The Elder Scrolls: Arena - Is It Worth Playing In 2023?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ต.ค. 2024
- Twenty nine years ago Bethesda released the Elder Scrolls I: Arena. I was curious and decided to give the game a try, so here are my thoughts on the Elder Scrolls I: Arena in 2023.
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Was astonished to see that Arena already has a world map of all of Tamriel including all regions. So, the foundation of the lore had already been laid back then. The imagination must have been far bigger than the technical possibilities.
My personally favorite part of elder scrolls one is that there wasn't just daedra, aedra and E'tada non of which existed as terms yet, but hundreds of gods cults. My personal favorite is the Ius god of the animals that literally put a fucking goddamn building at the castle front door so to no one's capacity to exit or enter and the talking wamprat was eaten.
Yes this is actually a canon event. Hahahaha. Infact it's told in the first written book story lore ever. It's stuff like that which gives elder scrolls 1 arena its charm.
A lot of the core aspects were established from the very beginning. This is mostly because TES was a Dnd campaign played between the devs before it became the franchise. It was not until Redgaurd that the foundations of the modern lore and Morrowind were TES played the groundwork and developed its character.
It’s criminal that you didn’t talk about how amazing the soundtrack is.
THE SOUNDTRACK IS GOOD AND THE TOWN WITH NO NAME ALSO HAS A GOOD SOUNDTRACK
Right?
When morrowind is the middle ground, you know the game in question is absolutely brutal with what it's asking of you to figure out for yourself.
the journal usually gives you enough information where you need to go, even though sometimes it is a bit to rough like a cave in area x there is item y bring it to me is one that comes up a bit too much in my playthroughs in Morrowind
@@Mendoza-yi6qk usually yeah. But it's definitely the hardest a game should be when it comes to telling the player what they're supposed to do. Anything harder stops being fun. Skyrim is definitely too easy though. Personally I'd like markers that can help you start, but don't give you the answer. Like if for your example cave x should have a visible marker but not item y. Lead me to the problem but let me solve it myself
@@Mendoza-yi6qk Doesn't Morrowind also have the occasional NPC whose directions point you in literally the opposite direction of where you're supposed to go?
@@briansanders8122 I can remember one but I thougt it was just a translation error.
As intended
Oh god no.... could you imagine the stress if Skyrim had time sensitive quests?? You would be terrified to talk to ANYONE. It would start a new quest while you are still trying to finish 12 others on time.
I think the ”modern players will find it impossible to enjoy Arena” is quite silly. I am a modern player who had only played Skyrim and wanted to go back through the series starting with the first game. Completed it last summer and had a blast, it felt like a game that respects you enough to not just feed you instructions and hold your hand. It was challenging but very enjoyable.
I don’t think it’s impossible, but the clunkyness makes it harder. Daggerfall has the same issues, and if those issues are fixed, such as by, say, remaking the whole game in Unity, it’s absolutely incredible.
Obviously he didn't mean every modern gamer. But most would be turned off by the controls alone.
@@sven4402I think this comment is quite silly.
Arena is a fairly solid dungeon crawler. If a fan of dungeon crawlers can put the graphics aside, it's very much playable.
@@sven4402 I also consider this follow up quite silly.
Avarti claimed that it would be impossible for the entirety of the modern gamers to enjoy. Besides that being impossible, I've put forth the possibility that the subset of modern dungeon crawler enthusiasts may enjoy this game, as it revolves around that and is competent in this regard.
Edit: forgot "this" in the first sentence.
@@thatrandomcrit5823I find Arena's graphics and Daggerfall's vintage graphics to be quite endearing, it's an addition that makes the game enjoyable I find. Of course, vintage things are my niche so that factors in.
People did not have lower standards for games back then, this was among the highest standard at the time.
My secret tip is if you want to be a combat class, pick the Knight, it auto repairs your gear so you don't have to leave your gear at a smith, note the name and come back after a few in game days. The only draw back is slightly slower xp gain rate. Also the starter dungeon is meant to be big and hard to give you a lot of action and gear before you set out so make use of it.
What people don't understand about Arena is that this new genre of RPG style was actually an accident that became an innovation that paved the way towards Daggerfall, Morrowind and Oblivion. The accident was that it was originally meant to be an arena style fighting game but had enough roleplaying elements put it in it that it became more RPG like. The developers were originally sports and action game developers after all. It is something to respect.
I started playing this game yesterday, 7/16/23, and I’ve currently put in around 8 hours. My favorite game was Vanilla Morrowind so I was pretty excited to play something more hard core than that, and it has blown me away. Call me crazy but having to play the game with the official game manual pulled up on the second monitor and having a physical notebook that I use to write down the in dungeon directions and as a quest log is exciting. It feels like I’m playing a puzzle game, and once I figured out via dying several times that loot was also randomized that opened whole new doors. Drop a save in front of a loot stash and keep reloading till you get something good. Save at the mages guild before having a magical item identified, and if you don’t want it reload and sell it to save yourself the hundreds of gold identification costs. There are a lot of helpful guides in the steam community tab as well that explain some basic mechanics without giving you too much information. And the spell variety is insane! Being able to destroy and create terrain is something I wish made it into later games. 8/10 for me so far looking forward to beating it.
Note: loot piles are only randomized on game reload inside of story dungeons. Randomly generated dungeons for quests outside the main story, such as those for artifacts or nobles, have set loot once the dungeon has been entered.
Any update to this a year later? I really applaud your tenacity and preparedness in using physical tools like the second monitor and notepad.
Hey Avarti. You re doing a great work with your videos. I enjoy all of them but the most I enjoy the videos with a creepy/grim vibe and those with theories about things from TES. Keep up!
Me too on the creepy/grim and TES theories! Those are the best!
Another thing I heard about is that the games map isnt truly 8,000,000 square kilometers like the box says. Instead it randomly generates forever and the game devs were prob hoping that no one actually tried exploring without fast travel.
The maps don't actually last forever, after a while of walking across the lands they eventually begin to loop. thus why you can't just walk across the game world forever.
@@fumlick5925 Is it not the fact that our own world loops what allows us to walk across it forever?
One fact of reality is that games used to be a lot harder. They got easy and hand holding around the time they began mass adoption and it became an expectation for all players to see the ending. In their original conception it was supposed to be an elite and rare achievement to "beat" a game.
There's a difference between challenging gameplay and frustratingly hard gameplay. Challenging gameplay is fun and that's the main purpose of every video game. Making a game hard for the sake of being hard is not fun. And of course people would like to actually see the ending of something they spent their money on.
Yep when i think of the lands of lore games, how would i have beaten them if i couldnt ask the internet here and there
It's for sure better as it is now. Old games sometimes have just stupid game design that makes hard something that shouldn't be. For the arcade games instead, they are difficult only because they were made to be difficult so you had to pay more credits. So if was not for "elitary purposes", it was just for money and stupid design.
@@tidios_97 over all i think you are right, but many games oversimplify and make it almost impossible to fail.
@@Denji23 it's true for the PS3 and Xbox 360 games, in that specific arc of time, videogames were over-simplified, but now I think there is the right balance for who is searching a challenging game mode, and for those who just want to experience a story mode.
Arena is hard to play, though Daggerfall Unity plays like a modern indie game and is a blast.
As for videos... generally I'd just like more of the same, having quick analysis videos on why a certain faction or character is idiotic or looking at certain morale choices and playing out which one would be the better outcome and such. Skyrim and Witcher have both been pretty extensively covered.
So it's really more about finding new games to talk about, which is really hard since in the end they have to appeal to you enough to make you want to talk about them.
Personally I'd recommend:
- Deus Ex Human Revolution + Mankind Divided - Features many morale choices and sides to pick, especially towards the end. Original DE and DE2 could be worthwhile too.
- Geneforge - If you can stomach the janky controls and graphics it has tons of fascinating morale choices
- Dragon Age - Probably the easiest to play, also features morale choices and factions to side with during conflicts (though in almost all conflicts there is an "optimal" solution that simply pleases both sides)
- Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous - Has many good morale choices and deep themes, especially about how much evil you are willing to commit or overlook to fight a greater evil.
- King of Dragon Pass - Pretty complicated game that isn't visually that exciting, but deep choices.
- Beholder Series - Could analyze the dystopian world it takes place in, but maybe doesn't offer as much to talk about.
Otherwise... dunno, could just stick with Bethesda games and go with Fallout and Morrowind.
Beautiful this came up, I recently unearthed my Elder Scrolls Collection I got years back, the big box with Arena through Skyrim. I then watched RadBrads Oblivion retrospective and wanted to dive deep into the ES series as a whole so I got Arenas free download on Steam and I'm diving into it. Absolutely LOVING it thus far! Even downloaded a mod to modernize the controls and it feels brilliant! I actually enjoy the right mouse button combat!
Hey! What mod did you use to mordenize the controls?
@@hiagopinheiro2289TES Arena Remapped on Nexus Mods
Theirs something about old games the vibe is unmatched
This game was too ambitious for the 90s computer technology
bruh how lol? It literally innovated upon the entire rpg and open world genre in ways that would define them for years to come
There is an Open Source project. This might be more approachable. I'm considering this myself for my first dive into Arena.
playing Daggerfall after knowing how Arena plays like, I love the Arena dungeons, they seem to be more unique, more surprising, and much easier to navigate too... wish there were some Arena-like dungeons in Daggerfall even if modded in
If you play Daggerfall Unity, there's an option to turn on Small Dungeons which make them more like Arena dungeons in scale, but still have some verticality to them.
30 years now??? fuck, man. it was 12 when i was born. damn. im too young.
I had a HP desktop PC and granted it was a few years old, I installed Arena and Daggerfall. Arena I played until I left the dungeon and was exploring Whiterun when suddenly the game shut off and my computer went braindead. Booting up the PC again it informed me it couldn't find my hard drive. It is because of this reason that I am apprehensive about putting Arena on my new $900 MSI laptop.
Kind of wish the first two got remade, but that's impossible. Love the map of Arena. Especially how Skyrim looked in it. Still waiting for a modern Elder Scrolls game that lets you pull of a elite assassin climbing up walls and finishing the contract, especially playing as a Morag Tong assassin.
Try Daggerfall Unity
@@thatrandomcrit5823Also look at Wayward Realms, some of the Daggerfall guys are making a new game like it
Just call say 30 years later. Catchier title and no one is going to care about a 1 year difference
You'd be surprised lmao
I mean its disingenuous
I can never play Arena, but Daggerfall? No problem. It's hard to point exactly what makes such a huge difference, but anyway i had a good time playing Daggerfall on DOSBox.
Daggerfall is 3d unlike Arena, has mappable keys, town navigation is much easier and there's more quests to do outside of story.
@@themeerofkats8908 arena also has remappable keys if you hit ctrl and f1. I felt the exact opposite though finding arena to be a simple enjoyable experience while daggerfall feels like a mess that fails in most aspects and is considerably less fun
Knowing that Arena's quests are all just fetch quests is actually kind of shocking because that's the majority of quests in Skyrim, 'go here, get this', 'go there, kill that' though Skyrim's visuals & combat, not to mention the massive MASSIVE modding community, keep the game fresh, interesting & replayable, it really does not reflect well on Bethesda that the majority of their game's content is just "go here, get this" & "go there, kill that'.
It carries over into Fallout 3 & 4, the main quests of those two are fetch quest: "find your dad" & "find your son", literally they're 'go here & get them'; & there's hardly any choice about it, espcially in 3, 4 you can choose between 3 factions, though they're really bland.
Yeah, this is probably what Starfield is gonna be.
Honestly i think fetch quests are fine as a way to show twists and shit…
@@sirspongadoodle
Except they're all the same.
Sure, if there was some player choice in each of them like keep the item you were sent to bring to NPC or who you're supposed to kill is actually innocent, that would be good, but none of that is in any Bethesda game, heck I've seen better fetch quests in AC Origins & Odyssey.
I've played both Arena and Daggerfall for several years. In Arena, I finally made it out of the starting dungeon not long ago. Only to die in the starting town. In Daggerfall, I've had an easier time getting out of the starting dungeon. Been playing both since the Bethesda site gave them away. Had to install DOSBox to run them. Now they're already running DOSBox.
Fun games, all in all.
I've played Arena in mid-to-late 2000s, and it was the first TES game I've ever played. I have downloaded it when it was released for free in 2004 and played it on my old Windows 98 PC and really enjoyed it. Despite crappy controls and a bunch of bugs (especially one that sometimes caused the whole system to crash - I was using real hardware, not DOSbox), I've beat the whole game when I was 14 or 15.
The character I was using was a Dunmer Knight. The dungeons are rather simple compared to later games, you can easily find your way up and down of a generic dungeon (the staircases are on the same horizontal level on any map), only more important main quest dungeons are hand-made, like the ones that contain Staff Pieces.
I've learned how to find artifacts by reading game script files within the game folder and wrote down locations of ebony equipment, if I found any in a store. The side quests are very simple - you either go to a dungeon to get something back or escort someone to a place, and the escorted person is in your "inventory" rather than being a true NPC.
Verbal riddles in main quest dungeons were a quite interesting game mechanic. Honestly, few riddles were too tough for me back then (btw, having read Tolkien's books helped me a lot with the riddles - the guys at Bethesda were obviously inspired by his works), and I've scummed through using Passwall spell.
Leveling is also quite simple, you can just rest in the wilderness and wait until you get attacked. The monsters become stronger as you level up. You can get rich quickly by re-entering dungeons, since the loot inside does reset. Loot piles seem to be tier-based - if you find a stash of enchanted items in a dungeon, there's a large probability of other magical items spawning in their place if you re-enter. There's also a funny bug/trick - you can generate a dungeon by creating a wall through a spell over a body of water, the constructed wall will have a door to a random dungeon.
Despite Arena's drawbacks, I really had a blast playing this game and it got me interested in the other Elder Scrolls games. I'm going to try to beat this game again. It would also be cool if OpenTESArena became playable, so we could play this game with modern controls. In my opinion, this game is still worth playing.
Loot piles offer greater random loot if you have a high luck stat. So don't sleep on the luck stat. This game is still better than most phone games. The best way to describe Arena is it's like an iceberg, all you see is the ice jutting out of the water but it goes way deeper than that. The stats, classes, quests and items got a lot more going for them than you think.
Another reason why it's greater is because it was around during the internet's infancy so there isn't much information about it and THAT is what makes it better.
@@bizznick444joe7 Good to know! I've always liked TES: Arena's "cryptic" vibe.
I struggle with Arena, they just didn't have it figured out yet imo, but I regularly play Daggerfall and Morrowind now.
Fun fact: despite the series being called Elder Scrolls, we don't actually get to see an Elder Scroll until Oblivion
I found this in a bin at a computer store when I was a kid and was hooked. I spent hours breaking into rich people's houses and looting everything
Feel like we should try to Remake Arena with modern graphics
I wouldn't mind if it was just the random generated kind like the OG. I played Arena a while finishing the 2nd dungeon and kind of stopped playing but have to say it was enjoyable despite it's age.
I kind of want to see a remake of Arena with Witcher graphics.
Be fun if someone used the Skyrim engine to tell this story.
Skyrena when
Would love that.
Right now, I have a little more than 2 days of played time inside Arena, and I like it. It took me like 3 hours to get out of the Imperial Dungeon, but the sense of achievement received from doing it is great. True, the game is very unforgiving, and the smallest misclick when using a spell or attack can lead to death, but it makes the overall experience more fun, at least to me.
The game also gives players tools to get around certain problem. For example, by clicking in a spot of the automap(the one that shows the design of the dungeon/town you're currently in) you can write in that spot, which can help mark an inn, shop, temple, or mages guild chapter inside a town, or a room you have already explored if you are looking for an artifact or quest item inside a dungeon. Some NPCs will also mark the location of a place you need to go to if you are close enough, so you could just walk in the direction specified by characters, asking againg once in a while, until someone writes the place in your map.
Spellmaking is also quite flexible and fun in this game, with spells like passwall or create floor, which make exploration easier, or the ability to increase a spell's power each time you gain a set amount of experience levels, removing the need to create new ones if the player's health increases too much or the enemies are stronger.
Note: Some of the menus found in the bottom part of the screen can also be accessed through bound keys. Here are the ones I have found:
-Pilfering(used for stealing and lockpicking): P
-Spellcasting: C (This will open a menu with the spells written in the character's spellbook, from which they can select a spell)
-Use magic item: U (This also shows a menu from which the player can select a potion or enchanted item to use)
-Automap: M
-Rest: R
-Draw/Sheath equipped weapon: A
-Character Status, Date and Hour of day: S(This shows if the player is poisoned, ill, or healthy, not the inventory or character sheet)
If anyone is interested in playing this game, I HIGHLY recommend doing the following:
- Look up all the controls. If you don’t know every button, you’re in deep poo poo. Ex. You can jump forward if you hold Shift + Jump. Without Shift, you have 0 momentum. Other things exist like different map modes (VERY IMPORTANT!)
- Ctr + F1 allows you to remap the controls. Tutorials are online.
- Ctr + F12 and spam this for a few seconds. Normally, if you use the Detail Slider and put it on maximum (render distance), game lags hard. This tip helps speed up the game in a way that removes that lag issue. Use F11 to undo.
Game is MUCH more enjoyable doing all these things. None of this info exists within the game which is why it’d be near impossible to play without knowing. For example, I didn’t know you could activate a Mini Map or use a Global Map instead of default Local. Things like this is needed in order to progress & Fast Travel when you’re lost lol. You can even type notes into your map like location names.
Again, game is so much more enjoyable knowing this. Going in completely blind would screw you lol. I like blind playthroughs but PLEASE follow these tips. Enjoy!
for attacking, im pretty sure just holding the button and swinging is all you need to do. You shouldnt have the problem of clicking the menu. Also f4 to get rid of the pixel menus.
Dude.. You can play Arena with the mouse.
Things you need tp play pre 2002 games a journal a map 30 blank pagers in a notebook for important locations.
Also name and people locations
Man, I played arena a few years ago and rage quit in the first dungeon. I love Daggerfall, although I played it using Daggerfall Unity and it was still a chore. Really goes to show how much we take for granted in modern gaming
or how little imagination gamers have these days. Its no harder than playing D&D
@@werdle92 are you comparing Arena, a video game with terrible controls, to Dungeons & Dragons, a tabletop role-playing game? And them implying that D&D is harder? What exactly do you find difficult about D&D?
The intro took me 30 minutes because I found armor immediately and found the exit to the south, your experience with 2 hours was your choice.
It's so weird that there's a Daggerfall Unity but not like an arena Unity or open arena or whatever. It's just so weird that nobody's really gone in and modernized this game for us to play. I will say though it's a little bit easier to play on Steam with the steam deck since you have the track pads but you also have a controller to map to buttons and swings and stuff
Ultima V had a day/night cycle with npc's having their own schedules, almost a decade before Arena.
Hint and fun facts their's a hidden mini map by pressing q+b+x.
Also the mini map reveals the full map and enemies.
Thank me later.
I'd play this over Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Its really simple to get into the mindset of these older style games. Least they were for me when I played Kings Field for the first time last year. Great game too.
I love that your back
I’m trying to get into TES from the beginning and have been just sitting in front of my computer for 30 minutes contemplating this game and how hard it is, I haven’t left the initial dungeon eitger
I've always wanted you to make an ES books series, where you read through books and give your take on them. Good to have you back!
In Morrowind I am experienced warrior clad in orkish armor who dies from a guy in a robe with a knife with paralyze effect.
I tried to play arena today and quit after two deaths after not being able to attack. I had no idea how to attack the goblins only with the magic. So I got aggravated and never touched it again
I strangely fell in love with Arena. I abused a guide to get through make no mistake, but beating it felt incredibly rewarding, removing whole walls from dungeons was fun, music is memorable, and every now and then I'd leave the cities and just see where the overworld would take me. More than anything, it felt like a personal adventure. I got immersed searching for the Oghma Infinium, sleeping at inns while my gear gets repaired, getting attack by Tharn's minions. In game it was a 10 year journey and it felt like it. I don't think I could realistically reccomend to anyone, but more power to you if you love Arena...
Better than Daggerfall.
Bro is a masochist lol
4:16 Fun fact: You can rebind the keys to suit a more modern preference.
I wish someone would do what was done with Daggerfall to make it modern-ish enough to be more enjoyable by today's standards, Like Daggerfall Unity being able to be played like a modern elder scrolls game.
True. Wizardry is getting a remake right now which is a game even I don't know about but like Ultima is another grandfather of RPGs. Playing Wizardry and having a blast despite how it might not appeal to many players it did get a graphical update though.
Open Arena does exist, but it’s stupid early in development
Hey Avarti, you should try out 2 games that I want to to recommend. They're Road 96 and Vampire: the Masquerade Bloodlines. They're both both games where choices matter and really good written characters
1:41 the Ultima series had one before 1994, at least by 1990 with Ultima VI
I like how the farther back you get in the Elder Scrolls, the larger the map is. However, not only is the "overworld" in Arena flat and ugly, but apparently you cannot walk between cities at all because it doesn't plot points of distance. Daggerfall is probably still the best in this respect.
Well yea given the limitations and the fact that Bethesda studios was still building its foothold in the gaming industry, its fair to give Arena a pass in this regard, If you install Arena and put some mods from Nexus Mods in it it's still a very fun trip
It's a classic game, and that means no handholding, no forgiveness for mistakes and no easy ways out. If one is serious about being a retro gamer, they should fully accept that the games they play will be challenging... and sometimes even unfair. It comes with the territory ;)
I had never played any TES games until about 7 years ago when I got hooked up thanks to a friend of mine who was uploading his playthrough of Arena on YT. I watched some of his videos and it looked like a game I would enjoy. And so I did :)
I had the floppy version of this game back when it came out. ❤ I think it was around 12 floppy discs to install. 😅
i got lost in the imperial dungeon, by the time I was out I had a ton of gear and selling the useless stuff got me 9k gold
I played Arena few years ago and as far i remember, graphic can be make less blocky with some dosbox settings. The first dungeon was managable, just rest on raised platforms after few fight. The dungeons were huge and interesting, but to be honest, in the second half of the game i got bored and tried to run through every maze full of annoying monsters in every corner. Daggerfall dungeons are more difficult because it is really 3D, not just levels after levels. Btw, an old news, but Daggerfall has a fan remake, Daggerfall Unity, with a lot of mods for better graphics and gameplay.
i enjoyed it, ok im almost 40 but is a fun game,
"all of them are fetch quests" Skyrim is obviously superior, only HALF of the quests are fetch quests and i believe you could find half a twist in the main plot if you really look carefully
So true. Skyrim quests come in 2 flavors: courier missions or assassinations.
@@joekaz5198 no wait, we are forgetting the "go press that button over there so this door opens up"
About 8 hours in, pretty lost. A few hours later I’m finding my way around town, delivered an uncle and getting the hang of things. My real problem is navigating outside of town, you can’t mark the map and npc directions don’t make blindly wandering a grey void any clearer. Been trying to find the dungeon the baron’s cousin is held in, told it’s south of town. 4 dungeons in that direction, full of loot but apparently not correct, I’m not even sure since there’s no apparent way to tell the name of a dungeon. None of the settlements I’ve found have a shop to sell or repair gear and at this point I have no idea where the starting town is anymore.
Just a map that could generally indicate where i’ve been would be huge.
I dont like walk out Town. Ask rumors general for search where I have to Go.
I use a lot fast travel.
I was playing this with a friend at the time, me on keyboard, him on the mouse and we reassembled the staff of chaos.
Daggerfall is at least playable. If you ask an NPC enough they'll give you the location on your map which makes finding quest spots easy enough but if you are in a City you need this to be drawn otherwise you just waste time trying to find people. Daggerfall improved so much from the 1st game & is playable because they made improvements. Added guilds which gives you a variety of quests with a set location that often don't take too long to find due to fast travel to the dungeon running around killing things until you reach the target or you need to head to a small town where its easy enough to find locations as there is only ever like 20 houses at most & most often about 10 or so some even only have 2 or 3. Daggerfall also has pretty complex & interesting main quests with like 6 different endings & multiple different paths to each of them. I'd say Daggerfall is even easier than Morrowind in one simple way, it has a compass. No idea why Morrowind doesn't have one since without it trying to work out which way is North east or something like that includes going to the map & trying to orientate yourself right. The game has a mini map but no compass. However the main problem with these 2 games is the DND style combat which I think works alright in a table top game or another style of RPG more like Baldur's gate, Fallout 1 & 2 as well as Knights of the old republic but the Elder Scrolls style doesn't work well with it. Failing spells is really annoying at the beginning of the game because why does my bloody spell not work half the time. Add the terrible fatigue system of Morrowind which means if you want to move at a reasonable pace you'll use it up so quickly you'll want to know basic alchemy & create as many fatigue restore potions as you can carry because if its low you'll never hit the mud crabs. There is also like annoying things like failing lock picking because of dice. I prefer the systems of Oblivion & Skyrim where the skill decides if you can lock pick & how hard the minigame is & then you have a simple but hard to master game in one case & the other a simple but hard to get right every time. One game has a thing that's annoying at the start of the game but rewarding by the end & the other the reverse where it becomes annoying that lock picks break before you can pin point the little place that works. Then again its better than the hang man puzzle in Fallout for computers (tip for those never make the final guess unless you are certain on the answer & then you get infinite guesses. Fallout 4 & above have a good system allowing retries but FNV & 3 trap you out once you fail). There is a few other annoying things in Morrowind & Daggerfall revolving around the dice nature of skills my biggest problem is with 2 types of attacks arrows & other thrown weapons which should always be a hit as long as they hit the target as aiming is hard enough. However I still love the 2 games its just the use of more traditional RPG things is annoying at the start of the game but once your sword, spear or axe skill is high enough it's not a problem same with spells. I do kinda dislike the potion brewing fails but it does make sense at early levels & same with enchanting but its still kinda annoying when you only have 1 of an ingredient & really need a potion of that. Skyrim potion brewing is the best because it encourages you to mess about to learn what ingredients do but its Enchanting is annoying as you have to sacrifice gear to learn the enchantments which is sometimes fine for junk like robes & such but when its a really strong piece of armour its annoying to sacrifice it instead of using the older games system of learning them through spells (but the change makes sense in the fact they removed a bunch of restoration spells relating to skills & stuff)
I actually played the entire game in 2023, and I can confirm that what you're saying is accurate. There is a bit of a silver lining though, which is that it's possible to remap the keys to something more sensible, and also, there's a formula to the gameplay that once you hone in on it, becomes the key to powering through the game to its completion. It was this insight that made me realize that completing the entire game is only going to be mildly tedious, and suddenly the completionist in me was encouraged to do it. Am I glad that I did it? Yes. However, it's worth it only if you're interested in the history of gaming (or like me, want to place a check mark on everything); The content of this game will not be enriching to anyone today, even fans of the franchise. It's that much below the modern standards of good storytelling and world building.
Notes about arena's movement: you can strafe while holding ctrl+arrowkeys.
the menu pixellation or "fade in" effect can be toggled on or off via F4.
There's such a thing as lack of handholding and respecting player autonomy, or higher difficulty, but there's also such a thing as bad UX and unintuitive inefficient design, for controls, ui, game cycle, etc. There's also such a thing as bad technology. I think we should avoid conflating all of them - some of the difficulty in these old games is straight up bad design or bad tech, not a deliberate lack of handholding
And sometimes, deliberately designing your game to never 'hold the player's hand' can be done in very inefficient ways, that don't just provide a challenge to the player, but actually makes their experience a tedious chore.
I say that having played Daggerfall and I enjoyed it (way more than I expected) - but man some aspects are just a bore, especially when combined with the outdated tech
there is a mod that re-binds the controls to something more modern, but it's quite janky to play that way still
I could barely play Arena and got frustrated and quit. I appreciate it, but also see how poorly it has aged. That being said I really wish it could be remade
How do people not know about this game? I never even heard of elder scrolls until skyrim came out and found out about it only a couple years after release of skyrim
I recently just beat the game
No, I personally don't recommend playing it fully. It had some fun moments, but around the 3rd staff piece. It felt really repetitive
Boo hoo lmfao just get better
I just can’t get into arena and I have a little hard time with Morrowind as it is (Skyrim was my first TES GAME) however if Arena would get the Daggerfall Unity treatment I think it’ll be great, I’m enjoying Daggerfall Unity, it brings new life into the game and it’s a damn good rpg. Arena I’m sure it is but like I said just couldn’t get into it and it’s stupidly hard.
lol I found it easy to get into arena due to its simplicity but daggerfall ends up feeling like a jumbled mess of grandiose ideas that don't quite come together so I'm having a much harder time getting into it
This is the game that needs a 2024 remaster
I'm going through my old Polish computer game magazines from exactly 30 years ago and in the July 1994 issue there's a review of TES Arena. Surprisingly, the reviewer was disappointed by the game's clunky controls and disappointing main quest. They gave the game a score of 6/10 praising the graphics and the open world, but bashing the gameplay. I decided to give it a try today and, unfortunately, I have to agree with everything you said in the video. I couldn't even escape the dungeon - the first "level" of the game.
I can deal with an old school shooter or a platformer, but not an RPG from the early 90s. Ultima VII shared the same fate.
Great video, by the way :)
Arena is so hard, that you should download a mod to enhance the controls. Hell, the way Arena goes can be Oblivion. Like you can rest, once enemies find you resting, you’ll die.
Arena dunks starfields ai
"There's enemies nearby" - The game. Absolutely most annoying thing was that you can't camp and recover unless you find raised platform (those aren't 100% secure either). It really was a painful journey with female warrior that can't cast healing or any other helpful spells. I died roughly 10 000 times in the playthrough. And no. I am not exaggerating. Stats doesn't have any effect. In the end game, most of my stats were maxed, got full ebony gears, legenday weapon, and I got killed less than a second by Hellhounds, Liches and Vampires. I still enjoyed the lore, general vide and feel the game has, nice soundtracks and overall gameplay and story telling. It just was the unfair and unbalanced difficulty which I do not want to experience again.
If you're going to play Arena in the modern day, it's pretty much necessary to remap the controls through DOSbox. There's a preconfigured mapper mod that's available for that. The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall had the same ISSUE, but blessedly, it incorporated mouse look as an optional mode and had keybind mapping in the options, so it could be "modernized" out of the box. WASD control conventions actually arose out of players remapping old games to that configuration over time and developers noticing the popularity of it, so this isn't necessarily "cheating" or "being unauthentic" to the spirit of old games... it's just doing what gamers back in the day would have done whenever they had the option.
On that note, I think you would enjoy Daggerfall. Both mechanically and narratively it takes steps toward the modern Elder Scrolls we know today. It's not perfect and has its frustrations, but it was also a major advancement past Arena's rude beginnings.
Daggerfall also has a full functional (was just realsed on 1.0 infact) source port with support for mods to boot.
Meh procedural is actually so boring they had it in 90s
If you want a God Character: Start as an Acrobat (which ever class that Absorbs Magica.... Very Important)
Side Quests are Randomized and Common. I just keep quest searching (not accepting) until I get the one going after "The Book" or "The Bible". If I recall correctly, a) You find the quest for the book and accept it, b) The quest will send you to a dungeon, c) The dungeon loot has the Exact Location of the Now Spawned God book, d) The new location will be in a New Random Dungeon but this one Will Have the Book. e) Read the book after finding it and Increase Your Stats (like 50 or 100 skill points). f) Rinse and Repeat.... talk around in a new city and eventually a New Book Quest will Spawn.
By doing the above like 8 or 10 times... You essentially create a character that is Immune to Magic and have All Attribute Stats at 100
THEN you can easily play the game (at which point you will be burnt out from all the dungeon crawling getting the books)
Many people just don’t know how to play games from the 90s anymore. It’s quite simple, read the manual (RTFM!), that was your tutorial back in the day, without it no one would have been able to enjoy anything. A lot of playthroughs of older games I see on TH-cam people clearly don’t do that and it turns into “ugh! Bad game! Bad graphics!”
Arena is definitely rough compared to even Daggerfall, but it does have some endearing qualities that’s definitely worth checking it out. I hope at some point Arena gets a sort of Daggerfall unity treatment allowing for better QOL mods, so it’s better for more people to enjoy.
The only people that'll enjoy this game would be anyone that appreciates interesting game mechanics. I would say Arena is the ultimate thief simulator. Best that Elder Scrolls came up with. Lots of towns and cities to loot from, you can break into any house of your choosing and rob them with having plenty of challenges doing so but with proper stats you can bypass it all and rewarded. You can pickpocket from many npcs though the notable ones are from vendors. Sneaking into the palace rooms can get you into trouble but you can fight your way out as well. Best to play as a thief type class to pretty much raid down a town, with proper equipment, spells etc. you can do dungeons. Dungeon crawling is at it's prime in Arena. Stonekeep the starting dungeon alone is MASSIVE, the starter prison dungeon is pretty big too for a starter tutorial dungeon. I heard Stonekeep was actually cut down in size and was bigger before and it's still massive. All the dungeons are massive so preparing for them with supplies, weapons, potions is crucial. The game made sure to help you out in case you don't have the means to do it by letting you stay in a town to raid it down, find work for gold. Pickpocketing being quite rewarding when yuou can steal magic items. You can also sneak into inn rooms to sleep in them as well. Could use a graphical face lift though maybe through modding. Using Skyrim level graphics or Oblivion would be fine enough.
+Dungeon Crawling masterpiece
+Best thief simulator in Elder Scrolls series. Also many thief classes like Bard, Burglar, Thief, Rogue, Nightblade etc.
+Many Classes to choose from with their strengths, weaknesses and each have their own playstyle
+Magic items with charges is very different than other ES. Giving other options for non-magic users to still have some skin in the magic game but be restricted to charges. A good thief can have stolen a paltry gathering of magic items to use in tight spots.
+Started much of the original lore, towns, city names and other terms for Elder Scrolls.
+Stats really make a difference but many interconnected with one another in actions. Game encourages really racking your brain on what stats to choose as they all are somewhat useful. Making the stat building game actually more interesting and less pigeonholed.
+Not sure if this is a good or bad thing but even your sex makes a difference in your starting stats. Males and females have different stat roll outs. Males might be better in some things while females better in other things.
+May not seem like it but different stores in different towns sell special magic items or weapon/armor types. You can only buy ebony and adamantium in certain places. And here's the thing if you're a good thief you can easily hoard and stolen enough gold to buy some of these crazy stuff as early as level 3.
+You seem to gain experience in ways you might not expect like walking around, looting bodies, handing in quests.
+The standard leveling system.
+Artifact Quests. These are random but rare quests you can find in certain inns but finishing them gets you amazing weapons.
- Graphics aren't for everyone and is hard to stomach. If you're used to early Doom and Wolfenstein though it wouldn't be a big problem.
- Sparse story but it's more about the gameplay
- Controls can be a bit jank. Good idea to remap controls as well or else you suffer from some back and shoulder pain.
- Fatigue/Stamina seems kind of pointless
- Some of the races seem a bit meh like Argonians and Khajits in terms of racials and appearance. Rejoice for furry haters though.
That is the point, game being harder. Modern games are created for noobs. Learn to play, and you will get extreme levels of satisfaction out of games like Morrowind, Gothic, Monster Hunter3, Gran Turismo 4 etc.
Arena was made for low end pc's. If you're playing via dosbox, you can manually slow the game down. It'll be a slog, but combat will be doable.
FYI there's keybinds for everything.
I had the same experience with Daggerfall. I played it and loved it back in the day, and had the itch to play it again in mid 2023. I tried it (via the Unity port), and... the dungeons are terrible, the graphics are terrible, the spell creation is fun but either underpowered or overpowered, the leveling system is terrible, the quests are terrible (because the dungeons are terrible)... I have relegated it to my memory, and banished my recent experience of it. I'll stick to remembering it fondly from my childhood.
Long story short arena is too hard to play because casual gamers have become brain dead to dumb down game mechanics. Without a map markers and a quest that holds you by your hand, the game is impossible to play. Also, the difficulty is too hard. Modern gamers can not play on easy mode and kill everything in three hits... And get that instant gratification.
If this is what the modern gamers want, gaming truly is dying.
I love arena I never found it overly difficult or anything. Its got a little bit of a learning curve like most RPGs but it's nothing compared to something like the wizardry series
I feel like Arena could maybe use a remake for the wait of elder scrolls 6, since it will take 5+ years for the next game there can be an opportunity for Bethesda or Microsoft to cash in nostalgia and get players excited for the next game, image revisiting places like vvardenfell or cyrodiil or even Skyrim back around the time of arena and can be used as celebration of sorts for old and new players to get into the elder scrolls and to drive up hype, I know it’s a lot to ask for to recreate Tamriel as whole but I feel like it could work if it’s done in a smaller scale, image big hub worlds like from knights of the old republic but on a bigger scale or each province or part of a province to collect pieces of the staff and a reimagined story with more depth and detail, I know it’s a lot to ask for and I’m not asking a traditional elder scrolls experience just something like eso where you travel to certain parts of the map I know that might seem as a buzzkill for some but I would willing to playing something in a way to drive up hype with the elder scrolls community and can used as a reflection to look back on previous elders scrolls games while looking forward towards the future of the series.
You are talking nonsense. Are you on drugs?
It looks so much like ultima underworld if it had a part 3. But I always though última was the first game to have true day night cycles with all the npcs acting through their own schedules, running their shops, turning on lights etc.
The game is really repetitive so if you do want to play it (first of all read the manual online) I’d suggest going to the first staff of chaos. Redguard knight is really good and really simple.
If Bethesda isn't gonna release Elder Scrolls 6, then I want them to remaster every elder scrolls game starting with Arena
Many games now have planet tech, I want Bethesda to make a full planet of Nirn, complete with Akavir and the other continents. A fully traversable planet Nirn (not like the fake Starfield bs) with moons that actually orbit it and a real day night cycle is possible now. the technology exists
The fans are remaking Oblivion and Morrowind and they look impressive. You can't expect Bethesda to stop counting the gold coins they shoved up their asses, get their heads out of there and start making Elder Scrolls 6 or remake any ES game.
Fans are doing a great job modernizing Daggerfall, and it's free. Look up Daggerfall Unity.
? I just ran through the start and character gen in about 30 minutes
, Maybe it's to hard core for modern gamers
I love the scale of the random dungeons ,it's the only ES game with some unlimited dungeons that can take years to complete this is the best part of the game.
Unfortunately the genre has been watered down and gamers today reflect this
I played this a little on a friend's computer when the game was new. They returned it before all the bugs were patched out. I liked it.
Getting the weapons and armor of the Aedra and Deadra make this game easier. Definitely the chunkiness and bad controls are a huge part of the difficulty. Volendrung got me through the game!
What i dont get, is that Skyrim literally has the number 5 on it. So how do modern gamers NOT know that there was an elder scrolls 1 & 2? seriously. Do they not have internet? were they never curious why they were playing the 5th game in a franchise?
I have never played Arena but without this game the other TES games wouldn't exist so show the game the respect that it deserves.
I played Arena before, i did alright, but i quickly got sick of the tedious dungeons and the generic as hell "fetch the 8 macguffins" main quest.
Arena and Daggerfall are two brutally difficult games to play today and this is why, in my opinion, they will continue to be interesting. Its is one of those rare cases in which the first games are tougher and their secrets and easter eggs are well hidden waiting for a modern explorer to discover them
I was gonna play all the mainline elder scrolls game in order but after watching this video im thinking I could save time by crushing each of my fingers in between two rocks
> creates a bard in a 90s RPG
> wonders why easy monsters are destroying you
🎵🎶One of these things is not like the others~!