Exactly. The background story is you are released in Morrowind (having been imprisoned in the Imperial City) just because the Emperor says so; who says you weren't in the prison for similar reason? Not to mention just about every guild you can join is corrupt -- including the legion. You will find out eventually during guild-quests if you pay attention. The legal assassins are not (to their own ideals anyway) save for the head wanting certain items for himself. Oblivion: You begin in prison "placed there by the gods". There are several guests about corrupt guard captains and others who are not corrupt but obsessed on one thing. Skyrim: You're not on the list unlike the horse-thief and the blue-cloaked rebels. The Captain says you're to be executed anyway. It should be obvious that you at the very least didn't get caught doing something illegal.
The first time I played I didn’t know I had to sleep to level up, I don’t know how far into the game I went as a level 1 but just know I had just beaten the champion in the arena and accidentally leveled up when I slept for the first time lmao
The only real argument for the removal of the Prison Start or whatever you want to call it, is that it's gotten old seeing it three games in a row, which I think most of us can agree to.
This channel is literaly what youtube was suppose to be. passionated people making video on what their passion burn bright. We will forever salute you Will
@@whoaskedyoutolookatthis I do kind of wonder about channels like this and if the people behind them have done it over and over but keep hiding videos or making new channels. If you watch most channels that do long-winded essay videos, go back to their earliest videos and you'll find that the quality is absolutely terrible... not judging harshly because you shouldn't expect much from a first attempt, but the microphone is usually bad, there isn't often a script or if there is then its pretty unstructured, and you can tell they aren't accustomed to giving presentations because they usually speak too quickly like they want to get it over and done with. Will really surprised me here because this is the first video he's done (at least the first publicly visible one) and despite the regular tangents he does seem to have a structure, and his microphone quality is really good for a 2016 video from a channel that at first glance doesn't seem to do this regularly. Like I said, it almost feels like the person behind it has done this many times before.
2:44:30 "If you've made it this far into this video, then you're a nerd, so I don't need to explain what exactly a mod is..." Thank you for recognizing your audience.
MandaloreGaming you're vids are awesome if you have any plans of playing other ps2 games other than socom 2 check out any of the armored core games! pls!
lightgren8ds All the best mate. Back then, it was easier to play through as graphics was beautiful for that time. Now, if you can look past the graphics and dont expect the spell to be that badass as in skyrim, you'll have a good time exploring cyrodill
I actually loved the radiant AI. I find it less immersive to see characters constantly in the exact same spot, just standing there or walking in circles. I loved that everyone had their own schedule, homes and things to do.
Yeah I played Witcher 3 years after Elder Scrolls and Fallout and I really noticed that. Like, the story and characters are miles better, but the world just doesn't feel real and immersive like Elder Scrolls and Fallout do.
@@buttlerubbies747 You missed what Will was trying to convey in this video. His criticism of the radiant AI was not that it was bad. It was that it was a massive time sink which could have better been dedicated to improving other areas of the game.
Concerning the point about Oblivion's presentation being intentionally more pleasant. I'm pretty sure one of the motivations behind this choice had to do with the "invasion from hell" theme of the main quest. It's likely that the game world as well as Cyrodill's culture and society were made quite pleasant and idyllic to make the player care more about them: the invasion from Oblivion would destroy every aspect about Cyrodill (besides all its people, even the fauna and flora are at risk). And I must say it worked with me during my first playthrough. The sky becoming red and cloudy, the music becoming ominous. It gave me a such a sense of danger that I felt compelled to close each gate I found during the main quest, even though I found them repetitive even as a young teenager.
That, in my opinion, was the intent. Cyrodiil is the main country with the capital, the well tended garden of the emperors. The outlying provinces are much wilder and untamed, but the center was the peaceful land even before human rule. The contrast is Oblivion, at least the Oblivion of Merunes Dagon, red and hot and angry.
It worked for me as well. Seeing Bruma under attack motivated me in a way that I never felt seeing Helgen get destroyed in Skyrim. Every city was filthy, corrupt, and full of backstabbing criminals. Which is fine for the dark fantasy vibe they were going for since "grey and brown" was the trend back then, but it didn't really make me want to save the Nords from world eating dragons or sequel-bait elven supremacists. In fact I often found myself wishing Riften in particular would burn down with Maven Black Briar being the first to get eaten by a dragon. There really should have been more quests to clean things up and make the world something you'd actually want to save. I guess infinite variations of "Fetch an item from a draugr infested cave" was easier to design.
@@Otakupatriot117 When you're done fetching items from the grasp of draugr, I've received word of another settlement that needs our help. I'll mark it on your map.
I completely agree, and I think it worked perfectly. I also find it slightly annoying that the criticism he gave for this came because it was 'anti-lore', but immediately after he admitted that he never even reads the books that he finds!
Just what I was going to comment as got to that point in the video. Not sure how someone can think about Oblivion long enough to make a 5 hour video without realising that the idyllic scenery in Cyrodil is supposed to juxtapose the hellish landscape the other half of the game takes place in. But still, cracking video so far. 👌
That makes perfect sense in Oblivion, since 10 minutes of talking to people in the market district of the Imperial City will tell you that there are corrupt guards who cart citizens off to jail for not giving them money. Hardy any 'mental gymnastics' there.
@@tastychunks Also in skyrim you're captured at the border while a civil war is going on. The makes perfectly sense for every background you want to play.
What i wish they would do is generate a quest based on your conversation. Take Oblivion for example. You speak with 'most cathartic Dark Brotherhood target', and when he asks why you are here you can answer a) Got caught committing crime, b) Corrupt guard threw me in here for no reason, c) person in guild betrayed me, or d) see b) but with (lie). You can generate a small quest chain dealing with this, adding flavour to your character without ruining anything and helping you feel like you live here
tastychunks That’s a mission, when you report him and send him to jail, he breaks out a few days later and will try to kill you wherever you are. When he attacked me, I just left paradise and entered the cloud ruler temple where he was waiting, and as soon as he attacked, all the guards jumped him at the same and killed him almost immediately.
I know this is an old video, but Kvatch wasnt destroyed with just one gate. In the game they say that they opened 3 lesser gates to open a major gate to bring the siege engine, that they tried later in the battle for bruma.
I love this video for actually analyzing the game mechanics and technical parts of the game instead of just being a plot summary of each of the factions. Thank you for making this video!
@@mrsauceman5721 whenever ive done any evil type character, i imagine that whatever bad thing i did just happened to be near the border, then my character got caught up in the ambush and they assumed that illegally crossing the border was my only crime and i accidentally got away with some worse shit its not a perfect solution but whatever
@@yourehereforthatarentyou They could have simply done it word for word from Morrowind, of course with slight tweaks considering you aren't heading to Morrowind.
@@mrsauceman5721 i havent played morrowind in years, the deal with that one was that the emperor found out you could be the nerevarine and sent you to morrowind just in case you were, right?
@@yourehereforthatarentyou I haven't played Morrowind in a long time either, but I assume that it is the case, honestly I do hope that the Elder Scrolls 6 doesn't just become and estranged cousin of the older games, they should make some references and easter eggs, like Jiub being in Kvatch when it was raided.
@GuidoSalami1 -replying 2 months late here- It's not entirely just a critique. It's a retrospective. Retrospectives have a critiquing element to them. They have to take everything into consideration. :/ But that's just my interpretation of the word 'retrospective.' ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You _can_ "dodge-roll" in Oblivion, by the way. Acrobatics 50, block + jump + move in a direction. It's very neatly done for a first-person perspective "roll".
@@ArvelDreth i mean his point is more skill based combat- yes there's technically a dodge roll. it's nothing like what he brings up and comparing the one in the game and the one he brings up in another game is disingenuous
My father and I loved Oblivion. We used to have a technique called "The Ol' Jump And Heal". It's the fastest way to level up and I bet you could figure out how to do it
The classic jumling down a cliff to take fall damage and increase acrobatics, then skipping the hill up and healing to get restoration and more acrobatics
My technique is finding an inside corner with a ceiling, limiting your jump height so you can spam jump while autorunning, done it so often for the scroll heist.
Your restoration actually leveled up regardless of whether you healed back any hp or not. It's just the magic skill that requires the most casts in order to level.
I see we have a real Oblivion fan here :) I also build PC-s espacially for certain games,for what i use for Oblivion,in short is the following;C2D E6600,2GB DDr2 800MHz and GF9600GT 1 GB.Runs smooooooooth as can be.Thank you for reading the comment,i also watched this video for the 10th time.Love it.
I love this kind of content. Bigger fan of PatricianTVs retrospective in all honesty, but I literally watch elder scrolls retrospectives from tons of people for fun on a near daily basis
Not every channel on UA-cam has to have thousands of videos that aren't all genuine; one offs are fine. I respect that you didn't try to force it like so many others. Clearly this was a labor of love and that is why it is good. Good luck in any future endeavors on UA-cam or just in life.
I agree. This is a fascinating discussion about a game by someone who has clearly played it a lot and understands some game development concepts. Lot of butthurts in the comments though lol
@@henrycrabs3497 I get it, I get what it's like to identify oneself with a game or a film or an album or a book, or even an idea. A lot of people get that because it's the story of human history. Doesn't mean we can't gently point it out and hope that they find their way. Now I'm off to argue to the death about something else, I'm sure.
Considering this is like his one video and he stopped making videos shortly afterwards "committed" isn't the word I'd use but he made his one piece a really, really good one.
@@fuzzydunlop7928 Eh, he's clearly referring to committing to this particular subject. He made a 5 hour retrospective about a game, that is behaviour of someone extremely committed to Oblivion
Pretty sure its immpossible to talk for 5 hours without saying something that the listener disagrees with hahaha With that in mind i think this video is crazy comprehensive.
@@joshuanorris5860 considering how wrong he was about most of what he said about the leveling system (whining about the difficulty slider like a true dudebro, for example) I'm inclined to agree. I can't stay awake through this, only about two hours in, and I've been "watching" for like 12 hours. Most of what he's said so far is about the leveling system. Yes it's not wonderful, but it's also not NEARLY as bad as he wants it to be, and he clearly doesn't understand the numbers behind the difficulty slider if he thinks you need to tick it back five notches after every few level ups. In addition, Oblivion is a super easy game. You can very easily beat most questlines taking "sub optimal" (i.e. nothing but +2) level ups with no trouble. I feel like he ALSO never used potions, staves, scrolls etc. Too good to use combined with too stubborn to use the slider WILL make the game very hard.
This is the first time I’ve watched this video in its entirety, but I gotta say, while I don’t agree with all of your thoughts (naturally, we have different ideas of what makes a good game, etc) I like how it’s clear how you put a lot of thought into this video, and it’s absolutely worth the 5 hours spent listening to it
I watch this video at least twice a year. Probably the best long-form video game retrospective I've ever seen. This guy is an absolute legend, just drops his 5-hour masterpiece then vanishes forever.
@@solaurelian7638 ???? That dude PatricianTV's videos are pretty damn good too man. I think he "touches" this level of quality pretty consistently as well.
Damn - why didn't find that video earlier? Not even three minutes in, and I already want to give it three likes: First, for doing a FIVE HOUR video on Oblivion. Second, for not trying to be super funny. Third, for NOT narrating over the one moment that made me fall in love with Elder Scrolls forever: The Oblivion opening credits.
i cant believe there are no ads on this man, thank you for putting so much time and effort into this video. if you do make something else like this, i can promise I'll watch it. if you dont, this stands alone quite nicely
Playing Oblivion as a kid was one of the most magical experiences I had as a kid! Amazing video game escapism at it's finest! And that beautiful exploration soundtrack! Wow.... It was far from a perfect game, but the entire experience was transformative to me in my teenage years.
It is funny that I had pretty much the same experience, however I just discovered the game in 2022 at the age of 29, in one of the worst years of my life, but the game provided that much needed escapism. I had never played RPGs, so this was a gateway for sure.
@@user-is7xs1mr9y It was the same for me with the Gothic games, I played Gothic 1 and 2 Gold Edition only back in 2017 and 2018 respectively when I was going through one of the worst times of my life and it was one of the most immersive and cathartic perception altering experiences in gaming I had ever had. This is not nostalgia either, since they are old games and I never played them back in their hey day. They truly impressed me when I played them. They just don't make games the way they used to anymore. There was so much charm, immersion and personality to older games that most newer ones cannot replicate.
In dark souls 1, you start trapped in a jail. Later in the game, you can go back and get a "doll", which is in your cell. You can then use it to gain access to a "hidden" level. If you have played the game, you will notice how many similarities there are on the way you obtain it, wich is kind of funny. It's the kind of jokes that wont make you laugh if someone explains it though u.u
You may not realize what this effort has accomplished, but if even one present or future game maker has watched this, and I would bet they have, then you have changed future games for the positive with your insightful and honest examination. This was very very well done. Kudos.
1:20:34 - 1:22:35 I beg to differ. Here's a post I made on Bethesda's forums a long time ago regarding the differences between true radiant AI and Skyrim's nerfed version: In Oblivion, NPCs went about their daily activities, even while the player was absent. Except that they actually DID them! The actions and schedules of NPCs still physically happened, whether you were there to see them or not. In Skyrim, this was nerfed, so that the consequences of these actions happen, without the actions themselves. Let me give you an example: There's a quest available at the beginning of the game, where you can ask a local farmer named Loreus to help a stranded Cicero with his wagon wheel. Or, you could opt ot turn Cicero into a guard for possession of contraband. If you choose the latter option, Loreus will appear, in his farm, cut up and dead. The IMPLICATION is that Cicero killed him and his wife out of anger. However, that's not what actually happens. Nor is Cicero ever actually arrested. Cicero just stands there, indefinitely, until you reach his debuting spot in the Dark Brotherhood questline, and Loreus and his wife both just randomly drop dead for no apparent reason. Also, if you convince Loreus to help Cicero, he never actually does so. You could return, ten months later, and Loreus and Cicero will still act as if they the wheel-repair was mere moments away. Then, when you reach the spot in the DB questline, he just gets teleported there. Hell, you could go and kill that Dawnstar miner, travel south down the road to Falkreath, pass by Cicero on the way down there, enter the Sanctuary, and there Cicero is, talking to the Brotherhood, even though he never passed you on the road! Now, you may think to yourself "Well, if I'm not there to see it, why does it NEED to happen!" Well, to answer that question, let me tell you about a really fun gameplay mechanic from Oblivion. It was called the "Poisoned Apple," and using it really helped add to immersion, because using it the correct way made you feel like a REAL Assassin! The way the poisoned apple worked was thus: You followed your target around (like an actual assassin), and learned when and where he hate food. Then, you entered that location when he wasn't around, and removed all the food in that location, and placed the apple there. Then, when it was meal time, they would only have the one apple that you left for them, so that was what they had to eat. When they ate the apple, they died. But here's the good part: You didn't have to stick around to see that happen! As long as you did it correctly, you could go off and explore a nearby cave or ruin, and at some random interval, you would get a quest update saying that the target was dead. So, having TRUE radiant AI (rather than the psuedo-radiant AI found in Skyrim) actually added immersion to the game in a distinctly noticeable way, even though you didn't HAVE to stay there to see it! Now, on the other hand, let's take a look at Skyrim's pseudo-radiant AI: In the quest "The Book of Love," you are tasked with going to Ivarstead and helping Fastrad choose between two bachelors. Whichever bachelor you side with will then run to Fastred, who COULD be out working the field in her parent's farm, OR she could be in her parent's house. If it's the latter, they will also enter the house. Now, if you've done that quest a hundred times before, and already know exactly what's going to happen, you may think to yourself "Well, it looks like my work here is done. No need to stick around for the fireworks. I'll be heading back to Riften now." Well, guess what? You can't do that! You have to enter the house and listen to the conversation - even though the quest itself requires no further input on your part - or else the conversation won't happen. Because Skyrim takes the approach of "If the player isn't there to see it, what's the point?" Thus, any time they want something to happen without you being there, they have to program that in manually (such as Loreus' scripted death), and Bethesda forgot to manually program in that this quest would be updated the same as if Fastred and the bachelor had their conversation. Now, it's kind of hard to BLAME Bethesda for this! I mean, they are just human; it's understandable that they're going to make the occasional slip-up. But, why are these slip-ups even available as a possibility? If Bethesda had kept its true radiant AI, they wouldn't HAVE to program this quest to update artificially! Fastred and the Bachelor would have their conversation in the player's absence; thus, no need to bypass it. So, as you can see, having TRUE radiant AI actually makes a difference with immersion! And I really hope that, with a new generation of consoles, Bethesda can bring back the REAL radiant AI from Oblivion!
Your example here argues for precisely what I argued against, but I suppose you knew that when you commented. It's just not necessary. I love the idea of NPC's living irrespective of the players presence, but not if it results in small populations.
mericka uni Exactly. Throughout the majority of this 5-hour retrospective (basically every aspect of the Elder Scrolls games EXCEPT this one issue), Will goes on and on about "quality over quantity." Besides, I've fallen in love with, grown up with, and have a ton of nostalgic affection for plenty of RPGs that have sparse populations even though they don't have radiant AI! The Mario RPGs tend to provide prime examples. Morrowind didn't have small populations either, and plenty of people consider it to be the best of the franchise. To be honest, the Witcher and Assassin's Creed series are the only series I can think of that actually had realistic population densities. And let's not forget that populations in Skyrim were actually fairly decent when you consider how small the cities themselves were. I can run from the Blue Palace in Solitude all the way to the Solitude Main Gate in only twenty seconds. The population of Skyrim's cities is easiest to appreciate if you have a mod that makes most of the NPCs in a city enter the pub during the evening. The crowd inside the pub is roughly on par with what you'd expect of a real-life bar during prime time.
I understand and I greatly enjoyed poisoned apples too, but in defense of Skyrim I think part of that is probably a performance issue. Suspending NPC actions when the player is not around probably helps with the game running a bit better.
The problem is that there are dragons around and animals tend to pop more often. Plus giants and so on. Considering the extremly buggy engine they STILL work on that might've made some serious problems and pathing issues.
I have actually watched this multiple times other the years, being a game developer myself. Hearing these points being articulated so well, is a very good reference to developing your own RPG like game
People are wrongly imprisoned all the time, whether through framing by the guilty party, mis-identification as the perpetrator, or simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I don't think TES prisoner intros compromise the character's intended morality at all...
This is particularly true of Skyrim, where the game actually acknowledges that you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time crossing the border into Skyrim when you got scooped up with the storm cloaks (after all, you're not on the list), and rather than release you, the somewhat draconian empire was willing to just kill you rather than take any chances.
That and the fact that Oblivion had the most neutral character background I've seen in a Bethesda game so far. In Morrowind, you're the reincarnation of a legendary historical figure; In Skyrim, you're dergenbern; in Oblivion, you're just a dude that's part of the Emperor's prophecy. [Oblivion spoilers below] You're not even the hero in the plot, when you think about it, you're just the messenger boy. The real hero is Martin Septim, who sacrifices himself by breaking the Amulet of Kings and turning into an Avatar of Akatosh to banish Mehrunes Dagon back to Oblivion, saving the world. The game NEVER tries to make you feel special or hand you any kind of given power or title. You're self-made.
Well he kinda never STARTED making videos. Not sure if you checked out his channel, but this is one of the only videos on there. Literally. There’s 3 total videos, 2 reviews and this retrospective. So while it’s a bummer he didn’t continue, it’s not like he stopped dead in his tracks right as he was getting going. It also explains the low sub count, since it’s hard to enjoy being subscribed to someone who, not only doesn’t make new videos, but also doesn’t have any OLD videos to watch. 🤷🏻♂️
Wow. UA-cam recommendations aren't that good for me, but sometimes they can reveal a real gem. I'm not the type of person to leave comments on youtube, especially long ones, especially to an almost year-old video, but I just gotta comment here. Took me a couple of nights to watch this but damn those was good nights. I mean - 5 hours - it's probably one of the longest legit videos with original content on UA-cam, and definitely the longest one I've ever watched. As I had seen the video duration I've thought "what a madman, he should have split it in parts!". Yet throughout the whole video I was getting that feeling that's hard to describe - a cosy feeling of long night chatting with a best friend. To some extend it's probably caused by our similiarities (as far as I can judge about your life based on your remarks) relating TES - Oblivion was also my first TES and I was around that age (maybe a bit older). But largely it's your narration style and presentation that got me involved sinking 5 more hours of my life into gaming videos. You're definitely a fine content-creator and this video is seriously underrated - or more correctly to say - underviewed (I can say it with confidence as I'm a serious youtube nerd). Originally I wanted to write about some points you've touched about Oblivion, TES and Bethesda, but I'm too lazy to write all of that. I'll just mention, that I couln't agree more regarding Oblivion's quests, leveling, combat and dungeons (aghh, Oblivion's ogres on gray-greenish-brown dungeons' backgrounds still give me PTSD flashbacks). I've casualy checked your channel and noticed you don't have recent uploads. Still, I hope you'll do more stuff like this in the future, even if rarely. Anyways, subbed. And wish you alldabest.
+yakicreative Wow. UA-cam comments aren't that good for me, but sometimes they can reveal a real gem. I'm not the type of person to reply to comments on youtube, especially long ones, especially to an almost 2 month old comment, but I just gotta reply here. Took me a couple of minutes to read this but damn those was good minutes. I mean - 5 paragraphs - it's probably one of the longest legit comments with original content on UA-cam, and definitely the longest one I've ever read. As I had seen the comment length I've thought "what a madman, he should have split it in parts!". Yet throughout the whole comment I was getting that feeling that's hard to describe - a cosy feeling of long night chatting with a best friend. To some extend it's probably caused by our similiarities (as far as I can judge about your life based on your remarks) relating this 5 hour video. It was also my first time watching and I was around that age (maybe a bit older). But largely it's your grammar style and vocabulary that got me involved sinking 5 more minutes of my life into gaming video comments. You're definitely a fine content-creator and this comment is seriously underrated - or more correctly to say - underthumbsupped (I can say it with confidence as I'm a serious youtube nerd). Originally I wanted to write about some points you've touched about this video and Bethesda, but I'm too lazy to write all of that. I'll just mention, that I couln't agree more regarding this video's length, quality, content and sound quality (aghh, my mom's making tuna casserole again tonight and I can't take it anymore!). I've casualy checked your channel and noticed you don't have recent uploads. Still, I hope you'll comment on more stuff like this in the future, even if rarely. Anyways, subbed. And wish you alldabest.
I know the chance of someone reading this is 1 in 1000 but I have to say dude I enjoyed just sitting down listening to 30 minutes every night, it was so strangely entertaining and I was sad when I finished it. I hope you continue to make videos like this I've never watched a UA-camr with so few subscribers that makes such quality content. In fact this video was better made then I'd like to say 99 percent of any other video I've watched on youtube. I'm just trying to say great job dude I love the passion.
To be fair, he never really STARTED making videos. He’s got 3 videos TOTAL on his channel (2 reviews and this retrospective), so it’s not like he stopped dead in his tracks right as he was getting going. It also explains the low sub count, since it’s hard to enjoy being subscribed to someone who, not only doesn’t make new videos, but also doesn’t have any OLD videos to watch. 🤷🏻♂️ But I agree, this was a great one-off project for this dude. Just don’t expect anymore, this IS legit the only one he’s done and since it’s been a few years I’d wager he doesn’t plan on doing another.
I can only hope I see you again when Elder Scrolls VI comes out. Regardless, excellent video. The love you have for the Elder Scrolls is apparent and shared. I was completely engrossed from start to finish and I'm sad that I'll, more than likely, never find someone with a style like your's. Your reasons for "killing" the channel are completely understandable. You've led me through a lot of my childhood, along with entertaining and holding my attention for every second of the 5 hours. I hope that your life is going well, and that the newest game exceeds all of our expectations. Take care of yourself, I'll see you next time I watch this.
@Angry Pickle if you like his style of video, check out Noah Caldwell-Gervais here on UA-cam! He also makes excellent, well-analyzed, long-form content ☺️
Did this channel have more content before it "died", or am I misinterpreting what you meant by "led me through a lot of my childhood"? I noticed that this channel apparently had a complication with it that caused it to stagnate, so I'm curious about it. Any info is appreciated!
I'm sad to see you deleted the newer videos, they were really good. Hope you're not self-conscious about their value because they were really good and very relatable. They were nice for putting hidden thoughts in my mind into words.
I miss them. They were really comfy videos in their presentation, I rewatched them several times before I discovered they were missing from my favorites.
He is very self conscious. Hes mentioned a few times he will post a video then delete it months or years later because all he sees are the flaws. And for him, flaws+lack of views= no value
Indeed. I’ve watched it twice today. This could be my favourite game related video I’ve ever seen on. Bravo. There is a market for 4+ hour in depth game critique videos. I love this video.
Oblivion's NPC nature probably has made this game last far longer than anyone could see. Even today seeing funny NPC convos is a thing I and many others enjoy
The thing people tend to make fun of is honestly it's biggest strength. Every new playthrough will always have emergent gameplay happening, with probably one of the best example of npcs that feel alive and have their own motivations and objectives.
Got the itch to play it tonight. Started a magic only character. Once again mesmerized by the music atmosphere and gameplay loop and played for several hours. This game is such a masterpiece in the non obvious ways.
Gameplay loop is easily the worst part of the game. And that's not to mention all the other problems this game has, this game is actually really damn bad.
@@okagron The salt is strong with this one. It's a flawed masterpiece, one of the greatest games of all time just like its predecessor. It's the stepping stone for the best selling and highest rated RPG of all time (Skyrim), and many including myself deem this one to be superior still. It is literally a game of historic proportion. Suck it.
@@TheStraightestWhitest highest rated rpg of all time definitely isnt skyrim And if we only account for the regular skyrim release TW3 outsold it sooo skyrim is only the best selling because of frequent rereleases
@@V2ULTRAKill The Witcher 3 did not outsell it, what are you on about? Despite its critical success, The Witcher 3 was only the 14't bestselling game of its year globally. Skyrim sold 3.4 million copies within two days of its release, nearly 8 million within the first week, and up to today it holds a metacritic score of 96/100 (Xbox), which is nearly flawless. The Witcher 3 sold 4 million copies within the first two weeks, and holds a Metacritic score of 91/100 (Xbox). Skyrim is objectively a more lauded game and RPG. I personally like The Witcher 3 more, but you're pulling stats out of your ass here. Skyrim sold three times as well, and is even more critically successful.
I'm not sure you understood Skyrim's intro, it's exactly what you wanted. You are an immigrant crossing the borders. The reason you are a prisoner is actually explained, you had bad luck while crossing the border you encountered the Stormcloaks and the Imperial ambush.This is the reason you are not on the list!
You miss understood,he's saying you should have entered Skyrim as a Immigrant the legal way. It's the difference between entering the USA on a airliner and entering it in the cargo of a 3rd party plane possibly flown by a drunk pilot. one is legal and the other is most likely illegal.
Most illegal immigrants in the US entered by normal planes though. They enter the legal way and become illegal when they inevitably outstay their visas. It isn't like the movies were they use elaborate schemes to sneak across the border like cartoon characters.
yea, normally people only go directly across the border when they have to make multiple trips to see their family. most of the time theyre just on a permanent "vacation" ....ehemm... anyway i see what you mean but i think what he wanted was for it to be a complete blank slate, no strings attached like in his morrowind immigration example. that way you are not forced into any story and can just start the game as u see fit. and it would hav worked better for skyrim too cuz you couldve been wandering around when you came across the rebels or empire and make your decision then. imagine a dynamic story like that, what if it was right at release and you knew nothing about the story at all? well imagine how freaked out and amazed you'd be if you got caught up in a random battle due to your choices. or even better what if a dragon randomly attacked you and either the rebels, empire, or hell even a guild came and saved you depending on the actions you've made thus far. for a series like TES most of us have played it for years and we don't need a tutorial (which is why we all have a sewer save), i think it's nicer to be given a true blank slate like minecraft where you're plopped down and let free.
when he says you should have come in through a boat he didnt just come with this idea. The modding community implemented a mod where you came in through the boat. He seems a bit to bent over about objectivity when objectivity is impossible to achieve. I found that the documentary repeats itself in a is brought to an unnecessary length. When he goes off on a tangent he often explains the most obvious things and it doesn't seem like a stream of thought when he says and this is bad which a shitty intonation. I forgot but there a word which perfectly describes someone who when they speak/pronounce every word in such a strange and pretentious, would appreciate if someone could tell me. That being said, I still watched it because no one else seems to have done an in depth analysis of the game and I love reviews. When he elongate your documentary to 5 hours I'm bound to see your literary limitations when you end up using the same expression for the 5th time like former and ladder, it becomes very obnoxious and blatant. The illusion of mastery wears away and your flaws are outlined. So again this all comes back to the length of the video, it's needs to be shortened to force higher concentration content instead of enumerating examples as he often does. Plz don't be offended as I'm know editing down hundreds of hours of research and work is an extremely difficult task to fulfill.
St T. I think u mean smug or "full of themselves" but I get what u mean. Still this is his first and last video like this and I think what u mentioned might be way he he found it so challenging to complete it
I’ve always found the prison intro to be one of the best, and the “mental” gymnastics needed is pretty much none. It could simply be that they were charged for crimes they did not commit. The possibilities are endless, perhaps you were a lord imprisoned after a loss Perhaps you were a petty thief, maybe a cold murderer. I think the vaults are much worse. I would prefer we started imprisoned in Fallout.
Those sir ARE mental gymnastics. When you have to mentally maneuver around someone else ideas to make something work when it really shouldn't. Some people aren't gonna want to RP as someone who imprisoned for ANY reason. Even false imprisonment.
dont think you know what mental gymnastics are lol @@brandonfrancis1941 dont think anyone in any rp scenario wants to be falsely imprisoned lol its part of role playing to have to adapt to the situation you find yourself in believably, which this allows, easily.
When i saw this video in my recommendeds, i expected it to be just 5 hours of gameplay. But no. It's a fully edited 5 hour video essay. I don't think i've ever seen a full video this long in my life. Even though i admittedly didn't watch it all the way through, you deserve a lot more recognition for assembling something this thorough and detailed. This video might not really be fit for viewing, but goddamn: good job.
I listened to the first half with my phone in my pocket while busy, and I feel like I didn’t miss anything. That’s amazing, very well done and articulate
So I watched this all the way through over the course of a few days. I was excited to see what other videos you would do, but then read your comment about not making any more videos. While it makes me sad that you won't make more videos, I understand it. The depths you went to making this were exceptional, and extremely informative. You managed to convince me, someone who has played 3 hours of Fallout 3 and probably as much Oblivion, to reconsider picking them up and trying again. That should be an accomplishment in and of itself.
Morrowind: Whale on your opponent ad nauseam until one of you falls over. Oblivion and Skyrim: Whale on your opponent ad nauseam until one of you falls over but it's an impact sound instead of a _woosh._
Congratulations on giving a 10 second complete summary of The Elder Scrolls on a video dissecting Oblivion for 5 hours. xD (although good lord early combat in Morrowind was painful)
Also, the reason you start as a prisoner is for there to be an excuse for you to start with nothing. You can come up with any backstory for why any kind of person could be imprisoned. Being imprisoned doesn't make you a bad person.
@@VileFemboy was just looking for some 'the elder scrolls' video to play in the background while trying to mod Skyrim and ended up stumbling upon this gem
I have spent thousands of hours in ES and Fallout games and by far the game I spent the least time with was Oblivion. Thanks for this video which has inspired me to change that.
I'd actually say that Fallout: New Vegas had the best introduction of them all. - Immediate but non-binding character creation - Enough backstory to warrant interest in the main quest but no overwhelming sense of urgency - Anonymous "courier" with a clean slate for roleplaying - The world is immediately open to the player, albeit with a level-guided progression (good luck with those cazadors if you go north from Goodsprings) - Optional tutorial with Sunny Smiles that actually feels important story-wise - No prison
That was actually a pretty terrible intro because you're delivering a package for no apparent reason. (Is it ever even explained?) In Fallout 3, your backstory is that you were born.
Did you play the game? Your package is the silver chip that upgrades Mr House's defenses. There were six other decoys but you were caught by Benny who robbed and attempted to kill you. Unless you mean your characters motivation for becoming a courier, in which case thats like asking why you were born in the first place.
The distinction between Witcher 3 and New Vegas is that the Witcher series is specifically about Geralt. If I'm playing a Fallout game, I expect to not have some sort of pre-determined status already applied to me.
Yeah but that's just adding an element of corruption that will never be addressed by the game and you'll have to explain for yourself. I can certainly see his point in that it's not impossible to explain, but will require a bit of mental gymnastics
@@tylergalligani6450 But doing mental gymnastics is already required for any roleplaying and starting from a jail has its advantages too. It gives your character a realistic reason why they would be rusty in every skill and starting at level 1. It's also the simplest way to place a character into a world without imposing any other backstory to them.
@@2starkiller I disagree that it's "required" but I don't think the mental gymnastics required for starting a character in prison is detrimental, I just think it's worth acknowledging that the traditional elder scrolls opening does in fact force a role player to do some mental gymnastics. Pretty much everyone playing the game is going to be totally fine with that tiny amount of mental gymnastics required or will outright ignore the implications of the openings altogether, but I do think the openings could be improved upon with a more neutral scenario
@@tylergalligani6450 I personally can't come up with a more neutral starting point that would fit any character so I see mental gymnastics necessary. The other solution RPGs sometimes offer is having 3 background stories to choose from but I think it restricts your character a lot and leads to situations where your character knows things you don't which makes immersion a lot more difficult. I think Morrowind's intro and main story as a whole does the prisoner bit a lot better than Oblivion. It never makes you the chosen one, you'll eventually be seen by some as the chosen one but you have the freedom to decide whether or not you believe it or if you're just going along with them for pragmatic purposes.
I've watched this video in its entirety more times than I'd be willing to admit. While I don't agree with every point, this is undoubtedly one of the most thoughtful and well-explained retrospectives I've seen, especially on an Elder Scrolls game. There are enough thoughts to reflect on and learn from that I never feel like I'm wasting my time, despite it lasting the length of five hours.
I've been watching this video for like a month and i'm only half way through. I fall asleep to it every night so I end up watching it in 5 - 10 minute chunks, i'm gonna feel super sad once I finish it. maybe i'll just start it again when I do
In my opinion have npcs that just stand there takes my immersion away. Morrowinds repeated text didn't really bother me. when i play say the witcher 3 there are so many people on screen but i just look at them as obsticles to my destination and make me feel like the game is more shallow than it really is. The reason I like tes games is because the world is filled with live people you can talk to and not blank canvases that are just there to get in your way.
Your issue with radiant AI is interesting, since the thieves guild questlines tend to hinge on radiant AI and it makes it the best variation of the guild in the series where youre actually planning heists, learning npc schedules, waiting til there gone or asleep and avoiding patrolling guards
Yes but Its about the only time radiant AI is successfully implemented to improve upon a gameplay or narrative aspect. Its in the way the rest of the game IMO!!!
@@creepysinisterpasta i remember there was an orc chick (Mazoga) who would go to this big ass cave once a week at a certain time of day, and in the cave were shit tons of bandits fighting marauders. The bandits dropped black bows that you could sell to the count in the nearby castle for 100 gold each. you could make some quick money and xp doing that, and it was pretty fun having this giant 3 sided battle in a cave. You also had to try and grab all the bows first or the orc chick would grab them. They all respawned after a few days so you could keep doing it.
@@gordanblansky7137 Lol what do you think about Skyrim's population? It got worse XD. I've seen a lot of concept art on the imperial city and in the lore it was supposed to be this huge fortress like metropolis with thousands-millions of people living in it, that is a real city. I guess it comes down to the good old saying "engine limitations". Cause you have to understand when making the game did you ever think with all the art, that was their vision on what they wanted to make before reality hit them on the face? I hope Es6 doesn't disappoint though with the newer technology.
I was a bit older than you when I first tried Oblivion, but the nostalgia it brings is immense. That's why I don't play it anymore, I don't want to ruin the memories. Thanks for the 5 hours though. Would gladly watch 5 more hours of you talking about Elder Scrolls.
Making this video didn't ruin my old memories of Oblivion (nothing could), but it did capture that feeling of getting older. If anything, this video made me appreciate my memories of Oblivion even more, so I wouldn't be afraid of replaying it.
The whole bioware style codex idea made me cringe. I loved collecting and reading the little books in these games and replacing that with a little scroll down text window is like replacing an old first edition book with an kindle ebook. It would just be immersion breaking for the elder scrolls series to do that, and if they did I wouldn't bother playing them. You should be coming across old dusty tomes in someones basement or whatever and learning more about the wider universe, not looking through some plain text screen in the menus like you do in the Witcher. (That being one of the few things I dont like about the Witcher series) IMO they should double down on the books and find a way to encourage the players to go out and research the creature or treasures or whatever they may be and actually use their brains, but as we all know from Skyrim's puzzles alone, Bethesda doesn't trust the players to be smart enough to do such things and they want everyone to experience 100% of the game. I mean how hard would it be to give a quest like - we need to lure out and kill a monster or whatever and one of the ways the player could go about planning is to go and asks at the book store for any reference material on this monster. They pull out an old book about some forgotten time and tell you there's something that might help on page 8 or whatever. Then you start skimming through the book searching for the right page and before you know it your swept up in some interesting short story that builds upon the games universe and makes you want to read more.
100% agree! I hate the Bioware codex! Everything looked too modern and computer-like. I was frustrated by the UI. I'm like, where are we, Mass Effect?? We are in DRAGON AGE!
Thank you for making this. You have a really great speaking voice and I never got tired of listening to it, even after 5 hours. I also enjoyed the bits of humour here and there throughout your video. They gave me a good laugh. Your voice and video style remind me a bit of Matthewmatosis. Your points were well explained and concise. And you showed a great amount of knowledge and understanding for Oblivion, the other Bethesda games, RPG games in general and indeed video games in general as well. I just really enjoyed this video. It's put together so well. So thanks once again, genuinely.
I felt his first point was incredibly weak, and he harps on it for a very long time. His suggestion to just have the character immigrate to wherever also presents problems for people trying to roleplay as villainous characters who might want to avoid official routes like that but he seems to completely forget that in favor of talking about good aligned characters. He's complaining about a problem with no real solution.
The real solution would be a prologue segment that leads into you entering the game world. Your choices in the prologue directly reflecting your introduction to the world. Kingdom Come Deliverance almost did this, but they fell flat with making your choices carry any weight.
i like a lot of what he said but some of the things are either wrong or just petty. Radiant AI is extremely important to TES. One of the things that sells the TES world is that NPCs act more like real people.
It was 2006 my mom worked hard and bought me an Xbox 360 I had sonic 06 and oblivion I will never forget playing this in the morning before school This game holds a special place in my heart.
I find it fascinating that I can thoroughly enjoy a video that I mostly disagree with. Amazing job Edit: Giving this a thorough rewatch and giving the last three ES games a replay, I can safely say my stance on a lot of things has changed heavily. This video is phenomenal
TES IV: Oblivion was my first foray into the RPG world. It’s also my fave of the bunch that I’ve played. The caves are a lil weak (they all look the same), but gameplay just feels better than Skyrim. I’d rather close the Oblivion gates (get the Sigil Stone, and enchant my weapon/armor), than do the main quest for Skyrim, which I still haven’t finished!!! Skyrim lets u be an Orc wizard character, but Oblivion makes it harder for u to become one b/c of the characteristics of ur race. It also allows u to receive the benefits of ur race as well. (A Wood Elf is more handy with a bow, Dark Elf is better with magic, but has a weakness to it as well, etc). What can I say...I’m just a sucker for Oblivion!!!!
Skyrim has one of my favorite quests, "Lost to the Ages" In it, you find the journal of an archeologist, and she details the locations of supposed locations of a rare mineral mined by the Dwemer; Aetherium. To find the locations, you had to cross reference the locations marked on a map in the journal with your own overworld map, and i found that to be very engaging. It falls flat because of the "puzzles" in the dungeons, but i really enjoyed finding the locations on my own.
This video is one of the few videos left were the person who have made it genuinely cares about what they put out. I have watched this video many times as it just makes me feel as there is still faith for UA-cam videos. And to see that one of if not my favorite game get a whole in-depth video game review really makes me smile. You should definitely start making videos again because they are detailed masterpieces.
Nah the 8 hour retrospective of Morrowind is the absolute best shit ever. If you like that game or are interested at all, I totally recommend checking it out. It's called "a quick look back at Morrowind" or "a quick retrospective of Morrowind" or something like that. It is THOROUGH and the dude did a TON of research and planning going into the video and it really pays off.
you just HAD to get that 10 minute mark for ads.
You do realize that this video is nearly 5 hours long so your comment makes zero sense?
@@mattrostov2642 r/wooooosh
Matt Rostov I can't tell if you're joking or not ??? Lol
@@mattrostov2642 Really dude? In before "sarcasm" rebuttle
@@bdrummond7102 "Rebuttle" Maybe you should learn how to spell before trying to be a smartass.
I think being a moral character that's imprisoned is only an issue if you believe only guilty people have been imprisoned historically.
I think that's a pretty solid point actually.
Exactly. The background story is you are released in Morrowind (having been imprisoned in the Imperial City) just because the Emperor says so; who says you weren't in the prison for similar reason? Not to mention just about every guild you can join is corrupt -- including the legion. You will find out eventually during guild-quests if you pay attention. The legal assassins are not (to their own ideals anyway) save for the head wanting certain items for himself.
Oblivion: You begin in prison "placed there by the gods". There are several guests about corrupt guard captains and others who are not corrupt but obsessed on one thing.
Skyrim: You're not on the list unlike the horse-thief and the blue-cloaked rebels. The Captain says you're to be executed anyway. It should be obvious that you at the very least didn't get caught doing something illegal.
The first time I played I didn’t know I had to sleep to level up, I don’t know how far into the game I went as a level 1 but just know I had just beaten the champion in the arena and accidentally leveled up when I slept for the first time lmao
I was gonna make a comment that said "false imprisonment". which is also a solid way to do it
The only real argument for the removal of the Prison Start or whatever you want to call it, is that it's gotten old seeing it three games in a row, which I think most of us can agree to.
This channel is literaly what youtube was suppose to be. passionated people making video on what their passion burn bright. We will forever salute you Will
LEL his passion literally instantly burned out after this.
@@chabbab6698 lmao true but damn a 4 hour video that takes too much work
@@chabbab6698 I can easily see how.
@@whoaskedyoutolookatthis I do kind of wonder about channels like this and if the people behind them have done it over and over but keep hiding videos or making new channels.
If you watch most channels that do long-winded essay videos, go back to their earliest videos and you'll find that the quality is absolutely terrible... not judging harshly because you shouldn't expect much from a first attempt, but the microphone is usually bad, there isn't often a script or if there is then its pretty unstructured, and you can tell they aren't accustomed to giving presentations because they usually speak too quickly like they want to get it over and done with.
Will really surprised me here because this is the first video he's done (at least the first publicly visible one) and despite the regular tangents he does seem to have a structure, and his microphone quality is really good for a 2016 video from a channel that at first glance doesn't seem to do this regularly.
Like I said, it almost feels like the person behind it has done this many times before.
Not to be a dick, but....impassioned
2:44:30 "If you've made it this far into this video, then you're a nerd, so I don't need to explain what exactly a mod is..."
Thank you for recognizing your audience.
@FreeSpeech orDIE!!! Could a chad ride a horse directly up the face of a mountain, though?!
...yes 😔
I watched this in chunks, and you an incredible job! I hope you get your passion back one day
Ragsraptor way to undermine Will, you can compliment mandalore on his own vids
MandaloreGaming you're vids are awesome if you have any plans of playing other ps2 games other than socom 2 check out any of the armored core games! pls!
I sear to god I'm finding you on every single analysis video thats at least 2 hours long.....
MandaloreGaming well if you like this then I know this is a good vid
MandaloreGaming I love your channel mandalore
Been 11 years and still haven't delivered that amulet.
Motivation Exceeds Me if you still havent, it's time to do it. Main quest was better.
I still havnt either. Just got oblivion in the mail. Lost my other copy. I'm going to try to finish the main story this time.
lightgren8ds All the best mate. Back then, it was easier to play through as graphics was beautiful for that time. Now, if you can look past the graphics and dont expect the spell to be that badass as in skyrim, you'll have a good time exploring cyrodill
Dagon is proud.
...fuck...
The amount of effort put into this..
Serious props man!
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it
Yeah, working on a new one. Just been a little slow cause of school
Frootie Bootie had an epiphany:
"We are thinking on the basest of planes. To discover the topic of the next video, what we need, are more eyes."
I appreciate the thought but that was actually a slightly modified quote from Bloodborne haha
Oh my god you are the one from Skyblivion and Skywind right?
I actually loved the radiant AI. I find it less immersive to see characters constantly in the exact same spot, just standing there or walking in circles. I loved that everyone had their own schedule, homes and things to do.
Same, I can’t believe people don’t like the schedules
Yeah I played Witcher 3 years after Elder Scrolls and Fallout and I really noticed that.
Like, the story and characters are miles better, but the world just doesn't feel real and immersive like Elder Scrolls and Fallout do.
Same here as well i love radiant ai
@@buttlerubbies747 yeah I love going in their house after hours and stealing everything
@@buttlerubbies747 You missed what Will was trying to convey in this video. His criticism of the radiant AI was not that it was bad. It was that it was a massive time sink which could have better been dedicated to improving other areas of the game.
Fighter's Guild member 1: Ever heard of the Fighter's Guild?
Fighter's Guild member 2: No.
First rule of Fighter's Guild: you do NOT talk about Fighter's Guild.
Ever heard about the MAGE’S guild?
;)
GOODBYE
Breton 1: Hello
Breton 2: Breton Trash.
blessings of Talos upon thee
I've watched this video in its entirety once a year for the past three years, and I don't have any regrets about it.
Aubrey Hallman hey
@@kyleisbart197 hey
@@Kortney2G hey
@Ligamo hey
Teryl Dactyl hey
What an incredible phenomena. a channel shows up, destroys UA-cam with a first video that gets a million views, and vanishes.
He had more but deleted them up to this point.
Ryan Johnson I wonder why
for real
@@Doopliss666 Really? That sucks.
A wizard is never late nor is he early he arrives precisely when he needs to
Concerning the point about Oblivion's presentation being intentionally more pleasant.
I'm pretty sure one of the motivations behind this choice had to do with the "invasion from hell" theme of the main quest. It's likely that the game world as well as Cyrodill's culture and society were made quite pleasant and idyllic to make the player care more about them: the invasion from Oblivion would destroy every aspect about Cyrodill (besides all its people, even the fauna and flora are at risk).
And I must say it worked with me during my first playthrough. The sky becoming red and cloudy, the music becoming ominous. It gave me a such a sense of danger that I felt compelled to close each gate I found during the main quest, even though I found them repetitive even as a young teenager.
That, in my opinion, was the intent. Cyrodiil is the main country with the capital, the well tended garden of the emperors. The outlying provinces are much wilder and untamed, but the center was the peaceful land even before human rule. The contrast is Oblivion, at least the Oblivion of Merunes Dagon, red and hot and angry.
It worked for me as well. Seeing Bruma under attack motivated me in a way that I never felt seeing Helgen get destroyed in Skyrim. Every city was filthy, corrupt, and full of backstabbing criminals. Which is fine for the dark fantasy vibe they were going for since "grey and brown" was the trend back then, but it didn't really make me want to save the Nords from world eating dragons or sequel-bait elven supremacists. In fact I often found myself wishing Riften in particular would burn down with Maven Black Briar being the first to get eaten by a dragon. There really should have been more quests to clean things up and make the world something you'd actually want to save. I guess infinite variations of "Fetch an item from a draugr infested cave" was easier to design.
@@Otakupatriot117 When you're done fetching items from the grasp of draugr, I've received word of another settlement that needs our help. I'll mark it on your map.
I completely agree, and I think it worked perfectly.
I also find it slightly annoying that the criticism he gave for this came because it was 'anti-lore', but immediately after he admitted that he never even reads the books that he finds!
Just what I was going to comment as got to that point in the video. Not sure how someone can think about Oblivion long enough to make a 5 hour video without realising that the idyllic scenery in Cyrodil is supposed to juxtapose the hellish landscape the other half of the game takes place in.
But still, cracking video so far. 👌
I just assume a corrupt guard wrongfully imprisoned me when I play a good character.
That makes perfect sense in Oblivion, since 10 minutes of talking to people in the market district of the Imperial City will tell you that there are corrupt guards who cart citizens off to jail for not giving them money. Hardy any 'mental gymnastics' there.
@@tastychunks Also in skyrim you're captured at the border while a civil war is going on. The makes perfectly sense for every background you want to play.
What i wish they would do is generate a quest based on your conversation. Take Oblivion for example. You speak with 'most cathartic Dark Brotherhood target', and when he asks why you are here you can answer a) Got caught committing crime, b) Corrupt guard threw me in here for no reason, c) person in guild betrayed me, or d) see b) but with (lie). You can generate a small quest chain dealing with this, adding flavour to your character without ruining anything and helping you feel like you live here
Me tooooo! It's coz I'm a lizard
tastychunks That’s a mission, when you report him and send him to jail, he breaks out a few days later and will try to kill you wherever you are. When he attacked me, I just left paradise and entered the cloud ruler temple where he was waiting, and as soon as he attacked, all the guards jumped him at the same and killed him almost immediately.
I know this is an old video, but Kvatch wasnt destroyed with just one gate. In the game they say that they opened 3 lesser gates to open a major gate to bring the siege engine, that they tried later in the battle for bruma.
I've spent 5 hours on this instead of preparing for a biology exam. was worth it
Biology was an easy A anyways
11/10 in Nirnroot biology!
So you didn't level up Alchemy.
David Shraberman how'd the exam go
ギドラ That’s what I wanna know too. Lol
I love this video for actually analyzing the game mechanics and technical parts of the game instead of just being a plot summary of each of the factions. Thank you for making this video!
At least Skyrims "imprisonment" is implied to be a case of wrong place wrong time, so you can still be a morally good character who got unlucky.
It always annoyed me that the impose the fact that I tried to cross the border, maybe I slaughtered a whole town, why impose on me like that.
@@mrsauceman5721 whenever ive done any evil type character, i imagine that whatever bad thing i did just happened to be near the border, then my character got caught up in the ambush and they assumed that illegally crossing the border was my only crime and i accidentally got away with some worse shit
its not a perfect solution but whatever
@@yourehereforthatarentyou They could have simply done it word for word from Morrowind, of course with slight tweaks considering you aren't heading to Morrowind.
@@mrsauceman5721 i havent played morrowind in years, the deal with that one was that the emperor found out you could be the nerevarine and sent you to morrowind just in case you were, right?
@@yourehereforthatarentyou I haven't played Morrowind in a long time either, but I assume that it is the case, honestly I do hope that the Elder Scrolls 6 doesn't just become and estranged cousin of the older games, they should make some references and easter eggs, like Jiub being in Kvatch when it was raided.
By god, here I go again. I have seen this in its entirety at least 4 times, but here we go again.
nice to listen to in backgrounds while playing old bethesda games.
@GuidoSalami1 -replying 2 months late here-
It's not entirely just a critique. It's a retrospective. Retrospectives have a critiquing element to them. They have to take everything into consideration. :/
But that's just my interpretation of the word 'retrospective.' ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@GuidoSalami1 i dont believe so, you can really love something and highly enjoy it, and still have criticisms about it
You _can_ "dodge-roll" in Oblivion, by the way. Acrobatics 50, block + jump + move in a direction. It's very neatly done for a first-person perspective "roll".
The first time I did the dodge roll it left me going wtf until a few hours later a load screen enlightened me
Yeah, this guys actually is misinformed about a lot of things in this game lol.
@@ArvelDreth Like what?
@@ArvelDreth i mean his point is more skill based combat- yes there's technically a dodge roll. it's nothing like what he brings up and comparing the one in the game and the one he brings up in another game is disingenuous
@@claytonhartman9885 Like a lot of fucking thing. He's obviously a Skyrim/Fallout 4 Fanboy casual gamer.
My father and I loved Oblivion. We used to have a technique called "The Ol' Jump And Heal". It's the fastest way to level up and I bet you could figure out how to do it
The classic jumling down a cliff to take fall damage and increase acrobatics, then skipping the hill up and healing to get restoration and more acrobatics
Ever tried "The Ol' Sneak past the goblin from the tutorial over and over"?
Hahaha, I did that too:)))
My technique is finding an inside corner with a ceiling, limiting your jump height so you can spam jump while autorunning, done it so often for the scroll heist.
Your restoration actually leveled up regardless of whether you healed back any hp or not. It's just the magic skill that requires the most casts in order to level.
I literally built a PC while listening to this so that I could play Oblivion.
You had to build a PC in 2018 to play oblivion? That game runs 60FPS on the cheapest 2011 laptops, bro
I see we have a real Oblivion fan here :) I also build PC-s espacially for certain games,for what i use for Oblivion,in short is the following;C2D E6600,2GB DDr2 800MHz and GF9600GT 1 GB.Runs smooooooooth as can be.Thank you for reading the comment,i also watched this video for the 10th time.Love it.
@@balazsvilaga8040 ...Why tho?
Ooooomfg same
He may want to use original hardware I collect vintage computers commodore amiga for example they have emulators but I prefer an original amiga
five hour long retrospective on Oblivion. I loved every minute of this
fuck me, I thought you were joking!
I love this kind of content. Bigger fan of PatricianTVs retrospective in all honesty, but I literally watch elder scrolls retrospectives from tons of people for fun on a near daily basis
Not every channel on UA-cam has to have thousands of videos that aren't all genuine; one offs are fine. I respect that you didn't try to force it like so many others. Clearly this was a labor of love and that is why it is good. Good luck in any future endeavors on UA-cam or just in life.
I agree. This is a fascinating discussion about a game by someone who has clearly played it a lot and understands some game development concepts. Lot of butthurts in the comments though lol
Facts!! Bless him for doing something creative, sharing it with us, and moving on. People are so hateful and demanding it breaks my heart :(
@@mrbouncelol morrowind fanboys are some of the most annoying people on the planet, and this is coming from a morrowind enjoyer
@@henrycrabs3497 I get it, I get what it's like to identify oneself with a game or a film or an album or a book, or even an idea. A lot of people get that because it's the story of human history.
Doesn't mean we can't gently point it out and hope that they find their way. Now I'm off to argue to the death about something else, I'm sure.
Thanks for making such a well through out video! I can tell this must have taken forever to create.
Ey mah :D
took forever to watch😪
I remember you! You used to read pokemon creepypasta, my friend and I loved listening to them
@@JEMRocker Hell yeah, thanks for watching!
@@MahDryBread thanks for all the content, my dude
"What types of movies do you like to watch?"
Me:
Underrated comment! xD
Hahahaha same
This describes me accurately 😂😂
"If you made it this far into the video, you're a nerd"
WELL
I feel both attacked and seen
“The Dragonborn got a new unicycle.”
“As for the others? Who cares they bore the snot out of me,”
Wow, even if I did disagree with this video, I'd still give you a like. I can't believe how committed you are. You're incredible
Agreed!
Considering this is like his one video and he stopped making videos shortly afterwards "committed" isn't the word I'd use but he made his one piece a really, really good one.
@@fuzzydunlop7928 Eh, he's clearly referring to committing to this particular subject. He made a 5 hour retrospective about a game, that is behaviour of someone extremely committed to Oblivion
Pretty sure its immpossible to talk for 5 hours without saying something that the listener disagrees with hahaha
With that in mind i think this video is crazy comprehensive.
@@joshuanorris5860 considering how wrong he was about most of what he said about the leveling system (whining about the difficulty slider like a true dudebro, for example) I'm inclined to agree.
I can't stay awake through this, only about two hours in, and I've been "watching" for like 12 hours.
Most of what he's said so far is about the leveling system. Yes it's not wonderful, but it's also not NEARLY as bad as he wants it to be, and he clearly doesn't understand the numbers behind the difficulty slider if he thinks you need to tick it back five notches after every few level ups.
In addition, Oblivion is a super easy game. You can very easily beat most questlines taking "sub optimal" (i.e. nothing but +2) level ups with no trouble.
I feel like he ALSO never used potions, staves, scrolls etc. Too good to use combined with too stubborn to use the slider WILL make the game very hard.
I have watched this countless times now, such a lovely piece of work, even use it now for background when going to sleep, honestly super calming
I started watching it out of curiosity why this video is so long and I ended watching it whole, amazing work, I regret nothing.
My reaction to this was “hey cool, an oblivion retroOOOHHHH LORD THIS IS FIVE HOURS LONG!!!”
Worth every second
You could cut it in half by changing the play speed to 2x. 😁
**Laughs in EFAP**
Same xd
Morrowind 7 Hour Retrospective Guy: Finally, a worthy opponent! Our battle will be legendary!
This is the first time I’ve watched this video in its entirety, but I gotta say, while I don’t agree with all of your thoughts (naturally, we have different ideas of what makes a good game, etc) I like how it’s clear how you put a lot of thought into this video, and it’s absolutely worth the 5 hours spent listening to it
A lot of thought but maybe not enough research
I watch this video at least twice a year. Probably the best long-form video game retrospective I've ever seen. This guy is an absolute legend, just drops his 5-hour masterpiece then vanishes forever.
PatricianTV. Check him out
@@holdendewit7088 Condescending alt-right neckbeard.
No thanks.
@@holdendewit7088 Patricians videos could never even touch this one in terms of quality.
@@holdendewit7088 Patrician sniffs his own farts
@@solaurelian7638 ???? That dude PatricianTV's videos are pretty damn good too man. I think he "touches" this level of quality pretty consistently as well.
Damn - why didn't find that video earlier? Not even three minutes in, and I already want to give it three likes: First, for doing a FIVE HOUR video on Oblivion. Second, for not trying to be super funny. Third, for NOT narrating over the one moment that made me fall in love with Elder Scrolls forever: The Oblivion opening credits.
3:38
Sneaking with a torch
*sneak 100*
I do that. I put it away when I'm close.
Fargoth style.
Torch-Sneaking (governed by Intelligence)
@@PorkpieJohnny You've earned +1 to Humor !
@@CommanderWolfy121 I still feel bad for stealing his family heirloom ring and literal life savings on one playthrough. ;(
i cant believe there are no ads on this man, thank you for putting so much time and effort into this video. if you do make something else like this, i can promise I'll watch it. if you dont, this stands alone quite nicely
Playing Oblivion as a kid was one of the most magical experiences I had as a kid! Amazing video game escapism at it's finest! And that beautiful exploration soundtrack! Wow....
It was far from a perfect game, but the entire experience was transformative to me in my teenage years.
It is funny that I had pretty much the same experience, however I just discovered the game in 2022 at the age of 29, in one of the worst years of my life, but the game provided that much needed escapism. I had never played RPGs, so this was a gateway for sure.
@@user-is7xs1mr9y It was the same for me with the Gothic games, I played Gothic 1 and 2 Gold Edition only back in 2017 and 2018 respectively when I was going through one of the worst times of my life and it was one of the most immersive and cathartic perception altering experiences in gaming I had ever had. This is not nostalgia either, since they are old games and I never played them back in their hey day. They truly impressed me when I played them. They just don't make games the way they used to anymore. There was so much charm, immersion and personality to older games that most newer ones cannot replicate.
This is the exact feeling I have and is why Oblivion will always have a special place in my heart. For all it's flaws it's still my favourite game.
I played religiously as a kid. I loved it
Oh, go out and climb a tree!
Lmao "If you've made it this far into this video you're a nerd"
I loved how casually you dropped that line at 2:44:30
Well, he's not wrong! I'm a nerd and I'm proud to admit it!
dstebbin I'm just a hour in and I thought I was a nerd...
That, and the "get the doll" joke made me laugh a lot :3
I admit, I didn't get the doll joke.
In dark souls 1, you start trapped in a jail. Later in the game, you can go back and get a "doll", which is in your cell. You can then use it to gain access to a "hidden" level. If you have played the game, you will notice how many similarities there are on the way you obtain it, wich is kind of funny. It's the kind of jokes that wont make you laugh if someone explains it though u.u
You may not realize what this effort has accomplished, but if even one present or future game maker has watched this, and I would bet they have, then you have changed future games for the positive with your insightful and honest examination. This was very very well done. Kudos.
1:20:34 - 1:22:35
I beg to differ. Here's a post I made on Bethesda's forums a long time ago regarding the differences between true radiant AI and Skyrim's nerfed version:
In Oblivion, NPCs went about their daily activities, even while the player was absent. Except that they actually DID them! The actions and schedules of NPCs still physically happened, whether you were there to see them or not.
In Skyrim, this was nerfed, so that the consequences of these actions happen, without the actions themselves.
Let me give you an example: There's a quest available at the beginning of the game, where you can ask a local farmer named Loreus to help a stranded Cicero with his wagon wheel. Or, you could opt ot turn Cicero into a guard for possession of contraband. If you choose the latter option, Loreus will appear, in his farm, cut up and dead.
The IMPLICATION is that Cicero killed him and his wife out of anger. However, that's not what actually happens. Nor is Cicero ever actually arrested. Cicero just stands there, indefinitely, until you reach his debuting spot in the Dark Brotherhood questline, and Loreus and his wife both just randomly drop dead for no apparent reason.
Also, if you convince Loreus to help Cicero, he never actually does so. You could return, ten months later, and Loreus and Cicero will still act as if they the wheel-repair was mere moments away. Then, when you reach the spot in the DB questline, he just gets teleported there.
Hell, you could go and kill that Dawnstar miner, travel south down the road to Falkreath, pass by Cicero on the way down there, enter the Sanctuary, and there Cicero is, talking to the Brotherhood, even though he never passed you on the road!
Now, you may think to yourself "Well, if I'm not there to see it, why does it NEED to happen!"
Well, to answer that question, let me tell you about a really fun gameplay mechanic from Oblivion. It was called the "Poisoned Apple," and using it really helped add to immersion, because using it the correct way made you feel like a REAL Assassin!
The way the poisoned apple worked was thus: You followed your target around (like an actual assassin), and learned when and where he hate food. Then, you entered that location when he wasn't around, and removed all the food in that location, and placed the apple there. Then, when it was meal time, they would only have the one apple that you left for them, so that was what they had to eat. When they ate the apple, they died.
But here's the good part: You didn't have to stick around to see that happen! As long as you did it correctly, you could go off and explore a nearby cave or ruin, and at some random interval, you would get a quest update saying that the target was dead.
So, having TRUE radiant AI (rather than the psuedo-radiant AI found in Skyrim) actually added immersion to the game in a distinctly noticeable way, even though you didn't HAVE to stay there to see it!
Now, on the other hand, let's take a look at Skyrim's pseudo-radiant AI:
In the quest "The Book of Love," you are tasked with going to Ivarstead and helping Fastrad choose between two bachelors. Whichever bachelor you side with will then run to Fastred, who COULD be out working the field in her parent's farm, OR she could be in her parent's house. If it's the latter, they will also enter the house.
Now, if you've done that quest a hundred times before, and already know exactly what's going to happen, you may think to yourself "Well, it looks like my work here is done. No need to stick around for the fireworks. I'll be heading back to Riften now."
Well, guess what? You can't do that! You have to enter the house and listen to the conversation - even though the quest itself requires no further input on your part - or else the conversation won't happen. Because Skyrim takes the approach of "If the player isn't there to see it, what's the point?" Thus, any time they want something to happen without you being there, they have to program that in manually (such as Loreus' scripted death), and Bethesda forgot to manually program in that this quest would be updated the same as if Fastred and the bachelor had their conversation.
Now, it's kind of hard to BLAME Bethesda for this! I mean, they are just human; it's understandable that they're going to make the occasional slip-up.
But, why are these slip-ups even available as a possibility? If Bethesda had kept its true radiant AI, they wouldn't HAVE to program this quest to update artificially! Fastred and the Bachelor would have their conversation in the player's absence; thus, no need to bypass it.
So, as you can see, having TRUE radiant AI actually makes a difference with immersion! And I really hope that, with a new generation of consoles, Bethesda can bring back the REAL radiant AI from Oblivion!
Your example here argues for precisely what I argued against, but I suppose you knew that when you commented. It's just not necessary. I love the idea of NPC's living irrespective of the players presence, but not if it results in small populations.
just my opinion but i would rather have 5 deep and complex npc's than 15 npc's that are as bring as snot.
mericka uni
Exactly. Throughout the majority of this 5-hour retrospective (basically every aspect of the Elder Scrolls games EXCEPT this one issue), Will goes on and on about "quality over quantity."
Besides, I've fallen in love with, grown up with, and have a ton of nostalgic affection for plenty of RPGs that have sparse populations even though they don't have radiant AI! The Mario RPGs tend to provide prime examples.
Morrowind didn't have small populations either, and plenty of people consider it to be the best of the franchise.
To be honest, the Witcher and Assassin's Creed series are the only series I can think of that actually had realistic population densities.
And let's not forget that populations in Skyrim were actually fairly decent when you consider how small the cities themselves were. I can run from the Blue Palace in Solitude all the way to the Solitude Main Gate in only twenty seconds.
The population of Skyrim's cities is easiest to appreciate if you have a mod that makes most of the NPCs in a city enter the pub during the evening. The crowd inside the pub is roughly on par with what you'd expect of a real-life bar during prime time.
I understand and I greatly enjoyed poisoned apples too, but in defense of Skyrim I think part of that is probably a performance issue. Suspending NPC actions when the player is not around probably helps with the game running a bit better.
The problem is that there are dragons around and animals tend to pop more often. Plus giants and so on.
Considering the extremly buggy engine they STILL work on that might've made some serious problems and pathing issues.
I have actually watched this multiple times other the years, being a game developer myself. Hearing these points being articulated so well, is a very good reference to developing your own RPG like game
Hope your work is going well. Glad to see developers taking a look at videos like these.
I'm so happy you brought up "who did it" dark brotherhood quest. It's my favorite quest and I always love getting to that part of Oblivion.
It's literally EVERYONE'S favorite quest, of course he brings it up.
I've always enjoyed that comically large Imperial City guard in the intro at 2:25. Makes me smile every time.
Wow I never noticed that guard. That's hilarious.
lmao fuck, I never even caught that
Imao just let him go about his business he ain't hurting anyone
People are wrongly imprisoned all the time, whether through framing by the guilty party, mis-identification as the perpetrator, or simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I don't think TES prisoner intros compromise the character's intended morality at all...
yeah at that point i just gave up watching that part, skipped ahead
This is particularly true of Skyrim, where the game actually acknowledges that you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time crossing the border into Skyrim when you got scooped up with the storm cloaks (after all, you're not on the list), and rather than release you, the somewhat draconian empire was willing to just kill you rather than take any chances.
That and the fact that Oblivion had the most neutral character background I've seen in a Bethesda game so far. In Morrowind, you're the reincarnation of a legendary historical figure; In Skyrim, you're dergenbern; in Oblivion, you're just a dude that's part of the Emperor's prophecy. [Oblivion spoilers below]
You're not even the hero in the plot, when you think about it, you're just the messenger boy. The real hero is Martin Septim, who sacrifices himself by breaking the Amulet of Kings and turning into an Avatar of Akatosh to banish Mehrunes Dagon back to Oblivion, saving the world. The game NEVER tries to make you feel special or hand you any kind of given power or title. You're self-made.
"Relavatory" "midget-ated"
I love this video so much. I come back and watch again every couple years. Hope Will's doing okay..
He's gone
Midget-tated made me rewind to make sure I heard it right then sent me into a laughing fit 😂
Sucks you stopped making videos :( This is amazing.
Well he kinda never STARTED making videos. Not sure if you checked out his channel, but this is one of the only videos on there. Literally. There’s 3 total videos, 2 reviews and this retrospective. So while it’s a bummer he didn’t continue, it’s not like he stopped dead in his tracks right as he was getting going. It also explains the low sub count, since it’s hard to enjoy being subscribed to someone who, not only doesn’t make new videos, but also doesn’t have any OLD videos to watch. 🤷🏻♂️
5 hours of a single video game? Holy crap this must have taken months.
Awesome video!
what
Wow. UA-cam recommendations aren't that good for me, but sometimes they can reveal a real gem.
I'm not the type of person to leave comments on youtube, especially long ones, especially to an almost year-old video, but I just gotta comment here. Took me a couple of nights to watch this but damn those was good nights. I mean - 5 hours - it's probably one of the longest legit videos with original content on UA-cam, and definitely the longest one I've ever watched. As I had seen the video duration I've thought "what a madman, he should have split it in parts!". Yet throughout the whole video I was getting that feeling that's hard to describe - a cosy feeling of long night chatting with a best friend. To some extend it's probably caused by our similiarities (as far as I can judge about your life based on your remarks) relating TES - Oblivion was also my first TES and I was around that age (maybe a bit older). But largely it's your narration style and presentation that got me involved sinking 5 more hours of my life into gaming videos. You're definitely a fine content-creator and this video is seriously underrated - or more correctly to say - underviewed (I can say it with confidence as I'm a serious youtube nerd).
Originally I wanted to write about some points you've touched about Oblivion, TES and Bethesda, but I'm too lazy to write all of that. I'll just mention, that I couln't agree more regarding Oblivion's quests, leveling, combat and dungeons (aghh, Oblivion's ogres on gray-greenish-brown dungeons' backgrounds still give me PTSD flashbacks).
I've casualy checked your channel and noticed you don't have recent uploads. Still, I hope you'll do more stuff like this in the future, even if rarely. Anyways, subbed. And wish you alldabest.
yarikcreative
Same
+yakicreative Wow. UA-cam comments aren't that good for me, but sometimes they can reveal a real gem.
I'm not the type of person to reply to comments on youtube, especially long ones, especially to an almost 2 month old comment, but I just gotta reply here. Took me a couple of minutes to read this but damn those was good minutes. I mean - 5 paragraphs - it's probably one of the longest legit comments with original content on UA-cam, and definitely the longest one I've ever read. As I had seen the comment length I've thought "what a madman, he should have split it in parts!". Yet throughout the whole comment I was getting that feeling that's hard to describe - a cosy feeling of long night chatting with a best friend. To some extend it's probably caused by our similiarities (as far as I can judge about your life based on your remarks) relating this 5 hour video. It was also my first time watching and I was around that age (maybe a bit older). But largely it's your grammar style and vocabulary that got me involved sinking 5 more minutes of my life into gaming video comments. You're definitely a fine content-creator and this comment is seriously underrated - or more correctly to say - underthumbsupped (I can say it with confidence as I'm a serious youtube nerd).
Originally I wanted to write about some points you've touched about this video and Bethesda, but I'm too lazy to write all of that. I'll just mention, that I couln't agree more regarding this video's length, quality, content and sound quality (aghh, my mom's making tuna casserole again tonight and I can't take it anymore!).
I've casualy checked your channel and noticed you don't have recent uploads. Still, I hope you'll comment on more stuff like this in the future, even if rarely. Anyways, subbed. And wish you alldabest.
pahhahah. Dude, you gave me a damn good laugh, thanks :D
Aside from being incredibly wrong about the leveling system, I agree with most of the video as well.
To this day, Whodunit is probably my favorite side quest in any RPG ever, I'm so glad to see it got the love it deserved in your fantastic video!
Well, I just watched a 5 hour video on Oblivion...
MORE. I NEED MORE.
I know the chance of someone reading this is 1 in 1000 but I have to say dude I enjoyed just sitting down listening to 30 minutes every night, it was so strangely entertaining and I was sad when I finished it. I hope you continue to make videos like this I've never watched a UA-camr with so few subscribers that makes such quality content. In fact this video was better made then I'd like to say 99 percent of any other video I've watched on youtube. I'm just trying to say great job dude I love the passion.
B Flesher A whole lot of people read comments when they are watching the video.
@@joshuaroe1402 Indeed
To be fair, he never really STARTED making videos. He’s got 3 videos TOTAL on his channel (2 reviews and this retrospective), so it’s not like he stopped dead in his tracks right as he was getting going. It also explains the low sub count, since it’s hard to enjoy being subscribed to someone who, not only doesn’t make new videos, but also doesn’t have any OLD videos to watch. 🤷🏻♂️
But I agree, this was a great one-off project for this dude. Just don’t expect anymore, this IS legit the only one he’s done and since it’s been a few years I’d wager he doesn’t plan on doing another.
I can only hope I see you again when Elder Scrolls VI comes out. Regardless, excellent video. The love you have for the Elder Scrolls is apparent and shared. I was completely engrossed from start to finish and I'm sad that I'll, more than likely, never find someone with a style like your's. Your reasons for "killing" the channel are completely understandable. You've led me through a lot of my childhood, along with entertaining and holding my attention for every second of the 5 hours. I hope that your life is going well, and that the newest game exceeds all of our expectations. Take care of yourself, I'll see you next time I watch this.
@Angry Pickle if you like his style of video, check out Noah Caldwell-Gervais here on UA-cam! He also makes excellent, well-analyzed, long-form content ☺️
What was his reason for dropping?
@@Dravianpn02 ur mom
@@waterhigh can confirm, fat bitch
Did this channel have more content before it "died", or am I misinterpreting what you meant by "led me through a lot of my childhood"?
I noticed that this channel apparently had a complication with it that caused it to stagnate, so I'm curious about it. Any info is appreciated!
I'm sad to see you deleted the newer videos, they were really good. Hope you're not self-conscious about their value because they were really good and very relatable. They were nice for putting hidden thoughts in my mind into words.
I miss them. They were really comfy videos in their presentation, I rewatched them several times before I discovered they were missing from my favorites.
Yeah shame he deletes his content
He is very self conscious. Hes mentioned a few times he will post a video then delete it months or years later because all he sees are the flaws. And for him, flaws+lack of views= no value
I had no chance to watch them. just found his channel. Hope I'll see those videos one day
He’s a perfectionist. Sad, but this video is perfect, and in his mind there’s nothing he will release that will compare
This entire analysis gripped me from beginning to end. Truly amazing stuff, my dude. Subscribed.
Indeed. I’ve watched it twice today. This could be my favourite game related video I’ve ever seen on.
Bravo. There is a market for 4+ hour in depth game critique videos. I love this video.
Have
You
Heard
Of
The
High
Elves
Next2Death _/O_________O\_
L A F A V E B R O S! B E R G O T T ! !
*hmmph*
dude make more please... i love falling asleep to ES vids lol
Got any other channel recommendations? I love falling asleep to shit like this 💤
@@andrewsmiker try fudgemuppet
Luke Stephens does great videos that break down games very in depth. a lot like this and has a ton of them about 1-2 hours usually.
Mike Joseph Anderson
Mike rennsreviews
Oblivion's NPC nature probably has made this game last far longer than anyone could see. Even today seeing funny NPC convos is a thing I and many others enjoy
The thing people tend to make fun of is honestly it's biggest strength. Every new playthrough will always have emergent gameplay happening, with probably one of the best example of npcs that feel alive and have their own motivations and objectives.
A fantastic Video, I like the length and depth a lot. Not many people have the kind of patience to put together such a video. Good job!
Thanks
Got the itch to play it tonight. Started a magic only character. Once again mesmerized by the music atmosphere and gameplay loop and played for several hours. This game is such a masterpiece in the non obvious ways.
Gameplay loop is easily the worst part of the game. And that's not to mention all the other problems this game has, this game is actually really damn bad.
Magic is extremely strong, if you are a Brenton with a mage birth-sign and class the frost touch you get is op
@@okagron The salt is strong with this one. It's a flawed masterpiece, one of the greatest games of all time just like its predecessor. It's the stepping stone for the best selling and highest rated RPG of all time (Skyrim), and many including myself deem this one to be superior still. It is literally a game of historic proportion. Suck it.
@@TheStraightestWhitest highest rated rpg of all time definitely isnt skyrim
And if we only account for the regular skyrim release TW3 outsold it sooo skyrim is only the best selling because of frequent rereleases
@@V2ULTRAKill The Witcher 3 did not outsell it, what are you on about? Despite its critical success, The Witcher 3 was only the 14't bestselling game of its year globally. Skyrim sold 3.4 million copies within two days of its release, nearly 8 million within the first week, and up to today it holds a metacritic score of 96/100 (Xbox), which is nearly flawless. The Witcher 3 sold 4 million copies within the first two weeks, and holds a Metacritic score of 91/100 (Xbox).
Skyrim is objectively a more lauded game and RPG. I personally like The Witcher 3 more, but you're pulling stats out of your ass here. Skyrim sold three times as well, and is even more critically successful.
I'm not sure you understood Skyrim's intro, it's exactly what you wanted. You are an immigrant crossing the borders. The reason you are a prisoner is actually explained, you had bad luck while crossing the border you encountered the Stormcloaks and the Imperial ambush.This is the reason you are not on the list!
You miss understood,he's saying you should have entered Skyrim as a Immigrant the legal way. It's the difference between entering the USA on a airliner and entering it in the cargo of a 3rd party plane possibly flown by a drunk pilot. one is legal and the other is most likely illegal.
Most illegal immigrants in the US entered by normal planes though. They enter the legal way and become illegal when they inevitably outstay their visas. It isn't like the movies were they use elaborate schemes to sneak across the border like cartoon characters.
yea, normally people only go directly across the border when they have to make multiple trips to see their family. most of the time theyre just on a permanent "vacation"
....ehemm... anyway i see what you mean but i think what he wanted was for it to be a complete blank slate, no strings attached like in his morrowind immigration example. that way you are not forced into any story and can just start the game as u see fit. and it would hav worked better for skyrim too cuz you couldve been wandering around when you came across the rebels or empire and make your decision then. imagine a dynamic story like that, what if it was right at release and you knew nothing about the story at all? well imagine how freaked out and amazed you'd be if you got caught up in a random battle due to your choices. or even better what if a dragon randomly attacked you and either the rebels, empire, or hell even a guild came and saved you depending on the actions you've made thus far. for a series like TES most of us have played it for years and we don't need a tutorial (which is why we all have a sewer save), i think it's nicer to be given a true blank slate like minecraft where you're plopped down and let free.
when he says you should have come in through a boat he didnt just come with this idea. The modding community implemented a mod where you came in through the boat. He seems a bit to bent over about objectivity when objectivity is impossible to achieve. I found that the documentary repeats itself in a is brought to an unnecessary length. When he goes off on a tangent he often explains the most obvious things and it doesn't seem like a stream of thought when he says and this is bad which a shitty intonation. I forgot but there a word which perfectly describes someone who when they speak/pronounce every word in such a strange and pretentious, would appreciate if someone could tell me. That being said, I still watched it because no one else seems to have done an in depth analysis of the game and I love reviews. When he elongate your documentary to 5 hours I'm bound to see your literary limitations when you end up using the same expression for the 5th time like former and ladder, it becomes very obnoxious and blatant. The illusion of mastery wears away and your flaws are outlined. So again this all comes back to the length of the video, it's needs to be shortened to force higher concentration content instead of enumerating examples as he often does. Plz don't be offended as I'm know editing down hundreds of hours of research and work is an extremely difficult task to fulfill.
St T. I think u mean smug or "full of themselves" but I get what u mean. Still this is his first and last video like this and I think what u mentioned might be way he he found it so challenging to complete it
I’ve always found the prison intro to be one of the best, and the “mental” gymnastics needed is pretty much none.
It could simply be that they were charged for crimes they did not commit.
The possibilities are endless, perhaps you were a lord imprisoned after a loss
Perhaps you were a petty thief, maybe a cold murderer.
I think the vaults are much worse. I would prefer we started imprisoned in Fallout.
Those sir ARE mental gymnastics. When you have to mentally maneuver around someone else ideas to make something work when it really shouldn't. Some people aren't gonna want to RP as someone who imprisoned for ANY reason. Even false imprisonment.
@@brandonfrancis1941 if that's the case every possible into would need mental gymnastics,
@@brandonfrancis1941 They're mental gymnastics in the sense that a stroll in a park is a full marathon.
yes !
dont think you know what mental gymnastics are lol @@brandonfrancis1941 dont think anyone in any rp scenario wants to be falsely imprisoned lol its part of role playing to have to adapt to the situation you find yourself in believably, which this allows, easily.
Skyrim's opening isn't actually you being arrested, according to Ralof your character just walked into the ambush
Still a prisoner tho
@@waterhigh forget the list he goes to the block
And in Morrowind, you weren't necessarily a criminal. You were forcibly taken and conscripted into the blades
When i saw this video in my recommendeds, i expected it to be just 5 hours of gameplay.
But no.
It's a fully edited 5 hour video essay.
I don't think i've ever seen a full video this long in my life. Even though i admittedly didn't watch it all the way through, you deserve a lot more recognition for assembling something this thorough and detailed. This video might not really be fit for viewing, but goddamn: good job.
You haven't heard of MauLer haven't you? He's made a 11 hour video response/analysis/essay on dark souls 2. Give it a shot.
@@Polybox Hot damn. I wonder how long the script for that was
Good question. Especially if you consider that he apparently re-wrote the thing 4 times lel
@@Polybox Estimating 5 minutes per page, that's 11 hours times 12 5 minute intervals, giving us 132 pages of script. That's a small book
Ponjisk and it’s not that great of a review honestly. There was a counter to his video and it’s beautiful.
"To get into the painting you have to go back to your original cell and get the doll"
Such a good reference!
This will always be the OG Oblivion retrospective and my favourite. I come back to it every year. Ultimate cosy vibes.
I listened to the first half with my phone in my pocket while busy, and I feel like I didn’t miss anything. That’s amazing, very well done and articulate
So I watched this all the way through over the course of a few days. I was excited to see what other videos you would do, but then read your comment about not making any more videos. While it makes me sad that you won't make more videos, I understand it. The depths you went to making this were exceptional, and extremely informative. You managed to convince me, someone who has played 3 hours of Fallout 3 and probably as much Oblivion, to reconsider picking them up and trying again. That should be an accomplishment in and of itself.
Morrowind: Whale on your opponent ad nauseam until one of you falls over.
Oblivion and Skyrim: Whale on your opponent ad nauseam until one of you falls over but it's an impact sound instead of a _woosh._
Congratulations on giving a 10 second complete summary of The Elder Scrolls on a video dissecting Oblivion for 5 hours. xD
(although good lord early combat in Morrowind was painful)
Hephaestus Lemnosson I'm playing Morrowind for the first time and the damn combat makes me angry
Whale has a wh sound, and wail just has the w sound.
Why woosh when you can levitate and nuke balmora from orbit while laughing like a maniac?
Skyrim is still shit.
S P E C A G L
Also, the reason you start as a prisoner is for there to be an excuse for you to start with nothing. You can come up with any backstory for why any kind of person could be imprisoned. Being imprisoned doesn't make you a bad person.
Video made in 2016*
UA-cam suggested content algorithm in 2020: "It's time"
Just ended up experiencing this myself
Well, to be fair, what else are we going to do at 11PM to 4AM on quarantine?
@@VileFemboy was just looking for some 'the elder scrolls' video to play in the background while trying to mod Skyrim and ended up stumbling upon this gem
@@Samukuai Words of truth, right here. Freaking amen. ✨🙏🎧
Imagine getting it in 2021
I have spent thousands of hours in ES and Fallout games and by far the game I spent the least time with was Oblivion. Thanks for this video which has inspired me to change that.
I'd actually say that Fallout: New Vegas had the best introduction of them all.
- Immediate but non-binding character creation
- Enough backstory to warrant interest in the main quest but no overwhelming sense of urgency
- Anonymous "courier" with a clean slate for roleplaying
- The world is immediately open to the player, albeit with a level-guided progression (good luck with those cazadors if you go north from Goodsprings)
- Optional tutorial with Sunny Smiles that actually feels important story-wise
- No prison
New Vegas was just a fantastic game overall. Mostly due to the fact that Bethesda didn't make it, that really worked in its favor I think.
Yes, but NV was made by Obsidian and not Bathesda.
That was actually a pretty terrible intro because you're delivering a package for no apparent reason. (Is it ever even explained?) In Fallout 3, your backstory is that you were born.
Did you play the game? Your package is the silver chip that upgrades Mr House's defenses. There were six other decoys but you were caught by Benny who robbed and attempted to kill you.
Unless you mean your characters motivation for becoming a courier, in which case thats like asking why you were born in the first place.
The distinction between Witcher 3 and New Vegas is that the Witcher series is specifically about Geralt. If I'm playing a Fallout game, I expect to not have some sort of pre-determined status already applied to me.
There's nothing contradictory about starting in prison. A lot of people have been wrongly imprisoned - especially good people by corrupt authorities.
Iiuu
Yeah but that's just adding an element of corruption that will never be addressed by the game and you'll have to explain for yourself. I can certainly see his point in that it's not impossible to explain, but will require a bit of mental gymnastics
@@tylergalligani6450 But doing mental gymnastics is already required for any roleplaying and starting from a jail has its advantages too. It gives your character a realistic reason why they would be rusty in every skill and starting at level 1. It's also the simplest way to place a character into a world without imposing any other backstory to them.
@@2starkiller I disagree that it's "required" but I don't think the mental gymnastics required for starting a character in prison is detrimental, I just think it's worth acknowledging that the traditional elder scrolls opening does in fact force a role player to do some mental gymnastics. Pretty much everyone playing the game is going to be totally fine with that tiny amount of mental gymnastics required or will outright ignore the implications of the openings altogether, but I do think the openings could be improved upon with a more neutral scenario
@@tylergalligani6450 I personally can't come up with a more neutral starting point that would fit any character so I see mental gymnastics necessary. The other solution RPGs sometimes offer is having 3 background stories to choose from but I think it restricts your character a lot and leads to situations where your character knows things you don't which makes immersion a lot more difficult. I think Morrowind's intro and main story as a whole does the prisoner bit a lot better than Oblivion. It never makes you the chosen one, you'll eventually be seen by some as the chosen one but you have the freedom to decide whether or not you believe it or if you're just going along with them for pragmatic purposes.
3:51:35 "This is your last chance to turn back."
Oh no. I'm committed now.
I've watched this video in its entirety more times than I'd be willing to admit. While I don't agree with every point, this is undoubtedly one of the most thoughtful and well-explained retrospectives I've seen, especially on an Elder Scrolls game. There are enough thoughts to reflect on and learn from that I never feel like I'm wasting my time, despite it lasting the length of five hours.
Yeah, This video is the reason why I made a playlist labeled "hours to waste". I've watched/listened to this at least a dozen times.
I've been watching this video for like a month and i'm only half way through. I fall asleep to it every night so I end up watching it in 5 - 10 minute chunks, i'm gonna feel super sad once I finish it. maybe i'll just start it again when I do
June Pottage Sooo..did you start it again or how are you making yourself fall asleep nowadays?
Hanfgurkenhasser why does that question sound creepy?
In my opinion have npcs that just stand there takes my immersion away. Morrowinds repeated text didn't really bother me. when i play say the witcher 3 there are so many people on screen but i just look at them as obsticles to my destination and make me feel like the game is more shallow than it really is. The reason I like tes games is because the world is filled with live people you can talk to and not blank canvases that are just there to get in your way.
Your issue with radiant AI is interesting, since the thieves guild questlines tend to hinge on radiant AI and it makes it the best variation of the guild in the series where youre actually planning heists, learning npc schedules, waiting til there gone or asleep and avoiding patrolling guards
Yes but Its about the only time radiant AI is successfully implemented to improve upon a gameplay or narrative aspect. Its in the way the rest of the game IMO!!!
@@creepysinisterpasta i remember there was an orc chick (Mazoga) who would go to this big ass cave once a week at a certain time of day, and in the cave were shit tons of bandits fighting marauders. The bandits dropped black bows that you could sell to the count in the nearby castle for 100 gold each. you could make some quick money and xp doing that, and it was pretty fun having this giant 3 sided battle in a cave. You also had to try and grab all the bows first or the orc chick would grab them. They all respawned after a few days so you could keep doing it.
Merciless Mode but it’s that or have an empty feeling world. The biggest city in Tamriel should not have < 100 citizens.
@@gordanblansky7137 Lol what do you think about Skyrim's population? It got worse XD. I've seen a lot of concept art on the imperial city and in the lore it was supposed to be this huge fortress like metropolis with thousands-millions of people living in it, that is a real city. I guess it comes down to the good old saying "engine limitations". Cause you have to understand when making the game did you ever think with all the art, that was their vision on what they wanted to make before reality hit them on the face? I hope Es6 doesn't disappoint though with the newer technology.
Or you could just..... enchant your armor with 100% chameleon and make the dark brotherhood and thieves guild a cakewalk.
Every RPG developer needs to see this.
I'm one of them!
See it and disregard it. Sorry but it seems like this guy doesn't have that great of an imagination.
I was a bit older than you when I first tried Oblivion, but the nostalgia it brings is immense. That's why I don't play it anymore, I don't want to ruin the memories. Thanks for the 5 hours though. Would gladly watch 5 more hours of you talking about Elder Scrolls.
Making this video didn't ruin my old memories of Oblivion (nothing could), but it did capture that feeling of getting older. If anything, this video made me appreciate my memories of Oblivion even more, so I wouldn't be afraid of replaying it.
No other game has stayed with me like Oblivion. One of the greatest.
There really are people who think this. That's so crazy to me.
@@backupschmliff1156 dawg hate to be that guy but ratio
@@therealbfunke Counter ratio. Morrowind better.
No dawg you lost 42 -1, and liked your own comment
@therealbfunke Learn to count bro. You have zero likes. And of course I like my own comment. Why would I comment it if I didn't like it? Duh
The whole bioware style codex idea made me cringe. I loved collecting and reading the little books in these games and replacing that with a little scroll down text window is like replacing an old first edition book with an kindle ebook. It would just be immersion breaking for the elder scrolls series to do that, and if they did I wouldn't bother playing them. You should be coming across old dusty tomes in someones basement or whatever and learning more about the wider universe, not looking through some plain text screen in the menus like you do in the Witcher. (That being one of the few things I dont like about the Witcher series)
IMO they should double down on the books and find a way to encourage the players to go out and research the creature or treasures or whatever they may be and actually use their brains, but as we all know from Skyrim's puzzles alone, Bethesda doesn't trust the players to be smart enough to do such things and they want everyone to experience 100% of the game.
I mean how hard would it be to give a quest like - we need to lure out and kill a monster or whatever and one of the ways the player could go about planning is to go and asks at the book store for any reference material on this monster. They pull out an old book about some forgotten time and tell you there's something that might help on page 8 or whatever. Then you start skimming through the book searching for the right page and before you know it your swept up in some interesting short story that builds upon the games universe and makes you want to read more.
My thoughts exactly. I loved all the books in TES, tbh.
100% agree! I hate the Bioware codex! Everything looked too modern and computer-like. I was frustrated by the UI. I'm like, where are we, Mass Effect?? We are in DRAGON AGE!
Man this is such a quality video. I'd absolutely love a retrospective of some sort like this for the rest of the games in TES.
Thank you for making this. You have a really great speaking voice and I never got tired of listening to it, even after 5 hours.
I also enjoyed the bits of humour here and there throughout your video. They gave me a good laugh.
Your voice and video style remind me a bit of Matthewmatosis. Your points were well explained and concise. And you showed a great amount of knowledge and understanding for Oblivion, the other Bethesda games, RPG games in general and indeed video games in general as well. I just really enjoyed this video. It's put together so well. So thanks once again, genuinely.
The fact felt we were having video essays nearly 4 years ago this long shows that creators have had this ability for a long time
no mental gymnastics required for a good or holy character being in Jail... haven't you ever heard of wrongful incarceration or people being framed?
lol get fucked
One Thou Wou oh shit
I felt his first point was incredibly weak, and he harps on it for a very long time. His suggestion to just have the character immigrate to wherever also presents problems for people trying to roleplay as villainous characters who might want to avoid official routes like that but he seems to completely forget that in favor of talking about good aligned characters. He's complaining about a problem with no real solution.
The real solution would be a prologue segment that leads into you entering the game world. Your choices in the prologue directly reflecting your introduction to the world. Kingdom Come Deliverance almost did this, but they fell flat with making your choices carry any weight.
i like a lot of what he said but some of the things are either wrong or just petty. Radiant AI is extremely important to TES. One of the things that sells the TES world is that NPCs act more like real people.
It was 2006 my mom worked hard and bought me an Xbox 360 I had sonic 06 and oblivion I will never forget playing this in the morning before school
This game holds a special place in my heart.
That sounds like a nice nostalgic memory
Must be thankful to your mom
Who has time to play an Elder Scrolls game *before* school?
Who has time to go to school after playing an Elder Scrolls game?
@@dtrinitypersonal Shut up dude
throw this on every few months when i can't sleep, thanks for making it
I find it fascinating that I can thoroughly enjoy a video that I mostly disagree with. Amazing job
Edit: Giving this a thorough rewatch and giving the last three ES games a replay, I can safely say my stance on a lot of things has changed heavily. This video is phenomenal
Second time watching this. I don't know why, but this video is very easy to sit through and watch to the end. It's really well done!
TES IV: Oblivion was my first foray into the RPG world. It’s also my fave of the bunch that I’ve played. The caves are a lil weak (they all look the same), but gameplay just feels better than Skyrim. I’d rather close the Oblivion gates (get the Sigil Stone, and enchant my weapon/armor), than do the main quest for Skyrim, which I still haven’t finished!!! Skyrim lets u be an Orc wizard character, but Oblivion makes it harder for u to become one b/c of the characteristics of ur race. It also allows u to receive the benefits of ur race as well. (A Wood Elf is more handy with a bow, Dark Elf is better with magic, but has a weakness to it as well, etc). What can I say...I’m just a sucker for Oblivion!!!!
Skyrim has one of my favorite quests, "Lost to the Ages"
In it, you find the journal of an archeologist, and she details the locations of supposed locations of a rare mineral mined by the Dwemer; Aetherium.
To find the locations, you had to cross reference the locations marked on a map in the journal with your own overworld map, and i found that to be very engaging.
It falls flat because of the "puzzles" in the dungeons, but i really enjoyed finding the locations on my own.
That quest was still bland
@@doriane9184 What's your favorite quest?
@@waterhigh probably discerning the transmundane
@@doriane9184 That quest was still bland
@@waterhigh it is pretty bland. skyrim's questlines are just generally bland especially compared to other ES games
This video is one of the few videos left were the person who have made it genuinely cares about what they put out. I have watched this video many times as it just makes me feel as there is still faith for UA-cam videos. And to see that one of if not my favorite game get a whole in-depth video game review really makes me smile. You should definitely start making videos again because they are detailed masterpieces.
"To enter the painted world the player must first return to the prison cell at the start of the game to get the doll... Wrong game"
Lmao
Laugh your ass off, chosen Undead. The future is nigh upon us.
THIS LAND IS PEACEFUL ITS INHABITANTS KIND
Is it possible to force Bethesda into watching this?
Ferinus 1350 they'd just end up saying "But it just works."
4 years ago lmao
"See that ogre? You can scale it."
Hello Dragon's Dogma.
Zimmerman THE WIND IS PUSHING ME
Still the best Oblivion Retrospective out there, thanks man
This is the greatest retrospective on UA-cam. Please consider making one for New Vegas. I'd rewatch that like hell.
Nah the 8 hour retrospective of Morrowind is the absolute best shit ever. If you like that game or are interested at all, I totally recommend checking it out. It's called "a quick look back at Morrowind" or "a quick retrospective of Morrowind" or something like that. It is THOROUGH and the dude did a TON of research and planning going into the video and it really pays off.
The ending of this video makes me emotional every time.
Uncle Iroh you old head
Bethesda needs to see this video.
Bethesda need to watch hbomberguy's video too.
Mitch
Mehh, let's just stick to this video for now...
Damn right
*They all need to see a lot of videos like this one.*