The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall

released on Aug 31, 1996

The Elder Scrolls - Daggerfall is the second fantasy RPG from The Elder Scrolls series. The game is situated in a city of Daggerfall and its surrounding areas. The emperor himself asked you, as your friend, to investigate the death of King Lysandus. The whole story is up to you. There is no straight line which you should follow. you have a number of options for character classes and numerous regions filled with cities, towns, and dungeons. Your journey starts on your way to the Kingdom of Daggerfall. Unfortunately your ship is wrecked in a storm and you end up in a small cave with only your bare life. Your first goal becomes to escape, and so your adventure begins. The game has a numerous options how to solve the crisis and numerous differed endings as well.


Released on

Genres


More Info on IGDB


Reviews View More

(beaten with daggerfall unity, but also played it plenty of times in dos)

unironically the greatest sandbox rpg of all time. probably the closese a video game has felt when it comes to the dnd experience of having some sort of story but having so much content in-between to get occupied with. i hate to say it but if you hate this then you simply hate fun

me when i'm treated as an errand boy in skyrim: 😡😡
me when i'm treated as an errand boy in the illiac bay: ☺️☺️😆

Their ambition paid off with the even more systems-driven world of Daggerfall, a diligent update of Arena that revealed their knack for unusual quest scenarios. Visual upgrades (to towns, overworld, dungeons, menus, NPCs, etc.) match functional (movement and command shortcuts) and QoL upgrades (town maps, mounts, storage), while surrounding mechanics (from character creation to dialogue systems) evolve into far more sophisticated features. But its best evolution is perhaps the least visible one. Use-based EXP - that previously only refined spells, expands FFII's weapon-oriented approach to many aspects of gameplay (e.g. running, climbing, conversations, mercantile, and others beyond combat and magic). While prone to repetition & exploits, this is perhaps their most significant idea, a gradual leveling system that treats gameplay's habits like a muscle: The more you use it, the better it gets. Its effect was to instill a new, parallel sense of purpose to decisions. For example, Arena's overworld doubles as a training ground here, as its vacant, prop-y layout helps build movement skills while random encounters (on rest) hone others, adding impetus to open-world roaming that the original lacked. Dungeons also deserve mention for incorporating seamless staircases, monster closets, underwater sections, teleports and many other additions from the classics, while remaining lengthy, dense, maze-y networks.

Much like their debut, though, the main quest could benefit from some editing, although one admits that the side content (the collective moments and not the journey/destination) forms the lifeblood of the game this time. Incidentally, one feels a lot more 'immersed' in this land as a mercenary trying to make profit than as a venturing hero.

It is a much more cohesive game than Arena. I admire what it tried to do, with a world map that has still to be topped in size and its attempt at making a living, breathing fantasy world simulator. The problem is it's just not fun to play. The story is irrelevant. Even if you beat the main story, the game goes on like nothing happened. Nothing you do feels like it has consequence. And don't even get me started on those controls, which make System Shock 1's controls look efficient in comparison. If you can get past all the jank, there is a worthy game here. I just can't be asked to do it, especially when I have other games to play. Maybe the Unity remake fixes the problems I had.

Better than Arena. It has a better presentation with unexpected FMVs and feels that the franchise could just get better.

Its only a good game depending on what u want.
The good:
- Cool character build creating system which allows for higher replay ability and customization.
- More polished combat, stats, and spells/spell making compared to arena (no bartering system/worse dungeons suck though for daggerfall)
- Solid role playing elements like the stats, classes, adv/dis created for ur character in creation, joinable guilds.
- Modding support.
- Ridiculously massive world, there is always something to do (though extremely repetitive so why wud u)

The bad:
- There is pretty much no tutorial and you need to do ur own research/read manual before making a character to not make an abysmal character.

- Ridiculously massive world that feels dead even though its filled with filler npcs that are only used to ask for directions. Way too big many of the cities/towns look exactly the same so not much substance there.

- The quests from npcs are quests mostly revolving dungeon crawling or delivering items to npcs around the world. I felt like a dog doing errands for nobles, scholars, and peasants. It is quite strange how everyone is ok giving u quests even if u have a "bad reputation" among locals. Like why are u trusting me to deliver this item to some random person who even has bad rep lol.

The gain from quests (like barely any money and some reputation) is very little compared to the time spent so it doesnt feel good doing quests. Quests are extremely repetitive and boring this mainly includes side and guild quests. Guilds seem only relevant in what they provide and u do the same 5 repeatable quests in random locations around the world to gain access to other services with reputation gain (even though u cant actually see ur reputation so u cant know what other specific quests/actions impact ur reputation).

Although I havent gotten very far in the main quest, it seems very difficult to get into/motivated to do due to the dungeons (getting to it) and due to how convoluted, time consuming, and downright confusing it is. So there isnt much direction u get regarding the MQ and quest descriptions arent very detailed. U have to wait multiple in game days at a time to receive letters not to mention reputation and level requirements as well as some quests not being available if u did MQ in a different order. When I was going through the story there wud be usually a large delay between quests and I'd pretty much forget all about the whole MQ and think why am I even doing this. Its very difficult to really follow the story and understand the confusing politics of the world that u r thrown in between of and it makes more sense as u go on I imagine but I honestly didnt care for the quests due to the dungeons and how confusing it all was. Apparently it becomes even more confusing with different quest paths and 7 potential endings?

- Dungeons are fucking awful. They are even worse than the first game (arena's) dungeons and as some redditor described "like exploring someone's lower intestines". They are randomly generated and even if not are extremely long even with short dungeon option enabled and just an overall horrible experience. Each dungeon can take u like 2-3 hours at a time so it feels so draining to even do them for ur quests and u are barely rewarded after. Each one is a labyrinth and extremely frustrating to do, u visit the same places multiple times and it is a MUST to have some key spells like water breathing and recall to even navigate through dungeons even if u want to role a character who doesnt use any magic.

Overall the game can be fun for a person who is interested in elder scrolls lore even though its likely quite different compared to any of the newer titles, a person interested in the role playing elements and those who enjoy creating/testing different game builds. However due to my issues with quests in general and dungeons that are the main aspects to the game, it is difficult to recommend this game especially to a newer audience.