woes

[kossai]

did play skyrim first , then oblivion , then morrowind .
never actually make use of custom spell system in oblivion - just did not feel relevant , only unlock in post-game . but get hang of this for morrowind , actually really fun .

... and now back in skyrim , where no such system exist . :(

Comments

[upwithmittens]

I got a few hours into Skyrim and enjoyed myself, but never picked it back up, and never played any of the others. Would Kossai recommend any of the other elder scrolls games over Skyrim?

[kossai]

definitely depend on what look for !

skyrim is fun for sheer amount of possibilities in base game , can do so many things even without mods or expansions . would say skyrim really make point to not lock player out of any skill or most quests - unless mutually exclusive by design , such as join dark brotherhood vs kill dark brotherhood - which can be good or bad depend on view . easy to make jack of all trade type characters and dip fingers in every pie , but that can be barrier to intentional , character-specific roleplay .
those possibilities can hamper in other ways , too - can find many strange interactions and glitches , and some parts did not get proper attention , or have to cut in order to hit release date and simply never expand since then .
but there is huge amount of mods , especially for special edition - some really high quality followers like lucien and inigo with unique quest lines , huge care and attention to detail . probably not for first playthrough , but great fun to have with those guys . quest expansions and fixes , silly wacky things , all sort of mods out there .
would say skyrim work best to approach as sort of canvas - not worst game ever , but at times miss out on some of greatest potential . some aspects of lore can be wonky in comparison to other entries of series , and not all of worldbuild is equal - will need to either lore dive on UESP , or just come up with personal ideas and expansions .

oblivion , have very personal bias to oblivion as this game get kossai through near death experience . shivering isles expansion is especially strong and beautiful - GOTY edition come with shivering isles and knights of the nine as part of main purchase .
quests in oblivion can take silly tone sometimes , but that can be nice . not everything can be so serious and grim always , and not everything is grand quest to bring family heirloom back home . bring potatoes back , save reckless mage from dream world , things that do not amount to huge change in world but still help and find friendship .
unlike skyrim - and like morrowind before - oblivion have athletics and acrobatics skills . as player walk and jump around world , will get faster and more agile , and feel like character actually physically improve through journey . these skills can also allow for shortcuts over difficult terrain , which is especially useful in oblivion gates .
funnily enough , during main quest of oblivion , player is not actually most important character - that would be martin , who player assist and escort - but people will still happily recognise and celebrate for accomplishments . as for shivering isles DLC ... to be honest , shivering isles could be 9 hours of nonstop gush - sheogorath and shivering isles is actually main focus of kossai in elder scrolls series , everything else is coincidental ;D

morrowind also have GOTY edition , which come with bloodmoon and tribunal expansions . would also recommend openMW engine - at least for kossai , find that base engine was weirdly stressful on computer . openMW support UI scale , font scale , and other really useful features .
due to technological limits , characters have no schedules or life outside of cell . without specific spells and exploits , most characters will never travel from one place to another .
characters also only have voices in overworld dialogue - dialogue take form of text , in sometimes very long trees . lots and lots of read for this game , if that might be strain on vision . as result of this limitation though , dialogue can easily get into deep dives and details on subjects , where oblivion and especially skyrim often limit answers to just two or three short sentences , and can not always ask what really want to know .
morrowind is especially great if love to think about lore and history , and implications of prophecy - most is specific to province of morrowind of course , but truly , character can deny role in prophecy , and even approach some of main objectives through alternate routes . oblivion and skyrim sure did not do that !

if character backstory and intentional roleplay is greatest preference , or even just general lore nerdery - there is lots of lore to explore for each province through UESP , and elder scrolls online especially add lore to places like valenwood and elsweyr , which do not appear in mainline games as of yet .
word of caution , though : elder scrolls online also retcon some of canon establishment , and at times sorely need more nuance and variation .

with all of these games , will want to limit to 60 fps , as series games can be very buggy above threshhold . skyrim above 60 fps , for example , will completely break intro and block progression ...
there is also potential for glitch in any of these games , of course , not just skyrim . sometimes will need console commands to fix things , or else lots of backup saves . UESP wiki have details on console commands for each game , as well as IDs of any item , quest , or character in any vanilla game and official DLC - but mods can be harder to find details , unless have access and ability to navigate construction set .
if happen to be on linux and choose oblivion , there is one more little technical thing - on some systems like linux mint , oblivion launcher might not properly register place of installation . kossai use this solution , which bypass launcher entirely . not ideal solution , but better to run game with no launcher than launcher with no game ! :D

hopefully this was helpful in some way , did not want to spoil much about main quests so focus on other aspects . :)

[upwithmittens]

very very helpful!! thankyou for the wonderful reply :D

[kossai]

no trouble ! :D