow characters to feel unique and lively, rather than blank-faced expository vending machines. The writing and the acting need to match it as well, allowing you to feel like you aren’t the only human (or human-esque) character in this world.

The writing in a lot of recent Bethesda games has been… okay at best. It’s largely due to the fact Bethesda doesn’t have actual writers on staff. There are people who do other jobs, such as quest designers, who fill in the blanks. Bringing in some folks who actually know how to write because it’s their job and passion, and making it their sole job will do wonders. It will elevate everything and hopefully, allow for a more consistently engaging narrative and characters with more depth.

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