Summary
RPGs can be very lengthy journeys, each of which telling a different story, or even several intertwined stories.The Elder Scrollsgives players plenty of completely different paths and factions to explore. These faction’s side adventures can be so in-depth that players can spend more time focused on them than on other aspects of the game.
However, each of theElder Scrollsgames comes with a main quest line to follow, that serves to help sculpt the setting where everything happens. Reaching the end of each of these main quests can wrap up everything players have accomplished into one grand finale.
The first game in theElder Scrollsfranchise isElder Scrolls: Arena, and it follows a pretty generic fantasy story plotline. An evil mage named Jagar Tharn has imprisoned the Emperor and his general in another plane of existence. The player character, a prisoner, is freed by the essence of the evil mage’s former apprentice. This sets them on a journey to defeat Tharn.
In the final fight with Than, the player must fight against Tharn, but they are not able to slay them. Players will need to open the gate leading to the Jewel that houses their lifeforce — and destroy it. Doing so will free the Emperor and his general and destroy Tharn. The Emperor and General thank the player and bestow upon them thetitle of Eternal Champion. This ending is traditional but lacks the substance to give it a unique identity compared to other old-school fantasy RPGs.
Guilds and factions were present inThe Elder Scrolls: Arenato create a very similar experience to that ofThe Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion,but the guilds in Oblivion each featured memorable NPCs and felt like they were their own main quest lines. All while the true main questline builds into the lore of both the franchise and the game’s individual story — which revolves around closing portals that can transport the player to the plane of Oblivion. Even though there are evil factions, playing through the main quest feels heroic.
Oblivionmay not have hadthe bestElder Scrollsleveling system, but it still does a brilliant job of building up the end of the main questline by having the player unify the lands thanks to the reputation they amass from closing Oblivion Portals. This culminates in traveling to a giant, raging demonic enemy to face. However, the lack of being able to fight and fell this enemy, and instead leaving it to an NPC, gives a rather lackluster feel to an incredibly well-narrated story.
The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowindis the second most iconicElder Scrollsgame next toSkyrimand is so beloved that fans stillreinstall it with some added modsto replay it. The story has the player on a journey to fulfill a prophecy as the Nerevarine — the reincarnation of a hero from the First Era and Champion of Azura, Indoril Nerevar. This story is very well crafted, with the alliance of two mighty races broken through a betrayal of crafting a new god.
The game uses a very open-ended system where the ending of the main quest is not the ending of the game itself. Instead, the world of the game has several new facets added to it for the player to continue playing the game without there being a final threat left to deal with. This lets them treat the ending of the game as an interactive experience to see what each faction’s questline has to offer and makes for an incredibly engaging experience. This also opens up many moral options of how to deal with certain NPCs in the game’s story.
While not as iconic as the third mainline entry,The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfallbrings with it all thepraiseworthy elements. Many players played the game the way they wanted to, with some being good and others being evil. It provided many factions that each had their own story to tell and endings to achieve. While there are many different endings to the game’s main questline, they are all canonically treated as one single ending. This is quite an interesting approach and can be confusing as all of the game’s endings are occurring at the same time, but allows for a lot of lore to be maintained and built upon for later games.
Players use a powerful jewel called the Mantella to power an ancient Dwemer artifact known as the Numidium. This occurs in a spirit realm that distorts reality so that all the endings simultaneously happen. This results in all manner of world-altering events, including the creation ofa kingdom of orcs, the destruction of the Numidium, the death of the underking, and even the creation of a new God. This gives the game plenty of replay value in discovering each part of the ending by playing the game differently and making for a truly memorable ending to the RPG.
There are a lot of stories about fantasy races and dragons, but few of them capture living in such a world the way Skryim achieved it — so much so that it has been released countless times and still has athriving modding community. The complete freedom of shaping who and what the player character is while training to defeat a magic-wielding dragon hypes up and builds so much story that the ending feels truly astonishing.
The final fight has the Dragonborn traveling to the afterlife of the Nord people, Sovngarde, to fight and slay Alduin while they feast on the dead. Fighting Alduin in Skyrim is a daunting ordeal that can have players wonder if they were even ready for the fight but fight alongside the souls of the Nord heroes that originally defeated Alduin to destroy him once and for all. It is a feeling of true triumph and accomplishment and a fitting end to a game that stands withsome of the greatest RPGs of all time.
