I remember when I used to be excited for games and not cautiously skeptical. The people creating the game reading fan mail and actually wanting to create a branching narrative with CONSEQUENCES is crazy.
I loved Daggerfall. It offered so much variety to veteran CRPG players. The procedural dungeons were sometimes ridiculously huge. The best review I read about the game at the time is the the dungeons were 'seemingly built by dwarves with a government contract.'
I'm... I'm using that now. My biggest dungeon for the campaign I'm DMing is now a government contract that was neglected to end. As long as the payments keep going, the picks keep digging
@@joshuabranson74 Computer. Back in the day, RPG used to primarily refer to the pen and paper tabletop role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, Shadowrun and Vampire: The Masquerade. CRPGs were those games that tried to bring a lot of the tabletop RPG experience to the PC.
Someone who is listen to hundreds of hours of elder scrolls lore. This is the only video that I will listen to about dagger fall. This is your Magnum opus friend. You did amazing work with this.
@@pacificthrenodies7950 been drifting to sleep with this one too. Very pleasant; always happy, no manic energy or screaming like some video game youtubers
Many people miss the fact that your character history is directly related to the choices you made in character creation, and you even start with the items in your inventory from your story. How cool is that?
An inspiration from board games such as DnD. Different backstories gave you different items, so a warrior could start with better sword, while bard could pick a musical instrument. It’s a cool idea, which was probably dropped in favor of you being a prisoner.
@@thesidneychan No you don't understand, roleplaying games are about being forced into a rigid role and backstory that you have absolutely zero agency in changing.
Theory: Sheogorath helps the Agent find the Mantella because he's the only Daedric prince insane enough to fully understand the Warp in the West and accurately predict it leading to the future of the series and finding him and ideal replacement in the Shivering Isles expansion.
This definitely makes sense if you think about the Shivering Isles and Sheogorath not being insane but foreign. Like if you try to explain a game to someone who has no idea what you're talking about you make perfect sense in your mind but it doesn't make sense to someone who isn't informed. Like we all understand this crazy event but that's because we know about it. It might be a little crazy but definitely not insane so this Theory holds up I think
@@Dunkopf He's alluded to obliquely as being "the Sithis-shaped hole" in some of his more obscure epithets, and described as being the exact shape of Lorkhan's missing heart somewhere, isn't he? What if the book "Sithis" is right? Like Anu > Anuiel > Auriel > Akatosh/Alduin, what if Sithis also underwent the same thing, when he sent Lorkhan in the shape of an Aedra, onto his enemies "as a friend"? Sithis > Padome > Lorkhan > Jyggalag/Sheogorath. (for context, Sithis appears first in Morrowind and it's directly addressed to the Nerevarine, suggesting for them to go to Dagoth Ur "as a friend" with the intent on murdering him.) Sheogorath and Jyggalag both keep one function in common: they keep/kept sabotaging the other Daedra, which would jive with Sithis' intent on destroying each level of Anu by sending an avatar "as a friend". Heck, in that narrative even the Nerevarine and the Rebel-overthrows-King motif of the Shezzarines snap into this fractal theme, by virtue of Overthrow being Boethiah's sphere and the King being Molag Bal's sphere, another case of "go as a friend and destroy them from within". As for why Sithis would want the Daedra gone: well they're doing the same thing Sithis disliked of Anu, and made their own stable worlds in a world that should never have become fixed, they became like the Aedra.
@@neoqwerty You bring up something interesting but you kinda lost me with Sithis for some reason wanting to kill the Daedra. The Daedra are already said to be purely Padomaic so why would Padome self sabotage what they created. Something interesting you bring up though is Jyggalag actions before they turned him into Sheogorath points to him being aligned with Anu. He was obsessed with order and that sounds very Anu to me. Maybe he is somewhat proof that not all deadra came from Padome.
@@billfred9411I thought the words Aedra and Daedra were just to distinguish the gods who helped create the world and those who didn't. Also some of the Daedra Princes were not originally Daedra. Meridia and Malacath specifically unless there are more.
Daggerfall was perhaps too ahead of its time. It has amazing potential, but the technology just wasn't there at the time, and the dungeons are way too big. Daggerfall Unity is a great modernized way to play this game. I hope someone makes a Daggerfall-style game with modern technology.
I’ve never played any Elder Scrolls outside of Skyrim but I am fucking obsessed with Daggerfall because of this video. I didn’t really understand why people shat on modern Elder Scrolls stories but it makes sense now-this story is incredible with so many different factions/hidden plots, plus it is so large scale! It’s a massive geopolitical-fantasy drama and I need to experience it as soon as possible
I've tried for almost a decade to get into OverhypedRim. Once that first Dragon encounter occurs and the........pathetic jankiness of the fight. I can't see how everyone doesn't immediately close the game and doesn't think about it for 5 years. On the flip side, I can't put down DFU. The world is properly enormous! Cities are actually cities! Literally everybad taste OverhypedRim left in my mouth, doesn't exist in Daggerfall. Mainly because Todd Howard and BabyWind hadn't come to fruition. I will NEVER play BabyWind. That game started the cancer that "streamlined" TES straight into normieville. I wish to God I had had this in the 90s. I dreamed about shit like Daggerfall existing then. But I figured I'd be close to 40, like I am now, before I saw that. Boy was I wrong, and has gaming turned into a huge disgusting disappointment.
@PseudoWoundsoblivion gets a lot of shit too. Skyrim and oblivion both were popular at their time due to their simplification but eventually those they brought in see the light of morrowind and Daggerfall and turn on them. They both have a nostalgic charm for people like me, but since I played morrowind and dfu I can legit never see myself playing those games again lmao
@@slyguythreeonetwonine3172 I don't think calling everything baby-this and cancer-that is really necessary. I get that the more modern elder scrolls aren't as large scale or in depth, but they're still great games. Just require a bit of imagination ;)
@@slyguythreeonetwonine3172 with love, Skyrim just has different design philosophy, one which worked for millions of people. Calling it babyrim just comes across as wanting to seem cool for putting down something popular.
the door sounds, the skeleton sounds, and spellcasting sounds, are so burned into my brain that they appear in dreams and I hear them in movies all the time.
The skeleton shriek is priceless. Transforms a 4-frame 2D sprite into pure horror. When DFU came out, I cleared crypts with the volume real high just to get a reaction out of the wife. 'Isn't it beautiful?' 'NO! MAKE IT STOP!'
@@bboliver725 yeah there are quite a few sounds in that game that i hear a lot in movies. i'm assuming they used a common sound library for the game sounds.
True no studio cares about making the game they dreamed of, just the game they can squeeze the most money out of. Daggerfall has more scope and more features than fallout 4. Bethesda has become trash
@@fcktherich6913 Nah those games were lazy as hell. Just big empty procedurally generated crap. Game worlds are smaller now because people actually build everything in them
@@shaunnichols1743 yes let's blatantly ignore the removal of the skill system from fallout 4 and while we're add it add in lore breaking mechanics like fusion cores powering power armor and of course rehashing fallout 3s story just switch the characters rolls around yes let's blatantly ignore all of that
I remember being a kid in the 90's and having a subscription to PC Gamer magazine. Got the demo for daggerfall from one month's magazine and the demo was larger and more complex than any full game I had played prior, I was instantly mesmerized.
It’s odd because I remember thinking Morrowind was “too old” for me to enjoy… then here comes Micky D with Daggerfall and suddenly, I’m thoroughly obsessed with the damn game, literally can’t even stop thinking about it during my work day 😂
I enjoy Daggerfall significantly more than Morrowind. Morrowind was the game I would play in the series if I wanted to just enjoy leveling up and feeling strong, but Daggerfall just has so much more complexity that I can make some of the most unique builds that are exclusive to how I want to play that run.
Morrowind and other games from that experimental 3d era often look and feel even worse than 2d. Might as well consider it even more dated than 2d games like Daggerfall, since 2d is a genre and doesn't go that far in evolution, mostly varying by styles rather than evolution, while 3d straight up evolved way past that low-quality 3d era.
I think it's probably the thresholds. Like if you really enjoyed Fallout 4, but can't bring yourself to enjoy Fallout 3 due to it being "too old" but simultaneously being able to play Fallout 2. It's because of just how different the titles are, while the respective 3rd games in these series are the skeleton of their modern releases in the series
Best part about Daggerfall Unity has to be the mods, makes this already great game that much better, this is easily one of the better videos I’ve seen about Daggerfall
Have a problem with my mods. Grass/ground textures are freaking out and streching in a weird way. Not so good at modding do i just delete and reinstall the mods?
So, I tried Arena before I tried Daggerfall. The very first thing that impressed me was when I exited Privateer's Hold. I was able to pull up the world map, zoom in on where I was, and find a nearby village... And I was actually able to walk all the way there! It's actually not far away either, I believe it's atop a hill just to the south, and it might take two minutes tops.
The one thing about Daggerfall that I find unrivalled is the vibe. Every song in the soundtrack has its place and seems to play at the perfect moment. The variety (although small) of the biomes make the world feel diverse and separated. It’s impossible to trek through the forests, plains, jungles, or deserts of this game without stopping to take a look at the endless horizon. Absolutely nothing immerses me more than Daggerfall, and that is why I love this game.
Degenerates like you belong on a cross, or lined up against the wall. (funny joke when its used against furries and you lot never took issue when you saw it in public mainstream content so uh, dont moan at me, go raise your devil spawn properly instead)
I never understood the giant dungeons tbh. After like 3 or 4 you could already be at your max possible level. Doesn't gel well with the size of the world they want you to explore if you ask me
1:34:11 Daggerfall having a very in depth story as opposed to Arena being very generic…. I remember Ted Peterson saying he specifically did that on purpose. After people said Arena’s was so simple he was like “okay, fine. (Cracks fingers) Watch this…” lol
Holy crap, now this is a hell of a video essay, especially for a relatively small channel. Huge respect for the dedication you needed to out this together.
Degenerates like you belong on a cross, or lined up against the wall. (funny joke when its used against furries and you lot never took issue when you saw it in public mainstream content so uh, dont moan at me, go raise your devil spawn properly instead)
I would like that but he got 321 likes on that ... sad dat u cant drag people in daggerfall would be great seeing you dragging someone over the whole map ... great 1week stream idea :)
@@Jwlar guys please make a joint video on the multiplayer mods for ES games! Micky's humor would fit nicely alongside Jwlar's seriousness and analytical abilities :)
@@markusmitchell8585 Not really. the graphics and gameplay are trash. It's hard to go back to older games like this unless you're blinded by nostalgia.
I wouldn't blame the age of the game for the limited in-game presentation. This was a CD-Rom game, released three years after Lands of Lore and six years after Monkey Island. It's even fifteen years younger than King's Quest. While I was playing I very much felt like Daggerfall was in a CRPG lineage descendent from Ultima I (1981) in what it tries to be, which is an open world rpg simulator. I would also point out that no Elder Scrolls game up to date have allowed you as player to interact with NPC's at depth, as you were in contemporary adventuregames and rpg's. The engine is capable, as shown in Fallout: New Vegas, but Bethesda just wasn't interested in that. This becomes very evident if you try the 3dNPC mod ("Interesting NPC") in Skyrim. You can recognize what NPC is added by the mod just by looking at the depth of conversation you can have with someone you meet where Bethesda dialogue is almost exclusively 1-sided where the NPC is a signpost for quests or information only. So I think the limits of presentation had more to do with a disconnect between the writer of the plot and the focus in game design. Daggerfall was meant to be a RPG simulator. The plot wasn't meant to be the selling point, you just had a writer overcompetent for the job, and a common sentiment among old fans seems to be that they didn't care about the Main Quest at all.
I still think Daggerfall has the best main quest for any video game RPG. There is literally no urgency at all, so there is no mental disconnect between doing the main quest and messing around with side quests. I also like how the main quest has multiple paths, and many optional components. Sure, it’s not the most engaging story quest, it just makes the most sense for a sandbox rpg.
@@doctorlolchicken7478 The fact that you "discover" the path and gradually home into the goal was a nice touch and I appreciated that. That is one of the reasons I compared it to Ultima I which did the same thing where you gradually uncover deeper mysteries by listening to rumors. In general I appreciate main quest progression using the open world aspect rather than a single A>B>C>D>E questline. I am personally in favor of Gothic 3 in this regard as one part of the Main Quest depends on you boosting your faction/region reputation to progress, which means you organically make progress on the Main Quest by doing whatever subquests you think seems fun and interesting to you.
The player base not being wild about the main quest is a defining feature of TES - always has been and always will be. As others have put it, the series isn't strong in its characters and writing generally - the real main character is the world itself.
@@WK-47 There's a reason why I only recommend playing through Morrowind's main quest with Julan the Ashlander and Skyrim's with Inigo, and it's pretty much because they rescue the whole thing. (generally by both overshadowing and tangling into their respective main quests)
One thing i didnt expect from trying out daggerfall is how much note taking eases up the game -- writing down pointers given by npcs who know what im talking about, which places i need to visit, active quests, etc. Turned out to be super fun lol
One of my earliest memories as a kid. Standing behind my father resting my head on his shoulder as he sat playing daggerfall. Just starting to watch it now, I know its gonna be a real trip watching this. Blast from the past.
I remember playing this as a kid and distracted from the main quest to the point where it timed out and failed. Meanwhile I was running around summoning daedra, crafting nice gear and then caught vampirism but didn't get how to cure it. The half if the game that I understood was magnificent though.
I used to play before school, cuz my dad was at work and always playing Everquest when he got home 🤣 I figured out how to get a loan and bought a boat, my 8 year old mind was absolutely blown
It was massive, it was mindblowing in its ambition, it was deeply flawed and bugged. I loved that game to death. Still waiting for a character creator and item enchanter of Daggerfall's caliber.
I did play it starting around '97. As Jslar says: you have to keep good notes. I still have my notebook from my first try at Daggerfall. I hit too many of the bugs to continue at the time. I fell through tons of dungeon walls and often didn't find the items I had spent my entire RL weekend looking for. Since Unity came out with it, I started again. THIS time I'm using my trusty MS OneNote and have very organized notes of what I think it going on. At the very least, I make notes of my active quests. Yes I know they are in my in-game journal but that doesn't feel right for this game. This is old school. And semi-old school I shall play it.
It's so amazing you put surely over a hundred hours into making this when you had to expect only a few hundred views. I'm glad it gets the attention it deserves and I'm excited for your future content
@@lordblazer Read better 'my dude.' The person you commented to says that AT THE TIME the uploader probably didn't expect so many views, because he didn't have many subscribers back then. That really shows that this video was made out of passion.
Long form videos not getting views is something older youtubers feared and/because the algorithm used to dissuade. That seems to no longer be the case, especially since the pandemic
One of the things I absolutely love about Daggerfall and one of the reasons it is cemented as my favorite Elder Scrolls game of all time is that even failed skill checks still factor into leveling up that associated skill. It is an incredible little detail that most Role Playing Games don't factor in and certainly no other Elder Scrolls game does. It is based around the idea that even though you suck at using a certain skill, you are still learning that skill by failing at it. In Morrowind you would have to have lots of gold and abuse skill trainers to train those skills that you are not good in just so you could use them competently. Daggerfall doesn't have this issue at all. Even if you fail at using lockpick or even if your weapon attacks miss an enemy, the game acknowledges this as contributing towards that skills usage which levels that skill up.
its a really strange thing for so many games to get wrong cuz like, anyone who has ever learned a skill before should realize that most of the learning is done when making mistakes or encountering new challenges you havent yet dealt with.
I consider myself 'having beaten the game' by installing the patch stack, in the correct order, including fan patches. That took some planning, consulting several online charts, and a couple nights of work. I hear the "post-game content" involves actual story, missions, etc, but I did the hardest part--the main questline of 'install the game.' 😜
@@supgin1616 You're right. This was a nostalgic bare-metal MSDOS build so nothing about of it was the smart/logical/easy way. Surprising how many fan patches there were to wade though and figure out which were superseded/collected into other ones. It was really an adventure--oh and something about werewolves and swordy-swords happened after that. 😆
This is literally the best and most comprehensive retrospective of Daggerfall Ive ever seen. I'm especially grateful for the main plot overview. I would have never found out even half of the story if not for your thorough deep dive. All I can say is thank you for making this.
this is the first time someone explains the whole Ysmir, Tiber Septim and Zurin Arctus plot in a way that makes sense and it isnt just someone reading stuff off the wiki, thank you for that
This is the game that changed the way I looked at games, while I still do love a variety of different genres, this is what made me focus on story rich RPG, preferably with an open world to explore. Elder Scrolls has become my favourite franchise and I fell in love with it's deep lore during Daggerfall. I remember one indecent where I was in a book store in game reading up various things when al of a sudden I heard: "Halt! Halt!". Yup, I was in there so long reading that it was now past closing time and I was now trespassing. 🙃
I heard your comment on the Longform Analysis & Retrospective podcast about you not understanding why this video has blown up so much - let me tell you, I've fallen asleep to this video countless times now. I watched it end to end once, and now I set it to 0.75 speed, and clock out. Thanks for making such unintentionally sleepy content 👏🏻
Very impressive reportage about that old game. I never expected the main quest to be so complex. No wonder I never finished it and always ended with the message that this world is doomed because I loitered too much (or something like that), too busy to pilfer dungeons.
Back in the day I missed the fast travel button for the first couple of weeks of play. It took longer to walk to the first village after Privateers Hold than to cross all of Skyrim 15 years later. Did you know you can swim all the way to Hammerfell? I learned that after buying a ship that didn't work. 10/10, best Elder Scrolls.
So cool to see people appreciate actual RPGs. I was really into an RPG called everquest, which had a depth unseen today. The idea of their being like 20 languages that took chat repititiin to level, and being able to have a party of 6 and being able to speak certain languages within the party that wasn't understood by everyone was just so cool to me. They also had religions and politics, huge world, very good classes. Miss this depth, it doesn't seem to exist anymore.
I so miss everquest, my dad got me to play it, and it really felt like it had a nice personal touch, like an immaculately detailed and maintained model city made by human hands. It felt like I was playing in a D&D game with a beautiful textbook worth of lore.
I really appriciate these very long form videos that give breakdown of the entire story. I pretend that I could go back and play these but honestly they are just so dated I know I wouldnt make it far. Great Vid!
This is severely underrated content here. Dude you have the makings of a high tier channel. Subscribed, cant wait to binge watch your old ones and eagerly await more!
3:22:40 That book wasn't about the Warp in the West, but about the Middle Dawn. The khajiit scholar talks about the Numidium being activated in Daggerfall and other Dragon breaks, but Mannimarco's and other accounts are about the Marukhati selectives' actions. The book that talks about the Warp is called, well, "The Warp in the West" xD by Ulvius Tero which is also a compilation of reports about the event made by Blades' agents on the region. Also great video!
I've only played a little bit of Daggerfall a few years ago, and I dabbled in the main quest when the Skyrim mod came out a while back. Again, I didn't play much, but I will say that The Missing Prince was probably the most moved I have ever felt after completing a TES quest. I thought it was really really good.
"I have no hope left, but no fear either. A few regrets. Perhaps had I studied magic instead of history and science I could free myself of this place. One of my tutors told the story of the Underking, how he had placed his lifeforce in the body of a powerful being and had thus conquered all Tamriel long, long ago. Had I only had the strength of a more powerful body like that. But I did not study magic. I studied history, so I leave this letter -- not to revenge myself, but as an historic document." God damn that's heavy
I was addicted to Daggerfall back in the 90's and it is still up there as one of my favourite games and my Vampire/Mage was just godlike towards the end of the game.
Honestly this was the exact video I was looking for. I really enjoy listening to in-depth discussions of older games: how they played, the context surrounding them, and the impact they've had. You've done a fabulous job tackling all of that and more. I watched the whole video in one go but time stamps are always appreciated and to me are a sign that a the creator cares about putting in the extra effort to provide them. I think things are looking up for the depth and return to a more Daggerfall esque game with Starfield. Ever since I saw the 15 minute gameplay trailer a year ago where they showed the trait Dream Home (you get a nice house but have a debt to pay off) and also the 1000+ plus planets I couldn't help but think of Daggerfall. After the 45 minute Direct that has recently been shown off the Daggerfall inspiration feels even more clear. I'm hopeful that TesVI is pushed even further in that direction. One of the biggest things I hope TesVI improves upon is guild depth and services. Your video here has made me desire that even more. Thank you for this video and again you've done a wonderful job.
@@bigzachful I think they're just a loud minority combined with upset Playstation fans and people that enjoy bashing games, which seems to be an ever increasing trend (whether the game is good, bad, or just okay). I've really enjoyed Starfield so far. A lot of my time has been spent doing mission board quests and ship building, but I've completed the Crimson Fleet story and some other side quests. I've still got a lot that I want to do along with beating the main quest. Outside of facial animations the game looks amazing. The render distance is incredible. The skill system is certainly one of their best and feels very organic and impactful. Ship building is addicting and overall there's a nice amount of things to spend your money on. Dialogue rewards skill investment as well as your background/traits. It has felt like diplomatic options are more prevalent. The weapons and armor look really cool. The game isn't perfect but for it's scope it's great. There's still DLC and modding tools to come out, which to me I wouldn't consider the other games complete without the DLC. It also seems like BGS wants to work/support the game longer than their other ones post launch, so that's cool. I think the only major changes I'd make are: 1. Reduce the space between stuff in solar systems so that we could fly to them in under an hour. 2. Remove the legendary system (I never liked it in Fo4 or Fo76). 3. More diverse morality/character of companions. Right now I'd give it around an 8.5/10, will probably go up after all the DLC are out and a year or two of updates. I'm interested jn seeing what modders will be able to do when the tools come out.
I honestly love how much retrospectives there are on youtube over Bethesda games and the like. Very relaxing and enjoyable to listen to, ive already watched this around 5 times. Wonderful vid.
Daggerfall has some issues, but I would have to say this is the most imaginative Elder Scrolls. There are so many amazing mechanics in this game that were sadly left out of the later games.
I tend not to comment on videos however I must say this, from start to finish was an absolute master piece. The video entirely captivated me and had instilled your love of the game onto me, I cannot wait to embark on my first journey through the illiac bay
I think that modern procedural generation shows that the issue with games like Daggerfall has less to do with the inherent issues with procedural generation and more to do with how that generation is designed, and the amount of assets and variables the systems have access to.
I think that procedural generation hasn't really kept up with everything else developers are capable of now. Procedurally generated content is a lot less convincing when developer curated content has become so complex by comparison.
@@jerrodshack7610 Honestly, a big part of that is that curated content is so much more _compressed_. Procedural generation can do the same thing, but it would be quite silly to do that. A big part of why procedurally generated worlds ever became a thing is to provide _large_ worlds to explore. And don't forget that e.g. Diablo has always been procedurally generated - there's many ways to use procedural generation hand in hand with curated content. Remember Star Wars: Galaxies? They had a great procedural generation system that in fact created (temporary) points of interests all over the worlds in the game for people to explore, and never to see again. But of course, that grew up of the same guy who worked on Ultima Online, so it shouldn't really be surprising.
I will just add this recent video to the mix in case anyone in this conversation has not seen it: th-cam.com/video/-lkEOEEKYD0/w-d-xo.html That's a video for the Unreal Engine 5.2 Tech Demo which at one point shows a curated area compared to a larger procedurally generated one
this video is an exact embodiment of daggerfall: full of content and only appreciated by a select few people of exquisite taste jokes aside, I hope you'll go big one day buddy
@@raidenthekat2444 Its a guy passionately talking about his favorite RPG game for almost 4 full hours. Its not meant to be a reasonably lengthed professional review. Its not a desperate filler either, i'm pretty sure he didn't try to make it longer on purpose lol. Reviews are a completely different youtube genre from this.
@@raidenthekat2444 Either it's a long winded explanation about Daggerfall, something that is of great substance to quite a few people, me included, or it's more filler in a desperate attempt to create something of substance, make up your mind. :P
I was feeling so bad. My life is falling apart. When I heard "He terrorizes his citizens at night, screaming FOR VENGEAAAAANCE!!" at 1:36:44 I broke into laughter. Sharing a common base of stories and joking about it, connecting through it, is miraculous for the human brain. Even when the brain is at the opposite end of the mood spectrum, it can swing all the way back in a flash.
The Numidium kind of reminds me of one of the enemies from this tabletop game I like. They are these giants called the Zendarim, cursed with both immortality and no free will. Each has a totem that controls them. But unlike the Numidium, without their totems they are completely dormant, and will bury themselves alive. The only damage that does is that wherever one is buried, crops will never grow, and people will be oddly compelled to build churches.
In regards to the Totem of Tiber Septim deal, I don't think there's any plot holes, so long as you read between the lines and kind of ignore what later games did with the concept of the Septim Bloodline. So there's two requirements stated to use the Totem: be descended from Tiber Septim, or have a strong supernatural affinity. Gothryd, Camoran and Eadwyre are all members of very powerful kingdoms: they have Tiber's blood in them because of the various political marriages and whatnot they must've had in the past with the Septim dynasty. Mannimarco and the Underking are both extremely powerful iches, they have the supernatural affinity. So this leaves Gortwog as the only unexplained one. But this is the bit where I think something is implied, but not really explained well enough that the majority of people will miss it. In the main quest Gortwog sends a letter to Medora Direnni, demanding that she supports his claim to the "heart". I think this refers to the Totem/Mantella, and since Medora is a powerful sorceress Gortwog thinks her magical abilities could be used to give him access to the Totem, what with that vague "supernatural affinity" requirement. The cut ending doesn't contradict this at all; the entire point is that the Agent doesn't have the Blood of Tiber Septim, so he can't use the totem to control Numidium and just gets stomped as soon as he turns it on.
One of the books in game actually states that Wayrest was ruled by the Septim dynasty at one point. Also the Underking doesn’t want to use Numidium, he only wants his heart back. The totem may also recognize its creator.
Oblivion and Skyrim are basically fanfiction and non-canonical. Many of the game devs openly admitted to not caring about the history or canon of the Elder Scrolls and that they were just making up shit lore-wise. Some even had outright disdain for the lore. AFAIC the series ended with Morrowind and its a shame they never came out with any more games in this amazing RPG series.
@@Dreadnautilus You're exaggerating, and the most important point is that the devs who worked on Morrowind (many of whom worked on Daggerfall) loved the game and cared about the previous titles, they didnt have the disdain, arrogance. and hatred like the Oblivion and Skyrim crews did. If you think thats the same, then I feel sad for you man.
The Underking is a special exception to all these rules because he won't be using the totem to control the mechanical god, he needs the totem to access the Mantela contained within in order to break it and free his soul.
@@belisariussmith9095 I mean, Kurt Kuhlmann and Kirkbride really didn't like DF's plot and Bretons, calling them generic. They didn't write all of Morrowind obviously, and Ted Peterson was still part of the team at the time but Kuhlmann and Kirkbride were the main fellas responsible for the worldbuilding and their disgust for Bretons and the happenings in "generic fantasy land" High Rock do show up in the game, so I feel Dreadnautilus isn't entirely in the wrong here.
Amazing job on this documentary; it should have millions of views. Incredible depth. Thank you for creating this love letter to Daggerfall! I got this game back in 1996 and it was painful to run on my 90 mhz, wasn’t until 1997 when I got a 200 mhz pentium MMX that it could run decent but totally blew my 12 year old mind at the time with depth. I was also a few very young folks that were lucky to run into Arena a few years earlier from a friend at age 10, pirated copy on floppies. Arena and daggerfall started an Elder Scrolls obsession that continues to this day… but you are right - Daggerfall was one of the best of the series and you have had to been there or given it chance like you did to understand why.
I habe to say that i really like how the popular characters and faction in daggerfall all are there to setup the main plot. They are not just factions wich have faction or side quest specific relevance in the game, but they are an known instance in the world of daggerfall. The thieves guimd stealing valuable documents from.the royal court to sell them to the highest bidder, eich is the leader of an orc rebellion who was secretly allied with the fallen king and is now looking out for the legacy of his dead ally... i cannot stte how much this excites me. This interconnection really makes this game feel realistic and shed interesting lights on the different Persons of Interest. This is so refreshing
Quite a love letter to Daggerfall. For a short while in my early 20-ties I used to work at a hotel reception. After finishing all my duties, Daggerfall was my favourite way of passing time.
Idk but the cities in Skyrim feel more alive to me. When I entered Whiterun, I saw NPCs arguing with each other, market owners talking with visitors, people walking about, and some kid telling me how he climbed onto dragonreach to catch bird eggs. Then Daggerfall's NPCs are just flat lifeless sprites who just kinda walk around.
I just finished this video, and was really nice to watch during my study breaks for exams. The production quality is out standing, and you deserve alot more movies and subscribers.
What a fine video made on daggerfall here. I like the editing and clarity in voice and writing discussing mechanics, concepts, and etc on the game. Can't wait to see more of your videos.
I haven't seen the Godfather, Diehard, and many other amazing movies, but I did take nearly 4 hours out of my life to watch a video about an Elder Scrolls game I haven't played despite it being free.
I highly recommend grabbing it and installing the Unity version (or, if you have Skyrim, grabbing Skyggerfall, which is an abandoned(?) WIP but it has the whole main plotline except streamlined) Only if you have several hours, mind, the game tends to suck you in (and get the main quest delay or no-time-limit mods)
When I played Daggerfall upon its release in 1996, I was blown away by the scale of the game map. I literally walked and ran from the starter dungeon to the closest village to verify the travelling distance. Till this day, Daggerfall hold the crown of having the largest open world game map in the fantasy RPG category. (Don't compare it to outer space travel of No Man's Sky)
I mean eso is much bigger but is more of a generic mmo that i dont even know if is cannon or not other than that you might be right other than minecraft but thats similar to the likes of nms
I gotta admit, this video kinda makes me wanna try Daggerfall. Once you mentioned the Unity port and some mods that effects some stuff i'd be worried about, i was sold. The Bretons are my favorite race in TES and I've always wanted more simulation aspects to the other games, maybe when I finally finish Morrowind, I can try Daggerfall next
It's been a while since you posted this. I hope you have tried Daggerfall. I mean, a game like this available for FREE? The Unity port team did a GREAT job with it. I'm not normally a mod person but made an exception here. The improved graphics, bug fixes and the sounds. Oh my! Yesterday I was arriving at some city and it was raining. Suddenly it thundered and scared the crapola out of me. Jwar did a great job explaining one main reason this game captures people: the ambiance. It has a feel about it I haven't seen very much in my 30+ years of gaming.
Most nostalgic 3+ hours I've spent in a while. I played Daggerfall for hundreds of hours as a teen.... without ever finishing it. Lol. I just kept making new characters and doing side quests.
I'm not even an Elder Scrolls fan and I loved watching this. I would watch more of these complete analysis for the later games in the series to see what was added, improved, or changed.
I'm coming back a year later just to point out how insane it is that daggerfall had such detail and interactivity in the world with a ton of immersive elements, and instead of future games iterating on this and refining the formula while adding even more of this stuff with how far technology has advanced, game devs have actually gone backwards and regressed tremendously. Just look at Starfield.
I remember playing Daggerfall when it first came out. The scope of it felt truly amazing at the time, but the overall jankyness made it difficult to get into. It was fun to make characters and figure out new ways to steal things, but after a few hours I would always give up. The concept was way ahead of its time and they definitely get a lot of kudos for trying, but it clearly wasn't fully baked yet.
I love that pat shouted you out in one of his retrospectives saying "no one cared about daggerfall till jewelers video on it" which in context is pretty crazy
@@arjunmenon8572 PatricianTV, if you listen to this video he mentions differing opinions on Morrowind in Daggerfall between Jeweler and Pat. 8 hour video on Morrowind 12 hour video on Oblivion and 20 hour video on Skyrim are all his retrospectives
I remember when Daggerfall came out. Even bought it, but it didn't run on my computer very well so I took it back. I have to say the marketing department did great work on the shiniest, coolest looking box ever.
I was shopping at a GameStop in my town and found Daggerfall in the bargain bin about a year after it had been released. The cover of the box is what caught my attention. And thus began my life-long love of TES.
I’ve been falling asleep to this video lots of nights lately. Please don’t think I mean it’s boring - it’s been pleasant to relax into sleep with, hearing someone so happy to talk about this classic game they love! I played Arena as a kid and Skyrim as an adult, but only played daggerfall a few times at a friends house when I was young. I might have to go back!
This video was really good! If you keep making content like this I bet your channel will explode. Btw, the summaries were really appreciated because as someone who hasn't played the game myself keeping all those names and places straight was tough at times. The awesome visuals helped a ton too, with the little pixel portraits popping up at all the right times. I subbed and am looking forwards to the next long one!
Degenerates like you belong on a cross, or lined up against the wall. (funny joke when its used against furries and you lot never took issue when you saw it in public mainstream content so uh, dont moan at me, go raise your devil spawn properly instead)
Honestly, Skyrim was the first time I'd ever heard of the Elder Scrolls series and I fell in love with it immensely. Played it for years when it first came out and still pick it up from time to time. I tried playing Oblivion back when I finished Skyrim the first time, but couldn't get past the graphics. Now that I'm older and can appreciate games for more than just the graphics, I'm started Oblivion again a few days ago and I'm loving it. Your video and story telling make me want to play Arena, Daggerfall and Morrowind now too. Great video man
This answered so many questions I couldn’t find answers to anywhere else. Thank you so much for making this and sharing with us! This is truly an amazing video and you should be really proud of yourself!!!
This is the video I've been searching for for weeks. You put into words so many of the thoughts I was having and this just checked so many boxes for me serotonin-wise. Thanks friend.
Bro this was such an amazing in depth video. I know you had to have worked your ass off to do this. I have never played TES 1-2 and have attempted Morrowind but its hard for me to get into. Thank you for making these deep dives and sharing so much information.
It’s extremely cliche, but the beauty of Daggerfall is how no two playthroughs are the same, and each experience is unique. I think this has to do with its depth of simulation and procedurally generated nature, which creates a LOT of emergent gameplay/storytelling. I’m glad Daggerfall is still going strong.
Degenerates like you belong on a cross, or lined up against the wall. (funny joke when its used against furries and you lot never took issue when you saw it in public mainstream content so uh, dont moan at me, go raise your devil spawn properly instead)
Great video. I was 13 and obsessed with Daggerfall back when it was released in '96. I don't think anything in here was new to me, but it was great to spend some time immersed in this game again. Takes me right back and brings to mind all these little details about what it was like to experience it shortly after release. Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim are all good games in their own right, but none of them have really lived up to the promise of Daggerfall. Partly it's the rose-tinted glasses of course, but the reality is that despite their vastly higher production values, the later games are in many ways smaller, simpler and less ambitious experiences. There's a line in the introduction of the Daggerfall manual that always stuck with me: "People who play roleplaying games need more than some pretty graphics and nonstop action to whet their claymores; they want depth and character and wit and drama." Somewhere along the way (okay, not "somewhere" - it was Oblivion, let's be clear) Bethsoft drifted from that philosophy. Skyrim does provide some *very* pretty graphics (Daggerfall's were considered mediocre even in 1996) and the action is brilliant. I had a great time with it, but it was never really a worthy successor to DF.
This is by far the best Video about Daggerfall I ever seen and I bet will ever be. Spending nearly 4 hours in one sitting watching this. Well done my friend!
I made it all the way to the end, this is one of the most interesting videos I’ve listened to in a very long time. You provided a thorough presentation of Daggerfall’s main quest, which is not an easy task given how complicated it gets, and it was made all the better by your great voice!
I wish Bethesda would find their creative spine and take a chance for once by combining Daggerfall's scope with modern graphics and detail. Making TES games for the console then porting to the PC is holding the series back, it needs to be the opposite way around. BGS need to up their game considerably because most developers have managed to balance scale and detail in a way the TES games never have.
There's an irony in this. They're very specifically playing it safe and not taking risks because of the situation they were in during Morrowind's development. Back then, they were on the brink of bankruptcy. Morrowind was their last chance before going under, and so they decided "fuck it, go all out. We're about to go under anyway, so what's the worst that could happen?" Then Morrowind was a huge success and saved the company, and now everyone who's still in charge since back then doesn't wanna risk going back to those days.
Have they, though? Regarding detail and scale, I mean. What's another game to the scale of something like TES? Theyre jank, and the newer ones are bland and uninspired at times. I, personally, wasn't a fan of Skyrim or Fallout 4- not exactly a hot take, I know- but anything similar is arguably worse. Outer Worlds is boring and pretty "Bethesda-esque" with choices not really mattering, meh writing and world, games like Baldurs Gate are much different in playstyle, and honestly I really can't think of anything else that's close to being "Bethesda-like". Unfortunately, games have become so expensive to make that anyone willing to take risks can't fund it, and those who *can* fund it aren't willing to take risks. The gaming industry is in a pretty shit spot, at the moment. Aside from a very select few good studios, I think the days of something like this are gone, until we get some determined indie devs who have a shit load of free time Maybe my pessimism in the gaming industry is showing, lmao
I played the Daggerfall as a kid and I immediately felt back then, that the game could have been much more if it was given enough time, money and manpower - it had the best basic ingredients but needed to be refined much more. It could have been the the "absolutely perfect and complex rpg game". But as an adult I now know, nobody would have the time to play such a complex and perfect game. Yes somebody will make a game that will almost match this fleeting imagination of a perfect RPG game with a massive and unique world by using advanced procedural generation for everything from unique houses, towns, forests, dungeons, to quests, unique npcs, guilds, covens, cults, speeches and more.. but still.. who would have the time to play such a game? To discover all of the many secrets of the game? It almost freaks me out to think about it today. If a lifespan of an ordinary human was at least 500 years or indefinite with the help of science I can imagine giving the game 5 years of my life to explore it and enjoy it as much as possible :)))
Isn't this concept just so so captivating though? A game you might never be able to fully experience, because there's just so much to do and so many ways to do it that you'll never have time to do them all? I love this idea because it also causes with something else: You will probably have an almost unique experience. Some people might make a similar build or follow a similar path, but what you do on your playthrough will always be, to some degree, completely original.
attributing dragonbreaks to everything is cheap, but in the case of the battle of red mountain, the creation of the mantella, and the warp in the west it works well.
This entire retrospective really makes ya think: what would’ve the alien world of Morrowind looked like had it been lead by Julian Le Fay? I can only dream...
@@Things_n_Stuff but everything about Morrowind is alien including the story and culture and the most obvious thing about them is that it's the most unique one of the bunch, you can see similarities in the culture of people you meet in Arena, Daggerfall, Oblivion and Skyrim but Morrowind is vastly different from those four.
@@thegamerfe8751 I mean it's a bit hard to notice when there's imperial stuff up the wazoo and half the factions you can join are Imperial and of the four Ashlander tribes you only get lore for one of them (Urshilaku) and Erabenimsun, Ahemmusa, Zainab and the Mabrigash outcasts are all one-note. The only really INTERESTING parts that aren't in the books are tiny bits of conversation you get if you talk about certain subjects to rather specific classes of people. And if you don't have Tribunal enabled, you don't even get to see what a REAL "traditional" Dunmeri city is like because you don't get to explore Mournhold-- but Mournhold also doesn't have flavor text on its ingredients the way the base game's ingredients can be talked about to alchemists, and savants don't have much to say there, either... Thematically, environmentally, yeah, it's different, and when you start off the feeling of being a stranger in foreign lands is great and masterfully done... But there's no real sense of approaching doom if you don't go searching for it. (And that's why I use a mod that makes the Sixth House more present the more you progress in the main quest, nothing as eerie as realizing there's new graffitied scarabs and weird ash statues plopped down in inoccuous places and corprus ingredients left in offering bowls.) And I'm not even going to start addressing that the Nerevarine persecution was pretty mishandled; given the level of propaganda from the Temple and the terrifying propaganda about Inquisitors in Baar Dau... I should not just be hunted down to death, there should have been a LOT more in the "become Hortator" quests than fetch quests and possible telvanni murdering. Also where's all the inter-house plotting? Why can't I blackmail more people in Hlaalu? Why can't I work WITH the muckraking journalists and Almalexia to dethrone Helseth? Daggerfall understood political intrigue more than Morrowind, but they're supposed to be equally elaborate games of duplicity and treachery within the nobility??? Even the Morag Tong doesn't delve into it and THEY'RE THE FACTION THE NOBLES HIRE TO WAGE THEIR CLOAK AND DAGGER WARS. I have to use mods to "dunmerify" Vvardenfell, that just ain't right, y'know?
@@neoqwerty did you play the game? Or did you never go past pelagiad or something? First of all, half the factions can be considered imperial (cult, legion, 3 guilds), while half is distinctively dunmer (temple, morag tong, 3 houses) All 3 houses feature a distinct clothing style, as well as architecture. Are you seriously implying that hlaalu architecture can be mistaken for telvani mushroom towers, or redoran shell-buildings? All 3 house quest lines focus on their quirks and how they intent with other houses and factions. You are so wrong in your assessment , it’s a borderline lie.
I only just finished this absolute titan of a video, fantastic work! I'm glad I found you when I did so I can see all the amazing content from here on out! Thank you for making such a pleasant watching experience.
I still remember playing this game when it came out, when I was 13, and I can't recall how far I got into it, but I know never solved Lysandus' murder. Still, I will never forget the sheer immensity of this game. I remember playing (and loving) Oblivion, but also telling my friends who were also playing it that it was miniscule in size compared to Daggerfall - they didn't believe me. Same thing when Skyrim came out (didn't care for that one, honestly). And then, I remember the map size comparisons making the rounds and feeling justified, haha. This retrospective has been wonderful, friend - hell, I had completely forgotten that you could climb! How wild would that be if it returns in Elder Scrolls VI? I know it won't, it'll be another Todd Howard game, but still. Thanks again for this lovely work!
Crazy respect to the sheer amount of effort you put in to this video. I always love finding creators like you with this sort of passion. Looking forward to future work
What a great video. I love the bits of humor aswell. Currently suffering from a bad back injury tied to my bed. Perfect to give this game a shot on my Laptop! Thanks bro your channel should be way bigger! Subbed.
Holy moly. You posted this video one year ago at the time of this comment. You had 1,450 subscribers. Today, you have 43,700+. That's incredible. I have watched this entire thing twice. This time was because someone mentioned it on the official Bethesda Daggerfall Discord channel. It is so well done. You've definitely earned those subscribers. I look forward to checking out your other content. Right after I finished my next Fighter's Guild quest!
Thank you so much Jwlar! You introduced me to what has become my favourite game of all time: Daggerfall! I downloaded this game a week ago and I absolutely love it! This is an amazing game and you introduced me to it. Thank you so much!
I always assumed the comments about Daggerfall being 'empty' was directed towards the area between cities and towns, rather than an overall lack of content.
@Madolite Oh, I was specifically referring to a comment discussed in the video. In general it seems most of the accusations towards Daggerfall were coming from the wilderness angle, as far as I can tell.
that is definitely what those comments refer to, and it's a valid criticism. It does add a sense of realism to the game by not having random dungeons or monster infested caves within walking distance of a city, but the "deep wilderness" could have definitely used more enemies and set pieces.
1:44:00 Thank you for this. This whole section explaining the backstory, and having the visual representations of the rulers with their kingdoms, really helped me to understand things. Im just starting a play-through now and am definitely more of a visual person. I did playthrough Skyerfall, but as you previously said i too did all the quests without really remembering what i just did. Stuff like this helps to get a foothold on whats going on.
I remember when I used to be excited for games and not cautiously skeptical. The people creating the game reading fan mail and actually wanting to create a branching narrative with CONSEQUENCES is crazy.
I loved Daggerfall. It offered so much variety to veteran CRPG players. The procedural dungeons were sometimes ridiculously huge. The best review I read about the game at the time is the the dungeons were 'seemingly built by dwarves with a government contract.'
I'm... I'm using that now.
My biggest dungeon for the campaign I'm DMing is now a government contract that was neglected to end. As long as the payments keep going, the picks keep digging
Daggerfall must have melted people’s brains back in the day
What does the C mean in RPG
@@joshuabranson74 Computer. Back in the day, RPG used to primarily refer to the pen and paper tabletop role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, Shadowrun and Vampire: The Masquerade. CRPGs were those games that tried to bring a lot of the tabletop RPG experience to the PC.
Smaller dungeon option rocks
Someone who is listen to hundreds of hours of elder scrolls lore. This is the only video that I will listen to about dagger fall. This is your Magnum opus friend. You did amazing work with this.
Same it’s actually pretty useful, I didn’t have much interest in daggerfall and this video filled a lot in
Have now listened more than 12x(?) times. Excellent material for drifting off to sleep.
@@pacificthrenodies7950 been drifting to sleep with this one too. Very pleasant; always happy, no manic energy or screaming like some video game youtubers
@@njsteere same
@@njsteere I've dozed off several times to this video. There's something cozy about it, like a pleasant little adventure.
Many people miss the fact that your character history is directly related to the choices you made in character creation, and you even start with the items in your inventory from your story.
How cool is that?
Just goes to show how much detail, effort and passion was put into it. I never knew about that super interesting.
Always loved that.
An inspiration from board games such as DnD. Different backstories gave you different items, so a warrior could start with better sword, while bard could pick a musical instrument.
It’s a cool idea, which was probably dropped in favor of you being a prisoner.
@@max7971 they could always have the items be confiscated in a locked chest which you could find later.
@@thesidneychan No you don't understand, roleplaying games are about being forced into a rigid role and backstory that you have absolutely zero agency in changing.
"If you dont save every 5 minutes out of fear, youre doing something wrong" ah yes. The Elder Scrolls mantra.
You mean every decently janky game (usually the good ones, looking at you Daggerfall and Underrail)
Not fear of death mind you, rather fear of encountered crashes and ridiculous bugs.
I always feel like I'm cheating when I save a lot, but then I die, get upset, & start EVERYTHING all over again
@@ProjectRedfoot When you've been walking for 15 minutes across the overworld in oblivion or skyrim and the game crashes.
It’s not out of fear of death, but fear of having to grind through the mind-numbing gameplay experience for another 25 minutes
Theory: Sheogorath helps the Agent find the Mantella because he's the only Daedric prince insane enough to fully understand the Warp in the West and accurately predict it leading to the future of the series and finding him and ideal replacement in the Shivering Isles expansion.
This definitely makes sense if you think about the Shivering Isles and Sheogorath not being insane but foreign. Like if you try to explain a game to someone who has no idea what you're talking about you make perfect sense in your mind but it doesn't make sense to someone who isn't informed. Like we all understand this crazy event but that's because we know about it. It might be a little crazy but definitely not insane so this Theory holds up I think
@@DanteGreysheogorath varies between "lol I'm so random LMAO" to "truly eldritch" like no other daedra can. He's sorta the most godly god there is.
@@Dunkopf He's alluded to obliquely as being "the Sithis-shaped hole" in some of his more obscure epithets, and described as being the exact shape of Lorkhan's missing heart somewhere, isn't he?
What if the book "Sithis" is right? Like Anu > Anuiel > Auriel > Akatosh/Alduin, what if Sithis also underwent the same thing, when he sent Lorkhan in the shape of an Aedra, onto his enemies "as a friend"? Sithis > Padome > Lorkhan > Jyggalag/Sheogorath.
(for context, Sithis appears first in Morrowind and it's directly addressed to the Nerevarine, suggesting for them to go to Dagoth Ur "as a friend" with the intent on murdering him.)
Sheogorath and Jyggalag both keep one function in common: they keep/kept sabotaging the other Daedra, which would jive with Sithis' intent on destroying each level of Anu by sending an avatar "as a friend". Heck, in that narrative even the Nerevarine and the Rebel-overthrows-King motif of the Shezzarines snap into this fractal theme, by virtue of Overthrow being Boethiah's sphere and the King being Molag Bal's sphere, another case of "go as a friend and destroy them from within".
As for why Sithis would want the Daedra gone: well they're doing the same thing Sithis disliked of Anu, and made their own stable worlds in a world that should never have become fixed, they became like the Aedra.
@@neoqwerty You bring up something interesting but you kinda lost me with Sithis for some reason wanting to kill the Daedra. The Daedra are already said to be purely Padomaic so why would Padome self sabotage what they created. Something interesting you bring up though is Jyggalag actions before they turned him into Sheogorath points to him being aligned with Anu. He was obsessed with order and that sounds very Anu to me. Maybe he is somewhat proof that not all deadra came from Padome.
@@billfred9411I thought the words Aedra and Daedra were just to distinguish the gods who helped create the world and those who didn't. Also some of the Daedra Princes were not originally Daedra.
Meridia and Malacath specifically unless there are more.
Daggerfall was perhaps too ahead of its time. It has amazing potential, but the technology just wasn't there at the time, and the dungeons are way too big. Daggerfall Unity is a great modernized way to play this game. I hope someone makes a Daggerfall-style game with modern technology.
I’m planning on doing that with some of Daggerfall’s elements
Literally comment i came to post
The original creators of Daggerfall are making a spiritual successor called Wayward Realms.
@@CaptainWeirdBeard69 good news but i am afraid they gonna make modern game
Imagine Daggerfall remastered...
"why is my sister called rose?"
"because your mother loves roses"
"thanks dad"
"no problem TES II: Daggerfall - A Complete Retrospective by Jwlar"
😂
😂😂😂
this genuinely made me laugh out loud alone with myself like an insane person. thanks for that
I woke up the whole house our boy caught us off guard on that one.
crying
I’ve never played any Elder Scrolls outside of Skyrim but I am fucking obsessed with Daggerfall because of this video. I didn’t really understand why people shat on modern Elder Scrolls stories but it makes sense now-this story is incredible with so many different factions/hidden plots, plus it is so large scale! It’s a massive geopolitical-fantasy drama and I need to experience it as soon as possible
I've tried for almost a decade to get into OverhypedRim. Once that first Dragon encounter occurs and the........pathetic jankiness of the fight. I can't see how everyone doesn't immediately close the game and doesn't think about it for 5 years.
On the flip side, I can't put down DFU. The world is properly enormous! Cities are actually cities!
Literally everybad taste OverhypedRim left in my mouth, doesn't exist in Daggerfall. Mainly because Todd Howard and BabyWind hadn't come to fruition.
I will NEVER play BabyWind. That game started the cancer that "streamlined" TES straight into normieville.
I wish to God I had had this in the 90s. I dreamed about shit like Daggerfall existing then. But I figured I'd be close to 40, like I am now, before I saw that. Boy was I wrong, and has gaming turned into a huge disgusting disappointment.
@PseudoWoundsoblivion gets a lot of shit too. Skyrim and oblivion both were popular at their time due to their simplification but eventually those they brought in see the light of morrowind and Daggerfall and turn on them. They both have a nostalgic charm for people like me, but since I played morrowind and dfu I can legit never see myself playing those games again lmao
@@slyguythreeonetwonine3172 I don't think calling everything baby-this and cancer-that is really necessary. I get that the more modern elder scrolls aren't as large scale or in depth, but they're still great games. Just require a bit of imagination ;)
Imagine meatriding a game you never even played because of a youtube video
@@slyguythreeonetwonine3172 with love, Skyrim just has different design philosophy, one which worked for millions of people. Calling it babyrim just comes across as wanting to seem cool for putting down something popular.
the door sounds, the skeleton sounds, and spellcasting sounds, are so burned into my brain that they appear in dreams and I hear them in movies all the time.
The skeleton shriek is priceless. Transforms a 4-frame 2D sprite into pure horror. When DFU came out, I cleared crypts with the volume real high just to get a reaction out of the wife. 'Isn't it beautiful?' 'NO! MAKE IT STOP!'
Best music still
the horse sound is everywhere.
@@bboliver725 yeah there are quite a few sounds in that game that i hear a lot in movies. i'm assuming they used a common sound library for the game sounds.
Yea I even heard that skeleman scream in a game called Redguard
Daggerfall was simultaneously a game far ahead of its time, and one that feels like it couldn't be made today
perfectly put
True no studio cares about making the game they dreamed of, just the game they can squeeze the most money out of. Daggerfall has more scope and more features than fallout 4. Bethesda has become trash
@@fcktherich6913 Nah those games were lazy as hell. Just big empty procedurally generated crap. Game worlds are smaller now because people actually build everything in them
@@fcktherich6913 that's a really shit take friend.
@@shaunnichols1743 yes let's blatantly ignore the removal of the skill system from fallout 4 and while we're add it add in lore breaking mechanics like fusion cores powering power armor and of course rehashing fallout 3s story just switch the characters rolls around yes let's blatantly ignore all of that
I remember being a kid in the 90's and having a subscription to PC Gamer magazine. Got the demo for daggerfall from one month's magazine and the demo was larger and more complex than any full game I had played prior, I was instantly mesmerized.
It’s odd because I remember thinking Morrowind was “too old” for me to enjoy… then here comes Micky D with Daggerfall and suddenly, I’m thoroughly obsessed with the damn game, literally can’t even stop thinking about it during my work day 😂
Micky D?
I enjoy Daggerfall significantly more than Morrowind. Morrowind was the game I would play in the series if I wanted to just enjoy leveling up and feeling strong, but Daggerfall just has so much more complexity that I can make some of the most unique builds that are exclusive to how I want to play that run.
Morrowind and other games from that experimental 3d era often look and feel even worse than 2d. Might as well consider it even more dated than 2d games like Daggerfall, since 2d is a genre and doesn't go that far in evolution, mostly varying by styles rather than evolution, while 3d straight up evolved way past that low-quality 3d era.
@@oopalmer Because it does. Morrowind is a striped down version of Daggerfall.
I think it's probably the thresholds. Like if you really enjoyed Fallout 4, but can't bring yourself to enjoy Fallout 3 due to it being "too old" but simultaneously being able to play Fallout 2. It's because of just how different the titles are, while the respective 3rd games in these series are the skeleton of their modern releases in the series
Best part about Daggerfall Unity has to be the mods, makes this already great game that much better, this is easily one of the better videos I’ve seen about Daggerfall
Thanks!
Have a problem with my mods. Grass/ground textures are freaking out and streching in a weird way. Not so good at modding do i just delete and reinstall the mods?
@@Top_Hat_Walrus could be the load order, I actually just reinstalled DFUnity with mods and I didn’t have a problem
@@VoidSmoker97 Updated to latest version and it works as it should again
Yo does it have a mod to fix that awful mouse aim mechanic to be more like a normal video game?
So, I tried Arena before I tried Daggerfall. The very first thing that impressed me was when I exited Privateer's Hold. I was able to pull up the world map, zoom in on where I was, and find a nearby village... And I was actually able to walk all the way there! It's actually not far away either, I believe it's atop a hill just to the south, and it might take two minutes tops.
The one thing about Daggerfall that I find unrivalled is the vibe. Every song in the soundtrack has its place and seems to play at the perfect moment. The variety (although small) of the biomes make the world feel diverse and separated. It’s impossible to trek through the forests, plains, jungles, or deserts of this game without stopping to take a look at the endless horizon. Absolutely nothing immerses me more than Daggerfall, and that is why I love this game.
Degenerates like you belong on a cross, or lined up against the wall. (funny joke when its used against furries and you lot never took issue when you saw it in public mainstream content so uh, dont moan at me, go raise your devil spawn properly instead)
You are the only daggerfall veteran that actually recommends the smaller dungeons setting. This is a really good video btw.
I never understood the giant dungeons tbh. After like 3 or 4 you could already be at your max possible level. Doesn't gel well with the size of the world they want you to explore if you ask me
I am a vet but I wasnt aware of the smaller dungeon setting. I will absolutely be using this as it is excessive and adds little to gameplay.
@@hithere8753 it's an option in the unity version... You will need to make an ini edit...
This isn't true, it's just a setting in the settings menu
@@brainbandaid5802 it's possibly a new dfunity version thing... It was experimental then...
1:34:11 Daggerfall having a very in depth story as opposed to Arena being very generic….
I remember Ted Peterson saying he specifically did that on purpose. After people said Arena’s was so simple he was like “okay, fine. (Cracks fingers) Watch this…” lol
Hold my beer style, we love. :D
*Proceed to make elder scroll lore the most confusing lore i've ever known in game*
Holy crap, now this is a hell of a video essay, especially for a relatively small channel. Huge respect for the dedication you needed to out this together.
Degenerates like you belong on a cross, or lined up against the wall. (funny joke when its used against furries and you lot never took issue when you saw it in public mainstream content so uh, dont moan at me, go raise your devil spawn properly instead)
This whole video was a great watch! Throughly enjoyed your video style and best of luck with future vids 👌
Thanks man! :)
It's so wholesome when two of my favorite content creators build each other up!
I would like that but he got 321 likes on that ... sad dat u cant drag people in daggerfall would be great seeing you dragging someone over the whole map ... great 1week stream idea :)
we make a special upvote, just for you. same low price
@@Jwlar guys please make a joint video on the multiplayer mods for ES games! Micky's humor would fit nicely alongside Jwlar's seriousness and analytical abilities :)
I love dagger fall, i used to have an entire notebook of quest logs and my own hints and tips....such a HUGE map.
Most people are too stupid to do this bud...your one of the vary few bro
@@SurvivenTerrydid you forget to switch accounts?
Lmao
@@SurvivenTerry "most people are too stupid" "your one of the vary few" lmfao
@@SurvivenTerry damn I can’t believe it took a year for people to call you out on replying to yourself about how “rare” you are lol
I never played Daggerfall, nor I have plans to, but I saw the entire video without feeling bored once, really nice job
Thanks!
Your loss
@@lillyclarity9699 i mean, you assumed it's because it's older. People can have plenty of reasons not to play a certain game.
@@lillyclarity9699 "Go deprived" lmao clown, it's a video game lol
@@markusmitchell8585 Not really. the graphics and gameplay are trash. It's hard to go back to older games like this unless you're blinded by nostalgia.
I wouldn't blame the age of the game for the limited in-game presentation. This was a CD-Rom game, released three years after Lands of Lore and six years after Monkey Island. It's even fifteen years younger than King's Quest. While I was playing I very much felt like Daggerfall was in a CRPG lineage descendent from Ultima I (1981) in what it tries to be, which is an open world rpg simulator. I would also point out that no Elder Scrolls game up to date have allowed you as player to interact with NPC's at depth, as you were in contemporary adventuregames and rpg's. The engine is capable, as shown in Fallout: New Vegas, but Bethesda just wasn't interested in that. This becomes very evident if you try the 3dNPC mod ("Interesting NPC") in Skyrim. You can recognize what NPC is added by the mod just by looking at the depth of conversation you can have with someone you meet where Bethesda dialogue is almost exclusively 1-sided where the NPC is a signpost for quests or information only.
So I think the limits of presentation had more to do with a disconnect between the writer of the plot and the focus in game design. Daggerfall was meant to be a RPG simulator. The plot wasn't meant to be the selling point, you just had a writer overcompetent for the job, and a common sentiment among old fans seems to be that they didn't care about the Main Quest at all.
I still think Daggerfall has the best main quest for any video game RPG. There is literally no urgency at all, so there is no mental disconnect between doing the main quest and messing around with side quests. I also like how the main quest has multiple paths, and many optional components.
Sure, it’s not the most engaging story quest, it just makes the most sense for a sandbox rpg.
@@doctorlolchicken7478 The fact that you "discover" the path and gradually home into the goal was a nice touch and I appreciated that. That is one of the reasons I compared it to Ultima I which did the same thing where you gradually uncover deeper mysteries by listening to rumors. In general I appreciate main quest progression using the open world aspect rather than a single A>B>C>D>E questline. I am personally in favor of Gothic 3 in this regard as one part of the Main Quest depends on you boosting your faction/region reputation to progress, which means you organically make progress on the Main Quest by doing whatever subquests you think seems fun and interesting to you.
The player base not being wild about the main quest is a defining feature of TES - always has been and always will be. As others have put it, the series isn't strong in its characters and writing generally - the real main character is the world itself.
@@WK-47 There's a reason why I only recommend playing through Morrowind's main quest with Julan the Ashlander and Skyrim's with Inigo, and it's pretty much because they rescue the whole thing. (generally by both overshadowing and tangling into their respective main quests)
One thing i didnt expect from trying out daggerfall is how much note taking eases up the game -- writing down pointers given by npcs who know what im talking about, which places i need to visit, active quests, etc. Turned out to be super fun lol
One of my earliest memories as a kid. Standing behind my father resting my head on his shoulder as he sat playing daggerfall. Just starting to watch it now, I know its gonna be a real trip watching this. Blast from the past.
That’s an awesome memory. I wish I could have had that experience with my father
@@bigzachful same my father beat me
I remember playing this as a kid and distracted from the main quest to the point where it timed out and failed. Meanwhile I was running around summoning daedra, crafting nice gear and then caught vampirism but didn't get how to cure it. The half if the game that I understood was magnificent though.
I used to play before school, cuz my dad was at work and always playing Everquest when he got home 🤣 I figured out how to get a loan and bought a boat, my 8 year old mind was absolutely blown
Wish I'd played daggerfall in 96, would have been mind-blowing, even now the scale of it is impressive
It was massive, it was mindblowing in its ambition, it was deeply flawed and bugged. I loved that game to death. Still waiting for a character creator and item enchanter of Daggerfall's caliber.
I did play it starting around '97. As Jslar says: you have to keep good notes. I still have my notebook from my first try at Daggerfall. I hit too many of the bugs to continue at the time. I fell through tons of dungeon walls and often didn't find the items I had spent my entire RL weekend looking for. Since Unity came out with it, I started again. THIS time I'm using my trusty MS OneNote and have very organized notes of what I think it going on. At the very least, I make notes of my active quests. Yes I know they are in my in-game journal but that doesn't feel right for this game. This is old school. And semi-old school I shall play it.
It's so amazing you put surely over a hundred hours into making this when you had to expect only a few hundred views. I'm glad it gets the attention it deserves and I'm excited for your future content
@Itoki Norishiba Ezra Miller is a douche though. This guy's got everything on that loser.
only 1.8 million views my dude.
@@lordblazer Read better 'my dude.' The person you commented to says that AT THE TIME the uploader probably didn't expect so many views, because he didn't have many subscribers back then. That really shows that this video was made out of passion.
Long form videos not getting views is something older youtubers feared and/because the algorithm used to dissuade. That seems to no longer be the case, especially since the pandemic
I walked across the entire map in Daggerfall. It took me 69 hours and 33 minutes.
Wait, for real? I've never actually played it
Nice.
Its still the largest game map EVER, iirc. Skyrim, BOTW and Minecraft come close but not quite.
Should have recorded it and uploaded a supercut
@@whoknows8264 I've recorded it. You can watch the full version (69 hours) or the time lapse video of 1 minute.
One of the things I absolutely love about Daggerfall and one of the reasons it is cemented as my favorite Elder Scrolls game of all time is that even failed skill checks still factor into leveling up that associated skill. It is an incredible little detail that most Role Playing Games don't factor in and certainly no other Elder Scrolls game does. It is based around the idea that even though you suck at using a certain skill, you are still learning that skill by failing at it. In Morrowind you would have to have lots of gold and abuse skill trainers to train those skills that you are not good in just so you could use them competently. Daggerfall doesn't have this issue at all. Even if you fail at using lockpick or even if your weapon attacks miss an enemy, the game acknowledges this as contributing towards that skills usage which levels that skill up.
its a really strange thing for so many games to get wrong cuz like, anyone who has ever learned a skill before should realize that most of the learning is done when making mistakes or encountering new challenges you havent yet dealt with.
I consider myself 'having beaten the game' by installing the patch stack, in the correct order, including fan patches. That took some planning, consulting several online charts, and a couple nights of work. I hear the "post-game content" involves actual story, missions, etc, but I did the hardest part--the main questline of 'install the game.' 😜
So it's the same like any other The Elder Scrolls game 🙂
you should’ve just gotten the unity version. much more stable and such a simple installation
@@supgin1616 You're right. This was a nostalgic bare-metal MSDOS build so nothing about of it was the smart/logical/easy way. Surprising how many fan patches there were to wade though and figure out which were superseded/collected into other ones. It was really an adventure--oh and something about werewolves and swordy-swords happened after that. 😆
This is literally the best and most comprehensive retrospective of Daggerfall Ive ever seen. I'm especially grateful for the main plot overview. I would have never found out even half of the story if not for your thorough deep dive. All I can say is thank you for making this.
this is the first time someone explains the whole Ysmir, Tiber Septim and Zurin Arctus plot in a way that makes sense and it isnt just someone reading stuff off the wiki, thank you for that
This is the game that changed the way I looked at games, while I still do love a variety of different genres, this is what made me focus on story rich RPG, preferably with an open world to explore. Elder Scrolls has become my favourite franchise and I fell in love with it's deep lore during Daggerfall.
I remember one indecent where I was in a book store in game reading up various things when al of a sudden I heard: "Halt! Halt!".
Yup, I was in there so long reading that it was now past closing time and I was now trespassing. 🙃
Daggerfall was my own first Elder Scrolls game, and I played the hell out of it. Glad to see more people appreciating it.
I heard your comment on the Longform Analysis & Retrospective podcast about you not understanding why this video has blown up so much - let me tell you, I've fallen asleep to this video countless times now. I watched it end to end once, and now I set it to 0.75 speed, and clock out. Thanks for making such unintentionally sleepy content 👏🏻
Very impressive reportage about that old game. I never expected the main quest to be so complex. No wonder I never finished it and always ended with the message that this world is doomed because I loitered too much (or something like that), too busy to pilfer dungeons.
Remove timer mod :p
Back in the day I missed the fast travel button for the first couple of weeks of play. It took longer to walk to the first village after Privateers Hold than to cross all of Skyrim 15 years later. Did you know you can swim all the way to Hammerfell? I learned that after buying a ship that didn't work. 10/10, best Elder Scrolls.
So cool to see people appreciate actual RPGs. I was really into an RPG called everquest, which had a depth unseen today. The idea of their being like 20 languages that took chat repititiin to level, and being able to have a party of 6 and being able to speak certain languages within the party that wasn't understood by everyone was just so cool to me. They also had religions and politics, huge world, very good classes. Miss this depth, it doesn't seem to exist anymore.
I so miss everquest, my dad got me to play it, and it really felt like it had a nice personal touch, like an immaculately detailed and maintained model city made by human hands. It felt like I was playing in a D&D game with a beautiful textbook worth of lore.
I really appriciate these very long form videos that give breakdown of the entire story. I pretend that I could go back and play these but honestly they are just so dated I know I wouldnt make it far. Great Vid!
It may be worth checking out Skyggerfall! Although there isn't much need, as you can get all the story here haha
@@Jwlar I saw your vid on that, may check that out
This is severely underrated content here. Dude you have the makings of a high tier channel. Subscribed, cant wait to binge watch your old ones and eagerly await more!
Thank you 🙏🏼
@@Jwlar Do you have a patreon yet?
3:22:40 That book wasn't about the Warp in the West, but about the Middle Dawn. The khajiit scholar talks about the Numidium being activated in Daggerfall and other Dragon breaks, but Mannimarco's and other accounts are about the Marukhati selectives' actions. The book that talks about the Warp is called, well, "The Warp in the West" xD by Ulvius Tero which is also a compilation of reports about the event made by Blades' agents on the region.
Also great video!
I've only played a little bit of Daggerfall a few years ago, and I dabbled in the main quest when the Skyrim mod came out a while back.
Again, I didn't play much, but I will say that The Missing Prince was probably the most moved I have ever felt after completing a TES quest. I thought it was really really good.
Same! I was expecting something far more generic, I was actually shocked at how dark it was.
"I have no hope left, but no fear either. A few regrets.
Perhaps had I studied magic instead of history and
science I could free myself of this place. One of my
tutors told the story of the Underking, how he had
placed his lifeforce in the body of a powerful being
and had thus conquered all Tamriel long, long ago.
Had I only had the strength of a more powerful body
like that.
But I did not study magic. I studied history, so I
leave this letter -- not to revenge myself, but as
an historic document."
God damn that's heavy
I was addicted to Daggerfall back in the 90's and it is still up there as one of my favourite games and my Vampire/Mage was just godlike towards the end of the game.
Honestly this was the exact video I was looking for. I really enjoy listening to in-depth discussions of older games: how they played, the context surrounding them, and the impact they've had. You've done a fabulous job tackling all of that and more. I watched the whole video in one go but time stamps are always appreciated and to me are a sign that a the creator cares about putting in the extra effort to provide them.
I think things are looking up for the depth and return to a more Daggerfall esque game with Starfield. Ever since I saw the 15 minute gameplay trailer a year ago where they showed the trait Dream Home (you get a nice house but have a debt to pay off) and also the 1000+ plus planets I couldn't help but think of Daggerfall. After the 45 minute Direct that has recently been shown off the Daggerfall inspiration feels even more clear. I'm hopeful that TesVI is pushed even further in that direction. One of the biggest things I hope TesVI improves upon is guild depth and services. Your video here has made me desire that even more.
Thank you for this video and again you've done a wonderful job.
Narcistic sense of else importance to think you need to write an essay about why you watched this video when 4 other million people already have
@@Gamingniqqa what?
@@Gamingniqqa
Wtf…
So how did you like Starfield? Most people are trashing it.
@@bigzachful I think they're just a loud minority combined with upset Playstation fans and people that enjoy bashing games, which seems to be an ever increasing trend (whether the game is good, bad, or just okay).
I've really enjoyed Starfield so far. A lot of my time has been spent doing mission board quests and ship building, but I've completed the Crimson Fleet story and some other side quests. I've still got a lot that I want to do along with beating the main quest.
Outside of facial animations the game looks amazing. The render distance is incredible. The skill system is certainly one of their best and feels very organic and impactful. Ship building is addicting and overall there's a nice amount of things to spend your money on. Dialogue rewards skill investment as well as your background/traits. It has felt like diplomatic options are more prevalent. The weapons and armor look really cool.
The game isn't perfect but for it's scope it's great. There's still DLC and modding tools to come out, which to me I wouldn't consider the other games complete without the DLC. It also seems like BGS wants to work/support the game longer than their other ones post launch, so that's cool.
I think the only major changes I'd make are:
1. Reduce the space between stuff in solar systems so that we could fly to them in under an hour.
2. Remove the legendary system (I never liked it in Fo4 or Fo76).
3. More diverse morality/character of companions.
Right now I'd give it around an 8.5/10, will probably go up after all the DLC are out and a year or two of updates. I'm interested jn seeing what modders will be able to do when the tools come out.
I honestly love how much retrospectives there are on youtube over Bethesda games and the like. Very relaxing and enjoyable to listen to, ive already watched this around 5 times. Wonderful vid.
Daggerfall has some issues, but I would have to say this is the most imaginative Elder Scrolls. There are so many amazing mechanics in this game that were sadly left out of the later games.
Like climbing....
@Nny climbing a wall is a basic skill in every good rpg.
I tend not to comment on videos however I must say this, from start to finish was an absolute master piece.
The video entirely captivated me and had instilled your love of the game onto me, I cannot wait to embark on my first journey through the illiac bay
I think that modern procedural generation shows that the issue with games like Daggerfall has less to do with the inherent issues with procedural generation and more to do with how that generation is designed, and the amount of assets and variables the systems have access to.
I think that procedural generation hasn't really kept up with everything else developers are capable of now. Procedurally generated content is a lot less convincing when developer curated content has become so complex by comparison.
@@jerrodshack7610 Honestly, a big part of that is that curated content is so much more _compressed_. Procedural generation can do the same thing, but it would be quite silly to do that. A big part of why procedurally generated worlds ever became a thing is to provide _large_ worlds to explore. And don't forget that e.g. Diablo has always been procedurally generated - there's many ways to use procedural generation hand in hand with curated content. Remember Star Wars: Galaxies? They had a great procedural generation system that in fact created (temporary) points of interests all over the worlds in the game for people to explore, and never to see again. But of course, that grew up of the same guy who worked on Ultima Online, so it shouldn't really be surprising.
I will just add this recent video to the mix in case anyone in this conversation has not seen it: th-cam.com/video/-lkEOEEKYD0/w-d-xo.html
That's a video for the Unreal Engine 5.2 Tech Demo which at one point shows a curated area compared to a larger procedurally generated one
this video is an exact embodiment of daggerfall: full of content and only appreciated by a select few people of exquisite taste
jokes aside, I hope you'll go big one day buddy
Thanks :)
@@raidenthekat2444 Its a guy passionately talking about his favorite RPG game for almost 4 full hours. Its not meant to be a reasonably lengthed professional review. Its not a desperate filler either, i'm pretty sure he didn't try to make it longer on purpose lol. Reviews are a completely different youtube genre from this.
@@raidenthekat2444 we do not care + you type like a woman
@@RonaldMcJuicy cared enough to comment. Lmfao
@@raidenthekat2444 Either it's a long winded explanation about Daggerfall, something that is of great substance to quite a few people, me included, or it's more filler in a desperate attempt to create something of substance, make up your mind. :P
I was feeling so bad. My life is falling apart.
When I heard "He terrorizes his citizens at night, screaming FOR VENGEAAAAANCE!!" at 1:36:44 I broke into laughter.
Sharing a common base of stories and joking about it, connecting through it, is miraculous for the human brain. Even when the brain is at the opposite end of the mood spectrum, it can swing all the way back in a flash.
Same
So gay.
Hope things got a bit better for you
hope ur doing well
I dont hope you're doing well. I hope you're WORSE.
The Numidium kind of reminds me of one of the enemies from this tabletop game I like. They are these giants called the Zendarim, cursed with both immortality and no free will. Each has a totem that controls them. But unlike the Numidium, without their totems they are completely dormant, and will bury themselves alive. The only damage that does is that wherever one is buried, crops will never grow, and people will be oddly compelled to build churches.
In regards to the Totem of Tiber Septim deal, I don't think there's any plot holes, so long as you read between the lines and kind of ignore what later games did with the concept of the Septim Bloodline.
So there's two requirements stated to use the Totem: be descended from Tiber Septim, or have a strong supernatural affinity. Gothryd, Camoran and Eadwyre are all members of very powerful kingdoms: they have Tiber's blood in them because of the various political marriages and whatnot they must've had in the past with the Septim dynasty. Mannimarco and the Underking are both extremely powerful iches, they have the supernatural affinity. So this leaves Gortwog as the only unexplained one. But this is the bit where I think something is implied, but not really explained well enough that the majority of people will miss it. In the main quest Gortwog sends a letter to Medora Direnni, demanding that she supports his claim to the "heart". I think this refers to the Totem/Mantella, and since Medora is a powerful sorceress Gortwog thinks her magical abilities could be used to give him access to the Totem, what with that vague "supernatural affinity" requirement.
The cut ending doesn't contradict this at all; the entire point is that the Agent doesn't have the Blood of Tiber Septim, so he can't use the totem to control Numidium and just gets stomped as soon as he turns it on.
One of the books in game actually states that Wayrest was ruled by the Septim dynasty at one point. Also the Underking doesn’t want to use Numidium, he only wants his heart back. The totem may also recognize its creator.
Oblivion and Skyrim are basically fanfiction and non-canonical. Many of the game devs openly admitted to not caring about the history or canon of the Elder Scrolls and that they were just making up shit lore-wise. Some even had outright disdain for the lore. AFAIC the series ended with Morrowind and its a shame they never came out with any more games in this amazing RPG series.
@@Dreadnautilus You're exaggerating, and the most important point is that the devs who worked on Morrowind (many of whom worked on Daggerfall) loved the game and cared about the previous titles, they didnt have the disdain, arrogance. and hatred like the Oblivion and Skyrim crews did. If you think thats the same, then I feel sad for you man.
The Underking is a special exception to all these rules because he won't be using the totem to control the mechanical god, he needs the totem to access the Mantela contained within in order to break it and free his soul.
@@belisariussmith9095 I mean, Kurt Kuhlmann and Kirkbride really didn't like DF's plot and Bretons, calling them generic. They didn't write all of Morrowind obviously, and Ted Peterson was still part of the team at the time but Kuhlmann and Kirkbride were the main fellas responsible for the worldbuilding and their disgust for Bretons and the happenings in "generic fantasy land" High Rock do show up in the game, so I feel Dreadnautilus isn't entirely in the wrong here.
I've heard about how good Daggerfall was for years but never had the time to really try it. Thanks for letting me experience this through your words.
Amazing job on this documentary; it should have millions of views. Incredible depth. Thank you for creating this love letter to Daggerfall!
I got this game back in 1996 and it was painful to run on my 90 mhz, wasn’t until 1997 when I got a 200 mhz pentium MMX that it could run decent but totally blew my 12 year old mind at the time with depth.
I was also a few very young folks that were lucky to run into Arena a few years earlier from a friend at age 10, pirated copy on floppies.
Arena and daggerfall started an Elder Scrolls obsession that continues to this day… but you are right - Daggerfall was one of the best of the series and you have had to been there or given it chance like you did to understand why.
i never thought i'd ever touch this game for more than 5 minutes as a novelty
you, sir, proved me wrong
You should. Daggerfall is indeed, the greatest ES
Same
@@thatrandomcrit5823 critical thinking and reading comprehension are obviously not strengths of yours, so I doubt you have played tes 2.
@@jarredlucas4000 Huh... Where´d you get that notion?
@@jarredlucas4000 ???
I habe to say that i really like how the popular characters and faction in daggerfall all are there to setup the main plot.
They are not just factions wich have faction or side quest specific relevance in the game, but they are an known instance in the world of daggerfall. The thieves guimd stealing valuable documents from.the royal court to sell them to the highest bidder, eich is the leader of an orc rebellion who was secretly allied with the fallen king and is now looking out for the legacy of his dead ally... i cannot stte how much this excites me.
This interconnection really makes this game feel realistic and shed interesting lights on the different Persons of Interest.
This is so refreshing
Quite a love letter to Daggerfall. For a short while in my early 20-ties I used to work at a hotel reception. After finishing all my duties, Daggerfall was my favourite way of passing time.
The fact that this only has 442 views makes me sick. This whole video series is a master piece.
Thank you! It'll grow in time :)
now it has 10x that amount and it's STILL not enough
@@Jwlar as well as your sub count! love the attention older less popular games are getting. Morrowind and Oblivion have too many essays already
Just give it time, this video will continue to grow
Has over 18k now. The algo has smiled upon us.
Idk but the cities in Skyrim feel more alive to me. When I entered Whiterun, I saw NPCs arguing with each other, market owners talking with visitors, people walking about, and some kid telling me how he climbed onto dragonreach to catch bird eggs. Then Daggerfall's NPCs are just flat lifeless sprites who just kinda walk around.
Take in account the hardware at the time.
I just finished this video, and was really nice to watch during my study breaks for exams. The production quality is out standing, and you deserve alot more movies and subscribers.
Thank you :)
What a fine video made on daggerfall here. I like the editing and clarity in voice and writing discussing mechanics, concepts, and etc on the game. Can't wait to see more of your videos.
I love this video so much, it's really relaxing to lay in bed and listen to. You're doing the work of Talos!
I haven't seen the Godfather, Diehard, and many other amazing movies, but I did take nearly 4 hours out of my life to watch a video about an Elder Scrolls game I haven't played despite it being free.
Fucking Gigachad
I highly recommend grabbing it and installing the Unity version (or, if you have Skyrim, grabbing Skyggerfall, which is an abandoned(?) WIP but it has the whole main plotline except streamlined)
Only if you have several hours, mind, the game tends to suck you in (and get the main quest delay or no-time-limit mods)
@@neoqwerty Since posting my original comment I downloaded it on steam then realized I should get the unity version then forgot to lol
dang this video got you deconstructing and analysing ur life
@teaguejelinek4038 The worst part is, a year later, I don't even remember the video
When I played Daggerfall upon its release in 1996, I was blown away by the scale of the game map.
I literally walked and ran from the starter dungeon to the closest village to verify the travelling distance.
Till this day, Daggerfall hold the crown of having the largest open world game map in the fantasy RPG category. (Don't compare it to outer space travel of No Man's Sky)
There are Minecraft mods that are vastly bigger, but hey, that's Minecraft modding for you :D
I mean eso is much bigger but is more of a generic mmo that i dont even know if is cannon or not other than that you might be right other than minecraft but thats similar to the likes of nms
I think kerbin in KSP is bigger
Yeah the spaceships make the distance a non factor most of the time
Minecraft and KSP aren't Fantasy RPGs
I gotta admit, this video kinda makes me wanna try Daggerfall. Once you mentioned the Unity port and some mods that effects some stuff i'd be worried about, i was sold. The Bretons are my favorite race in TES and I've always wanted more simulation aspects to the other games, maybe when I finally finish Morrowind, I can try Daggerfall next
It's been a while since you posted this. I hope you have tried Daggerfall. I mean, a game like this available for FREE? The Unity port team did a GREAT job with it. I'm not normally a mod person but made an exception here. The improved graphics, bug fixes and the sounds. Oh my! Yesterday I was arriving at some city and it was raining. Suddenly it thundered and scared the crapola out of me. Jwar did a great job explaining one main reason this game captures people: the ambiance. It has a feel about it I haven't seen very much in my 30+ years of gaming.
Most nostalgic 3+ hours I've spent in a while. I played Daggerfall for hundreds of hours as a teen.... without ever finishing it. Lol. I just kept making new characters and doing side quests.
I'm not even an Elder Scrolls fan and I loved watching this. I would watch more of these complete analysis for the later games in the series to see what was added, improved, or changed.
Or removed (Skyrim)
I'm coming back a year later just to point out how insane it is that daggerfall had such detail and interactivity in the world with a ton of immersive elements, and instead of future games iterating on this and refining the formula while adding even more of this stuff with how far technology has advanced, game devs have actually gone backwards and regressed tremendously. Just look at Starfield.
Every modern BGS game feels like the last, but with features removed and the replacements... totally irrelevant.
@@BigLongRandomNumberNameM-kf9vy Easy to make the game complex when 90% of your game is just flat sprites
I remember playing Daggerfall when it first came out. The scope of it felt truly amazing at the time, but the overall jankyness made it difficult to get into. It was fun to make characters and figure out new ways to steal things, but after a few hours I would always give up. The concept was way ahead of its time and they definitely get a lot of kudos for trying, but it clearly wasn't fully baked yet.
great job finishing this massive project man, it was comfy to listen to
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for stopping by :)
I love that pat shouted you out in one of his retrospectives saying "no one cared about daggerfall till jewelers video on it" which in context is pretty crazy
Who is pat?
@@arjunmenon8572 Patrician TV, he made a few extensive videos on the TES series
@@arjunmenon8572 PatricianTV, if you listen to this video he mentions differing opinions on Morrowind in Daggerfall between Jeweler and Pat. 8 hour video on Morrowind 12 hour video on Oblivion and 20 hour video on Skyrim are all his retrospectives
Bah
@@max7971thanks. Can you people please say people's whole names😂 The only TH-cam pat I know is that annoying MatPat
Phenomenal video! Just discovered your channel because of a recommendation, this is exactly my kind of thing.
Dead verified account
@@henrycrabs3497 Hmm? How is my account dead?
@@GamerZakh look at your sub to view ratio
@@henrycrabs3497 My sub to view ratio is better than Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, and DanTDM. You misunderstand what a normal ratio is.
@@GamerZakh OK buddy
I remember when Daggerfall came out. Even bought it, but it didn't run on my computer very well so I took it back. I have to say the marketing department did great work on the shiniest, coolest looking box ever.
I was shopping at a GameStop in my town and found Daggerfall in the bargain bin about a year after it had been released. The cover of the box is what caught my attention. And thus began my life-long love of TES.
I’ve been falling asleep to this video lots of nights lately. Please don’t think I mean it’s boring - it’s been pleasant to relax into sleep with, hearing someone so happy to talk about this classic game they love!
I played Arena as a kid and Skyrim as an adult, but only played daggerfall a few times at a friends house when I was young. I might have to go back!
This video was really good! If you keep making content like this I bet your channel will explode.
Btw, the summaries were really appreciated because as someone who hasn't played the game myself keeping all those names and places straight was tough at times. The awesome visuals helped a ton too, with the little pixel portraits popping up at all the right times.
I subbed and am looking forwards to the next long one!
I've watched many game documentaries. This is by far the most in-depth and well put-together I've ever watched. Well done.
Degenerates like you belong on a cross, or lined up against the wall. (funny joke when its used against furries and you lot never took issue when you saw it in public mainstream content so uh, dont moan at me, go raise your devil spawn properly instead)
Honestly, Skyrim was the first time I'd ever heard of the Elder Scrolls series and I fell in love with it immensely. Played it for years when it first came out and still pick it up from time to time. I tried playing Oblivion back when I finished Skyrim the first time, but couldn't get past the graphics. Now that I'm older and can appreciate games for more than just the graphics, I'm started Oblivion again a few days ago and I'm loving it. Your video and story telling make me want to play Arena, Daggerfall and Morrowind now too. Great video man
This answered so many questions I couldn’t find answers to anywhere else. Thank you so much for making this and sharing with us! This is truly an amazing video and you should be really proud of yourself!!!
This is the video I've been searching for for weeks. You put into words so many of the thoughts I was having and this just checked so many boxes for me serotonin-wise. Thanks friend.
Bro this was such an amazing in depth video. I know you had to have worked your ass off to do this. I have never played TES 1-2 and have attempted Morrowind but its hard for me to get into. Thank you for making these deep dives and sharing so much information.
It’s extremely cliche, but the beauty of Daggerfall is how no two playthroughs are the same, and each experience is unique. I think this has to do with its depth of simulation and procedurally generated nature, which creates a LOT of emergent gameplay/storytelling. I’m glad Daggerfall is still going strong.
Degenerates like you belong on a cross, or lined up against the wall. (funny joke when its used against furries and you lot never took issue when you saw it in public mainstream content so uh, dont moan at me, go raise your devil spawn properly instead)
Great video. I was 13 and obsessed with Daggerfall back when it was released in '96. I don't think anything in here was new to me, but it was great to spend some time immersed in this game again. Takes me right back and brings to mind all these little details about what it was like to experience it shortly after release. Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim are all good games in their own right, but none of them have really lived up to the promise of Daggerfall. Partly it's the rose-tinted glasses of course, but the reality is that despite their vastly higher production values, the later games are in many ways smaller, simpler and less ambitious experiences. There's a line in the introduction of the Daggerfall manual that always stuck with me: "People who play roleplaying games need more than some pretty graphics and nonstop action to whet their claymores; they want depth and character and wit and drama." Somewhere along the way (okay, not "somewhere" - it was Oblivion, let's be clear) Bethsoft drifted from that philosophy. Skyrim does provide some *very* pretty graphics (Daggerfall's were considered mediocre even in 1996) and the action is brilliant. I had a great time with it, but it was never really a worthy successor to DF.
I'll go a step further: I don't even consider Skyrim to be a proper Elder Scrolls game, period. More like a half-hearted fan-fic.
@@bethrouser1686 I consider it an improvement on Oblivion as an Elder Scrolls game but that's not saying much
Man I have watched this video so many times. I would love to see you upload a Let's Play series for Daggerfall.
This is by far the best Video about Daggerfall I ever seen and I bet will ever be. Spending nearly 4 hours in one sitting watching this. Well done my friend!
I made it all the way to the end, this is one of the most interesting videos I’ve listened to in a very long time. You provided a thorough presentation of Daggerfall’s main quest, which is not an easy task given how complicated it gets, and it was made all the better by your great voice!
this has become one of these videos that are a comfort pick for going to sleep or having something on in the background
I wish Bethesda would find their creative spine and take a chance for once by combining Daggerfall's scope with modern graphics and detail. Making TES games for the console then porting to the PC is holding the series back, it needs to be the opposite way around. BGS need to up their game considerably because most developers have managed to balance scale and detail in a way the TES games never have.
There's an irony in this.
They're very specifically playing it safe and not taking risks because of the situation they were in during Morrowind's development.
Back then, they were on the brink of bankruptcy. Morrowind was their last chance before going under, and so they decided "fuck it, go all out. We're about to go under anyway, so what's the worst that could happen?"
Then Morrowind was a huge success and saved the company, and now everyone who's still in charge since back then doesn't wanna risk going back to those days.
Starfield is supposed to have 1000 planets, and utilize heavy procedural generation for them, so maybe you'll have your wish fulfilled.
Have they, though? Regarding detail and scale, I mean. What's another game to the scale of something like TES?
Theyre jank, and the newer ones are bland and uninspired at times. I, personally, wasn't a fan of Skyrim or Fallout 4- not exactly a hot take, I know- but anything similar is arguably worse. Outer Worlds is boring and pretty "Bethesda-esque" with choices not really mattering, meh writing and world, games like Baldurs Gate are much different in playstyle, and honestly I really can't think of anything else that's close to being "Bethesda-like".
Unfortunately, games have become so expensive to make that anyone willing to take risks can't fund it, and those who *can* fund it aren't willing to take risks.
The gaming industry is in a pretty shit spot, at the moment. Aside from a very select few good studios, I think the days of something like this are gone, until we get some determined indie devs who have a shit load of free time
Maybe my pessimism in the gaming industry is showing, lmao
@@vangoghsseveredear it IS shit. They're all about this dumb "live services" and playing it safe because they need to please greedy rich investors.
@@Evarakeus 1000 procedurally generated planets is about as exciting as 2 hand crafted worlds
I played the Daggerfall as a kid and I immediately felt back then, that the game could have been much more if it was given enough time, money and manpower - it had the best basic ingredients but needed to be refined much more. It could have been the the "absolutely perfect and complex rpg game". But as an adult I now know, nobody would have the time to play such a complex and perfect game. Yes somebody will make a game that will almost match this fleeting imagination of a perfect RPG game with a massive and unique world by using advanced procedural generation for everything from unique houses, towns, forests, dungeons, to quests, unique npcs, guilds, covens, cults, speeches and more.. but still.. who would have the time to play such a game? To discover all of the many secrets of the game? It almost freaks me out to think about it today. If a lifespan of an ordinary human was at least 500 years or indefinite with the help of science I can imagine giving the game 5 years of my life to explore it and enjoy it as much as possible :)))
Isn't this concept just so so captivating though? A game you might never be able to fully experience, because there's just so much to do and so many ways to do it that you'll never have time to do them all? I love this idea because it also causes with something else: You will probably have an almost unique experience. Some people might make a similar build or follow a similar path, but what you do on your playthrough will always be, to some degree, completely original.
attributing dragonbreaks to everything is cheap, but in the case of the battle of red mountain, the creation of the mantella, and the warp in the west it works well.
This entire retrospective really makes ya think: what would’ve the alien world of Morrowind looked like had it been lead by Julian Le Fay?
I can only dream...
Well, it wouldn't have looked alien to begin with.
@@eliotguerra6783 well naturally, but by “alien” I meant more of the story and culture rather than plain looks
@@Things_n_Stuff but everything about Morrowind is alien including the story and culture and the most obvious thing about them is that it's the most unique one of the bunch, you can see similarities in the culture of people you meet in Arena, Daggerfall, Oblivion and Skyrim but Morrowind is vastly different from those four.
@@thegamerfe8751 I mean it's a bit hard to notice when there's imperial stuff up the wazoo and half the factions you can join are Imperial and of the four Ashlander tribes you only get lore for one of them (Urshilaku) and Erabenimsun, Ahemmusa, Zainab and the Mabrigash outcasts are all one-note.
The only really INTERESTING parts that aren't in the books are tiny bits of conversation you get if you talk about certain subjects to rather specific classes of people.
And if you don't have Tribunal enabled, you don't even get to see what a REAL "traditional" Dunmeri city is like because you don't get to explore Mournhold-- but Mournhold also doesn't have flavor text on its ingredients the way the base game's ingredients can be talked about to alchemists, and savants don't have much to say there, either...
Thematically, environmentally, yeah, it's different, and when you start off the feeling of being a stranger in foreign lands is great and masterfully done...
But there's no real sense of approaching doom if you don't go searching for it. (And that's why I use a mod that makes the Sixth House more present the more you progress in the main quest, nothing as eerie as realizing there's new graffitied scarabs and weird ash statues plopped down in inoccuous places and corprus ingredients left in offering bowls.)
And I'm not even going to start addressing that the Nerevarine persecution was pretty mishandled; given the level of propaganda from the Temple and the terrifying propaganda about Inquisitors in Baar Dau... I should not just be hunted down to death, there should have been a LOT more in the "become Hortator" quests than fetch quests and possible telvanni murdering.
Also where's all the inter-house plotting? Why can't I blackmail more people in Hlaalu? Why can't I work WITH the muckraking journalists and Almalexia to dethrone Helseth? Daggerfall understood political intrigue more than Morrowind, but they're supposed to be equally elaborate games of duplicity and treachery within the nobility??? Even the Morag Tong doesn't delve into it and THEY'RE THE FACTION THE NOBLES HIRE TO WAGE THEIR CLOAK AND DAGGER WARS.
I have to use mods to "dunmerify" Vvardenfell, that just ain't right, y'know?
@@neoqwerty did you play the game? Or did you never go past pelagiad or something? First of all, half the factions can be considered imperial (cult, legion, 3 guilds), while half is distinctively dunmer (temple, morag tong, 3 houses)
All 3 houses feature a distinct clothing style, as well as architecture. Are you seriously implying that hlaalu architecture can be mistaken for telvani mushroom towers, or redoran shell-buildings? All 3 house quest lines focus on their quirks and how they intent with other houses and factions. You are so wrong in your assessment , it’s a borderline lie.
I only just finished this absolute titan of a video, fantastic work! I'm glad I found you when I did so I can see all the amazing content from here on out! Thank you for making such a pleasant watching experience.
Glad you enjoyed it! :)
I still remember playing this game when it came out, when I was 13, and I can't recall how far I got into it, but I know never solved Lysandus' murder. Still, I will never forget the sheer immensity of this game. I remember playing (and loving) Oblivion, but also telling my friends who were also playing it that it was miniscule in size compared to Daggerfall - they didn't believe me. Same thing when Skyrim came out (didn't care for that one, honestly). And then, I remember the map size comparisons making the rounds and feeling justified, haha. This retrospective has been wonderful, friend - hell, I had completely forgotten that you could climb! How wild would that be if it returns in Elder Scrolls VI? I know it won't, it'll be another Todd Howard game, but still. Thanks again for this lovely work!
Crazy respect to the sheer amount of effort you put in to this video. I always love finding creators like you with this sort of passion. Looking forward to future work
Thanks!
What a great video. I love the bits of humor aswell. Currently suffering from a bad back injury tied to my bed. Perfect to give this game a shot on my Laptop!
Thanks bro your channel should be way bigger! Subbed.
Thanks for your kind comment, I wish you a speedy recovery 😊
Holy moly. You posted this video one year ago at the time of this comment. You had 1,450 subscribers. Today, you have 43,700+. That's incredible. I have watched this entire thing twice. This time was because someone mentioned it on the official Bethesda Daggerfall Discord channel. It is so well done. You've definitely earned those subscribers. I look forward to checking out your other content. Right after I finished my next Fighter's Guild quest!
Thank you so much Jwlar! You introduced me to what has become my favourite game of all time: Daggerfall! I downloaded this game a week ago and I absolutely love it! This is an amazing game and you introduced me to it. Thank you so much!
I always assumed the comments about Daggerfall being 'empty' was directed towards the area between cities and towns, rather than an overall lack of content.
@Madolite Oh, I was specifically referring to a comment discussed in the video. In general it seems most of the accusations towards Daggerfall were coming from the wilderness angle, as far as I can tell.
that is definitely what those comments refer to, and it's a valid criticism. It does add a sense of realism to the game by not having random dungeons or monster infested caves within walking distance of a city, but the "deep wilderness" could have definitely used more enemies and set pieces.
@@Zellthan there’s a mod for this
1:44:00 Thank you for this. This whole section explaining the backstory, and having the visual representations of the rulers with their kingdoms, really helped me to understand things.
Im just starting a play-through now and am definitely more of a visual person.
I did playthrough Skyerfall, but as you previously said i too did all the quests without really remembering what i just did. Stuff like this helps to get a foothold on whats going on.
This was a great video series. Hopefully more people get to see this and go give Daggerfall the much needed chance it undoubtedly deserves.