Weakest Story, Best Gameplay?

[Caldor3]

My only experience with Elder Scrolls games are Oblivion and Skyrim. My judgement is that Skyrim has a better gameplay experience but largely inferior storyline to Oblivion.

Thoughts?

[Heinrich Kemmler]

the gameplay imo is the best for sure, and storywise idgaf, i just wander around and do my own thing,sometimes for so long i just plain forget what i was doing when i was bothering with the storyline. honestly the missions i just take them as an easy way to find something to kill and get cool loot to hoard in one of my houses like an angry drunken dwarf miner.

[Amycus]

Wait? What? Seriously? While I do think that both Oblivion and Skyrim was pretty weak in story, and strong in gameplay, and I think that Oblivion on the whole was better than skyrim, I sure wouldn't say that the story was worse than in Oblivion. The storylines in Oblivion for the larger quest chains where really, really, bad, while Skyrim's where actually pretty good.

It's just that the SIDEquests were a whole lot more interesting in Oblivion (in fact, the sidequests in Oblivion where better than in any other game I have seen to this day) than those in skyrim (90% of the quests are "I lost item X in dungeon Y. Go and fetch it for me".

[Rest EZ]

From what I've seen of Oblivion, Skyrim is aesthetically superior in comparison (appearance-wise). However, the usual criticism of Skyrim is that it did away with many things that Oblivion did well, such as very expansive magical and physical combat options; customization of individual characters on those lines thus shrunk considerably. I've read through the storyline of Oblivion, and to be quite honest, I did not find it strikingly superior to Skyrim. Many fantasy stories are very formulaic:

Unlikely hero. Hero is thrown into circumstances that call them to duty. Hero goes on epic journey fraught with danger. Hero receives divine aid. With divine help, hero defeats great evil. Hero then becomes part of legend about their deeds.

The only difference between Oblivion and Skyrim apart from the aforementioned gameplay is that the former carries a bit more weight story-wise since failure of its main quest would mean destruction of the whole mortal realm, as opposed to just one country (and perhaps others, if the dragons got really busy). I do wish that the DLC for Oblivion called Knights of the Nine had a sister for Skyrim, since I like the Divines in the Elder Scrolls, and wanted to help them in Skyrim too.

[MrTastix]

Amycus の投稿を引用：

The storylines in Oblivion for the larger quest chains where really, really, bad, while Skyrim's where actually pretty good.

The Dark Brotherhood and the Thieves Guild quest chains in Oblivion were absolutely fantastic and all the chains in Morrowind were brilliant. The chains in Skyrim simply do not compare. The College of Winterhold had so much potential but never capitlized on it, it merely introduced a faction that is rich with lore but take it nowhere. They do this in most of the chains in Skyrim.

This is actually a recurring theme for me when in comes to Skyrim: Skyrim's storyline had an awesome start and the potential to be fantastic but it never capitlized on it. I expected the Thalmor and even the Civil War to be a main concern within the main storyline but it never was. Alduin rarely shows his face and is not as intimidating after the first encounter and the dragons do very little outside the few encounters you are forced into.

Mods can alter this by adding more dragon appearances, random Civil War related battles and other such goodies but these are all things I felt should have been in the game by default. I felt the storyline would have been much stronger had we gotten the chance to oppose the Thalmor (or even join them) but unfortunately, as has been the case with The Elder Scrolls games since Morrowind: Bethesda sets the perfect stage but never uses it.

[Caldor3]

So Rest Ez you have 'READ' through the Oblivion storyline. No offense but that is very strong ignorance there. Oblivion's storyline (main quest) was absolutely incredible while Skyrim's felt a bit rushed and there were no real twists throughout. I'm going to replay both to have an even better opinion anyway.

[Gralzeim]

I honestly never could get into Oblivion's main story. I only think I got a few quests in before I got bored and started wandering around. I think it's mostly that you're not really the savior of the world in Oblivion; you're his assistant. While I'm glad they tried something different, and that others liked it, it just didn't mesh with me, and I couldn't find the motivation to grind through closing gates, unless one was in the way of somewhere I wanted to go. That and I found Oblivion itself to be really dull, aesthetically (and most towers were pretty much the same). Yeah, I know, Oblivion, not Rainbow Cakeland, but it could have been a little more interesting, I think. -shrug-

[stabbykitteh]

I think I played the main quest all the way through in Oblivion once. Those <insert expletive here> gates got a little tedious. I found Skyrim's much more interesting. As others have said, side quests were another story and guild quest lines seemed more substantial in Oblivion.

Morrowind blows both away quest wise, but that's just one of many opinions. After the first playthrough, I tend to do my own thing in each game so the MQ ceases to matter all that much..

[Rest EZ]

Caldor3 の投稿を引用：

So Rest Ez you have 'READ' through the Oblivion storyline. No offense but that is very strong ignorance there. Oblivion's storyline (main quest) was absolutely incredible while Skyrim's felt a bit rushed and there were no real twists throughout. I'm going to replay both to have an even better opinion anyway.

You're welcome to your opinion, even if I think it's wrong. Though, I do take offense to your belief that I am in any way "ignorant", and might go so far as to suggest that you keep such a negative assertion about my person to yourself.

[Ruffles]

Lol, nobody plays any free-roam game for the story. Just take a look at Grant Theft Auto. Most people just go around shooting people instead of doing the story, because that's not what people are looking for in free-roam games. They want gameplay. However, games like Bioshock Infinite would be nothing without their story.

[Rip Van Winkle X]

stabbykitteh の投稿を引用：

I think I played the main quest all the way through in Oblivion once. Those <insert expletive here> gates got a little tedious. I found Skyrim's much more interesting. As others have said, side quests were another story and guild quest lines seemed more substantial in Oblivion.

Morrowind blows both away quest wise, but that's just one of many opinions. After the first playthrough, I tend to do my own thing in each game so the MQ ceases to matter all that much..

The main story of Oblivion was painful to get though. Done it once and I will never do it agian. But I will always do the Dark Botherhood in Oblivion every time.

Skyrim felt better in certain storys; and at times worse. But I would have to say that I enjoyed Skyrim's lore a bit more then Oblivion. I would say the Skyrim blows Oblivion away, but Oblivion had Shivering Isles and Dark Brotherhood.


Now morrowind... The main story was really good, but tedious. So much back story and theorys you could throw around on it.

[Twelvegauge]

Yeah, I just tend to wonder around and do my own thing and do alot of side quest or join guilds. I was kinda overall bored with the main story. Never had a big interest in dragons either so the whole dragonborn thing I'm like, 'Oh, I'm dragonborn.. neet I guess.. welp back to stealing from shopkeeps and lurking in the shadows in my Dark Brotherhood robes and such!' lol

[Cat Daddy]

I always felt oblivions story was crap personally. The king dies (who was played by John Luke Picard) who had like what? 8 sentances and then dies? you then find the blades - find his son - find some books - close some oblivion gates which ALL look the damn same - martin then kills himself to close the gates - story over

I was never that interested in Oblivions story. I dont think many were either, the main selling point of it was exploring and thats also what makes skyrim so amazing to. 110+ hours in and all i have done so far is add 200+ mods and just kill the first dragon. I havent even seen the greybeards yet and im mainly just doing dawngaurds story

[Heinrich Kemmler]

THUNDERCATS 2011 (BlackRambo) の投稿を引用：

I always felt oblivions story was crap personally. The king dies (who was played by John Luke Picard) who had like what? 8 sentances and then dies? you then find the blades - find his son - find some books - close some oblivion gates which ALL look the damn same - martin then kills himself to close the gates - story over

I was never that interested in Oblivions story. I dont think many were either, the main selling point of it was exploring and thats also what makes skyrim so amazing to. 110+ hours in and all i have done so far is add 200+ mods and just kill the first dragon. I havent even seen the greybeards yet and im mainly just doing dawngaurds story

thanks, i was up to the part where i drop martin off at the blades secret compound.

[Cat Daddy]

But if your playing skyrim then you already knew the outcome....they say it duzons of times that martin kills himself to close the gates

[Froman]

Bethesda never really has been able to tell a good story. Oblivion had a great idea, but it was executed very poorly. The Oblivion Crisis, in theory, should have been absolutely massive. However, it was hardly even apparent. Sure, you might see a couple Oblivion gates if you go roaming the wilderness, but other than that life continues as normal for the people of Cyrodiil, as if there weren't any angry demons pouring out of hell gates outside their city.

Skyrim is similar. It's story is decent, but it definitely feels like the crisis is there. Dragons do make regular attacks on farms, cities, etc, and people discuss them, often in fear. The story was still decent at best, though.