Bloodmoon is the better DLC. I can recall very little of Tribunal despite having played through it several times, but Bloodmoon sticks in the memory more, and positively so.
Exact same here. It's been almost 20 years but I still remember most of Bloodmoon, while the only thing I remember about Tribunal are the stupid goblins/sewers.
It's weird how you essentially are just a messenger for Raven Rock and you feel so accomplished at the end, whereas Hearthfire homes feel hollow and almost useless even on a character who's rping as a homesteader.
My understanding is that she wants you to wield Trueflame to show her people that you're Nerevar reborn, and get the whole "I'm re-united with my husband" thing, and intends to make you a martyr by killing you and blaming Sotha Sil and Vivec, so she can ascend the Tribunal as a solo act
Interesting. I must say I was a little shocked when I found out "I was her husband". I'm sure that's mentioned in the base-game but I thought that was funny
@@FrostbreakYT While Almalexia mentions it in her Tribunal dialogue specifically, it is mentioned a couple of times in the base game. In the book "The Battle of Red Mountain, and the Rise and Fall of the Tribunal" is the line 'Nerevar's queen, Almalexia'. The book is found in the base game in the Palace of Vivec and the Hall of Justice Secret Library. Additionally, she's referred to as 'the Lover' (whereas Sotha Sil is 'the Teacher', in reference to their roles vis-à-vis Nerevar) in "The Cantatas of Vivec", a book of poems/gospels by Vivec that is found in a few locations in the base game.
@@FrostbreakYT The Tribunal conspired and killed Nerevar in order to get the tools and thus divinity, so this isn't the first time Almalexia betrayed you.
Yeah, your opinion on Tribunal is pretty much the consensus in the community. The big issue to keep in mind is that it was designed to be "end game" content. From a purely story perspective it requires Dagoth Ur's defeat to make sense. But as a result of this, the game expects you to be near an end game character and have a lot of meta knowledge on the game. This is especially an issue with magic because Bethesda's idea for dealing with the power of magic characters was to give a lot of enemies magic immunity and even magic reflection to stop you. Melee doesn't fair much better because they give a bunch of enemies high ability and luck scores and even passive sanctuary (Dodge spell) effects to drop your hit rate to stupid low numbers. It's interesting that you disliked Tribunal because it is often cited as the turning point from Morrowind's open quest structure with actual player choices so the more linear, guided structure seen in Oblivion and Skyrim where they frequently try to trick you with false choices that both lead to the same end (in tribunal if you with for Helseth you're told to do Almalexia's quests "as a spy" but there's no payoff or differences between the questlines minus a couple bonus quests for Helseth where you need to root out some dissidents). Ultimately, Bloodmoon is a MUCH better expansion that utilizes what makes Morrowind great and there are two major questlines (main quest and a colony side quest) that have actual, meaningful branching paths that take the quests in pretty different directions. Especially the main quest where you participate in the same events, but on opposite sides. I absolutely believe you will enjoy Bloodmoon as much as base game. Just be prepared for, uhhh, some very challenging fights because you can't back out at the end. Plus, as a Skyrim fan who most likely did Dragonborn, Bloodmoon sets the stage and informs much of the lore you find in Solstheim and it would be an interesting second look for you. Regardless of whether you decide to do bloodmoon or not, thanks for this video and I look forward to what's next.
Those sewers are AWFUL. There's multiple interconnected areas of them and they ALL look the same, and only ONE leads to the damn Dark Brotherhood base. So bad, and this is coming from a MW vet with thousands of hours in it.
Main issue with Bloodmoon is, that it's not connected to the base game at all. Tribunal gives some closure to main theme, while Bloodmoon is completely separate Skyrim adventure on small island oversaturated with lvl 40 mobs.
@@FrostbreakYT Fun fact: Solstheim was part of Skyrim during the events of Morrowind. But by the time Skyrim takes place, it's part of Morrowind. Because of the Red Year.
Bloodmoon is absolutely a worthwhile DLC! So many unique interactions and quests, one of my favorites things is helping to develop the newly established Raven Rock colony!
LOL as soon as I saw that thumbnail I knew exactly what this vid was about. dw ur 100% not alone tribunal is widely regarded as rushed/subpar. prob a new r/morrowind post on it every few weeks about people being disappointed/upset. bloodmoon is 100% worth it tho don't give up just yet!
wow yeah I just searched in google "morrowind tribunal reddit" and most of the results are people complaining about it (after trying it for the first time). Glad I'm not insane
One thing to consider when playing a game that's old enough to drink is that the DLC was made for the players at that time. That is, people who bought the game in a physical store, installed it from a physical CD-ROM, and kept it on their hard drives, updated with all the patches, the free official plugins, and God knows how many community and self-made plugins (I mean, I made a shitty house for myself in Mournhold because the game didn't provide one. It had a pillow fort for my pack rat, which was all the rage back then). In short, the DLC's are for STACKED characters. The sort of dudes who walk into a random dungeon and kill some bandit with a single swing from Bonecrusher, or any of the other OP endgame weapons. Tribunal wasn't great, but was kind of fun with that kind of character. It brought the challenge back. Anyway, Bloodmoon is better. Because Tribunal was more focused on adding more unique items and big dungeons, but Bloodmoon adds Solstheim. The island. The snowy wasteland. An entire new landmass to explore, that's about a quarter the size of Vvardenfell, with an entirely new culture: The Nords. Oh, and there's more. There's a cool, new story centered around Hircine. There's werewolves. You can become a werewolf. When you unfolded that little map from the expansion box, it's exactly the same as with the base game. You can just see all those fun, new places to explore. The crashed sky ship, the rock formation in the form of a wolf, Thirsk Mead Hall, all of it. It's great. Look, The Shivering Isles is a legendary DLC. It's amazing, it's funny, it's original. But where did they go back to for the DLC of Skyrim? Solstheim. That's how good Bloodmoon is. But be warned, it's tough as balls. It's intended for characters who got STACKED on doing all the quests in base Morrowind, and then got even more STACKED running through Tribunal. I won't lie, the Rieklings kicked my ass. I used that central river as my personal highway with Water Walk.
Ah Yes, Tribunal. I remember it well. 10 Hours of Fetch Quests in the Sewers followed by one of the best, yet unearned conclusions in a game. What is this a... 5 / 10 too much sewers?
Played this only a couple years ago, and I agree with almost everything said in this video. However I love it still specifically for the writing. Even the way characters ask you to do fetch quests makes it sounds more exciting and interesting that it had any right to be. Almalexia is a very tragic character because she was the best of the Tribunal. The fear of losing her power after a millennium drove her mad, but you could still see a glimmer of who she once was and why the people followed her. Even the former Hand she sends you to assassinate legitimately loves her, but his faith has waned. I like it because I felt like it could've happened to anyone in her position. She and Mankar Camoran are my two favorite TES characters. But yeah it's crazy Tribunal has the worst escort mission in Morrowind after the numerous terrible escort missions in base game (without OpenMW). That acolyte got stuck on everything and the quest was nearly unbeatable. As for difficult, it's wild that goblins are stronger than the entire 6th house pretty much. I played a spellsword and found Almalexia much harder than the Imperfect, but the Imperfect was the more fun boss. Clockwork is probably my favorite dungeon in the game and I like both it and ESO's depiction. I think they can coexist. I like the dangerous aspect of it because Sotha Sil was trying "anything" to build a better world, so we should expect "anything", and I feel the exact opposite about steampunk. Anytime I hear that I think of very crude but functional technology, nothing sleek. Also, Dwemer C4. Edit: Oh I almost forgot my fun fact: Barenziah is famous for more than just the books named after her. She played a major role in the defeat of TES' first villain from Arena, Jagar Tharn (last name sound familiar?). She and her son Helseth were also prominent characters in the sequel Daggerfall. While she's mentioned in later games, Morrowind you could say is the end of her journey.
I had played Morrowind for many years before tackling Tribunal and feeling the same way you did about approaching Bloodmoon. Took a break and came back and glad I followed through on it! Bloodmoon offers way more diversity and is far FAR more memorable. Although, I went the whole DLC without knowing that cutscenes were supposed to be playing at certain story beats (classic Bethesda bug) 😅
Someone's probably said it already but a major problem of tribunal is it was rushed/subpar with likely a small budget but it also has the issue of expecting players to have beaten the large majority of content in the base game before starting tribunal; it ends up leading newer players to morrowind to learning that to get the DB to stop jumping them they gotta do some of the DLC early on which utterly floors them in difficulty
Throwing my recommendation behind Tamriel Rebuilt. There is no 'main quest' but wow for fan made, its enthralling to explore it all and as much content as the main game.
You should give Bloodmoon a try, it's way better than Tribunal. Also I can recommend the Tamriel Rebuilt Mod if you want to visit Deshaan and the rest of mainland Morrowind. That mod alone is bigger than the base game + the DLC and it's been in development for many years with more updates to come.
Hey! Just wanted to say I love your videos-subscribed right away! I think Morrowind really appeals to a niche group, beyond the hardcore TES and RPG fans. It feels like a spiritual cousin to those old Choose Your Own Adventure books. There’s so much reading and decision-making, like, “Want to know this? Go here. Want to figure that out? Try over there.” It’s such a refreshing callback to when games didn’t spoon-feed you every little thing. Watching you play totally motivated me to pick it up again. I honestly forgot how much games today hold your hand until I saw how raw and challenging Morrowind is. It’s frustrating at times, sure, but that’s exactly what makes the sense of accomplishment so satisfying when you figure things out. This is how games should be! And bonus points: no censorship! Thank you for keeping it real!
I’m on my sick leave and I’ve binge-watched all your videos, and I must say - I love your content. It is amazing how much your channel developed in such a short time, please keep up the good work! Thank you for the videos!
I think you're basically correct in your assesment. One very minor thing for me, at least, is that I think of the Clockwork City less as ordinary "steampunk", and more as "weird technomagic reality-altering weirdness", which sorta explains the tons of circuit-like patterns on the walls. The chunkiness? Eh, maybe not so much.
Of the two, Bloodmoon is definitely the better of the two DLCs. Tribunal is considered divisive at best, even among diehard fans, for many of the reasons you stated. And yeah, you ain't wrong. One of my only real takeaways from Tribunal has ever been "Clockwork city cool. Sotha Sil cool." And everything else gets binned from my memory. Bloodmoon on the other hand is a much more chill, fun experience that plays to the strengths of base Morrowind with more emphasis on exploration and the world. I greatly enjoy it, and it's worth going there even as a Solstheim time capsule.
The lore, atmsophere and sense of freedom and replayability especially with mods is where the game shines for me. The combat system is something you get used to and it's not a big deal after the inital couple of levels once your stats are better. As to the main quests and dlcs, I never bothered to much with that, I prefer to make my own adventures. But it's interesting to see others go through that aspect of the game and see what they think.
Yes I remember those feelings. It's somewhat of a sugar coating, but if you consider Almalexia, who has gone mad from losing the ability to renew her beloved divinity, to be the one pulling the strings from the start, the fetch quests start to make a sense. She's trying to kill off the Nerevarine and simply uses them as a means to an end. To the player, however, Mournhold is still just a place that has everything jacked up to end-game levels. The clerks have big speechcraft skills, there's Gaenor the max luck guy and everything just works with bigger numbers in general. I think the biggest area of effect I saw in vanilla Morrowind was the fireball from a dremora. Here you can't outrun the blast that fills 90% of the room :D
I am completely into Morrowind nostalgia 😅 If you know how it works, you can rush through the fetch quests (boots of blinding speed - yay!) and have some fun speaking to all these well written NPCs and the great lore behind the two big powers of the city. Also enemies are quite challenging even if you are experienced (damn Gaenor and Salas Volar have killed me so many times). Almalexia is one of my favourite villains at all. Also the side quests are much stronger than in base game Morrowind for me. Does it deserve a better score than base game MW? Depends on you - I am used to the repetitive dungeons of this over 20 year old game and play the main story once a year before christmas. So nostalgia seems to be very helpful if you want to enjoy outdated games. But your video was great - I really like people giving Morrowind a chance! :) Keep on the great work.
Do Bloodmoon. You're not going to be disappointed. Tribunal (from the lens of teenage me) was definitely the inferior DLC / story in all of Morrowind. The theme was cool, though.
@Frostbreak, I sure hope you choose to continue. I've never completely finished Morrowind, but I absolutely love seeing you play through both the good and the bad. I have to admit that seeing you "suffer" makes me want to restart the game again, haha. Great video as always! Thank you!
If you start playing bloodmoon ,which i recommend you with my heart ,pls try the tamriel rebuilt mod too, where you can visit the mainland of morrowind and immerse yourself more into the lord and magical world that is morrowind with the many other houses such as indoril
It took me years to figure this out since i mostly played Melee Warriors. But projectiles (spells, arrows, bolts, and thrown weapons) can intercept spells cast at you if you hit them midair
Funnily enough, I didn't even realize the Dark Brotherhood stuff was part of the DLC. Heck, I just handwaved it. I was around level 14 or so, got tired of them constantly attacking me in my sleep, so I went over there, hunted them down, killed them all and went right back to Vvardenfell to continue what I was doing. Swat them down like an annoying fly buzzing in my ear and went back to the base game as if their entire existence were trivial, they were pests. They made themselves my problem, I made them nobody's problem.
the most exciting thing for me in tribunal are the dwemer ghosts you find under mournhould. Everyone says they all disappeared out of existence but i guess the ghosts are spared.
Tip for ESO stealth. Max out medium armor. Stealth is based off of detect radius instead of fully positional based. So when something says reduce detect radius that's what makes you stealthy.
The reason enemies like Dagoth Ur and the goblin warchiefs keep bugging out I believe has to do with a framerate bug. I've noticed at too high framerates my characters will "slide" on the ground after a jump and has a harder time sticking to the ground, but also escort quests are for some reason harder to do at 144fps than at 80fps. I recommend framerate limiting and using the Morrowind Code Patch.
I saw your videos, I have a lot of things to share!!! First I don’t know if you got the fists of rangulf? I don’t know how to spell it, in the sixth house base when you get corprus The guy in the haunted mansion is one of the only ways to get the daedric bow Daedric quest and items in this game are awesome, my favorite is the the one were they give you a bear skull helmet There is a dragon bone armor in the game is you are a Skyrim fan The morag tong is a great guild to join, at least for me and one is the only ways to get the fortify skill spell If you like enchanted equipment you need to get the azura star You can build armor in mournhold There is also another special vendor in caldera Blood moon have a set of arrows that are just fun to use Use the original plugins for the game (kind of mini dlc) they make the game a little more immersive and also get you area effect arrows Medium armor rocks in this game, adamantine is awesome And so much more
P..S. Vivec does talk about you killing the mad Amalexia. He basically says that he knew that would happen after the Heart of Lorkhan was destroyed and that the Dunmer will go back to worshiping the Good Daedra and he leaves Morrowind.
Tribunal is a dungeon crawl for players that want and would enjoy that. It's not an excuse, I myself enjoyed it when I was a stoner in highschool and I think I blocked out a lot of the sewers, or even just was so stoned I was lost and confused through this DLC. However, Bloodmoon is tits. Bloodmoon is a great DLC what you were expecting to find in Tribunal and were disappointed Bloodmoon will be much more fun for you. There's lots of new monsters not exactly game changing mechanics but I believe its the first time you'll see mounted monsters. Werewolves, spirits and some small variety of undead which is admittedly disappointing. I love TES:III Morrowind. I played it on the old school Xbox soon after it came out and it in-turn with tabletop roleplaying games has helped mould my entire fantasy love. These videos are great keep it up, I'm enjoying your deep delve into 2003. Also, TES:II and TES:I Arena & Redguard respectively are available on Steam, you should look into playing those. They are much more ready lore driven and the gameplay is a lot like a DOS fps like Wizardry
Bloodmoon is very different, yes. Whereas Tribunal is basically like an MMO end-game questing area designed to keep players busy for a little bit while waiting for the next expansion, Bloodmoon is like a smaller version of the base game: New map, new storyline, new NPCs, new items, completely removed from Vvardenfell.
When I was a kid I played the game out of order and finished Tribunal before the main quest. No guides and an under level character didn’t make for a fun time but I did it and it’s still my proudest elderscrolls achievement. I couldn’t do something like that today, I’d lose my mind.
If you liked exploring Vvardenfell you will like Bloodmoon, sure the setting is not the same But the worldbuilding is great and you have a lot of stuff to do thereAnd you will get some nice Skyrim vibes and also see what Solstheim looked like before Red Mountain eruption
I liked Bloodmoon more than Tribunal myself. If you do play Bloodmoon, go a bit easier on the pure frost magic build. Being a snow-bound heavily Nord-focused region, frost may not be the best offensive choice.
Ive come back to Morrowind probably once every other year since 2002. In that time, I think Ive done Tribunal once, maybe twice. Ive come back for Bloodmoon alone multiple times. I think especially if you've played Skyrim before coming to Morrowind, Bloodmoon is particularly cool as a proto-Skyrim.
I never even finished Tribunal, and I didn’t even play Bloodmoon. I just made a new character and installed Tamriel Rebuilt. It’s the size of several DLCs, the quests are well-written, the world design is beautiful.
Still awesome of you to tough out this Sewer/10 dlc regardless, it's always a slog to get through. Also the appraisal of RPGs where your actions directly influence the story at the players discretion- had me realizing that you'd *really* enjoy Baldur's Gate 3 if you haven't considered it already. Another out of comfort zone game that did that same 'Morrowind when it hits' moment imo
I heard DLC, and I kinda knew where it was going. I like some of the things they did in Tribunal, but it wasn't great. And as much as other people seem to like Bloodmoon, it just didn't feel quite the same as the base game. I will recommend the mod Tamriel Rebuilt though...that's a really good mod, and probably a few videos worth of content lol.
Since the ESO format sadly, sadly wasn't doing so well lately, how about you do a sort of laid-back review of the alliance's zone as one vid for each alliance, just giving your general impressions and some thoughts about exploration and story? I want to get into ESO in the future and your videos are helping to inform me where to spend time and most importantly, where to start.
Idunno if I mind the sewers in Tribunal, a lot of the caves on the mainland kind of blur together to me. Not in a bad way, I do actually remember a lot of the memorable ones, but physically they also look very samey sometimes.
I'll have to recommend you Gothic 1 and 2. 1st came out bit before Morrowind and I like both of the games a lot more than any Bethesda games. It would be interesting to see your thoughts on those some time in the future.
I gotta say this about the clockwork city design - even playing this in 2004 as a teenager, it fell flat for me. It wasn't what it was hyped up to be. I get the sense that because they couldn't actually DO curved lines (low poly count) and gleaming brass (no material textures) they decided to just cram it with spinning gears and intricately-detailed textures, but the textures are still that rust-brown shade that makes everything look dingy and old, which makes sense for dwemer ruins but not so much for Sotha Sil's city which isn't supposed to have been neglected for so long.
So I’ve not played blood moon but Tamriel rebuilt will be some of the best content Morrowind has to offer. I’d say pick 2 guilds and complete there quest in the major cities as there’s no “main” quest. Skyrim home of the nords is an absolute delight as well. If I don’t feel like playing morrowind I just hop to the main land and suddenly it’s been 2 weeks lol. Lots of quality dungeons and fantastic writing. Skip the dlc and do the stuff add by the fans. Sorry tribunal was a bust I remember liking it but it has been a while. Live your video!
1:13 Bro did you skill up by practise? Make Potions, kill ordinators, sell that stuff and go to the trainer, youre not limited to 5 skillpoints per lvl like in the other titles. and turn the fog back on :(
I understand this is against the spirit of the review, but I feel like your experience could’ve been improved by following a guide. I realize that’s not the goal but I genuinely feel with some older games unfortunately that should be the intended first time experience. However, you hopefully go onto tri blood moon because it is commonly regarded as the best expansion tomorrow whereas I believe this one is the least favored.😅
Wanted to start by saying that I love watching your journey into Morrowind, it reminds me so much of my own process with the game. Being a huge Skyrim fan for years, then reluctantly trying it. Hating it at first and then irrationally falling in love with it. As for the DLC itself, I am with you. I loved the base game. But The Tribunal was just a torture experience and extremely embarrassing in comparison to the base game. There were some good parts ofc, e.g. I loved the clockwork city because of how weird and cool it looked, I wish more content took place there. The gear was great. But other than that I don't remember anything that made a positive impression. Mournhold was very soulless imo, it was not very interesting and did not feel like a city one bit. Even Caldera and Suran had more character than Mournhold and that is a huge L. It was supposed to be the capital of Morrowind but did not have that Morrowind feel to it. Honestly, the whole time I felt like I was in some castle instead of a huge metropolis. Which I guess makes sense, considering how Mournhold is really just a district of the greater Almalexia city, but "City of light, city of Magic" as they say, so the whole "It's just a district" does not really cut for me. Dungeon crawling was straight up aids, not only was it poor in content quality but it was equally poor in environment building. Straight up depressing to proceed through. The dark brotherhood were a bunch of bums living in a crackhouse and were, essentially, another shallow plot device used to progress the story. Sotha Sil's underutilization was also a big grievance that I had with the DLC. He could bring so much more than being a Christmas tree decoration. It's just unfortunate that he was expended like this. I also did not like the idea of higher Ordinators, imo it took away from the uniqueness and mystique of the OG ordinators. The color palette, the armor design and that forced "coolness" was too much. The OG Ordinators were these brooding, dark warrior-priests that you knew meant business, they were mysterious and powerful, after all, they were garrisoned to guard the ghostfence alongside Vivec's armigers. There were tidbits of lore that hinted at just how badass and cool they were (Like the Bouyant Armigers, whom are extremely powerful personal soldiers of Vivec, being compared directly to them as rivals, or one of the npc dialogues telling you how Ordinators would conduct raids on the Sixth house, going up the red mountain and beating the crap out of house Dagoth cronies like some crusaders etc.) but you had to look for this information to find it and not only was it rewarding but also provided an organic way of introducing you to the more esoteric aspects of the lore. In contrary, the Tribunal does not shut the fuck up about how strong and powerful and better the higher Ordinators are and it's like, ok bro, where were these higher Ordinators when the Argonians invaded? The Saxhleel literally sacked Mournhold, requiring House Redoran's intervention to drive them back, which is like, how are you going to call yourself the strongest warriors Morrowind has to offer, and then not only lose horribly to Argonian invaders but also let your city be destroyed and then get outperformed by House Redoran soldiers. like Yikes. Compare that to the regular Ordinators and the aura difference is crazy. Almalexia, in my opinion, could have been written to be a more interesting character with more complex motives. Compared to her counterparts, she is extremely boring and cartoonishly evil. Overall, just a really bad DLC imo. Which is quite strange given how every other Elder Scrolls DLC is literally peak. Overall, hope you have fun with Bloodmoon.
I do hope Bloodmoon gets a chance, I remember playing this game, not when it came out because I'm broke all the time even as a kid, but when I was able to snag the game of the year edition, used and for cheap, I was all in. And thankfully, all the DLC was included but Tribunals doesn't stand out to me much at all. I do think I remember the DLC's being a bit higher leveled, though. So it might be a double edged sword starting a new, informed character reroll but the low level is likely to pose an issue. But it's hard to say if a new build that doesn't miss quite as much or can use magic would be easier or if John Fortnite could handle himself
As I recall, the best thing about the Tribunal DLC was the improvements to the journal. When TES III: Morrowind was published, the Player's Journal was only accessible on a chronological basis, ie. it was like reading a diary with entries following one another in the order the information was obtained by the Player. The Journal entries could not be sorted by source or subject matter, it was simply available in the order which the player obtained the information.. If you used those features in your earlier playthroughs, you failed to experience the "True 2002 Experience" upon which you take so much pride. I also noticed that your game failed to crash as much as it did in 2002. Tribunal was a real gamechanger, not for the DLC quests, lore, etc. Instead it was a gamechanger due to the Quality of Life improvements that came with it.
Your 100% right. I just discovered that addition at the start of this video and I should've mentioned it. being able to actually sort by quest is revolutionary for MW xD
You gotta play the Tamriel Rebuilt and Project Tamriel mods. They add a bunch of lore friendly content like the rest of Morrowind or Cyrodiil and Skyrim. Specifically Cyrodiil and Skyrim based off the lore from Morrowind, not the retconned lore after Oblivion. Project Cyrodiil just had it's first major release and it's really fun to play
After you play through bloodmoon, check out Tamriel Rebuilt and Project Tamriel. Both add another 100 hours easily and are integrated completely seamlessly. It is absolutely on par with base game morrowind in quality without some of the bullshit quest design of the base game and especially Tribunal
I'm an old player that got to play them when they were released. And tbh, I don't really even remember doing the tribunal content at all but bloodmoon I really do remember fondly
Around 15-18 minutes into the video, I realized a notion: “I wonder if they made so much ‘content’ related to the sewers because I’m oblivion, the sewers were somewhat handled ‘well’ and had some usage in that game’s main story.”
I really try my best to not take for granted my ultra modded install of morrowind, because there's a way to fix everything. But tribunal is almost not even worth fixing with mods although it's fun to do so. Bloodmoon is 100% better, though its also a little bit contrived. Other people have suggested Tamriel Rebuilt, and I completely agree. It's an extension of vanilla but with even more polish. Eventually the project will restructure tribunal so the environments will be better, even if the story stays the same. Lol sorry for the eall of text
Tribunal's worst aspect is going to the Clockwork City and finding it's a tiny 15 minute long dungeon. Using the Sotha Sil Expanded mod (with Gestalt Revoiced) you get what Bethesda SHOULD have given us. It's very hard, but god is it good.
Tribunal is like closure on the Tribunal age of Morrowind, along with a gameplay challenge for high level characters. Everything in Mournhold hits like a truck, so it's quite a lot harder than most content in vanilla Morrowind. Almalexia is really designed to whip your ass, and well, go to Bloodmoon, you'll get a few more high level enemies to fight. I enjoy them both, but I 100% understand the frustration and monotony of Tribunal, as the mob diversity is basically 0. That part is dramatically improved in Bloodmoon.
Played Bloodmoon 20 years ago and i don't remember ANYTHING about the story - BUT I had a ton of fun and that DLC was amazing and I remember that still to this day
Unfortunate that you didn't enjoy Tribunal but I really enjoyed seeing a fresh reaction from someone who played ESO first. Bloodmoon is a lot better I think and the other DLCs are of mixed quality. As a Skyrim player I think you'll find 2003's version of Nords interesting. Tamriel Rebuilt and Project Tamriel content is higher quality than vanilla these days.
You gotta do Solstheim! You have to get the Daedric Pauldron from the top of the waterfall in the cave! It's the only way to get a full Daedric set in Morrowind without slaying NPC's
once you are done with your "first playthrough without help" of the game and dlcs, you should use the list of all quests in the uesp wiki to experience how much content actually is in this world. after that probably give the various mods that exist for this game a chance. stuff like postprocessing shaders and high detail texture packs make this game look almost like vanilla skyrim. tamriel rebuilt adds some portions of the mainland with new quests (needs a new playthrough). if you are still up for more. sureai (the makers of enderal and nehrim) also had total conversions for morrowind called Arktwend and Myar Aranath. and who knows what else slumbers out there. also im surprised you enjoyed the magic system. most enemies have a chance to resist or reflect magic, at least in the basegame. so using magic mostly results in your own death due to getting a drain health 100pts for 1 sec spell being reflected back at you. also do yourself a favor and never start abusing the alchemy system. i basically ruined an entire run because when you have 17000 personality, and the potion wears off, everyone who you have encountered so far hates your guts cause of the perceived loss of personality. so i was forced to rely on those potions for the rest of the run.
I never finished Tribunal, but I remember liking the new mobs and locations. The other DLC is fun just on the premise, but again I have no cluie if the story or quest structure is good - just that becoming werefolf was amazing and I had tons of fun with that.
That's still a frost spell! At least with openMW all "blast" spells (regardless of damage type) have that explosion effect. It's called "frost blast" which you can see at 0:37. Very expensive but good for AOE
Bloodmoon is the best DLC for Morrowwind. Hell I think it's one of the best TES DLC's period. Not gonna lie I remember starting Tribunal back in the day and I don't think I ever finished it.
Yeah, Tribunal is not the best experience. You are 100% right on "Too Much Sewers". There is some stuff in the deeper dungeons that's kinda neat to explore and find neat loot. It basically is a direct continuation of the events of you being the Nerevarine in the base game. Bloodmoon is a much more solid experience overall with a lot more stuff to just randomly explore, but it isn't necessarily as connected to the main story events around being Nerevar reborn. -someone who first played morrowind in high school when it was brand new
Tamriel Rebuilt is absolutely FANTASTIC. also maybe try the mod "skyrim home of the nords" there's also an entire fan GAME on the same version of gamebryo, called Anthirin or something? it's a prequel to Enderal. i'm certain you heard of it.
After defeating Almalexia and leaving her temple, Azura appears with thanks, just like in Morrowind. You didn't show her, so I assume you missed it :D As for the bug with the Nerevarine weapon, it's because it's omitted from the king's quest line, which are pretty cool by the way and rarely send you to the sewers ;) There's a quest during this line with a fight with Karrod :)
Bloodmoon is waay better and definitely a different experience. It's a whole new open island, you get to build up a settlement, you get to become a werewolf, you get to collect ice to make new armour, it's great.
Hey frost i strongly recommend giving the house conflicts in base morrowind their own videos even the thieves and fighters guild, morag tong and the mages guild all have interesting dilemmas really insanely cool nuance that puts tribunal to shame. Bloodmoon is extremely difficult and far better then tribunal by a billion degrees
Bloodmoon is the better DLC. I can recall very little of Tribunal despite having played through it several times, but Bloodmoon sticks in the memory more, and positively so.
The story is implemented so much better then Tribunal.
Thanks for letting me know, and I'm glad i'm not alone. I'm not uninstalling MW just yet... I think I might make the return after some other videos.
@@FrostbreakYT bloodmoon is well worth it, very fun area with fun nords and stuff
Exact same here. It's been almost 20 years but I still remember most of Bloodmoon, while the only thing I remember about Tribunal are the stupid goblins/sewers.
Yea, Bloodmoon is a good game, Tribunal is for making money (for Bethesda and your player character)
you get to build a town, own a mead hall, and meet crackhead santa in bloodmoon. Totally worth it over tribunal.
It's weird how you essentially are just a messenger for Raven Rock and you feel so accomplished at the end, whereas Hearthfire homes feel hollow and almost useless even on a character who's rping as a homesteader.
LOL crackhead santa lololol you aint wrong really xDD
Bloodmoon is still kinda shit though let's be real lmao. I love Morrowind but the dlcs just kinda suck
I love crackhead santa, he brings joy to all
Sounds like fun :)
My understanding is that she wants you to wield Trueflame to show her people that you're Nerevar reborn, and get the whole "I'm re-united with my husband" thing, and intends to make you a martyr by killing you and blaming Sotha Sil and Vivec, so she can ascend the Tribunal as a solo act
Interesting. I must say I was a little shocked when I found out "I was her husband". I'm sure that's mentioned in the base-game but I thought that was funny
@@FrostbreakYT While Almalexia mentions it in her Tribunal dialogue specifically, it is mentioned a couple of times in the base game.
In the book "The Battle of Red Mountain, and the Rise and Fall of the Tribunal" is the line 'Nerevar's queen, Almalexia'. The book is found in the base game in the Palace of Vivec and the Hall of Justice Secret Library.
Additionally, she's referred to as 'the Lover' (whereas Sotha Sil is 'the Teacher', in reference to their roles vis-à-vis Nerevar) in "The Cantatas of Vivec", a book of poems/gospels by Vivec that is found in a few locations in the base game.
@@FrostbreakYT The Tribunal conspired and killed Nerevar in order to get the tools and thus divinity, so this isn't the first time Almalexia betrayed you.
Yeah, your opinion on Tribunal is pretty much the consensus in the community.
The big issue to keep in mind is that it was designed to be "end game" content. From a purely story perspective it requires Dagoth Ur's defeat to make sense. But as a result of this, the game expects you to be near an end game character and have a lot of meta knowledge on the game. This is especially an issue with magic because Bethesda's idea for dealing with the power of magic characters was to give a lot of enemies magic immunity and even magic reflection to stop you. Melee doesn't fair much better because they give a bunch of enemies high ability and luck scores and even passive sanctuary (Dodge spell) effects to drop your hit rate to stupid low numbers.
It's interesting that you disliked Tribunal because it is often cited as the turning point from Morrowind's open quest structure with actual player choices so the more linear, guided structure seen in Oblivion and Skyrim where they frequently try to trick you with false choices that both lead to the same end (in tribunal if you with for Helseth you're told to do Almalexia's quests "as a spy" but there's no payoff or differences between the questlines minus a couple bonus quests for Helseth where you need to root out some dissidents).
Ultimately, Bloodmoon is a MUCH better expansion that utilizes what makes Morrowind great and there are two major questlines (main quest and a colony side quest) that have actual, meaningful branching paths that take the quests in pretty different directions. Especially the main quest where you participate in the same events, but on opposite sides. I absolutely believe you will enjoy Bloodmoon as much as base game. Just be prepared for, uhhh, some very challenging fights because you can't back out at the end.
Plus, as a Skyrim fan who most likely did Dragonborn, Bloodmoon sets the stage and informs much of the lore you find in Solstheim and it would be an interesting second look for you.
Regardless of whether you decide to do bloodmoon or not, thanks for this video and I look forward to what's next.
Oblivion isn't linear.
@@greenscheme2040 Its major questlines sure are.
Playing morrowind, getting lost in vivec city. Playing mournhold dlc, getting lost in the sewer, classic morrowind experience 😂
Those sewers are AWFUL. There's multiple interconnected areas of them and they ALL look the same, and only ONE leads to the damn Dark Brotherhood base. So bad, and this is coming from a MW vet with thousands of hours in it.
I don't know the sewers in vivic city had dedric shrines that if you talked to and completed their quests gave great weapons and armor
wait until he plays bloodmoon as a frost wizard when everything has frost resistance lmao
Main issue with Bloodmoon is, that it's not connected to the base game at all. Tribunal gives some closure to main theme, while Bloodmoon is completely separate Skyrim adventure on small island oversaturated with lvl 40 mobs.
Could be cool to make a comparison video between Solstheim in MW vs Skyrim
@@FrostbreakYT Du it
@@FrostbreakYT Fun fact: Solstheim was part of Skyrim during the events of Morrowind. But by the time Skyrim takes place, it's part of Morrowind. Because of the Red Year.
Bloodmoon is absolutely a worthwhile DLC! So many unique interactions and quests, one of my favorites things is helping to develop the newly established Raven Rock colony!
Yeah I think I'll end up playing it. Just need a bit of a MW break for now :)
LOL as soon as I saw that thumbnail I knew exactly what this vid was about. dw ur 100% not alone tribunal is widely regarded as rushed/subpar. prob a new r/morrowind post on it every few weeks about people being disappointed/upset. bloodmoon is 100% worth it tho don't give up just yet!
wow yeah I just searched in google "morrowind tribunal reddit" and most of the results are people complaining about it (after trying it for the first time). Glad I'm not insane
One thing to consider when playing a game that's old enough to drink is that the DLC was made for the players at that time. That is, people who bought the game in a physical store, installed it from a physical CD-ROM, and kept it on their hard drives, updated with all the patches, the free official plugins, and God knows how many community and self-made plugins (I mean, I made a shitty house for myself in Mournhold because the game didn't provide one. It had a pillow fort for my pack rat, which was all the rage back then). In short, the DLC's are for STACKED characters. The sort of dudes who walk into a random dungeon and kill some bandit with a single swing from Bonecrusher, or any of the other OP endgame weapons. Tribunal wasn't great, but was kind of fun with that kind of character. It brought the challenge back.
Anyway, Bloodmoon is better. Because Tribunal was more focused on adding more unique items and big dungeons, but Bloodmoon adds Solstheim. The island. The snowy wasteland. An entire new landmass to explore, that's about a quarter the size of Vvardenfell, with an entirely new culture: The Nords. Oh, and there's more. There's a cool, new story centered around Hircine. There's werewolves. You can become a werewolf. When you unfolded that little map from the expansion box, it's exactly the same as with the base game. You can just see all those fun, new places to explore. The crashed sky ship, the rock formation in the form of a wolf, Thirsk Mead Hall, all of it. It's great.
Look, The Shivering Isles is a legendary DLC. It's amazing, it's funny, it's original. But where did they go back to for the DLC of Skyrim? Solstheim. That's how good Bloodmoon is. But be warned, it's tough as balls. It's intended for characters who got STACKED on doing all the quests in base Morrowind, and then got even more STACKED running through Tribunal. I won't lie, the Rieklings kicked my ass. I used that central river as my personal highway with Water Walk.
Ah Yes, Tribunal. I remember it well. 10 Hours of Fetch Quests in the Sewers followed by one of the best, yet unearned conclusions in a game. What is this a... 5 / 10 too much sewers?
Played this only a couple years ago, and I agree with almost everything said in this video. However I love it still specifically for the writing. Even the way characters ask you to do fetch quests makes it sounds more exciting and interesting that it had any right to be. Almalexia is a very tragic character because she was the best of the Tribunal. The fear of losing her power after a millennium drove her mad, but you could still see a glimmer of who she once was and why the people followed her. Even the former Hand she sends you to assassinate legitimately loves her, but his faith has waned. I like it because I felt like it could've happened to anyone in her position. She and Mankar Camoran are my two favorite TES characters.
But yeah it's crazy Tribunal has the worst escort mission in Morrowind after the numerous terrible escort missions in base game (without OpenMW). That acolyte got stuck on everything and the quest was nearly unbeatable. As for difficult, it's wild that goblins are stronger than the entire 6th house pretty much. I played a spellsword and found Almalexia much harder than the Imperfect, but the Imperfect was the more fun boss. Clockwork is probably my favorite dungeon in the game and I like both it and ESO's depiction. I think they can coexist. I like the dangerous aspect of it because Sotha Sil was trying "anything" to build a better world, so we should expect "anything", and I feel the exact opposite about steampunk. Anytime I hear that I think of very crude but functional technology, nothing sleek.
Also, Dwemer C4.
Edit: Oh I almost forgot my fun fact: Barenziah is famous for more than just the books named after her. She played a major role in the defeat of TES' first villain from Arena, Jagar Tharn (last name sound familiar?). She and her son Helseth were also prominent characters in the sequel Daggerfall. While she's mentioned in later games, Morrowind you could say is the end of her journey.
I had played Morrowind for many years before tackling Tribunal and feeling the same way you did about approaching Bloodmoon. Took a break and came back and glad I followed through on it! Bloodmoon offers way more diversity and is far FAR more memorable. Although, I went the whole DLC without knowing that cutscenes were supposed to be playing at certain story beats (classic Bethesda bug) 😅
Someone's probably said it already but a major problem of tribunal is it was rushed/subpar with likely a small budget but it also has the issue of expecting players to have beaten the large majority of content in the base game before starting tribunal; it ends up leading newer players to morrowind to learning that to get the DB to stop jumping them they gotta do some of the DLC early on which utterly floors them in difficulty
oh, the hardest boss in the game for me was that damn madwoman with paralysis arrows.
But you get a nice unique weapon, the "bipolar blade" XD
@@lantissino Gaynor is the hardest. His luck is just too high. I remember fighting him after I killed both Vivec and Almalexia lol.
Throwing my recommendation behind Tamriel Rebuilt. There is no 'main quest' but wow for fan made, its enthralling to explore it all and as much content as the main game.
It's on my list. Just have to figure out how to download mods lol
You should give Bloodmoon a try, it's way better than Tribunal. Also I can recommend the Tamriel Rebuilt Mod if you want to visit Deshaan and the rest of mainland Morrowind. That mod alone is bigger than the base game + the DLC and it's been in development for many years with more updates to come.
Well, there is no Deshaan in TR. Maybe a bit if we go with ESO geography.
Yes! I just need to figure out how mods work in Morrowind lol
The area around Mournhold is probably gonna be out in like 2030.
Bloodmoon has an actual map
Hey! Just wanted to say I love your videos-subscribed right away!
I think Morrowind really appeals to a niche group, beyond the hardcore TES and RPG fans. It feels like a spiritual cousin to those old Choose Your Own Adventure books. There’s so much reading and decision-making, like, “Want to know this? Go here. Want to figure that out? Try over there.” It’s such a refreshing callback to when games didn’t spoon-feed you every little thing.
Watching you play totally motivated me to pick it up again. I honestly forgot how much games today hold your hand until I saw how raw and challenging Morrowind is. It’s frustrating at times, sure, but that’s exactly what makes the sense of accomplishment so satisfying when you figure things out. This is how games should be!
And bonus points: no censorship! Thank you for keeping it real!
I’m on my sick leave and I’ve binge-watched all your videos, and I must say - I love your content. It is amazing how much your channel developed in such a short time, please keep up the good work! Thank you for the videos!
Thank you so much! Glad you think so and I'm happy to keep you company during sick leave :)
I think you're basically correct in your assesment. One very minor thing for me, at least, is that I think of the Clockwork City less as ordinary "steampunk", and more as "weird technomagic reality-altering weirdness", which sorta explains the tons of circuit-like patterns on the walls. The chunkiness? Eh, maybe not so much.
Bloodmoon is really good. They completely nailed it with that one.
also very good choice of music as usual. not a classical fan but it works really well with the pacing
thanks :)
Of the two, Bloodmoon is definitely the better of the two DLCs. Tribunal is considered divisive at best, even among diehard fans, for many of the reasons you stated. And yeah, you ain't wrong. One of my only real takeaways from Tribunal has ever been "Clockwork city cool. Sotha Sil cool." And everything else gets binned from my memory.
Bloodmoon on the other hand is a much more chill, fun experience that plays to the strengths of base Morrowind with more emphasis on exploration and the world. I greatly enjoy it, and it's worth going there even as a Solstheim time capsule.
You'll enjoy Bloodmoon, coming from Skyrim. It's set on Solstheim, so you'll get to see some familiar places in a new light
3:10 civvie11 would be proud my brother ^^
The lore, atmsophere and sense of freedom and replayability especially with mods is where the game shines for me. The combat system is something you get used to and it's not a big deal after the inital couple of levels once your stats are better. As to the main quests and dlcs, I never bothered to much with that, I prefer to make my own adventures. But it's interesting to see others go through that aspect of the game and see what they think.
Yes I remember those feelings. It's somewhat of a sugar coating, but if you consider Almalexia, who has gone mad from losing the ability to renew her beloved divinity, to be the one pulling the strings from the start, the fetch quests start to make a sense. She's trying to kill off the Nerevarine and simply uses them as a means to an end.
To the player, however, Mournhold is still just a place that has everything jacked up to end-game levels. The clerks have big speechcraft skills, there's Gaenor the max luck guy and everything just works with bigger numbers in general. I think the biggest area of effect I saw in vanilla Morrowind was the fireball from a dremora. Here you can't outrun the blast that fills 90% of the room :D
Blood Moon is so much better than Tribunal, especially if you played Dragonborn in Skyrim
Good to know, perhaps I will continue
Great vid! Your choice of music is amazing, and they're surprising choices given your age.
I am completely into Morrowind nostalgia 😅
If you know how it works, you can rush through the fetch quests (boots of blinding speed - yay!) and have some fun speaking to all these well written NPCs and the great lore behind the two big powers of the city. Also enemies are quite challenging even if you are experienced (damn Gaenor and Salas Volar have killed me so many times).
Almalexia is one of my favourite villains at all. Also the side quests are much stronger than in base game Morrowind for me.
Does it deserve a better score than base game MW? Depends on you - I am used to the repetitive dungeons of this over 20 year old game and play the main story once a year before christmas. So nostalgia seems to be very helpful if you want to enjoy outdated games.
But your video was great - I really like people giving Morrowind a chance! :)
Keep on the great work.
"Let me know in the comments if the other DLC is significantly better"
It is.
Do Bloodmoon. You're not going to be disappointed. Tribunal (from the lens of teenage me) was definitely the inferior DLC / story in all of Morrowind. The theme was cool, though.
@Frostbreak, I sure hope you choose to continue. I've never completely finished Morrowind, but I absolutely love seeing you play through both the good and the bad. I have to admit that seeing you "suffer" makes me want to restart the game again, haha.
Great video as always! Thank you!
I'm glad my suffering was entertaining xD thanks for watching!
Civvie will be sending a cease and Desist for the sewer counter
who/what is that?
Mournhold. City of Light. City of Magic.
If you start playing bloodmoon ,which i recommend you with my heart ,pls try the tamriel rebuilt mod too, where you can visit the mainland of morrowind and immerse yourself more into the lord and magical world that is morrowind with the many other houses such as indoril
It took me years to figure this out since i mostly played Melee Warriors. But projectiles (spells, arrows, bolts, and thrown weapons) can intercept spells cast at you if you hit them midair
Yeah I had a couple of those "harry potter" moments with mages. That was fun!
If you ever intend to replay Tribunal I highly recommend the mod Tribunal Facelift. It makes the sewers A LOT less painful.
The percentage in the sewers bit had me cracking up. Great video dude
Haha thanks xD
Another great vid! Goated channel
I would 100% do Bloodmoon and maybe take a peak at the "Offical" addons they released. Tribunal was very meh for me as well.
Funnily enough, I didn't even realize the Dark Brotherhood stuff was part of the DLC. Heck, I just handwaved it. I was around level 14 or so, got tired of them constantly attacking me in my sleep, so I went over there, hunted them down, killed them all and went right back to Vvardenfell to continue what I was doing. Swat them down like an annoying fly buzzing in my ear and went back to the base game as if their entire existence were trivial, they were pests. They made themselves my problem, I made them nobody's problem.
After Bloodmoon, you have to play Tamriel Rebuilt and Project Tamriel, you’ll like those vanilla-friendly mods for Morrowind 👍🏻
the most exciting thing for me in tribunal are the dwemer ghosts you find under mournhould. Everyone says they all disappeared out of existence but i guess the ghosts are spared.
Tip for ESO stealth. Max out medium armor. Stealth is based off of detect radius instead of fully positional based. So when something says reduce detect radius that's what makes you stealthy.
The reason enemies like Dagoth Ur and the goblin warchiefs keep bugging out I believe has to do with a framerate bug. I've noticed at too high framerates my characters will "slide" on the ground after a jump and has a harder time sticking to the ground, but also escort quests are for some reason harder to do at 144fps than at 80fps. I recommend framerate limiting and using the Morrowind Code Patch.
I saw your videos, I have a lot of things to share!!!
First I don’t know if you got the fists of rangulf? I don’t know how to spell it, in the sixth house base when you get corprus
The guy in the haunted mansion is one of the only ways to get the daedric bow
Daedric quest and items in this game are awesome, my favorite is the the one were they give you a bear skull helmet
There is a dragon bone armor in the game is you are a Skyrim fan
The morag tong is a great guild to join, at least for me and one is the only ways to get the fortify skill spell
If you like enchanted equipment you need to get the azura star
You can build armor in mournhold
There is also another special vendor in caldera
Blood moon have a set of arrows that are just fun to use
Use the original plugins for the game (kind of mini dlc) they make the game a little more immersive and also get you area effect arrows
Medium armor rocks in this game, adamantine is awesome
And so much more
The Tribunal dlc imo is better for the story because I really like the lore surrounding the Tribunal but Bloodmoon is the more fun dlc
P..S. Vivec does talk about you killing the mad Amalexia. He basically says that he knew that would happen after the Heart of Lorkhan was destroyed and that the Dunmer will go back to worshiping the Good Daedra and he leaves Morrowind.
Yeah tribunal was much more interesting lore wise blood moon changed settings and was a nice break but I still prefer tribunal due to the story
Tribunal is a dungeon crawl for players that want and would enjoy that. It's not an excuse, I myself enjoyed it when I was a stoner in highschool and I think I blocked out a lot of the sewers, or even just was so stoned I was lost and confused through this DLC. However, Bloodmoon is tits. Bloodmoon is a great DLC what you were expecting to find in Tribunal and were disappointed Bloodmoon will be much more fun for you. There's lots of new monsters not exactly game changing mechanics but I believe its the first time you'll see mounted monsters. Werewolves, spirits and some small variety of undead which is admittedly disappointing. I love TES:III Morrowind. I played it on the old school Xbox soon after it came out and it in-turn with tabletop roleplaying games has helped mould my entire fantasy love. These videos are great keep it up, I'm enjoying your deep delve into 2003. Also, TES:II and TES:I Arena & Redguard respectively are available on Steam, you should look into playing those. They are much more ready lore driven and the gameplay is a lot like a DOS fps like Wizardry
Bloodmoon is very different, yes. Whereas Tribunal is basically like an MMO end-game questing area designed to keep players busy for a little bit while waiting for the next expansion, Bloodmoon is like a smaller version of the base game: New map, new storyline, new NPCs, new items, completely removed from Vvardenfell.
Dude I’ve been doing yard-work all day with your videos playing in the background and you have a great narration style 👍
When I was a kid I played the game out of order and finished Tribunal before the main quest. No guides and an under level character didn’t make for a fun time but I did it and it’s still my proudest elderscrolls achievement. I couldn’t do something like that today, I’d lose my mind.
Bloodmoon DLC is WAAAAAAY better!!!
If you liked exploring Vvardenfell you will like Bloodmoon, sure the setting is not the same
But the worldbuilding is great and you have a lot of stuff to do thereAnd you will get some nice Skyrim vibes and also see what Solstheim looked like before Red Mountain eruption
"Eww is so green" I never expected an argonian to say something like that
I hope you do eventually check out Tamriel Rebuilt! As a fan expansion, it's amazing (and I say that as a fairly new Morrowind fan).
+1 for Tamriel Rebuilt, it adds a ton of content and is extremely well made for a community mod/expansion.
My next MW video will likely be Tamriel Rebuilt over Bloodmoon; but we'll see :)
I liked Bloodmoon more than Tribunal myself. If you do play Bloodmoon, go a bit easier on the pure frost magic build. Being a snow-bound heavily Nord-focused region, frost may not be the best offensive choice.
Ive come back to Morrowind probably once every other year since 2002. In that time, I think Ive done Tribunal once, maybe twice. Ive come back for Bloodmoon alone multiple times. I think especially if you've played Skyrim before coming to Morrowind, Bloodmoon is particularly cool as a proto-Skyrim.
I never even finished Tribunal, and I didn’t even play Bloodmoon. I just made a new character and installed Tamriel Rebuilt. It’s the size of several DLCs, the quests are well-written, the world design is beautiful.
Still awesome of you to tough out this Sewer/10 dlc regardless, it's always a slog to get through. Also the appraisal of RPGs where your actions directly influence the story at the players discretion- had me realizing that you'd *really* enjoy Baldur's Gate 3 if you haven't considered it already. Another out of comfort zone game that did that same 'Morrowind when it hits' moment imo
Tamriel rebuilt is very very much peak ES in every thing
I heard DLC, and I kinda knew where it was going. I like some of the things they did in Tribunal, but it wasn't great. And as much as other people seem to like Bloodmoon, it just didn't feel quite the same as the base game. I will recommend the mod Tamriel Rebuilt though...that's a really good mod, and probably a few videos worth of content lol.
Since the ESO format sadly, sadly wasn't doing so well lately, how about you do a sort of laid-back review of the alliance's zone as one vid for each alliance, just giving your general impressions and some thoughts about exploration and story? I want to get into ESO in the future and your videos are helping to inform me where to spend time and most importantly, where to start.
Idunno if I mind the sewers in Tribunal, a lot of the caves on the mainland kind of blur together to me. Not in a bad way, I do actually remember a lot of the memorable ones, but physically they also look very samey sometimes.
mournhold city of light city of magic
I'll have to recommend you Gothic 1 and 2. 1st came out bit before Morrowind and I like both of the games a lot more than any Bethesda games.
It would be interesting to see your thoughts on those some time in the future.
All I remember from Tribunal is fighting Almalexia at the end with a melee build and getting absolutely fucking wiped by her over and over
I gotta say this about the clockwork city design - even playing this in 2004 as a teenager, it fell flat for me. It wasn't what it was hyped up to be. I get the sense that because they couldn't actually DO curved lines (low poly count) and gleaming brass (no material textures) they decided to just cram it with spinning gears and intricately-detailed textures, but the textures are still that rust-brown shade that makes everything look dingy and old, which makes sense for dwemer ruins but not so much for Sotha Sil's city which isn't supposed to have been neglected for so long.
So I’ve not played blood moon but Tamriel rebuilt will be some of the best content Morrowind has to offer. I’d say pick 2 guilds and complete there quest in the major cities as there’s no “main” quest. Skyrim home of the nords is an absolute delight as well. If I don’t feel like playing morrowind I just hop to the main land and suddenly it’s been 2 weeks lol. Lots of quality dungeons and fantastic writing. Skip the dlc and do the stuff add by the fans. Sorry tribunal was a bust I remember liking it but it has been a while. Live your video!
1:13 Bro did you skill up by practise? Make Potions, kill ordinators, sell that stuff and go to the trainer, youre not limited to 5 skillpoints per lvl like in the other titles. and turn the fog back on :(
I understand this is against the spirit of the review, but I feel like your experience could’ve been improved by following a guide. I realize that’s not the goal but I genuinely feel with some older games unfortunately that should be the intended first time experience. However, you hopefully go onto tri blood moon because it is commonly regarded as the best expansion tomorrow whereas I believe this one is the least favored.😅
Wanted to start by saying that I love watching your journey into Morrowind, it reminds me so much of my own process with the game. Being a huge Skyrim fan for years, then reluctantly trying it. Hating it at first and then irrationally falling in love with it.
As for the DLC itself, I am with you. I loved the base game. But The Tribunal was just a torture experience and extremely embarrassing in comparison to the base game. There were some good parts ofc, e.g. I loved the clockwork city because of how weird and cool it looked, I wish more content took place there. The gear was great. But other than that I don't remember anything that made a positive impression.
Mournhold was very soulless imo, it was not very interesting and did not feel like a city one bit. Even Caldera and Suran had more character than Mournhold and that is a huge L. It was supposed to be the capital of Morrowind but did not have that Morrowind feel to it. Honestly, the whole time I felt like I was in some castle instead of a huge metropolis. Which I guess makes sense, considering how Mournhold is really just a district of the greater Almalexia city, but "City of light, city of Magic" as they say, so the whole "It's just a district" does not really cut for me.
Dungeon crawling was straight up aids, not only was it poor in content quality but it was equally poor in environment building. Straight up depressing to proceed through. The dark brotherhood were a bunch of bums living in a crackhouse and were, essentially, another shallow plot device used to progress the story.
Sotha Sil's underutilization was also a big grievance that I had with the DLC. He could bring so much more than being a Christmas tree decoration. It's just unfortunate that he was expended like this.
I also did not like the idea of higher Ordinators, imo it took away from the uniqueness and mystique of the OG ordinators. The color palette, the armor design and that forced "coolness" was too much. The OG Ordinators were these brooding, dark warrior-priests that you knew meant business, they were mysterious and powerful, after all, they were garrisoned to guard the ghostfence alongside Vivec's armigers. There were tidbits of lore that hinted at just how badass and cool they were (Like the Bouyant Armigers, whom are extremely powerful personal soldiers of Vivec, being compared directly to them as rivals, or one of the npc dialogues telling you how Ordinators would conduct raids on the Sixth house, going up the red mountain and beating the crap out of house Dagoth cronies like some crusaders etc.) but you had to look for this information to find it and not only was it rewarding but also provided an organic way of introducing you to the more esoteric aspects of the lore. In contrary, the Tribunal does not shut the fuck up about how strong and powerful and better the higher Ordinators are and it's like, ok bro, where were these higher Ordinators when the Argonians invaded? The Saxhleel literally sacked Mournhold, requiring House Redoran's intervention to drive them back, which is like, how are you going to call yourself the strongest warriors Morrowind has to offer, and then not only lose horribly to Argonian invaders but also let your city be destroyed and then get outperformed by House Redoran soldiers. like Yikes. Compare that to the regular Ordinators and the aura difference is crazy.
Almalexia, in my opinion, could have been written to be a more interesting character with more complex motives. Compared to her counterparts, she is extremely boring and cartoonishly evil.
Overall, just a really bad DLC imo. Which is quite strange given how every other Elder Scrolls DLC is literally peak. Overall, hope you have fun with Bloodmoon.
I do hope Bloodmoon gets a chance, I remember playing this game, not when it came out because I'm broke all the time even as a kid, but when I was able to snag the game of the year edition, used and for cheap, I was all in. And thankfully, all the DLC was included but Tribunals doesn't stand out to me much at all. I do think I remember the DLC's being a bit higher leveled, though. So it might be a double edged sword starting a new, informed character reroll but the low level is likely to pose an issue. But it's hard to say if a new build that doesn't miss quite as much or can use magic would be easier or if John Fortnite could handle himself
As I recall, the best thing about the Tribunal DLC was the improvements to the journal.
When TES III: Morrowind was published, the Player's Journal was only accessible on a chronological basis, ie. it was like reading a diary with entries following one another in the order the information was obtained by the Player. The Journal entries could not be sorted by source or subject matter, it was simply available in the order which the player obtained the information.. If you used those features in your earlier playthroughs, you failed to experience the "True 2002 Experience" upon which you take so much pride. I also noticed that your game failed to crash as much as it did in 2002.
Tribunal was a real gamechanger, not for the DLC quests, lore, etc. Instead it was a gamechanger due to the Quality of Life improvements that came with it.
Your 100% right. I just discovered that addition at the start of this video and I should've mentioned it. being able to actually sort by quest is revolutionary for MW xD
You gotta play the Tamriel Rebuilt and Project Tamriel mods. They add a bunch of lore friendly content like the rest of Morrowind or Cyrodiil and Skyrim. Specifically Cyrodiil and Skyrim based off the lore from Morrowind, not the retconned lore after Oblivion. Project Cyrodiil just had it's first major release and it's really fun to play
After you play through bloodmoon, check out Tamriel Rebuilt and Project Tamriel. Both add another 100 hours easily and are integrated completely seamlessly. It is absolutely on par with base game morrowind in quality without some of the bullshit quest design of the base game and especially Tribunal
You should also try Bloodmoon and then the Tamriel Rebuilt Mods, which are widely acclaimed.
Excellent content!
I'm an old player that got to play them when they were released. And tbh, I don't really even remember doing the tribunal content at all but bloodmoon I really do remember fondly
Wait till you try out Bloodmoon DLC, it makes you wana cry of how hard it is.
"Sotha Seal"
Around 15-18 minutes into the video, I realized a notion: “I wonder if they made so much ‘content’ related to the sewers because I’m oblivion, the sewers were somewhat handled ‘well’ and had some usage in that game’s main story.”
Yeah, but Oblivion had the ultra boring Oblivion realm.
I was 12 when this game came out. I liked and subscribed I'm glad to see someone a bit younger can still appreciate the older games
Hoping to see more Morrowind content
I really try my best to not take for granted my ultra modded install of morrowind, because there's a way to fix everything. But tribunal is almost not even worth fixing with mods although it's fun to do so. Bloodmoon is 100% better, though its also a little bit contrived. Other people have suggested Tamriel Rebuilt, and I completely agree. It's an extension of vanilla but with even more polish. Eventually the project will restructure tribunal so the environments will be better, even if the story stays the same. Lol sorry for the eall of text
Tribunal's worst aspect is going to the Clockwork City and finding it's a tiny 15 minute long dungeon. Using the Sotha Sil Expanded mod (with Gestalt Revoiced) you get what Bethesda SHOULD have given us. It's very hard, but god is it good.
Tribunal is like closure on the Tribunal age of Morrowind, along with a gameplay challenge for high level characters. Everything in Mournhold hits like a truck, so it's quite a lot harder than most content in vanilla Morrowind. Almalexia is really designed to whip your ass, and well, go to Bloodmoon, you'll get a few more high level enemies to fight. I enjoy them both, but I 100% understand the frustration and monotony of Tribunal, as the mob diversity is basically 0. That part is dramatically improved in Bloodmoon.
Played Bloodmoon 20 years ago and i don't remember ANYTHING about the story - BUT I had a ton of fun and that DLC was amazing and I remember that still to this day
Unfortunate that you didn't enjoy Tribunal but I really enjoyed seeing a fresh reaction from someone who played ESO first. Bloodmoon is a lot better I think and the other DLCs are of mixed quality. As a Skyrim player I think you'll find 2003's version of Nords interesting.
Tamriel Rebuilt and Project Tamriel content is higher quality than vanilla these days.
You gotta do Solstheim! You have to get the Daedric Pauldron from the top of the waterfall in the cave! It's the only way to get a full Daedric set in Morrowind without slaying NPC's
once you are done with your "first playthrough without help" of the game and dlcs, you should use the list of all quests in the uesp wiki to experience how much content actually is in this world. after that probably give the various mods that exist for this game a chance. stuff like postprocessing shaders and high detail texture packs make this game look almost like vanilla skyrim. tamriel rebuilt adds some portions of the mainland with new quests (needs a new playthrough).
if you are still up for more. sureai (the makers of enderal and nehrim) also had total conversions for morrowind called Arktwend and Myar Aranath. and who knows what else slumbers out there.
also im surprised you enjoyed the magic system. most enemies have a chance to resist or reflect magic, at least in the basegame. so using magic mostly results in your own death due to getting a drain health 100pts for 1 sec spell being reflected back at you. also do yourself a favor and never start abusing the alchemy system. i basically ruined an entire run because when you have 17000 personality, and the potion wears off, everyone who you have encountered so far hates your guts cause of the perceived loss of personality. so i was forced to rely on those potions for the rest of the run.
I never finished Tribunal, but I remember liking the new mobs and locations. The other DLC is fun just on the premise, but again I have no cluie if the story or quest structure is good - just that becoming werefolf was amazing and I had tons of fun with that.
Don't think nobody saw the fireball at 4:08
That's still a frost spell! At least with openMW all "blast" spells (regardless of damage type) have that explosion effect. It's called "frost blast" which you can see at 0:37. Very expensive but good for AOE
Bloodmoon is soooo much better! It's also a fun contrast to seeing the same island again in Skyrim
Bloodmoon is the best DLC for Morrowwind. Hell I think it's one of the best TES DLC's period. Not gonna lie I remember starting Tribunal back in the day and I don't think I ever finished it.
Yeah, Tribunal is not the best experience. You are 100% right on "Too Much Sewers". There is some stuff in the deeper dungeons that's kinda neat to explore and find neat loot. It basically is a direct continuation of the events of you being the Nerevarine in the base game. Bloodmoon is a much more solid experience overall with a lot more stuff to just randomly explore, but it isn't necessarily as connected to the main story events around being Nerevar reborn.
-someone who first played morrowind in high school when it was brand new
Tamriel Rebuilt is absolutely FANTASTIC. also maybe try the mod "skyrim home of the nords"
there's also an entire fan GAME on the same version of gamebryo, called Anthirin or something? it's a prequel to Enderal. i'm certain you heard of it.
After defeating Almalexia and leaving her temple, Azura appears with thanks, just like in Morrowind. You didn't show her, so I assume you missed it :D
As for the bug with the Nerevarine weapon, it's because it's omitted from the king's quest line, which are pretty cool by the way and rarely send you to the sewers ;) There's a quest during this line with a fight with Karrod :)
Bloodmoon is waay better and definitely a different experience. It's a whole new open island, you get to build up a settlement, you get to become a werewolf, you get to collect ice to make new armour, it's great.
Hey frost i strongly recommend giving the house conflicts in base morrowind their own videos even the thieves and fighters guild, morag tong and the mages guild all have interesting dilemmas really insanely cool nuance that puts tribunal to shame. Bloodmoon is extremely difficult and far better then tribunal by a billion degrees
Bloodmoon has a great story, characters, cutscenes, and voice acting
You're playing it! 😂