I'll be the first to say that I am NOT a game critic, so my takes may not be the most well informed. However, I am very familiar with BGS, and I mostly wanted to talk about Castles and discuss how I felt it reflected Bethesda's issues in the current day a bit. I wish I didn't have to be so negative about this game, but I truly don't have much positive to say. Also if you don't believe me, here's Lydia's page on the UESP and you can see that screenshot of her there: en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Lydia#:~:text=Lydia%20is%20a%20Nord%20housecarl,s%20burdens%20all%20across%20Skyrim. I could've gone on for hours about how derivative the game is or about how pointless this game is, or how the game has an Imperial Cult bias in the religious systems, but at the end of the day, this game just kind of sucks, and I think you could tell that without me saying much about it. Please lmk how you feel about Castles, though, I'd love to know. Here's my links: Discord: discord.gg/FqHkCe6PYk Twitch: twitch.tv/emerdareloth40 Twitter: x.com/Emer_Dareloth About Me: th-cam.com/video/WfEnFeymNNU/w-d-xo.htmlsi=sS6gZD2BIub4V7aF Thanks, - Dareloth
@KostkaJones it improved every complaint that was voiced after fallout 4. Besides the DEI horse shit its an objective improvement and step in the right direction
@@theemerdareloth once you played fallout shelter then you'll appreciate this game better, the hate for this game is unwarranted let us have our fun in peace, thanks.
You can sort of tell that Bethesda knows full well people are clambering for a new Elder Scrolls game, they know that there actually an audience there and that's why we are getting these spinoff games, but just drip feeding people half baked stuff like Castles isn't a good idea, because people are going to start being disappointed and might just make the assumption that when there finally is a mainline game, it's not gonna be any good. After seeing Starfield I personally have zero expectations for TES 6, I hope I'm wrong about that, but I just don't see it turning out any different. In the meantime I've been cooking up my own TTRPG campaign set in TES universe for me and my friends, we want to explore that world again, and we're tired of waiting, sure ESO exists and it's decent fun, but it's hardly a proper RPG.
@@TheParagonIsDead Because there's already more hype than it can possibly live up to and all we know about it is that it's kinda sorta in development. It'll probably be fine, but if people need to tell themselves it'll be awful so they don't ruin it for themselves by believing all the inevitable lies that Bethesda will say about it over the next few years, that's okay
it just came out and it still has potential to add more stuff in the future. As for it being half baked... it's not, in my opinion it's exactly what I thought it was going to be as a silly mobile game
@@theemerdareloth This is dreadful, these look like characters from twenty to twenty five years ago in a click-and-point adventure. That would have been fine in that era. If they were trying for a charming retro style they've failed miserably.
Nah man you're dead on. The way that the Elder Scrolls IP has been treated by bethesda since the release of Skyrim has not been inspiring confidence, between the Skyrim re-releases, and the shitty mobile games, and how awful Starfield is has not built up any confidence for the release of ES6. I'm a fellow Elder Scrolls Super fan, Morrowind was my first PC game when I was like, 12 years old, I loved it, I loved everything about it. Oblivion was a bit of a disappointment, dont get me wrong it was still a good game but the world of Cyrodiili was so bland compared to how it was talked about in Morrowind, how it was talked about in the lore books, and Skyrim was... Well Skyrim was a good game too in its own right, I think all of the ES games have been great in their own ways, but I am biased towards Morrowind and I do feel that the games have been getting watered down again and again, but at least Skyrim brought back some social tension into the setting. Castles is bland, uninspired, and adds nothing of value to the IP like even Legends and Blades did
@@TheParagonIsDead they didn't even really start development until after Starfield. With modern expectations, I bet half the game will be made with AI.
At least I can recognize Fallout Shelter as Fallout, if they didn't slap the Elder Scrolls brand you wouldn't be able to know that it's part of the brand.
I give Lydia a lot of crap in skyrim, ultimately because she's such a familiar face, like you would with your friends. But my god what did they do to her?
TBF they definitely want to, I think we don't realise how much work that actually is because you essentially have to build the whole thing again from the ground up in the current engine. You'd probably even have to redo the voice lines so it sinks up with the new animations properly. Really only the writing would be a 1 to 1 transfer and the rest would essentially a new game from the ground up
I'd rather they do remasters than remakes. I like the ways that the old games feel, but maybe adjust some of the mechanics and scaling and whatnot. I think Oblivion is in the most need of a remaster of the mainline games.
@@theemerdareloth I too prefer the old style of the game but if they want to interest new players to Tes games a remake seems more appropriate. But as you said I like the old style
The art style is so bizarre and out of place. Is there ANY demographic that likes it? It's a childish style, but kids don't think its cool. Kids think classical high fantasy stuff is cool. Not this. Who is it even for?
looks like someone in corporate world would find appealing. Uncreative, uninspired, boring, safe, clean, this stuff doesn't speak Elder Scrolls to me. While in all honesty, some things in Elder Scrolls are just generic looking things, there are stuff that makes it unique and exclusive to elder scrolls; like Morrowind's uniqueness and weirdness it separates them to the rest of High fantasy worlds. This is just any of those things haha
The models make me think of the Miis, way abck from the Wii. I like the look of them; keeps things simple for mobile. but the characters NEED to have proper appearances. Where ARE their beards? How are we meant to tell the 5th short haired blond apart from the 20th? Because.. yeah, there's basically no facial details, and the "Unique" characters looks identical to the basic ones. While I think I like this game more than Fallout shelter personally, there just.. is nowhere near enough detail. We also need more magic. Everything feels.. bland fantasy with Khajiit and Argonians. That just feels like.. the end of it, and it NEEDS more.
The fact that Bethesda is selling out means that the elder scrolls 6 is going to suck. It's crazy that all of you haven't realized this yet. A game that was never console exclusive going exclusive, usually means the death of that dev team. 😅
I might be completely misunderstanding here, but with characters from Skyrim in the game wouldn't it take place in the 4th era? Yet at the same time there appear to be Argonians and Dunmer and possibly Imperials and Altmer hanging around each other in the same castle? That sounds incredibly awkward.
Im terrified to think that tes6 might be a bad game. The game ive been anticipating for over 10 years now might be an aboslute dumpster fire because the studio making it cant seem to get their heads out of their asses. Many franchises have been killed off due to the negligence of their producers/developers (halo, for example) and im horrified to think that tes might be next to the chopping block. The fallout show gave me a little hope but hope never really goes far with BGS...
@@it2spooky4me79 Considering Starfield's meh reception, it doesn't matter if the DLC is good or not. The base game just does not have the flavor to hold people long enough to get to the DLC.
@@wdf70 all I'm saying is if the DLC is good, then there's still hope for their future games, Starfield was definitely a miss for some, and i blame the multiple redesigns it had, and it being in Development Hell, it definitely drove off course of what Bethesda was known for, and it seems Bethesda took notes of because of that. Name me one game that was in Development Hell that had a positive impact.
I played Fallout Shelter for about a year and a half. I aboslutely loved it until there wasnt anything left to do. I maxed out every single settler with clothing and weapons and finished every single quest and yearly event. When Elder Scrolls Castles came out i was eager to give it a chance. I hated so many things about game play and the way it is scripted. Some goverment decisions are so dumb and lame that it doesnt matter what you path choose. The game pass thing is just too greedy; there are so many things to buy with real money that i rather buy a PC or console game.
This game is probably the most out of touch thing I've seen from Bethesda, and that includes all of Todd's sweet little lies. I don't see how this could appeal to any part of the Elder Scrolls fan base, it looks bland, generic and even the art on their main page feels rushed. You could probably get a better experience adding Skyrim themed mods to The Sims.
Somehow Bethesda managed to make a game full of legally distinct Mii characters. I gotta say, that is impressive. Not a good choice, but still impressive.
They tried to make a fallout shelter game out of a game franchise that has NO REASON to have this kind of game. I have no idea where they were going with this.
After playing for a week, the game has slowed down significantly after the start. I tried to see if it gets a bit better with no hope in sight. My goal was to make an entirely Argonian/Khajiit castle, but the children take like 3-4 DAYS to grow up. The daily tasks completely conflict with what you want to craft if you want a productive castle. You can only craft 1 thing at a time and you cannot build more crafting stations without having a bunch of gold and rare crafting materials (which I'm positive can't be obtained through normal gameplay.) Unless you spend money to get the early crafting stations (They're selling them for 10$ a piece and there's 6 of them,) you can't craft more than 1 type of resource at a time (Wood, Stone, Iron, Steel, etc.) The quests that you can send your dudes on has the depth of a kid's swimming pool and boils down to stats and weapon upgrades. The "challenges" are somewhat incompatible unless you kit your dudes out specifically, often making them take more damage than you would like, making you spent more potions or waste time having them heal at the buffet table. The difficulty spikes are pretty large and they expect each of your dudes you send out to be fully upgraded, again, cutting into your crafting stuff. This recent time limited event with the Blacksmith dagger quest recommends you to have Silver Weapons to take on without wasting potions (Which takes around castle level 100 to start crafting) while I'm only at about 50 and haven't even started Steel production. Steel armor and tools also require Iron, so if you're not sitting on a massive stockpile of the stuff, you have to craft both Iron and Steel on a 2 minute timer for each item meaning your smith is flip flopping between materials. And it doesn't just finish and start another queue and pool up all your crafting, oh no, you have to be present to tap on the station to collect the resources. It's just another mobile game full of timers so you'll pay for the fake currency to not waste time playing the game that's built to waste your time. Just download Fallout shelter on PC and mod it. It takes 2 seconds and doesn't have you pay Bethesda for low effort crap.
It feels like Bethesda's IP are losing their teeth in order to appeal to a larger demographic. Old elder scrolls lore was meth, now it's sanitised generic and pushed for mass appeal not realising they'll lose both the original fans for losing its Identity and the new people will just see it as another generitic fantasy.
This game sucks, the voice I couldn't identify even if I wanted too seems pretty cool through. 4:20 At somepoint between Morrowind and Skyrim Master Neloth had to crack open the moon sugar reserves. I failed the test 2:15 Without the hint I assumed they were from ESO cause dual-wielding but I didn't recognize it from Skyrim. Also not a red gem so that disqualifies Picard, Tiber and Pelinal. With the hint, I guessed someone from the Dawnguard, as the armor didn't look very Skaal/Nordic. There's a reason we don't see important show/movie characters in headgear. At least when he gets headshot, I know who it is getting shot. Daedric non-sense aside, the Cowl is more distinct than that. Isran has leather something armor in all the pics I see of him. Lydia has brown hair. Isran's a better Lydia than Lydia.
I've never played a mobile game, but looking at whatever this is.. I vow to not only never play this game, but to never play any mobile game ever in my life.
I dont know why everyone is saying the game is crap, its exactly what i thought it would be and as a fan of fallout shelter I'm loving it. Its not meant to be a massive big game of course the character models arent high quality, it's a free mobile game for pete sake
Honestly, I’ve played my share of slop mobile games. The thing about Castles that really forced me to not play it was the predatory monetization practices. An ad for the shop every second menu. A “battle pass” that gives you decent rewards then just gives you nothing for like 6 levels (unless you buy the pass). It’s just not even worth bothering with
I tried Castles, just to make sure i dont miss out on new TES lore. But a within seconds, it was obvious that there is nothing to miss. Also to anyone reading this: Go play TES Legends. We need that game to come back!
To me, TES's legacy is being carried on by fans; take, for example, Skywind, Skyblivion, and other DLC-sized projects or expansions for Morrowind and Skyrim. That is honestly good enough for me, and I would be content with Bethesda just letting the IP die (which obviously they would never do).
The art style being off is definitely a good point. As a big fan also of Bethesda games, if I were to see someone playing this, without prior knowledge of Castles, I would not recognize it as an Elder Scrolls game
Speak of the devil, I just tried this out the other day too. It was terrible, truly. Not only was the art style bland and uninspired, I also didn't like how there was a constant urgency to the food and oil. Instead of having fun it was causing me anxiety. It's not like I expected much, but I was still disappointed.
I played this game for about an hour before I got bored with it Also to reinforce your point on Fallout being better, Fallout: London is phenomenal even tho it's a mod but still these two titles released at around the same time and one is crushing and one is garbage Fallout: London brings hope to the Fallout franchise, because we all hope that Bethesda steals something from it. There is at least a reference for Bethesda to compare itself to. This game does nothing but make us all have bad expectations for the future
I had two female characters have sex and they made a baby. I named the baby J'esus. This is a 1/5 game, but I think the baby character models are cute. So I'll give it 2/5.
Wow, that game looks bad. As to what you said around 10:11, I think if the parent was and is a huge fan of Elder Scrolls, the kid might actually love Skyrim at least. My son is 11 and hes been playing Skyrim sense he was 7 . But maybe newer gamers of this new generation, unless their folks or another gets them into it, I'd say probably not.
I mean it's not bad it's actually fun to have a semi fallout shelter style game for elder scrolls, actually it's something I've been wanting for awhile.
You have to give credit where credit is due, they somehow managed to port the calarts style to 3D, thats kinda amazing. I thought the calarts style was so bad it wasnt portable to 3D due to how bad the standard calarts design is. But here we are, there right on the screen, is the horrific calarts style in 3D. Amazing really. And calarts is just one step away from the corporate hobo style. Which I'm gonna have to be honest, its kinda reminding me of the corporate hobo style.
What makes it funnier is that both Fallout Shelter and Castles are copies of Facebook games like Backyard Monsters and Social Empires. But, I will say that as of right now there's a fairly easy way to get hundreds of gems free, and the only other premium currency (I forgot the name) can be obtained by doing event quests and tasks. But for gems you can get a good amount from certain rulings and you can get them from tasks and quests. Same with things that you would spend gems on like potions, scrolls, and speed potions. They've inherited the quality inherent in Facebook games, that being the expectation of you logging out for a few hours at some point
The Elder Scrolls 1 and 2 had masssive open-ended procedurally-generated terrains and role playing systems. The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind had a impossible level of handcrafting and detail to the games enviroments and world overall. The Elder Scrolls 4 used Speed Tree first, scheduled Npc's that posessed personalities and had their own dispositions, realistic physics through Havok, and incredible lighting and a fully dynamic world. The Elder Scrolls V had the scale of staggering mountain ranges, and rushing rivers... past that point? I guess The Elder Scrolls Online was their only MMO, it launched in a non-functional state. Fallout Shelter is their first mobile game, but full of "micro-transactions". Fallout 4 had crafting. Fallout 76... was the most low quality and glitchy game of all time. And the less said of Starfield the better, I think that Starfield is a terrible (not merely a lackluster) game but the design is total broken and anthetical. I want The Elder Scrolls 6 too succed of course, the odds are not in their favour as it's following a downward course contiuned over 10 years.
Bugthesda is dead, gamers have to come to terms with it. Much like MANY other studio's before them, that lived long enough to see themselves become a meme. Look to indies for the future of gaming, the AAA market has long since jumped the shark.
Im a huge Elder Scroll fan, played all the games except the travels ones. This game i gave an hour and a half... And then uninstalled it. Just no Its not Fun. The art style just screams bland and unfinished. I agree with you on how Shelters looks and feels. But with Castles, just not here not this time.
This really sad that Bethesda enigma, They as we know is 3A studio game but in other hand they don't have capability of 3A Studio (At least base on starfield it feel 2-3 year outdated), I really wish they take different strategy like creating smaller and experimental spin-off that they can implement in mainline games
Whoever developed this had had the audacity to disrespect it like this. Interesting. The UI art is more better than the whole game. This makes me worry even more for a future elder scrolls games. The problem is now I feel for the next elder scrolls. They're going to play it so safe. It's going to lose its uniqueness. I guarantee you in the next elder scrolls generic humans. And lose a lot of its lore.
That's one the biggest reasons that I'm not interested in seeing the Iliac Bay again. I'd much prefer a game set in Valenwood, Black Marsh, or The Summerset Isles, but we'll probably get Bretons and Redguards, which, at least Redguards have cool lore, but they'll probably simplify it.
@@theemerdareloth I'm afraid they might do something like they did with the nords and water down the religion and just make it a little very similar to the eight divines.
I tried to see what would happen if I mistreated my people and hunger just brings HP to 1, no deaths but exile kings/queens is the only way to get rid of them.
I watched this video and promptly deleted the game 😂 I wanted to love the game but this pushed me over the edge because I agreed wholeheartedly with this assessment
I don't mind the game, I do wish I could be able to restart it like in FO Shelters. It was battery draining and now watching your video the art style looks like Polymorph's Fountain medieval town building game
I’m enjoying Castles for now, but it feels like it won’t be worth the time and phone battery for very long… in any case your point about starting with the generic Breton architecture is very true, it doesn’t present anything that feels uniquely like Tamriel 🙃
I understand your points here.... but I am a die hard fan of TES and anything relating to that IP. I've been grinding Castles since a few days before global release, I'm over level 50, and I still enjoy it. I can't tell you the last time I played another mobile game. Would have been Fallout Shelter, Legends, or Clash Royale.
I start to get the feeling that there was some kind of corruption that hit the industry and made good stuff stop being made. I fell in love with Genshin Impact as a fresh, amazing new game world. Occasionally, there's a new TV show that captures my attention - but those are rare. And increasingly, I find myself disconnecting. Not watching TV. Not playing new games. Playing old classic titles. Still playing ESO, Lord of the Rings Online. It's almost like technology made game design, CGI, everything easier - and in the process, the inventiveness, the thoughtfulness, the charm of the classics was lost. New stuff may have the form, but never the spirit of old things. It feels like we're becoming lost. I bought a new top of the line PC at the end of last year and started researching the most graphically advanced RPG's to stress test it with. And I came up with games like Red Dead Redemption 2... a game from 2018. Now every time something new comes out, it's infused with DEI stuff like pronoun selection - but no quality, no fun. Look at those characters in this Elder Scrolls mobile game. Heck, you can't even tell what gender they are. Though in fairness, mobile games have always been a similar variety of trash with heavy monetization. But there was a moment when mobile games did have a little bit of promise... Back when old people were playing Farmville and Words with Friends with each other. Even that, now, seems lost. The sad thing is, that some of these companies have been screwing around making garbage for so long that... like you said, by the time they pull their heads out of their rears and decide to return to their old IP's... to steal a LOTR line - there will be none living who remember... and much which once was, will be lost.
I like the art (2d art), 3d part is really sumple. But unlike fallout, TES doesnt have a defined art/design again as the pipboy. Though as u said for being a game released 9 years later than shelter one would except an upgrade, but its missing lots of features from shelter. One npcs customization. I dont mind the re-use of certain elements as sounds/music as Nintendo does too. In shelter they used sounds from the fallout series too, as the quest completitions from f4. But in general it feels as if devs are for easy cash, the shop is a joke. 2500 gems worth around 20 dollars for a deco that gives +10 gold. It feels as if devs havent played games of this genre, rullings become repetitive and the gameolay is very shallow.
I have been playing the game. I also have been playing since Oblivion though I have gone back to play Morrowind. Which going backwards didn't enjoy as much. This game I am disappointed on going to sell previous characters, but not model them is wrong. Yet, I have a good story to tell I thought was funny was when one of my workers died at the mill. His ghost was still working. It was shortly after someone then murdered me right in front of that mill. So, I have some positive points, but yes fallout shelter works where this so far feels a bit of a cash grab.
Yeah I'm not thrilled about the game, seems like it is another money grab game...*every time I log in the food and oil are gone and some darn wizard keeps cursing me***
Idk if i count as a "young people" but im 19(born 2005)and have been an elder scrolls fan for what feels like forever. I havent played oblivion or morrowind but i cant wait to once my pc is working. As of right now ive put like 1,061 hours into skyrim and loved every second of it. I feel like people who are kids currently love elder scrolls too, even if they're as old as the game. I mean one of my favorite Star Wars games is the same age as me!(its Republic Commando its obviously dated but still a great game, totally recommend it)
I played castles when ever they put it out in ?beta? a few months ago, doesn't look like much has changed lol. But I stuck with it for a decent bit because there's concepts that I liked in it that I wanted to see if they went anywhere. Like for instance having individual happiness for each race in your court, or that each irl day was a year in game, but it all just kind of ends up being fluff. Sure your characters will age and die but the heir to the throne that's pissed he's not king and the crown instead went to his dad's lust argonian maid hasn't done anything in two years except pout. Or yeah making this ruling will make the High Elfs mad but we'll have more food, but there's no reason to pick it over the ruling that will make them happy cause food is almost inconsequential. I wanted to like it based off the concepts it was pitching, but the game design was just the typical zero-friction slop that you can get just about any where with mobile games.
Is there still an active community in Legends? I played it from beta for a long time but like all good things, Bethesda eventually throws it away. One of the best card games on the market without a doubt.
I understand a lot of the criticisms I have some as well but I've thoroughly enjoyed my time with the game it's not what I was hoping for out of Elder Scrolls but it's a nice little distraction
I’ve played like 6 hours it’s okay , I figured you banish all the bossy/haunted/lazy characters now everybody is max happy .just make ulfric and ralof make babies together to get extra legendary characters lol . They should bring back gauntlet legends.
I wish they had a better look to it, and you would pick a castle that would choose your race. Maybe pick if you're a part of the Empire or a break away isolationist. Let you choose Imperial Neapolitan or a pro break away faction
This is why it is important to never allow oneself to be blindly allied with a franchise. Bethesda is a complete joke, maybe they always were and Skyrim was an anomaly. I have zero faith in TES 6 being an improved game from Skyrim.
I actually love the premise because I want a kingdom dynasty simulator that's not just crusader kings and empty with no emotional impact but actually characters in the kingdom influence it and feels personal and engaging. Haven't played but if it scratches that itch I'll have to disagree with you.
I'll be the first to say that I am NOT a game critic, so my takes may not be the most well informed. However, I am very familiar with BGS, and I mostly wanted to talk about Castles and discuss how I felt it reflected Bethesda's issues in the current day a bit.
I wish I didn't have to be so negative about this game, but I truly don't have much positive to say.
Also if you don't believe me, here's Lydia's page on the UESP and you can see that screenshot of her there: en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Lydia#:~:text=Lydia%20is%20a%20Nord%20housecarl,s%20burdens%20all%20across%20Skyrim.
I could've gone on for hours about how derivative the game is or about how pointless this game is, or how the game has an Imperial Cult bias in the religious systems, but at the end of the day, this game just kind of sucks, and I think you could tell that without me saying much about it.
Please lmk how you feel about Castles, though, I'd love to know.
Here's my links:
Discord: discord.gg/FqHkCe6PYk
Twitch: twitch.tv/emerdareloth40
Twitter: x.com/Emer_Dareloth
About Me: th-cam.com/video/WfEnFeymNNU/w-d-xo.htmlsi=sS6gZD2BIub4V7aF
Thanks,
- Dareloth
Also your discord link is broken!
@@averyn34 Hmm. I'll work on getting that fixed.
elder scrolls: castles really looks like one of those fake ads for a game you get on youtube
When I first saw it, I thought it was a knock-off
It looks like if Bethesda made a game based on Mii models in a SSB rip off with possible trading cards MTX...
Bethesda is doing a speedrun to lose whatever little reputation it has left
You mean Microsoft.
How so? This wasn’t made by Bethesda, and starfield is proving itself with updates and expansions.
@@TheParagonIsDead starfield was not a good representation of where the company is headed at all
@@KostkaJones with how it’s going now it is, just wait for shattered space.
@KostkaJones it improved every complaint that was voiced after fallout 4. Besides the DEI horse shit its an objective improvement and step in the right direction
Lydia is deserving of much of the meme hate, she didn't deserve that character model 😅
They did her dirty lol
@@theemerdareloth once you played fallout shelter then you'll appreciate this game better, the hate for this game is unwarranted let us have our fun in peace, thanks.
You can sort of tell that Bethesda knows full well people are clambering for a new Elder Scrolls game, they know that there actually an audience there and that's why we are getting these spinoff games, but just drip feeding people half baked stuff like Castles isn't a good idea, because people are going to start being disappointed and might just make the assumption that when there finally is a mainline game, it's not gonna be any good.
After seeing Starfield I personally have zero expectations for TES 6, I hope I'm wrong about that, but I just don't see it turning out any different.
In the meantime I've been cooking up my own TTRPG campaign set in TES universe for me and my friends, we want to explore that world again, and we're tired of waiting, sure ESO exists and it's decent fun, but it's hardly a proper RPG.
Why don’t you have hope for tes6?
@@TheParagonIsDead Because there's already more hype than it can possibly live up to and all we know about it is that it's kinda sorta in development. It'll probably be fine, but if people need to tell themselves it'll be awful so they don't ruin it for themselves by believing all the inevitable lies that Bethesda will say about it over the next few years, that's okay
Bruh, I've had no expectations since fallout 4 came out lol.
it just came out and it still has potential to add more stuff in the future. As for it being half baked... it's not, in my opinion it's exactly what I thought it was going to be as a silly mobile game
looks like a bunch of dollar store mii avatars dressed up for a medieval festival. How bland and uninspired.
Look at how they massacred my boi lucien lachance, LOOK AT HIM
I didn't even mention Lucien, he looked so bad.
Oh no, not our boy lucien.. when will they stop butchering him ;-; give him a breaaak.
@@theemerdareloth should have made him a hanging wall decoration or a unique ghost
@@JoJoRogainThat's hilarious
@@theemerdareloth This is dreadful, these look like characters from twenty to twenty five years ago in a click-and-point adventure. That would have been fine in that era. If they were trying for a charming retro style they've failed miserably.
They did my girl Lydia dirty 😭😭😭
Nah man you're dead on. The way that the Elder Scrolls IP has been treated by bethesda since the release of Skyrim has not been inspiring confidence, between the Skyrim re-releases, and the shitty mobile games, and how awful Starfield is has not built up any confidence for the release of ES6.
I'm a fellow Elder Scrolls Super fan, Morrowind was my first PC game when I was like, 12 years old, I loved it, I loved everything about it. Oblivion was a bit of a disappointment, dont get me wrong it was still a good game but the world of Cyrodiili was so bland compared to how it was talked about in Morrowind, how it was talked about in the lore books, and Skyrim was... Well Skyrim was a good game too in its own right, I think all of the ES games have been great in their own ways, but I am biased towards Morrowind and I do feel that the games have been getting watered down again and again, but at least Skyrim brought back some social tension into the setting.
Castles is bland, uninspired, and adds nothing of value to the IP like even Legends and Blades did
I cant believe its already been THIRTEEN YEARS since the last major installment…
Another L for elder scrolls fans until the next release in 8 years
I remember thinking 2026 was a reasonable release date a few years ago. Looking more like 2030 these days.
@@theemerdareloth3 or 4 years
@@theemerdareloth I've gone through all the stages of grief since the announcement
@@TheParagonIsDead they didn't even really start development until after Starfield. With modern expectations, I bet half the game will be made with AI.
@@Evilpricetag nope.
At least I can recognize Fallout Shelter as Fallout, if they didn't slap the Elder Scrolls brand you wouldn't be able to know that it's part of the brand.
I give Lydia a lot of crap in skyrim, ultimately because she's such a familiar face, like you would with your friends. But my god what did they do to her?
I prefer that instead of doing those boring games they could remake the older games
Good for their business and makes sense that Bethesda have shit new games unless they have issues with their developing stage.
@@dariournisi755 yeah they should remake old games such as Elder scroll travel
TBF they definitely want to, I think we don't realise how much work that actually is because you essentially have to build the whole thing again from the ground up in the current engine. You'd probably even have to redo the voice lines so it sinks up with the new animations properly. Really only the writing would be a 1 to 1 transfer and the rest would essentially a new game from the ground up
I'd rather they do remasters than remakes. I like the ways that the old games feel, but maybe adjust some of the mechanics and scaling and whatnot. I think Oblivion is in the most need of a remaster of the mainline games.
@@theemerdareloth I too prefer the old style of the game but if they want to interest new players to Tes games a remake seems more appropriate. But as you said I like the old style
The art style is so bizarre and out of place. Is there ANY demographic that likes it? It's a childish style, but kids don't think its cool. Kids think classical high fantasy stuff is cool. Not this. Who is it even for?
It reminds me of school textbook character illustrations
looks like someone in corporate world would find appealing. Uncreative, uninspired, boring, safe, clean, this stuff doesn't speak Elder Scrolls to me. While in all honesty, some things in Elder Scrolls are just generic looking things, there are stuff that makes it unique and exclusive to elder scrolls; like Morrowind's uniqueness and weirdness it separates them to the rest of High fantasy worlds. This is just any of those things haha
The models make me think of the Miis, way abck from the Wii. I like the look of them; keeps things simple for mobile.
but the characters NEED to have proper appearances.
Where ARE their beards? How are we meant to tell the 5th short haired blond apart from the 20th? Because.. yeah, there's basically no facial details, and the "Unique" characters looks identical to the basic ones. While I think I like this game more than Fallout shelter personally, there just.. is nowhere near enough detail.
We also need more magic. Everything feels.. bland fantasy with Khajiit and Argonians. That just feels like.. the end of it, and it NEEDS more.
The fact that Bethesda is selling out means that the elder scrolls 6 is going to suck. It's crazy that all of you haven't realized this yet. A game that was never console exclusive going exclusive, usually means the death of that dev team. 😅
Did TESVI really go exclusive?
I might be completely misunderstanding here, but with characters from Skyrim in the game wouldn't it take place in the 4th era? Yet at the same time there appear to be Argonians and Dunmer and possibly Imperials and Altmer hanging around each other in the same castle? That sounds incredibly awkward.
It takes place in no particular time. There are characters like Baurus from Oblivion that are also recruitable.
Im terrified to think that tes6 might be a bad game. The game ive been anticipating for over 10 years now might be an aboslute dumpster fire because the studio making it cant seem to get their heads out of their asses. Many franchises have been killed off due to the negligence of their producers/developers (halo, for example) and im horrified to think that tes might be next to the chopping block. The fallout show gave me a little hope but hope never really goes far with BGS...
If Shattered Space DLC for Starfield is good, then I'll have a bit more hope.
@@it2spooky4me79 i feel the same
@@it2spooky4me79 Considering Starfield's meh reception, it doesn't matter if the DLC is good or not. The base game just does not have the flavor to hold people long enough to get to the DLC.
@@wdf70 all I'm saying is if the DLC is good, then there's still hope for their future games, Starfield was definitely a miss for some, and i blame the multiple redesigns it had, and it being in Development Hell, it definitely drove off course of what Bethesda was known for, and it seems Bethesda took notes of because of that.
Name me one game that was in Development Hell that had a positive impact.
The Elder Shelters
I also REALLY hate how half of the rewards on the level up system are locked behind some sort of battle pass
I played Fallout Shelter for about a year and a half. I aboslutely loved it until there wasnt anything left to do. I maxed out every single settler with clothing and weapons and finished every single quest and yearly event.
When Elder Scrolls Castles came out i was eager to give it a chance. I hated so many things about game play and the way it is scripted. Some goverment decisions are so dumb and lame that it doesnt matter what you path choose. The game pass thing is just too greedy; there are so many things to buy with real money that i rather buy a PC or console game.
This game is probably the most out of touch thing I've seen from Bethesda, and that includes all of Todd's sweet little lies. I don't see how this could appeal to any part of the Elder Scrolls fan base, it looks bland, generic and even the art on their main page feels rushed. You could probably get a better experience adding Skyrim themed mods to The Sims.
Castle has a lot of potential, but bethesda isn't going to make the game better. I wish another company made mobile/pc game like this...
Somehow Bethesda managed to make a game full of legally distinct Mii characters. I gotta say, that is impressive. Not a good choice, but still impressive.
Who the guy who looks at the xbox 360 avatars and thinks to make an entire game WITH THAT ART STYLE ?
They tried to make a fallout shelter game out of a game franchise that has NO REASON to have this kind of game. I have no idea where they were going with this.
@@bakerboy5682 Still having fun
Microsoft is really trying to destroy everything under its banner.
It looks like a cheap children’s game which the kids would turn their noses up at it 😂
Honestly
After playing for a week, the game has slowed down significantly after the start. I tried to see if it gets a bit better with no hope in sight. My goal was to make an entirely Argonian/Khajiit castle, but the children take like 3-4 DAYS to grow up.
The daily tasks completely conflict with what you want to craft if you want a productive castle. You can only craft 1 thing at a time and you cannot build more crafting stations without having a bunch of gold and rare crafting materials (which I'm positive can't be obtained through normal gameplay.) Unless you spend money to get the early crafting stations (They're selling them for 10$ a piece and there's 6 of them,) you can't craft more than 1 type of resource at a time (Wood, Stone, Iron, Steel, etc.)
The quests that you can send your dudes on has the depth of a kid's swimming pool and boils down to stats and weapon upgrades. The "challenges" are somewhat incompatible unless you kit your dudes out specifically, often making them take more damage than you would like, making you spent more potions or waste time having them heal at the buffet table. The difficulty spikes are pretty large and they expect each of your dudes you send out to be fully upgraded, again, cutting into your crafting stuff.
This recent time limited event with the Blacksmith dagger quest recommends you to have Silver Weapons to take on without wasting potions (Which takes around castle level 100 to start crafting) while I'm only at about 50 and haven't even started Steel production. Steel armor and tools also require Iron, so if you're not sitting on a massive stockpile of the stuff, you have to craft both Iron and Steel on a 2 minute timer for each item meaning your smith is flip flopping between materials. And it doesn't just finish and start another queue and pool up all your crafting, oh no, you have to be present to tap on the station to collect the resources.
It's just another mobile game full of timers so you'll pay for the fake currency to not waste time playing the game that's built to waste your time. Just download Fallout shelter on PC and mod it. It takes 2 seconds and doesn't have you pay Bethesda for low effort crap.
Based comment
It feels like Bethesda's IP are losing their teeth in order to appeal to a larger demographic. Old elder scrolls lore was meth, now it's sanitised generic and pushed for mass appeal not realising they'll lose both the original fans for losing its Identity and the new people will just see it as another generitic fantasy.
This game sucks, the voice I couldn't identify even if I wanted too seems pretty cool through.
4:20 At somepoint between Morrowind and Skyrim Master Neloth had to crack open the moon sugar reserves.
I failed the test 2:15 Without the hint I assumed they were from ESO cause dual-wielding but I didn't recognize it from Skyrim. Also not a red gem so that disqualifies Picard, Tiber and Pelinal.
With the hint, I guessed someone from the Dawnguard, as the armor didn't look very Skaal/Nordic. There's a reason we don't see important show/movie characters in headgear. At least when he gets headshot, I know who it is getting shot. Daedric non-sense aside, the Cowl is more distinct than that.
Isran has leather something armor in all the pics I see of him. Lydia has brown hair. Isran's a better Lydia than Lydia.
I've never played a mobile game, but looking at whatever this is.. I vow to not only never play this game, but to never play any mobile game ever in my life.
I dont know why everyone is saying the game is crap, its exactly what i thought it would be and as a fan of fallout shelter I'm loving it. Its not meant to be a massive big game of course the character models arent high quality, it's a free mobile game for pete sake
Honestly, I’ve played my share of slop mobile games. The thing about Castles that really forced me to not play it was the predatory monetization practices. An ad for the shop every second menu. A “battle pass” that gives you decent rewards then just gives you nothing for like 6 levels (unless you buy the pass). It’s just not even worth bothering with
I tried Castles, just to make sure i dont miss out on new TES lore. But a within seconds, it was obvious that there is nothing to miss.
Also to anyone reading this: Go play TES Legends. We need that game to come back!
To me, TES's legacy is being carried on by fans; take, for example, Skywind, Skyblivion, and other DLC-sized projects or expansions for Morrowind and Skyrim. That is honestly good enough for me, and I would be content with Bethesda just letting the IP die (which obviously they would never do).
The art style being off is definitely a good point. As a big fan also of Bethesda games, if I were to see someone playing this, without prior knowledge of Castles, I would not recognize it as an Elder Scrolls game
Speak of the devil, I just tried this out the other day too. It was terrible, truly. Not only was the art style bland and uninspired, I also didn't like how there was a constant urgency to the food and oil. Instead of having fun it was causing me anxiety. It's not like I expected much, but I was still disappointed.
Nothing about this looks like Elder Scrolls. The armors, clothing, and environments look nothing like the games.
They all look somewhere between Miiverse and Robot Chicken. It's so generic. I have no idea where they were going with this.
Is that game a joke? Thats what i would like to ask to bethesda now..
I played this game for about an hour before I got bored with it
Also to reinforce your point on Fallout being better, Fallout: London is phenomenal even tho it's a mod but still these two titles released at around the same time and one is crushing and one is garbage
Fallout: London brings hope to the Fallout franchise, because we all hope that Bethesda steals something from it. There is at least a reference for Bethesda to compare itself to.
This game does nothing but make us all have bad expectations for the future
Amazing pixel art is pretty common in mobile games, shame they didn't try a HD Daggerfall style kind of look or something fans would of liked.
Amusingly, my neices, both of whom are younger than Skyrim, sent me screen caps of them finding Black reach for the first time today.
I had two female characters have sex and they made a baby. I named the baby J'esus.
This is a 1/5 game, but I think the baby character models are cute. So I'll give it 2/5.
It feels like just Fallout shelter but lacks the charm of said game.
Castles is embarrassing
Totally agree
Wow, that game looks bad. As to what you said around 10:11, I think if the parent was and is a huge fan of Elder Scrolls, the kid might actually love Skyrim at least. My son is 11 and hes been playing Skyrim sense he was 7 . But maybe newer gamers of this new generation, unless their folks or another gets them into it, I'd say probably not.
I mean it's not bad it's actually fun to have a semi fallout shelter style game for elder scrolls, actually it's something I've been wanting for awhile.
You have to give credit where credit is due, they somehow managed to port the calarts style to 3D, thats kinda amazing. I thought the calarts style was so bad it wasnt portable to 3D due to how bad the standard calarts design is. But here we are, there right on the screen, is the horrific calarts style in 3D. Amazing really. And calarts is just one step away from the corporate hobo style. Which I'm gonna have to be honest, its kinda reminding me of the corporate hobo style.
legit thought that was delphine, wtf bethesda??
Cant believe I guessed Isran right.
What makes it funnier is that both Fallout Shelter and Castles are copies of Facebook games like Backyard Monsters and Social Empires. But, I will say that as of right now there's a fairly easy way to get hundreds of gems free, and the only other premium currency (I forgot the name) can be obtained by doing event quests and tasks. But for gems you can get a good amount from certain rulings and you can get them from tasks and quests. Same with things that you would spend gems on like potions, scrolls, and speed potions. They've inherited the quality inherent in Facebook games, that being the expectation of you logging out for a few hours at some point
When was the last time they seriously put out a non-outdated and high quality game, one either technically or mechanically impressive for the time?
The Elder Scrolls 1 and 2 had masssive open-ended procedurally-generated terrains and role playing systems. The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind had a impossible level of handcrafting and detail to the games enviroments and world overall. The Elder Scrolls 4 used Speed Tree first, scheduled Npc's that posessed personalities and had their own dispositions, realistic physics through Havok, and incredible lighting and a fully dynamic world. The Elder Scrolls V had the scale of staggering mountain ranges, and rushing rivers... past that point? I guess The Elder Scrolls Online was their only MMO, it launched in a non-functional state. Fallout Shelter is their first mobile game, but full of "micro-transactions". Fallout 4 had crafting. Fallout 76... was the most low quality and glitchy game of all time. And the less said of Starfield the better, I think that Starfield is a terrible (not merely a lackluster) game but the design is total broken and anthetical. I want The Elder Scrolls 6 too succed of course, the odds are not in their favour as it's following a downward course contiuned over 10 years.
Starfield.
ELDER SCROLLS FANS EATING LIKE SHIT FOR THE NEXT 9000 QUADRILLION YEARS UNTIL A NEW HINT ABOUT THE LOCATION OF TES 6 DROPS IN 2030
Bugthesda is dead, gamers have to come to terms with it. Much like MANY other studio's before them, that lived long enough to see themselves become a meme. Look to indies for the future of gaming, the AAA market has long since jumped the shark.
Im a huge Elder Scroll fan, played all the games except the travels ones. This game i gave an hour and a half... And then uninstalled it. Just no
Its not Fun. The art style just screams bland and unfinished. I agree with you on how Shelters looks and feels. But with Castles, just not here not this time.
This really sad that Bethesda enigma, They as we know is 3A studio game but in other hand they don't have capability of 3A Studio (At least base on starfield it feel 2-3 year outdated), I really wish they take different strategy like creating smaller and experimental spin-off that they can implement in mainline games
Whoever developed this had had the audacity to disrespect it like this. Interesting. The UI art is more better than the whole game. This makes me worry even more for a future elder scrolls games.
The problem is now I feel for the next elder scrolls. They're going to play it so safe. It's going to lose its uniqueness. I guarantee you in the next elder scrolls generic humans. And lose a lot of its lore.
That's one the biggest reasons that I'm not interested in seeing the Iliac Bay again. I'd much prefer a game set in Valenwood, Black Marsh, or The Summerset Isles, but we'll probably get Bretons and Redguards, which, at least Redguards have cool lore, but they'll probably simplify it.
More better?
@@theemerdareloth I'm afraid they might do something like they did with the nords and water down the religion and just make it a little very similar to the eight divines.
I tried to see what would happen if I mistreated my people and hunger just brings HP to 1, no deaths but exile kings/queens is the only way to get rid of them.
1 chimillion downloads
🟨🟦
This game was clearly decided by people, who have no connection to the production side.
I thought we left the Wii graphics back in 2009
I watched this video and promptly deleted the game 😂 I wanted to love the game but this pushed me over the edge because I agreed wholeheartedly with this assessment
I’m looking forward to Age of Empires Mobile anyway 🗡️🛡️
Me when I can’t form my own opinions without the influence of others
Lydia? I thought it was Sven 😭
Lmao!
Yeah, you're being dramatic, and i dont agree with all your points, but i understand your points
I don't mind the game, I do wish I could be able to restart it like in FO Shelters.
It was battery draining and now watching your video the art style looks like Polymorph's Fountain medieval town building game
Honestly the characters look like Miis from the Wii lol.
I’m enjoying Castles for now, but it feels like it won’t be worth the time and phone battery for very long… in any case your point about starting with the generic Breton architecture is very true, it doesn’t present anything that feels uniquely like Tamriel 🙃
and there it goes, the last of my hype for Elder Scrolls 6.
wtf is this!? 04:19? WHEN!!!! Did you last saw an Dark elf smile!? or even MORE SO a Telvanni smile?!?! :D:D: Wtf!? hahaha
I understand your points here.... but I am a die hard fan of TES and anything relating to that IP. I've been grinding Castles since a few days before global release, I'm over level 50, and I still enjoy it. I can't tell you the last time I played another mobile game. Would have been Fallout Shelter, Legends, or Clash Royale.
Congrats on 10k subs!
Thank you!
It's just a copy of fallout shelter, a mobile game that came out years ago... it's fun for a few minutes then it's old.
I start to get the feeling that there was some kind of corruption that hit the industry and made good stuff stop being made. I fell in love with Genshin Impact as a fresh, amazing new game world. Occasionally, there's a new TV show that captures my attention - but those are rare. And increasingly, I find myself disconnecting. Not watching TV. Not playing new games. Playing old classic titles. Still playing ESO, Lord of the Rings Online.
It's almost like technology made game design, CGI, everything easier - and in the process, the inventiveness, the thoughtfulness, the charm of the classics was lost. New stuff may have the form, but never the spirit of old things. It feels like we're becoming lost. I bought a new top of the line PC at the end of last year and started researching the most graphically advanced RPG's to stress test it with. And I came up with games like Red Dead Redemption 2... a game from 2018.
Now every time something new comes out, it's infused with DEI stuff like pronoun selection - but no quality, no fun. Look at those characters in this Elder Scrolls mobile game. Heck, you can't even tell what gender they are. Though in fairness, mobile games have always been a similar variety of trash with heavy monetization. But there was a moment when mobile games did have a little bit of promise... Back when old people were playing Farmville and Words with Friends with each other. Even that, now, seems lost.
The sad thing is, that some of these companies have been screwing around making garbage for so long that... like you said, by the time they pull their heads out of their rears and decide to return to their old IP's... to steal a LOTR line - there will be none living who remember... and much which once was, will be lost.
I like the art (2d art), 3d part is really sumple. But unlike fallout, TES doesnt have a defined art/design again as the pipboy.
Though as u said for being a game released 9 years later than shelter one would except an upgrade, but its missing lots of features from shelter. One npcs customization.
I dont mind the re-use of certain elements as sounds/music as Nintendo does too. In shelter they used sounds from the fallout series too, as the quest completitions from f4.
But in general it feels as if devs are for easy cash, the shop is a joke. 2500 gems worth around 20 dollars for a deco that gives +10 gold.
It feels as if devs havent played games of this genre, rullings become repetitive and the gameolay is very shallow.
I loved how this kindive turned into a Legends advertisement. Best Elder Scrolls mobile game.
Bro the fucking characters look like MIIs from the wii its hilarious XD
I have been playing the game. I also have been playing since Oblivion though I have gone back to play Morrowind. Which going backwards didn't enjoy as much. This game I am disappointed on going to sell previous characters, but not model them is wrong. Yet, I have a good story to tell I thought was funny was when one of my workers died at the mill. His ghost was still working. It was shortly after someone then murdered me right in front of that mill. So, I have some positive points, but yes fallout shelter works where this so far feels a bit of a cash grab.
Dare: 2nd worst game no contest!
Play store: 4.2 stars with 23k ratings.
Yeah I'm not thrilled about the game, seems like it is another money grab game...*every time I log in the food and oil are gone and some darn wizard keeps cursing me***
2:40 Owen Wilson? XP
Sure, but the artwork is really good, the gameplay and graphics are horrible but the image in the thumbnail is awesome
You all forgetting about ESO, which has all the lands open and story continue with millions of quests...
I'm enjoying the game so far, but without a doubt it feels relatively cheap and lazy.
God I wish Bethesda would revive Legends. Legends was really good.
Legends is still active, but it's in maintenance mode!
@@theemerdareloth I know. I still play it from time to time. I just wish it still got updates. I loved the campaigns.
bethesda please lock in
Idk if i count as a "young people" but im 19(born 2005)and have been an elder scrolls fan for what feels like forever. I havent played oblivion or morrowind but i cant wait to once my pc is working. As of right now ive put like 1,061 hours into skyrim and loved every second of it. I feel like people who are kids currently love elder scrolls too, even if they're as old as the game. I mean one of my favorite Star Wars games is the same age as me!(its Republic Commando its obviously dated but still a great game, totally recommend it)
I like your videos, dude. I am glad that you keep promoting Lengeds, such a Great game. They need to bring back 1 New Card a month.
I heard a legend of an Elder scrolls 6...
I played castles when ever they put it out in ?beta? a few months ago, doesn't look like much has changed lol. But I stuck with it for a decent bit because there's concepts that I liked in it that I wanted to see if they went anywhere. Like for instance having individual happiness for each race in your court, or that each irl day was a year in game, but it all just kind of ends up being fluff. Sure your characters will age and die but the heir to the throne that's pissed he's not king and the crown instead went to his dad's lust argonian maid hasn't done anything in two years except pout. Or yeah making this ruling will make the High Elfs mad but we'll have more food, but there's no reason to pick it over the ruling that will make them happy cause food is almost inconsequential.
I wanted to like it based off the concepts it was pitching, but the game design was just the typical zero-friction slop that you can get just about any where with mobile games.
Is there still an active community in Legends? I played it from beta for a long time but like all good things, Bethesda eventually throws it away. One of the best card games on the market without a doubt.
There is still a decentlu active community on TH-cam, Reddit, and Discord:)
I understand a lot of the criticisms I have some as well but I've thoroughly enjoyed my time with the game it's not what I was hoping for out of Elder Scrolls but it's a nice little distraction
I’ve played like 6 hours it’s okay , I figured you banish all the bossy/haunted/lazy characters now everybody is max happy .just make ulfric and ralof make babies together to get extra legendary characters lol .
They should bring back gauntlet legends.
I'm playing it. It's super buggy for me. Hardly playable for me right now
I wish they had a better look to it, and you would pick a castle that would choose your race. Maybe pick if you're a part of the Empire or a break away isolationist. Let you choose Imperial Neapolitan or a pro break away faction
I guessed Isran right but not Lydia
I cant play Legends, My phone is too new :/ I hate these things... Why cant they just update it...
There's always Steam!
@@theemerdareloth
Well, Bad side playing on phones, im not most motivated to spend time on phones playing. Its easier on pc.
Also, thanks
This is why it is important to never allow oneself to be blindly allied with a franchise.
Bethesda is a complete joke, maybe they always were and Skyrim was an anomaly. I have zero faith in TES 6 being an improved game from Skyrim.
Hey I cannot download legends on Google Play from my phone (Galaxy S22). Is there another way I could play ESL? I could try a APK.
I actually love the premise because I want a kingdom dynasty simulator that's not just crusader kings and empty with no emotional impact but actually characters in the kingdom influence it and feels personal and engaging. Haven't played but if it scratches that itch I'll have to disagree with you.