I have been excited forThe Elder Scrolls 6long before Bethesda foolishly decided to announce it all the way back in 2018. Prior to falling head over heels in love withSkyrimin 2014, I had amassed a huge amount of admiration forOblivionandMorrowindbefore that. While I’m not the biggestElder Scrollsfan in the world - I haven’t playedDaggerfall, after all - I am prone to endlessly searching for Scrolls-likes at 3 am in the hopes of recapturing the magic that seemingly only these games inexplicably hold.
Of course, that wait forThe Elder Scrolls 6keeps getting longer, and Bethesda’s reputation continues to be tarnished, with the likes ofStarfieldreceiving scathing reviews. While I doubt I’ll ever fully stop desperately imagining whatTES 6could be like and irrationally and irresponsibly getting my hopes up far too high, I have decided to move on somewhat. Fortunately, one of those 3 am sessions looking for myElder Scrollsobsession paid off, asI stumbled across a huge open-world first-person fantasy RPG unlike any other.
Enderal Is A Huge Conversion Mod For Skyrim
It Adds A New Story, Region, And Gameplay Mechanics
Enderal: Forgotten Storiesis a complete conversion mod forSkyrimcreated by SureAI. It is a new game made withinSkyrim’sengine. It has its own world, storyline, characters, quests, armor sets, enemies, mechanics, and even better visuals thanSkryim, all of which combine to create a staggeringly large 100-hour RPG experience.The first time I stumbled acrossEnderal, I was blown away, not simply because of its impressive size and content offering, but also due to the fact that somehow, despite constantly searching for thebest games likeSkyrim, I had never heard of it.
That’s not to say that it’s a hidden gem. After all, it’s one of the mostpopular mods forSkyrim. However,I think the sheer scale of the mod as well as its significant alterations toSkyrim’sfoundations often go overlooked. Not only isEnderala far more narrative-driven game, offering a far superior alternative toSkyrim’ssomewhat generic chosen-one narrative with its more mature and darker reflection on pressing social and political topics, but it’s also much harder, putting a greater focus on combat and adding a lot of depth.
I loveEnderal: Forgotten Stories, often more than I doSkyrim, not just because it changes a lot, but because it manages to encapsulate everything that made theElder Scrollsseries so great during theDaggerfall,Morrowind,andOblivioneras. It also offers me something that’s so incredibly rare in video games: the ability to experience one of my favorite games as if it were the first time again.Playing throughEnderalbrought me back to my teenage years, sitting in front of my tiny TV playing throughSkyrimfor the first timeand feeling like literally anything was possible.
Enderal: Forgotten Storiesis the definitive version of theEnderalexperience. It was initially calledEnderal: The Shards of Order, but was later renamed toForgotten Storieswhen the developer released it on Steam with new features, including extra quests.
That magical freeform sandbox experience is what has madeSkyrima timeless classic, one that I think about practically every day and wish more RPGs could be like.Enderaloffers that same experience, only far more improved, made with the love and passion of fans who understood whatSkyrimwas missing, and what its successors need.Enderal, for all intents and purposes, feels likeThe Elder Scrolls 6, just years before it was meant to be released. While it may not be as graphically impressive asTES6, its gameplay and world design absolutely serve as the perfect blueprint for it.
Enderal Should Be A Blueprint For TES6
Its Improvements To Skyrim Are Extensive
Todd Howard has expressed thatTES6will learn fromSkyrim’smistakes, and that makes me very excited. It’s not thatSkyrimis bad, but it has a lot of flaws that, at least through a modern lens, make it less impressive than it was back in 2011. I’m not going to pontificate about everything that makesSkyrimbad when compared to the likes ofBaldur’s Gate 3, largely because I think it can be reductive thinking that takes away from not just the cultural impact ofSkyrim, but what it does so perfectly that evenBG3couldn’t achieve.
Nevertheless,those flaws need to be addressed inThe Elder Scrolls 6. It’ll make it a better game and prove that Bethesda still has what it takes to be at the top of the RPG scene. I’ve made it clear thatStarfield,Fallout 76, andFallout 4, have been disappointments to me. I appreciate some love them, but I feel it’s a clear indication of Bethesda’s slow decline in quality. However, I don’t believe that Bethesda should look toBaldur’s Gate 3or really any other popular RPG for lessons on how to improve, but rather mods likeEnderal.
I’m More Excited About The Oblivion Remake Than TES 6 For One Specific Reason
The rumored Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion remake has a lot of potential to be something truly great, and even has me more excited than TES 6 does.
Enderal’schanges to the Skyrim formula never detracted from the immersive RPG experience that the Elder Scrolls series has done so perfectly for decades. Rather,its harder combat, more restrictive magic systems, survival elements, world design, and more helped to elevate the RPG experience, offering something that brought the series back to its roots while ensuring that those accustomed toSkyrim’sstyle could still enjoy it. SureAI took risks that perhaps Bethesda couldn’t take at the time, adding more hardcore features that only certain parts of the fanbase may enjoy.
However, the boom in soulslikes showcases that casual players are open for a challenge;Baldur’s Gate 3illustrated that players want more in-depth RPG systems, even if it involves a lot of dice; importantly,Dragon Age: The Veilguardshowcased that removing the hardcore elements from a beloved series causes a huge drop in sales.When playing throughEnderal, it became clear to me thatTES6needs to take the risks it did,implement a survival mode, feature more in-depth combat that doesn’t just devolve into sneaking around with a bow, and, above all else, show a new side to Bethesda.
Enderal Shows How Important Modding Will Be For TES6
It Was Created By Passionate Fans
Enderal: Forgotten Storiesis also a great indication of the importance of the modding scene for Bethesda games. It is a truly huge effort from dedicated fans who had a vision for their own world and utilizedSkyrim’sfoundations to make that a reality. Of course,the baseSkyrimexperience was good enough to inspire players to go the extra mile and create and implement their own ideas and worlds. I was even tempted to learn how to mod forSkyrim, although the community is probably lucky I never bothered as I can’t imagine I’d have made the nextEnderal.
Enderalisn’t the exception either, as, alongside many unfinished projects that had a lot of potential,modders have created some of the best conversion mods as well as full-blown quest chainsthat have even gone on tobecome their own games. The other notable example - outside SureAI’s other giant mod forOblivion,Nehrim: At Fate’s Edge- isFallout: London, which similarly takes the coreFallout 4experience and puts a bigger focus on player freedom. Both of these mods show the weak points in Bethesda’s game design, which I hope will inspire the developer to do better.
The Elder Scrolls 6 Needs To Learn This Important Lesson From 2024’s Best RPG
There are a lot of important lessons that The Elder Scrolls 6 can learn from 2024’s best RPG, especially when it comes to immersive world design.
There’s also thecomplicatedSkyblivionmod, which is recreatingOblivionwithinSkyrim’sengine while adding a wealth of new features,Fallout: Miami, and many more. I hope thatThe Elder Scrolls 6has full mod support likeSkyrimandFallout 4so that future fans can be as inspired as the SureAI team and all the other dedicated modders out there.Enderal: Forgotten Storiesis completely free for those who want to experience just how majestic it is and, I hope, get a glimpse at whatThe Elder Scrolls 6could and definitely should be like.
