Skyrim or Oblivion??

[Zyder]

In terms of story and side quest, what do you think is your favourite one?

I never played Oblivion but I have to say the story is like the core of the franchise: the Septim Empire, the Daedra as the main enemies, the capital region of Tamriel...

But I loved Skyrim: dragons, vikings look-alike, amazing side quests (First Dragonborn, the Eye of Magnus battle with Ancano, the Thalmor plot, the Civil War...). So many amazing quests and memories.

But what do you think?

[Cyber Nyran]

i just finished Arena lol. Im a fan of all of them. Now with Oblivion remastered, i better see a Morrowind remaster. Even daggerfall.

[annacowell02]

skyblivion will be able to be played BY EVERYONE. so skyrim. skyrim is the last good title cause its the last that all can play.

[sinephase]

definitely skyrim

[MaxxGold]

For me it is Oblivion. I never liked being the Dragonborn. This has been the perfect time to release Oblivion with 6 on the horizon.

[Horror Pigeon]

In terms of just story and sidequest? Maybe oblivion by a strong moderate margin. The main quest of oblivion is not as great as you think. Instead of you being the main character, it's boromir. Mages university quest is somewhat less stupid than winterhold college. Honestly, I don't like oblivion gates and avoid closing the first one so that no more spawn. That way I can adventure in relatively peaceful cyrodiil and because the people are so insulated from the outside it kinda works. I wouldn't call skyrim's quests amazing. The modding is amazing and I want a mod like chim ai framework for oblivion remastered.

[Jinzo]

If you are talking about writing then oblivion by far, although im a bit biased cos i really liked the empire worldbuilding in Cyrodil and it was a bummer watching the death throes of it in Skyrim.

Even still, a lot of those side quests and/or faction stuff wasn't great, not compared to the thieves guild and the dark brotherhood in Oblivion anyway. Some of the best moments in gaming right there.

[[TG] zac]

Of those 2 choices oblivion.

My favorite in the franchise however is elder scrolls 2 daggerfall, specifically the unity remake GOG cut (its free over there).
The unity remake made the graphics decent, fixed most of the bugs and opened it up to modding.
The GOG cut comes with a fair number of them already and they can be turned on/off at will.

The amount of freedom of choice it gives you is insane and puts all the other entries to shame the build potential is endless and the map is over 64 thousand square miles.
Some of the factions (there are over 30) are also exclusive to each other and will react to what you do so no one character can be master of all of them.

Originally posted by Cyber Nyran:

i just finished Arena lol. Im a fan of all of them. Now with Oblivion remastered, i better see a Morrowind remaster. Even daggerfall.

There is a remake of daggerfall already on the unity engine & its free.
The GOG cut also comes with a bunch of optional mods.

As for morrowind, Open morrowind and a few mods still in develiopment bring it up to skyrim quality.
I don't think bethesda will do a remaster though, as it would take a complete remake to bring it up to par with oblivion remaster.

[Soji]

been a long time since I played skryim but in terms of what the stories are of both I still think it had a more interesting story than oblivion. The actual quest design and guild quest tho I find much more interesting in oblivion. Setting is a lot better imo too. Oblivions main story is just honestly really bad.

[Smakit]

Main Quest: Skyrim
Guilds: Oblivion
Sidequests: Draw
Setting: Oblivion
Leveling: Skyrim

It's a mix, and both are enjoyable.

I like Oblivion and how it sort of hugs various areas to give it a somewhat more varied environment, but that's not to say there wasn't a lot of cool areas in Skyrim.

Dark Brotherhood was wonderful in both, but I didn't like the Companions at all and didn't love the Mage's Guild in Skyrim either.

The trees were a bit more interesting than just key points you hit in Oblivion for bonuses, and the scaling enemies could sometimes be silly, especially if you weren't actively getting up those useful combat skills as quickly - though the remaster made it easy at least as far as stats go to not have to game it.

I'm happy playing either one. Still have a blast with the Unity version of Daggerfall which is wonderful as well. Or going back to what was basically pre-elder scrolls, and play some Ultima (6 for me, though 7 was great, too).

[ΛΞL™⚡]

I like Oblivion much more in terms of story and side quest design. In Skyrim, it feels like there's quantity over quality, and I also like that Oblivion has little to no filler radiant quests, which I hate in any Bethesda game. The only thing I miss in Oblivion is a follower to "carry my burdens."

[[TG] zac]

Originally posted by ΛΞL™⚡:

I like Oblivion much more in terms of story and side quest design. In Skyrim, it feels like there's quantity over quality, and I also like that Oblivion has little to no filler radiant quests, which I hate in any Bethesda game. The only thing I miss in Oblivion is a follower to "carry my burdens."

Get the castle or finish knights of the 9 or finish the mages guild quests or the arena.
All 4 unlock followers who will carry stuff, though keep in mind they can die.

[Gregor Eisenhorn]

I've been playing the Elder Scrolls since Morrowind.

Between Oblivion and Skyrim I prefer Skyrim: the world is more varied and has more things to do that are generally more fleshed out both mechanically, lore wise and from a pure game-y standpoint.

A few examples:
-Daedric quests are more fleshed out and generally better in Skyrim. In Oblivion they're all rather short and often times random and not really well linked to the Daedric prince's nature. In Skyrim on the other hand Daedric Quests feel more in line with their respective Daedric Prince, the voice acting is better, the shrines make more sense and there's a degree of agency within some of the quests (Azura's quest, etc).

-The biomes in Skyrim are very well designed and have a unique and distinct personality: the great tundra around Whiterun, the Rocky mountains of the Reach, the tranquil autumn-y woodlands around Riften, the taiga of Falkreath, the fjor feel of Solitude and its surroundings, the desolate cold of the northern areas. The mountains offer fantastic views either from the top or from below, giving the entire region this majestic feeling. Oblivion on the other hand despite having plenty to work with lore-wise suffers from the technical limitation of its era and doesn't really capture the different biomes very well. Skyblivion is doing a fantastic job in rectifying this, especially with their design of the Gold Coast and the forests around the Black Marsh border, but really all of them are works of passion that finally give you a good feel of what they were supposed to be.

-There's simply more to do: roleplaying as a vampire now has an entire faction behind it, same goes for werewolves (with added small bonuses in Solstheim). Finishing a guild questline is not the complete end of it. I'm not talking about radiant quests, I'm talking about the guild in question still serving a purpose and feeling alive after the end of its questline. With the Dark Brotherhood you still can commit actual murders and listening to the Night Mother is a lot better than being a glorified mailman for Arquen in Oblivion. Same goes for the Thieves guild, you have a long way to work up to unlock all the cistern upgrades and cosmetics. Stealing stuff and doing jobs is reflected in the amount of people in the guild and the displayed wealth and luxuries in the cistern itself. You get to have fences in all of the cities and trading caravans and stealing has a purpose. In Oblivion stealing is purely superfluous since nothing you can steal beats clearing dungeons and selling the loot, especially after level 15+. In Skyrim there's more valuable loot around. The college of Winterhold despite its numerous flaws and unfinished stories remains relevant for unlocking master level spells with unique quests for each school. In Oblivion you unlock the spellmaking altar and that's basically it, you can also ignore the Arcane University completely with Frostcrag Spire. The Companions, despite the super short story line and plot holes, feel more in line with the setting and are necessary for your Werewolf progression, have the whole skyforge unique gear and are right at the centre of the map. The Fighter's Guild always felt a bit generic and wishy washy, worst faction in Oblivion in my opinion.

-The main DLC Dragonborn is better than Shivering Isles. I know, put down your pitchforks and rose tinted glasses and hear me out. The reason Shivering Isles is good is mainly because of the charisma of Sheogorath himself, not so much the setting. New Sheoth, Sheogorath, Xedilian, Haskill and the duality of madness (and becoming one of the Dukes) are very cool themes, but outside of those the dungeons and quests were a bit boring and samey. The root dungeons, the mushroomy scenary, the same enemies, I don't know, It could've been much more, but the entire DLC rides on the main Daedric prince. Dragonborn on the other hand has a plethora of interesting characters and quests, and things to do, and loot to collect. Neloth is arguably one of the best NPCs of the entire game, there are plenty of unique dungeons and quest linked to said dungeons that are worth your time: the guy whose excavation you sponsor, who goes progressively mad, Nchardak with Neloth, the unique Black Books trips into Apocrypha and the related abilities you obtain, Chitin armor, references to the various guilds (the Mallory blacksmith), the Morrowind nostalgia.

-Reactivity. The world in Skyrim reacts to who or what you are a LOT more than Oblivion. In Oblivion outside of when you don the Cowl of Nocturnal and people calling you The Hero of Kvatch, there's not much else going on. In Skyrim on the other hand NPCs react to your guild affiliation. If you're wearing wizard robes you'll hear npcs saying: "you must be one of those wizards, from the College up in Winterhold", the guards will be weary and afraid if you're a member of the dark brotherhood with some even hailing Sithis in devotion, the guards will also point out they know you're a member of the thieves guild because of the armor you're wearing, or that you've been seen in the company of the Companions. Even the comments linked to your skills feel better. In Oblivion "you have the hands of an Illusionist" is incredibly random, wtf are illusionist's hands, whereas in Skyrim they fit both the setting and the overall credibility: "favour the bow eh? I'm a swordsman myself" or "the gods gave you two hands and you decided to use both to hold your weapon, I can respect that".

-The NPCs are overall better, more diverse, with better dialogue, differences and voice actors (despite the number of voice actors being still 1/5 of what it should be). It's so immersion breaking, at least for me, recognize the same voice actor doing three different tones in the same quest whilst impersonating three different NPCs (Knights of the Nine for instance is pretty glaring despite him being talented). The Jarls are better and have more personality than the Counts (the Count of Skingrad being a notable exception), they even react better to who you are and what you did. When you go back and talk to the count of Anvil or his wife after "the end of *that* guild questline they have nothing to say at all, not even a small line. Oblivion is full of such instances.

-Powerscaling and leveling in general are orders of magnitude better in Skyrim than Oblivion.

-The moddability, amount and quality of mods are leagues apart.

The one thing I will say about Oblivion is that it has great moments. The Dark Brotherhood questline is one of the best ones in gaming and there are little gems here and there. The cities are also a bit more fleshed out in feeling in Oblivion. I could not play Skyrim without JK's Skyrim mod for cities for example. In general though I'm always left wanting for more, not really satisfied: wanting to be able to betray the mage's guild and side with Mannimarco (there are several points in the guild's questline where doing this makes perfect sense, especially when they use you as a sacrificial lamb sending you to Skingrad), wanting to be able to restore the Black Hand and administer it (to be fair this is lacking in Skyrim as well), being able to do something, anything with the Thieves guild after becoming the Grey Fox, etc.

[drakeloreroar]

Questing: Oblivion - hate being spoon fed into storylines or forced to take quests I can't decline, Oblivion has a few of these but not anywhere near as offensive as Skyrim is.

Story: Oblivion - Thieves actually steal stuff, Fighters guild are actually helping people with problems instead of running around like a bunch of thugs (mostly), Mages guild is infinitely better than Skyrim's and you have to actually do magic, Dark Brotherhood is the only one i will give to Skyrim, and unlike Skyrim you can actually fail questlines entirely.

Main Scenario: Tossup - both have their merits, both have their flaws.

Combat: Depends - Melee and Archery both feel better in Skyrim but can't beat Oblivion for mage. Power and movement system as well as general hit detection has to go to Skyrim though.

World Building: Skyrim - definitely better visual storytelling and having a hand built map makes it feel so much more like a real, living world.

Immersion: Skyrim - uncanniness of NPCs in Oblivion is charming but Skyrim's NPCs definitely react better to the world around them.

[Doug Masters]

I really like Oblivion as a game and all but Skyrim, even with the Oblivion remaster, is just a bit more interesting to me. Skyrim tells a better story, neither game is perfect but the other characters in Skyrim feel more "human". Combat, like physical combat is better in Skyrim but the spell making is sorely missed.

[(N☆G) Jackal ★JJ★]

Story and sidequest Oblivion by farrrrrrr.


Landscape, Id say skyrim.
Mechanic wise Skyrim.