Summary
- ES6 could benefit from varied endings to main narrative, offering players more agency.
- Featuring diverse environments in ES6 can enhance exploration and differentiate locations.
- ES6 should learn from TG: The Fall of Avalon and improve gear variety and build flexibility.
2025 was already stacked with RPGs, including the immensely popular Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, as well as Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. Well, that streak seems to be far from over now with the recent full release of Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon — an RPG that takes cues from games like The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion. It's not a perfect game by any means, but there are still some things in it that the next game in the Elder Scrolls series could learn from.
The Elder Scrolls 6 is likely years away, but that also means there is still time left for it to make some adjustments after taking a look at what Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon does better. The Elder Scrolls has a certain formula it likes to stick to, but it may be time for The Elder Scrolls 6 to innovate a bit further, and Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon could offer it some notes.
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon Review
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon delivers a bleak, immersive RPG experience, though its clunky combat and unbalanced gear system hold it back.
What Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon Could Teach The Elder Scrolls 6
The Elder Scrolls 6 Should Embrace Narrative Complexity and Moral Ambiguity
One thing that can certainly be said about the Elder Scrolls series is that it offers players an immense amount of agency when it comes to gameplay, and a decent amount when it comes to narrative. However, the main story for each Elder Scrolls game is largely kept intact, regardless of the choices players make along the way. Some would say this is due to the Elder Scrolls being prophetic in nature and therefore deterministic of the future, but Elder Scrolls lore actually says that the scrolls are not fixed prophecies and are instead visions of potential timelines.
The Elder Scrolls has a certain formula it likes to stick to, but it may be time for The Elder Scrolls 6 to innovate a bit further, and Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon could offer it some notes.
In light of that, there is more than enough room for The Elder Scrolls 6 to feature multiple paths for players to take in the main narrative, each of which leads to its own ending at the game's conclusion. This is something that Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon takes pride in, as it offers players a wide variety of different routes to take and doesn't punish them for making the "wrong" decision. In fact, one could argue that there are no wrong decisions in Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon, and The Elder Scrolls 6 should take note of that.
The Elder Scrolls 6 Should Exhibit More Environmental Diversity
Something else that Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon does extremely well is environmental diversity. Rarely does any dungeon, cave, or city look and feel like another, providing incentive for players to be thorough in their exploration. This is highly unlike Elder Scrolls games like Skyrim and Oblivion, whose optional locations all bear the same qualities apart from distinct layouts, so The Elder Scrolls 6 would be remiss not to look to Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon for inspiration here and feature a world that is rich in environmental diversity to encourage deep open-world exploration.
The Elder Scrolls 6 Should Feature a Larger Selection of Gear and Flexible Build Options
Despite the fair amount of agency traditionally offered in The Elder Scrolls, diversity in gear options and build flexibility have fallen behind many other RPGs in depth. Skyrim has indeed been praised for its sandbox approach to character builds, in that it grants players an opportunity to truly form their character the way they wish, but build flexibility has never fully extended beyond character stats in the series. Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon adopts the Oblivion progression method, where players improve their character by performing certain actions. However, where it rises above The Elder Scrolls is in the diversity of its gear options.
Gear in The Elder Scrolls is generally divided into broad categories, and gear doesn't synergize well to produce definitive playstyles. Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon, on the other hand, offers players a massive number of gear sets to acquire, many of which have unique passive effects that players can use to tailor their builds accordingly. While there are some balance issues with this system when it comes to attribute requirements for gear, it's still something that The Elder Scrolls 6 shouldn't shy away from imitating, as it could redefine the way fans play the game.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 77 /100 Critics Rec: 71%
- Released
- May 23, 2025
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language, Use of Drugs
- Developer(s)
- Questline
- Publisher(s)
- Awaken Realms
WHERE TO PLAY
- Engine
- Unity
- Genre(s)
- Action, RPG, Open-World, Survival Horror
