Rumor: Elder Scrolls V Is a Direct Sequel to Oblivion?

Elder Scrolls 4

Well, we’ve been waiting forever, and it seems that Bethesda’s addiction machine, I mean, Elder Scrolls, is gearing up for another entry into the long running franchise. That’s right, Eurogamer Denmark is reporting that Elder Scrolls V is well into production, and it’s so far along in fact that they’ll be doing voicework for the game over the next few weeks.

While the reporters that supposedly saw the game are sworn to secrecy through blood pacts (also called NDAs), there are a few things we know about the game. Namely, that it’s a direct sequel to Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, rather than a standalone tale set in the same universe. I know this should really excite fans of the last game, and I’m sure the idea of jumping right back into those events is going to encumber people with happiness like so many extra pieces of armor. Maybe I can try and actually finish this one instead of robbing houses for 35 hours.

I probably don’t even have to ask this, but is anyone else excited about this? What do you guys think a direct sequel to Oblivion could entail? Anything in particular you want to see in Elder Scrolls V?

Source – Eurogamer Denmark via Google Translate

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16 thoughts on “Rumor: Elder Scrolls V Is a Direct Sequel to Oblivion?”

  1. I personally find a direct sequel to oblivion to be a little lackluster. I found Cyrrodil (however you spell it) to be a little boring, at least visually. I really liked how each game was stand alone, made each one mysterious and interesting, especially how each one was set in a different province. This seperated this franchise from others. If anything I want a game that is set in the summerset isles or akaviri, wow us with something we have never seen before.

    I want the game to be set in a different province than the first two, but keep all the little easter eggs and references to the previous games. Bring back the old faction system, where there is a lot of factions and they don’t all play nice. You can keep the storylines and the cool quests but when you allowed me to join all the guilds and be the head of them all, I found that this detracted from the overall experience.

    I liked oblivion combat, just make magic and marksman a more viable option. For example be able to summon more than one creature to your side. Make spells look cooler and scale their power better. I don’t want to join the mages guild if I want to enchant or spellmake either, so make it easier to access. Remove the charmeleon dumbness. What I believe will help this is if you sped up the speed of the projectiles. I just found that arrows did too little damage too slowly and moved slowly so it was hard to hit the enemies. Think about it, if your in tight spaces, like a dungeon/cave, I won’t use the bow and arrow unless it was made a viable option.

    Level scaling, get rid of how it is currently done. I want some areas to be impassable early on because of the hard enemies, but be able to destroy them later. Gives a sense of growth in your character. Keep the weak easy ones too, I don’t want the Imperial Soldiers being able to defeat the hero easily because why would I be the hero if there are 1000 guys stronger than me. I do not know a way to really fix it but it needs to be fixed.

    More NPC’s, that are more interesting and with a better dialogue system between them so they don’t seem like manikins. The cities felt kind of empty to me, not as bad as morrowind but could of been done better. I want a slum to feel like a slum, give me the mass of hobos.

    and I have more I would like to say but this will do for now.

  2. Step one to making this a must buy for me is getting rid of the Gamebryo engine. I know that’s not going to happen, but this engine is a piece of shit. I guess it’s fine for a while, but it produces ugly worlds, ugly people and is full of bugs. That’s not a shot at New Vegas or Obsidian or Bethesda, but it’s true.

    Other than that, fix the leveling system, like Muaddib said. I get that the game is a challenge if your enemies scale, but what’s the point of having maxed stats if you still have to slug it out with an Imp for five minutes?

  3. I got Oblivion when I pre-ordered New Vegas on Steam, and it says I’ve put 44 hours into it… but Largely, I was robbing people and their homes, much like Eddy. I figured after all the complaining I do about Magic/”olden-days” games, I might as well play one. I gave Morrowind a try years ago but hated that, and while Oblivion was better and more involving, I just couldn’t really care about the story or what was going on. Maybe in 5 years I’ll give V a try.

  4. Actually, Mitch, I read on IGN that Bethesda is making a brand new engine for TESV. That could be a good thing or a bad thing though.

  5. As far as my thoughts, I’m pumped. If TESV is anywhere near as good as Oblivion, then my all-time favorite game might have a run for its money.

  6. Really hope Bethesda takes into account the near-universal criticism of the difficulty scaling and the cosmetic improvements of some of the mods. I’m with Muad’dib on pretty much all counts, especially in terms of the setting. I’d personally like to see Skyrim or Valenwood, but I’d settle for anything outside of Cyrodiil and Vvardenfell.

  7. I seem to remember reading that TESV is supposed to take place 200 years after Oblivion and that the Elder Scrolls novel that came out last year was intended to bridge the gap between the two. Did anyone else hear about this or am I just recycling baseless rumors?

    I’d like to know what they mean by “direct sequel,” though. Technically, all the games (even spin-offs like Battlespire) have taken place in the same timeline continuity of the Third Era. Every game has been set somewhere different, though. I hope they don’t just set the game in Cyrodiil again and just roll the timeline ahead a few years/decades/centuries. Part of the appeal of the series is exploring a new corner of the continent with every release. There’s nothing particularly wrong with Cyrodiil, but it’s far less memorable than the island of Vvardenfell, which was the setting for Morrowind.

    Personally, I’d love to see them set the game in Black Marsh, the home of the Argonians. Given what Bethesda did with Point Lookout in Fallout 3, I think the setting could be very unique and fun/dangerous to explore.

  8. Skyrim would be cool as well, but they’ve kind of already done the “snow setting” with the Bloodmoon expansion for Morrowind.

    Valenwood might be neat, but I’d rather see them do Elsweyr. I feel like I know what I’d be getting with Valenwood (hey, here are the forest elves in their tree homes!) but they could pretty much go nuts with Elsweyr and use a mish-mash of African, Indian, and Southeast Asian influences to create a setting unlike anything we’ve seen before in an rpg.

    You might be able to do the same thing with Hammerfell and blend Middle Eastern, Iberian, and Caribbean influences to create the Redguard homeland. They’ve kind of already gone there with TES Adventures: Redguard, though.

    Then again, it wouldn’t be the first time Bethesda has seriously retconned some aspect of the Elder Scrolls world. Cyrodiil, after all, was supposed to be covered in steaming jungles according to many of Bethesda’s pre-Oblivion sources.

  9. [quote comment=”14761″]It’s not a new engine, but a heavily modified and upgraded Fallout 3 engine.[/quote]
    Source?

    In that case, my anticipation has been somewhat dampened. I think I read that IGN article wrong anyways.

  10. I personally don’t care if they comepletely retcon background information of events and places, like the whole steaming jungle bit, if it helps them fit the story and setting better. It just would have to be smaller details and only if it makes the series as whole better. I personally would not of liked to trudge through a bunch of steaming jungles, but then again it might of been better than the bunch of forests and plains that we did get. The different areas also have to be more visually distinct. In oblivion they kinda just changed the color temperature or put more open spaces of grass. This is something they got completely right in the Shivering Isles expansion. The two sides of the Island where distinct. While they were meant to be mirror opposites, I believe that level of difference can be applied to the areas of the new elder scrolls game.

    When I think about it, I like a more political intrigue centered plot, but that is my preference. I would like to see the Akaviri Islands, Sload Place, and more of the different planes of Oblivion other than generic fiery death pit. Bring back, more armor bits and differences in weapons. Bring other weapon categories up to par with Long Blade. I want my level of choices brought back up. Not to the level that was morrowind but more than the little pile of sameness that was Oblivion. I never had the feeling that I had a unique weapon. Make main quest better, more epic, harder, longer. One way I propose to do this is that they should make it more like original Kotor, which the formula was basically, have a great story that makes you want to finish it. Lower entry to enchanting and spellmaking but make it harder to do big stuff with it. Just get the atmosphere right, and I won’t remember my other complaints.

  11. It should be taking place on Sumerset Isles if I remember correctly.

    Im super excited. This is one of the most addicting games I have ever played. I honestly can not wait for more info to be released 😀

    As for things I want to see fixed:
    Leveling is honestly one thing they should fix. They do need to find a way to make it….better. Its hard though because you have to find a good balance. I dont want it to go back to a ‘kill it once and its gone’ kind of system, but I dont, as was mentioned above, want to be grandmaster swords and spend 10 min killing a Daedra.

    I also want to see better combat. Come on, there should be some better combat systems. You can do so much more. Look at some of the mods out there, they should show you what can be done.

    As for the story….Im unsure. Im reading the Elder Scrolls novel thats out right now “The Infernal City”, perhaps that will shed some light on to what it could entail.

    All I know if that if it delivers any bit like Oblivion did, Im going to go bananas

  12. Many of the changes you guys are asking for can easily be fixed my community mods, you know, just in case Bethesda totally ignores their fanbase. 🙁

  13. @ Trogador

    Thats what kept Oblivion going so strong for me. MODs DO fix things, but its better to not HAVE to mod. The better the game is, he better he mods become. 🙂

  14. No. NO. NOOOOOOOO!

    Seriously though, what happened to TES being about adventure in an outlandish setting? There’s nothing original about plains and forests with occasional medieval architecture…

    Ah well. If they drop the gamebryo engine I’ll count it as a step in the right direction.

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