u/VauntedSapient

I probably have about ten levels banked, maybe more. Look at my build, how many do you think I can take before the battle becomes oppressively difficult? I have a good amount of gold, can probably get some better spells and gear. Playing on Adept.

*flash bolts, lol I literally looked that up before posting, still didn’t get it right

Yes, I'm one of those people.

• The lack of presets makes character creation kind of daunting. I pretty much just randomized appearance until I got an Altmer who didn't look like The Leprechaun and then prettied her up until she was an Oblivion 10 and about a Skyrim 7. Seriously though, the NPCs in this game are almost as ugly as I remember them being in the original and it's very funny to me that Virtuos/Bethesda made such a conscious effort to either translate the original models or, in some cases, make them just as ugly but in a different way.

• The intro/tutorial really is very good, though constraining in a way that Skyrim's and, to a lesser extent, Fallout's isn't. The Emperor is assassinated right in front of me but before he does he pardons me for my crimes, says I am the one from his dreams, gives me the freaking Amulet of Kings, and tasks me with bringing it to his only living heir so I can "close shut the jaws of Oblivion." I would not say it is easy to ignore the Main Quest in Skyrim, the game does constantly try to throw you into it, but I would say that there are a couple of times during the main story where it feels immersive enough to run off and go do other things. When the Greybeards call, I can very much just say "hey that does sound like Nord nonsense and I'm actually doing just fine at killing dragons myself right now. Except that black one in Helgen, but I'm sure I'll run into him again." When Delphine is being super sketchy in the Sleeping Giant there's actually some good exit dialogue that I've used before to venture away from the main quest.

> PLAYER: I don't have time for this.

> DELPHINE: "I shouldn't let you walk out of here, knowing what you know. But I guess even my paranoia has its limits. You know where to find me when you change your mind. Because you will. You have to."

Will Oblivion have similar off-ramps? I'm guessing it will but for now I'm heading to Waylon Weymon Weynon Priority Shipping as soon as possible because it seems very important and the one guy I have to talk this over with in the beginning is not at all perplexed by me standing over the Emperor's dead body with the Amulet of Kings. Yes, there are good reasons for this that are explained but instead of those reasons you could the player a more open-ended start to the game. Fallout 4 is of course worse in a way because you are given an essentially personal motivation, it's much easier to say screw off to the Court Wizard or Emperor than to give up on finding your child. But then again, it's easy to get lost in the world in an immersive way. I would say the motivation for doing the main story is stronger but it's easier to avoid getting wrapped up in it.

• Right away I get into that fight with a Conjurer and I'm impressed by them healing themselves. That's such an important touch for immersion, without NPCs doing stuff like that, stuff that you do, you start feeling like you're special in a way that the game doesn't really intend.

• I don't think the Hotkey wheel was in the original game but it's a very nice addition that feels way better than working with any kind of menu. I understand why people complain about not having enough options but that's not really the point of it. Every time I pause the game in Skyrim to go through menus/favorites for potions, I feel like I'm cheating. The hotwheel avoids that. If it comes back in VI, the only thing I would change is allowing you to slot in more spells.

• I have no idea what I'm doing with bartering/persuasion and I think I made a mortal enemy out of Palonirya by making her like 20 bad offers.

• The citizenry is a little bit too nonplussed by the total destruction of the Septim bloodline. Like I'm glad you have faith in the Elder Council but like, what makes you think that they won't just start fighting amongst themselves for the crown and/or the Mythic Dawn won't just start assassinating them. Could they ever be more protected than the dang Emperor?

• The conversations are totally fine, I think their goofiness/cringiness is overstated. It would be nice if they didn't happen in the exact same way every time, it would be nice if the Imperial City had more of an interior life, but I like hearing NPCs talk and already it seems like whatever system for it that this game has is a lot more robust than Skyrim's, if less sophisticated.

• I always play Skyrim with Survival Mode and I don't know if Oblivion's missing a survival mechanic so much as it's a good feature for these sorts of games to have and hopefully it returns in VI. Skyrim was genuinely missing it, there was a whole (barebones) cooking system that you would only ever use to make a single item, which you would only ever have use for on the highest difficulties. There were raw and cooked versions of food. Life was said to be hard and short in Skyrim but in the vanilla game it was only as hard as you wanted it to be, really.

• There really needs to be ways to make a little bit of money within the safe confines of cities and towns. Like you read the First Time Player Guide and it tells you that if you want to make "a bit of cash", simply "clear a few dungeons and sell the loot." Before I can go clearing dungeons I think I need to clad myself in something better than the "Rusty" car parts I pulled out of rat shit in the sewers.

I'll only be taking my chances if there isn't gold at the end of this Thoronir quest. Hopefully it comes out of Jensine's end because I don't know what this dude is doing wrong besides being the Walmart in a sea of irrational small proprietors who themselves seem to be forming some kind of price-fixing cooperative. Let's see a little centralization of capital, some progressive advance, good lord.