The Elder Scrolls as a series has never been known for its strong narratives or storytelling through cutsceness. Sure, the settings are some of the best high fantasy settings you will ever see, and the lore in the series is extremely strong and dense, but the series is mostly known for its freeform sandbox-style gameplay, its focus on exploration, rather than for anything to do with storytelling through intricately developed cutscenes. But with The Elder Scrolls 6, should Bethesda maybe try and bring about a change in that department?
We would, of course, like The Elder Scrolls 6 to have the same focus on exploration and discovery as previous Elder Scrolls games, but maybe Bethesda should have a bit more focus on storytelling too. How? Well, firstly, adding actual cutscenes to the game in such a way that they properly highlight major narrative beats. The Elder Scrolls games have never really had a lot of traditional cutscenes to speak of, and while we’re not expecting feature length cutscenes similar to what we’ve seen in games like Metal Gear Solid 4, the presence of more cinematic oriented cutscenes definitely adds a lot to the storytelling aspect of a game. Another thing Bethesda would desperately need to do to accomplish better storytelling in The Elder Scrolls 6 would be to hire better writers.
What’s your take on this? Do you think The Elder Scrolls would benefit from having a stronger focus on story and storytelling through cutscenes? Or would you prefer that Bethesda just keeps on doing what it has been doing with the franchise so far? Let us know in the comments section below.
This article is part of our series on Bethesda’s next big entry into the world of The Elder Scrolls. Through this series we take a look at the possible new features that Bethesda can add into the next The Elder Scrolls game, based on what they implemented in the previous entries and player feedback.
