With the surprise launch of Oblivion Remastered last week, there has been speculation about whether Bethesda Game Studios might use the older RPG as the foundation for The Elder Scrolls VI instead of the more streamlined Skyrim. Bruce Nesmith, a developer on the original Elder Scrolls IV, doesn’t believe that will be the case.
Speaking with VideoGamer, Nesmith suggested player choices should trump stat management in The Elder Scrolls VI. “We don’t want the game to get in the way,” said the former Bethesda developer. “And that’s a very modern take on RPGs. And that is actually at the heart of the ‘you do it to get better at it’ [leveling mechanic] philosophy of The Elder Scrolls. Because that means I’m not having to pick my skills, I just play. Don’t worry about all that crap if you don’t want to.”
The Oblivion Situation | The GameSpot Show
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Oblivion Remastered has already proven super popular, with Bethesda revealing the RPG has seen over 4 million players so far. Nesmith noted that he’s aware of “a movement to look back nostalgically at games that are more traditional RPGs.” But he still believes the large majority of people “just want to play fun games” instead of being “drowned in stats and all this other stuff.”
As such, Nesmith argues that more than anything, “players appreciate having real choices in the game.” Nesmith points to the Fallout franchise, as he previously worked on Fallout 3 (and offered his suggestions for that remaster). “And you can see that in the reactions to the various Bethesda games,” said Nesmith. “The decision-making in Fallout 3 that you could make in terms of how your character responded with karma and being able to finish quests in different ways compared to Fallout 4 [where] there’s really only one way to succeed, there was only one moral choice except for the grand main quest, players like that.”
Overall, Nesmith was blown away by Oblivion Remastered, saying, “I’m not sure remaster actually does it justice.” Meanwhile, Bethesda Game Studios head and creative director Todd Howard confirmed that The Elder Scrolls VI is being worked on after the release of Oblivion Remastered. Keep in mind that Virtuos co-developed the game with Bethesda. For more, check out GameSpot’s Oblivion Remastered review.
