Things An Oblivion Remake Can Learn From Skyrim

Summary

Spellcrafting and diverse voices should remain complex and vibrant.
Factions should have barriers for climbing and avoid feeling like pushovers.
Oblivion's colorful identity should be retained, showing geographical diversity indoors and outdoors.

With rumors that an Oblivion remake is on the horizon (most likely dropping long before The Elder Scrolls 6), many fans are speculating about the changes Virtuos will make to TES: 4 in their rendition of the Imperial homeland.

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By Mark Smith

According to recent leaks, the remake will take cues from games beyond the Elder Scrolls, particularly Dark Souls. However, another source of inspiration might come from Skyrim, the last official gateway into Tamriel, as its design choices evolved (for good and for bad) directly from Oblivion.

Retaining Complexity In Spellcrafting

Allowing Mages To Tackle Their Complex, Intellectual Interests

As fun as dual wielding magic is, most fans will agree that spellcasting peaked in Oblivion. Although Skyrim's spells also had the same flash and physical impact on the world, there was a lot less variety (most likely so not to tread on shouts and their effects).

Additionally, for balance, Skyrim cut Oblivion's spellmaking mechanic, much to the ire of mage players. Cutting down or simplifying spells in Oblivion would mean losing one of The Elder Scrolls 4's best features. Although Virtuos has discussed improving the feel of combat, magic's place in a remake should not be underestimated.

A Cast Of Diverse Voices (And Races)

Cyrodiil Is A Vibrant And Fun-Loving Tapestry Of Culture

Everyone and their mom knows about Oblivion's memeworthy NPCs, all voiced by the four and a half voice actors. Skyrim improved upon this by bringing more talent to deliver dialogue. While there was a step forward in the audio department, there was a visual step backward with Skyrim's lack of distinction between each of Tamriel's ten races.

Telling an Argonian from a Khajiit is easy enough, but the difference between a Nord, Imperial, Breton, and Redguard is not always that clear in Skyrim, nor can some players tell the difference between a wood elf, dark elf, or high elf. Oblivion highlighted these differences with significant height, pigmentation, and a remake should avoid the homogenization of the races. Something that an Oblivion remake should take from Skyrim are the beard, paint, and scar options of Skyrim, which added a great deal of flavor to the somewhat generic-looking humans and mer.

Steep Faction Climbing

The Higher The Mountain, The More Impressive The View

Joining a faction and ascending to the leadership position in Skyrim is tantamount to jumping on a theme park ride and white-knuckling it through to the end. It is memorable but over in the blink of an eye. Oblivion's factions had more barriers to entry and promotion, but this also meant that achieving a higher station came with a greater feeling of reward for the player.

Virtuos should take on board the feedback from fans that factions felt like pushovers. Players shouldn't be able to become the leader of the mage's guild without knowing a single spell, even if doing so is more convenient for those who wish to breeze through its storyline. A little friction can go a long way, especially for a game that players expect to inhabit for many hundreds of hours.

Adding A Touch Of Color (And Humor) To The World

Oblivion Shouldn't Lose Its Colorful Identity To Graphical Fidelity

Those who have played the various editions of Skyrim over the years, from its original 2011 release to the Anniversary Edition, may have noticed a distinct change in the vibrancy of the landscape. This may be the result of gaming trends, as plenty of games during the early 2010s were drab and desaturated. Now, games are bombastic and liberal with their use of pigmentation. Oblivion is known for its oversaturation and bloom, and Skyrim's gradual capitulation to color should be a hint as to what fans would prefer.

As well as making Cyrodiil literally colorful, Virtuos should listen to fan feedback about Skyrim's tone. Many feel that, in contrast to Oblivion, Skyrim's tone is overly serious in terms of quest storylines and NPC characterization. Even "The Hangover" quest is moody in contrast to the "honey trap" or "magical painted world" quests of the previous game. The theatrical and often silly nature of Cyrodiil gives Oblivion much of its charm and is a welcome contrast to its more spooky or oppressive areas.

Reactivity, Rumors, And Radiant Dialogue

Give The Citizens Of Cyrodiil Something Interesting To Talk About

It isn't hard to see why Bethesda decided to cut back on radiant NPC behavior in Oblivion's sequel, especially when it came to generic NPC-to-NPC dialogue. Skyrim went with scripted scenes triggered by the player's arrival. Beyond this, NPCs had few interactions with one another, and an emphasis was instead put on NPCs reacting to the player's skills, faction, or equipment. This reactivity is what many RPG fans crave, and would be a nice feature in the remake. However, it did leave players feeling as though the world revolved around them.

A big contributor to Oblivion's radiant dialogue failure was the limited voicelines and the direction (or lackthereof) that voice actors were given with their lines. One way the remake could improve upon this is by having NPCs discuss rumors with one another, with limited, generic reactions. There are already hundreds of rumors in Oblivion that can be heard only by speaking directly to the NPC, but it would be more natural to hear them organically, through the dialogue of strangers. This would work in the same way that some quests are obtained in Skyrim, and indeed, many of Oblivion's rumors lead to quests as well.

Attribute Speed Versus Sprinting

Build Freedom Versus Balance

It is easy to see why Skyrim cut so much of the statistical elements of Oblivion. Calculating movement distance is so much more complicated than moving everyone at the same speed, and it makes even more sense considering that short-burst sprinting had become an almost-universal mechanic in video games. That being said, bundling the time allowance for sprinting, attacking, and defending under stamina blandifies character builds.

Entirely removing the statistical elements from Oblivion, similarly to its younger sibling, would be a mistake, because while Skyrim garnered much praise for its more intuitive and streamlined design, many fans thought that cutting attributes out entirely went too far. To get the best of both worlds, Virtuos could perhaps tie sprinting to the Speed attribute and flatten the slow-to-fast curve for when players are not sprinting (as in walking and running).

Diversity Of Locations - Indoors And Outdoors

Showcase The Many Biomes Of The Heartlands

With frosty swamps, tundras, autumnal forests, highlands, lowlands, riverlands, and plains, Skyrim showcased a large number of biomes across its map, more than its "frozen north" reputation would have most citizens of the empire expect, and its explorable dungeons were just as diverse. With Cyrodiil bordering on so many other provinces, it is a wonder why everywhere in the heartlands resembled a Tolkienesque forest in the original Oblivion.

A remake should take the time to address this lack of geographical diversity above and below ground. Ayleid ruins, caves, and abandoned Imperial tower dungeons get old fast. Mehrunes Dagon's Deadlands are said to contain ashen forests, titanic volcanos, and cold, lightning-struck wastes, some of which could make an appearance during Oblivion gate dungeon runs, which start to seem repetitive after the ninth or tenth visit.