TES4 Oblivion Deconstructed - The Long Cut

[@PrivateSessions]

Today, 3/20/2021 Oblivion turned 15 years old, and the channel just crossed 15 subscribers. Pretty serendipitous if you ask me.

[@NihilNick]

Listonosh put this video in his playlist of long-form videogame analysis :) glad to be here!

[@IAM_UDON]

Youll end up doing well if you keep going this was pretty solid

[@duartealmeida4156]

Just got this video on my recommended and loved it! New sub, hope this channel keeps growing, you deserve more recognition, great work!

[@Armorion]

Well after uploading this your subscribers have been multiplied by 67.3 times. Can't wait to watch you grow more.

[@MrFreshBanana]

Damn!!! Three months ago you where happy about 15 subscribers? Look at you now! You'll be one of the big boys in no time. I would bet my dominant testicle on that

[@nekrovulpes]

It comes to something when you see a 7 hour long analysis of Oblivion on KZbin and legitimately have to ask yourself: Did I watch this one already?

[@Luccaluke]

wtf same here o_0

[@PrivateSessions]

... and then I click on it, go "oh yeah I already saw this" and accidently watch it all the way through again.

[@OuterHeaven210]

Lmao. And my next thought was “how did I let this one slip through?

[@gameboyish]

I legit had to ask if. I watched this one or not lmao

[@admiraltonydawning3847]

@@gameboyish And my answer was: "...no, it was from a channel currently going under the name WillLovesVideoGames".

[@MrT13X]

"Talking for several hours about Oblivion" has got to be my favorite genre of youtube videos. And I obviously loved this one too.

[@xxtwogendersxy5560]

The amount of 6 hour elder scrolls critiques is fucking mind bending.

[@matturso2224]

Yet every one is worth watching.

[@wwyd4akb]

@@matturso2224 and I've yet to find one I disagreed with in any significant way

[@matturso2224]

@@wwyd4akb Same!

[@Nopers_]

@@wwyd4akb Most of them won’t say anything terribly offensive. Especially the older a game is and more releases it’s had since

[@wwyd4akb]

@@Nopers_ it's definitely a minor issue but soft selling the negative aspects of a game is a problem for lots of video essayists.

[@Veep_The_Goblin_Hermit]

I slept really well to this. Had dreams about being a mage. Would recommend

[@greendude0420]

I dreamt I was a Khajiit with a rather troubling skooma addiction, Spare me 5 septims so I can fund my rehab 😂

[@Theodorehunt97]

I can’t sleep without a retrospective or lore video. I honestly am afraid I’ll exhaust KZbin of all decent sleeping videos

[@Gloppenhiemer]

Just set this puppy to play. It’s 0245. I have to wake up and begin working at 0700. Wish me quality sleep 🤞🏼🤞🏼

[@jonathanflaig8799]

@@Theodorehunt97 thank good I’m not the only one

[@Kevin-lv8wv]

You sleep rather soundly for a murderer…

[@theonlybilge]

Nobody needs to be reminded that Emil Pagliarulo wrote the Dark Brotherhood, because he won't let anyone forget, but he won't tell you that he also wrote the arena.

[@YouTubecanfuckagoat]

He didn’t write it. He worked on it, with others, under the supervision of someone else. He neglects to mention that

[@marlow7376]

@@KZbincanfuckagoat didnt Ted Peterson do most of the writing for arena im pretty sure hes said in interviews its why he was hired at bethesda

[@MistaHoward]

He also got all the good ideas in it from his daughter. Also he wrote Fallout 3, 4, 76, amd Starfield. I'd say it's safe to say at this point that the DB was a fluke. I'd bet the only part he's completely responsible for is the retarded ending.

[@afivey]

@@marlow7376 Pretty sure OP was talking about Oblivion's questline for the Arena in the Imperial City, not the first TES game.

[@vexile1239]

Get emil working within a set confine or document he is decent, give him full freedom without any confines or documents he is completely worthless, just look at the failure called starfield, complete freedom, no documents, he and his team just threw bodily waste at a wall to see what sticks

[@Patrician]

Will comment as I go. I disagree with the notion that certain skills exist to fill out the roster, considering they were inherited from the earlier titles. It actually seemed the opposite problem, skills are being combined or cut to lower the overall number of skills. For instance, they easily could have cut armorer from Oblivion if they had kept the Axe skill. It's obvious they wanted to give the combat players some kind of equivalent option to enchanting and alchemy for augmenting their character, and simply failed by gating the armor improvement mechanic behind a high armorer level. I also disagree with your, and many, peoples assessment of Hand to Hand. While it does suck for builds focused on that, especially compared to MW, I actually find it as a skill to complement a magical playstyle better than weapons. It's ability to knockdown opponents who hit zero green juice is also very underrated.

[@Patrician]

Your assessment of the story is interesting because it's making me more cognizant of how the series sounds to an outsider. Also the Altmer are different from the Aldmer, and the Orcs are in fact Mer. So are Goblins, actually, and claims to the contrary tend to come from racial purist Altmer.

[@PrivateSessions]

Despite having read UESP religiously for like two weeks straight a couple summers back... I still barely understand the basic history of the Empire. It was a bit presumptuous of me to go into the lore of the series, which was why I tried to only tackle it from a superficial level in hopes of at least sparking an interest for people who never played or paid attention to some of the deeper undercurrents of the series. I'll be doing much more thorough research for Morrowind. Might need to make some flow charts and spreadsheets though. TES lore is confusing as fuck.

[@Patrician]

The Thieves Guild quest to steal from the Arch-Mage is closer to a Morrowind style guild crossover, except I think internally they were expecting players to do Thieves Guild before the Mages Guild. Given they could account for the player being in the University during the main quest, surely they could have just switched the Staves location to Raminus if the player was actually the Arch-Mage. Otherwise it just seems like Raminus is rooting around in our bedroom.

[@Aewon84]

@@Patrician It doesn't really make much sense for the Arch-Mage to be a member of the Thieves Guild in the first place.

[@cedddkkddkk]

You’re the first person that came to mind when i came across this video Patrician. Funny that i found you here too. Now i just have to patiently wait for your Oblivion video, so i can see who tickles my mental pickle on the subject more.

[@astrovix2124]

I need more 7 hour long Elder Scrolls analysis videos in my life.

[@807D14M0ND5]

I know another 4 hour long one ^^

[@ValiareTheForsaken01]

PatricianTV has a Morrowind retrospective that's just shy of 8 hours.

[@Static_Eclipse]

WillLovesVideoGames has another amazing 5 hour long one. It’s the one I watched first before this one and multiple times at that, and I highly recommend watching it.

[@oldmantree6067]

@@ValiareTheForsaken01 And it's great!

[@osets2117]

@@ValiareTheForsaken01 buddy told me about that one, was a great listen

[@TheShitSmith]

Note on the skooma addict Dark Brotherhood quest: If you talk to him, he asks for skooma. If you give him more than one, he'll immediately take it all and overdose. So basically your idea.

[@devinscott8680]

The amount of time I continue to waste on this game even as an adult is insane. With all the problems this game had, it has such replay value and I still continue to hilariously watch these 5-7 hour breakdown videos of this game every few years.

[@DayLateGamerWill]

Oblivions music was soo on point, its beautiful yet imagination-invoking, perfect sound score in a video game

[@fgfhjfhjfbhfghf5771]

Reminder that Oblivion will likely be 20 years old when TES6 comes out

[@PrivateSessions]

I'm old jfc

[@MannElite]

I hope that TES 6 moves more in the direction of oblivion and morrowind and doesn't continue in the skyrim direction. The lack of an attribute system was terrible. I'm not getting my hopes up though.... :/

[@korpen2858]

@@MannElite Skyrim could serve as "babys first Elder Scrolls" and then Bethesda could start building more complicated systems again from that as the audience has familiarised themselves with the groundworks.

[@MannElite]

@@korpen2858 One can only hope

[@wwyd4akb]

@@MannElite as long as its more morrowind or oblivion than skyrim I'll be happy. Imagine if they went Daggerfall though...

[@brianstephens8337]

54:44 "Imperial guards in particular have bloodlust they unleash when they get the chance" most realistic depiction of cops in video games.

[@NeverduskX]

Funny enough, I've always liked Bravil. It's always felt very unique and different to me. It's one of the few places in Cyrodiil that isn't immediately portrayed as idyllic, and it has this memorable sense of misfortune and realism to it. While the Imperial City is this seemingly impossible perfect place, Bravil reinforces the world's imperfections, misfortunes, and struggles. In that way, I think Bravil is more similar to Skyrim than any of the other provinces in Oblivion. Windhelm, Riften, Winterhold, Markarth... a lot of the most interesting holds in Skyrim seemed to take Bravil's imperfections and expand on them tenfold. And as a result, Skyrim's holds often come across as far more believable and complex than most of Cyrodiil's provinces. Or, at least they do to me.

[@PrivateSessions]

Bravil is more Skyrim than Bruma. I like that idea.

[@EvelynWn]

I like most of the cities he didn't like, mostly because they're small and I tend to get lost in the bigger ones.

[@Mr._Anderpson]

@@EvelynWn Bigger doesn't mean better when it comes to towns in Oblivion. The larger they are, the more empty they appear. The Imperial Ghost Town in the center of the province is People's Exhibit A.

[@fridaynightpizza7158]

bravil gives me morrowind vibes personally, i like the rope bridge and the mages guild and i have fond memories of fucking around doing backflips after using a famous bravil specific exploit to level acrobatics. also it's the city with the crazy dream quest

[@JorgenVRC]

It's been 84 years, but hearing Oblivion music and seeing the landscapes still makes me cry tears of joy. Thank you so much for letting me re-live these experiences again! I don't think i will ever love another game as much as i love Oblivion :')

[@mango78910]

KZbin just keeps dropping longer and longer video essays on video games into my suggested. I feel like theyre punking me and one day I’ll click on a 10 hour analysis of disco Elysium and it’ll Rick roll me or some shit.

[@PrivateSessions]

This dude PatricianTV is working on a 10 hour oblivion video. It's literally becoming an arms race.

[@pullt]

@@PrivateSessions Joseph Anderson is gonna have a seventy hour Witcher 3 video coming out in 2028....

[@picahudsoniaunflocked5426]

@@pullt It's been long enough that I'm starting to see new channels emerge who clip + re-up Joe playing games on stream.

[@jameswilliamson7876]

I love that this video has more views than the smaller constituents combined. People love documentaries

[@PrivateSessions]

I did it literally as a joke. I'm still shocked people are watching the whole thing, or really any of it.

[@jonasbindslev9894]

@@PrivateSessions I think it is because KZbin's history system works so well, that it's just much easier to watch a single long form video, than the same video split up into 7 bits. I can watch an hour of a 7 hour video, then come back to it the next day, or in a week, or whenever it gets recommended to me again in 2 years, and the video will continue where I left off to the second. The algorithm probably also prefers videos that are a complete story, as opposed to episodic content.

[@alexsm3882]

Just give me something I can turn on in the background and listen to without bothering to have to find new videos every 20 minutes while I go about my day and I'll watch it lol

[@petehasplans]

This is almost long enough to drown out the sound my CPAP mask makes while I sleep for a WHOLE night's sleep. Thanks man.

[@PrivateSessions]

As someone who needs background noise to not wake up in the middle of the night in cold sweats, I understand the need for really long content.

[@petehasplans]

@@PrivateSessions (also genuinely interested in watching this, it must have taken ages to make!)

[@rafaellucadetena9355]

@@PrivateSessions you are a bless.

[@gavinm7851]

@James Sunderland yeah

[@paultinkle9514]

The most popular theory for why Dagon waited so long is he's the god of change, and doesn't want to actually take power because then Tamriel would become an unchanging realm of Oblivion

[@dumbsterdives]

by the very nature of his sphere, he can't ever be in full control for this exact reason. his whole modus operandi is that the people on top fall and the people on the bottom rise up. it only makes sense that he would effectively have won only to have it snatched away, and the measures that had to be taken ensured even greater change for the world with the end of the septim line and the destruction of the amulet of kings

[@seand7042]

Did he wait that long though? Wasn't the whole Jagar Tharn thing him trying to cross over into the real world as well?

[@kupokinzyt]

I am absolutely stunned and would have purposely thought KZbin was trying too hide my videos if I put as much work into this as you have and have only 150fews a year later. I am so glad to finally have seen this in my recommendation list as I watched it around the time it came out by chance and never subbed. You earned it this time! Goodluck :)

[@khatack]

@All_lives_matter, reject fabricated racism by govt I don't think politician lives matter. I think we should put politicians into gas chambers and kill them all as a final solution.

[@MrBazzos]

@@khatack What shit are you talking? Or is this a failed attempt at humour?

[@alexsm3882]

@@khatack k

[@VisComicaV]

another comment for the algo gods! this is clearly a labor of love and i like your presentation style a lot; the writing is never too dry and does a good job of walking the line between being objective and informative while noting what your personal preference is and doing a bit of storytelling. it's engaging and i look forward to seeing more of it

[@avpclassic]

Your reluctance at the end of the video can be answered by saying that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. One can break down a symphony into every instrument's part, every sound, every note, but no matter how far you dissect it, such an analysis can never explain the ineffable quality of the way you experience the totality. The wild part about Oblivion is that when you break it down on paper, it shouldn't work, but miraculously, it does. Those of us who have experienced the painting-like pastoral views and expansiveness of Cyrodiil, alongside Jeremy Soule's score hauntingly reminding us of an age of humanity we'll never get back, while wondering what's just beyond the next grassy knoll, know that it's an unjustifiably flawed mess but can't explain why it still moves us.

[@thestaminabs]

Mehrunes didn't want to put in effort to attack the city. He would rather send his thralls to do it for himself. But when he realised that his thralls were failing he had a "fine ill do it myself" attitude.

[@yourhumbledissenter]

4:23:00 Fun fact: if you bring the severed head of the traitors mother and drop it in front of said traitor, you actually get some unique dialogue.

[@JayFunningham]

My one use for Mysticism was the telekinesis spell on my thief character. Made robbing those out of reach goodies in a room full of guards a little easier.

[@hollohead7631]

i'm only 4 hours in and i am extremely impressed! this review absolutely does the game justice. im very excited to watch the rest of your stuff when i'm done with this one!

[@robertharris6092]

"Only"

[@ArvelDreth]

*Finds Umbra, highest base damage sword in the game* "I have no use for this."

[@henotic.essence]

It's 15 minutes til 2024, i cant sleep, so i put your video on. Never fails 🎉❤ happy new year! Thank you for your awesome videos!

[@5thar]

A particular theme/motif of Oblivion I find fascinating and yet never talked about is that of Dreams & Nightmares. From Uriel's very opening lines, to entering paintings, Mancar's Paradise, Peliniel Whitestrake's famous line on dreaming and of-course becoming a bipolar god of mental instability - Or heck the very premise of nightmare gates opening across the fairytale landscape. The games full of it and it's a lens to look at the games narrative elements and that of brouder Elder Scrolls with its other topics like Chim - through that really makes me like it a whole lot more - Worth giving some thought to if your inclined to thinking about oblivion😊👍.

[@incandenzahal]

“If you build it, they will come.” I’m sure you’ll get the appreciation you deserve for this thoughtful and comprehensive analysis. Good stuff, sir.

[@Torthrodhel]

Don't sleep on Unarmed - it's not just for masochists, it's also for sadists. Once you get reasonably far with it, it's great especially for bosses. For enemies, health scales with quality fairly directly. Magicka is almost always seemingly infinite and you're not gonna kill them by depleting it anyway. But stamina scales... not much at all. Against minor enemies, you'll damage them - even with punches - before they faint but against major enemies with a decent investment you're stun-locking them to hell without having to recharge anything for doing so. So long as you can survive the initial onslaught (which becomes not very difficult as combat inevitably descends into pillow fights between bullet sponges), you'll have them on the floor and unable to get up. Their stamina will never get above zero because you're smashing it into negative territory faster than it can recover. It's slower-but-infinite paralysis, on your knuckles, for nothing. Mankar Cameron couldn't get up to cast any of his pesky spells, he was just a heap on the ground with my pummelling away to my hearts content (makes that boss in particular a lot less annoying). I always liked this direction since enchanting has this weird thing with armor not needing recharges but weapons needing recharges. I always found recharges particularly unfun. They'd happen way too fast. So I went to all that trouble to create this cool axe only to not be able to actually use it as anything more than a boring normal axe, most of the time? Peh. So I was good with skipping that, which is when I tried the pugilist approach. Doesn't work in Skyrim, not only because they removed the skill entirely, but also because they removed the effect of reducing an enemy's stamina (or "fatigue") to zero making them fall over. So by then it's as pointless a strategy against your foes as keeping it replenished is for you - all it does is get in the way of the odd power attack every couple of seconds. Blah. But in Oblivion, it was much more fun, in an "everything's gonna be super repetitive so might as well at least feel super cruel" kinda way.

[@DasMaggie]

Long video essays about a 15 year old game? Sign me up, mate. Subbed.

[@Smoochitas]

What great narration. That Dark Brotherhood section was so soothing and pleasurable to listen to.

[@markusmitchell8585]

The best part of RPG'S is replayability by adding an option for 1 character can do it all takes away that aspect of an RPG I honestly hate the 1 character does all concept

[@512TheWolf512]

the strongest part of oblivion compared to all other games is that YOU'RE NOT the chosen one with some sorta super power, and i love it for that

[@nickelakon5369]

You're still a chosen one You're just basically, "the chosen sidekick" to martin's chosen one

[@roach7191]

I think morrowind does this well too as long as you don't play the main quest you are not any kind of chosen one just a adventurer. The main quest is also easy to ignore you don't have to do any mental gymnastics on why your charicter is ignoring it like in oblivion and skyrim.

[@the_last_ballad]

@@roach7191 and even then, your superpower from the main quest is to be a pawn of a Daedric Prince and to be a carrier for a super debilitating disease. ✨👋✨👋✨

[@lil_thang]

@@the_last_ballad and how many players boast about "never finishing the main quest"? the whole shtick of morrowind narrative is deconstruction of the ChosenOne narrative. "You are not the Nerevarine, but you may become them"

[@myriad9597]

​@the_last_ballad You do get a neat ring though.

[@dylanmeloy5161]

Watching this is pretty cool because it demonstrates your improvement at making videos over times in a single video (a more natural cadance for narration is especially apparent)

[@J-Cycle]

I don’t have time to watch this at the moment, but from the length alone this just have taken an immense amount of effort. Dropping a like just for that.

[@jimwhithorne4634]

Did you ever find the time to watch?

[@ofthebrave9194]

This video satisfied my deep nostalgia for Oblivion completely. Thanks for the ride! My work has long periods of downtime so stuff like this really helps get through the day. Now I'm off to watch your New Vegas retrospective. Hope your channel blows up, my dude!

[@PrivateSessions]

My goal with pretty much all these videos is to satisfy that nostalgic itch, this video most of all. Glad it worked for someone :)

[@abelardadebayor5642]

i watch these videos to avoid playing oblivion

[@damienfritz5626]

After finishing this video, I'll have watched almost 20 hours of content discussing, analyzing and criticizing Oblivion, despite barely having 30 minutes of playtime on it.

[@casualcallie7195]

Hah! Same.

[@slish438]

Why haven't you played it more?

[@damienfritz5626]

@@slish438 Elder Scrolls games, and by extension games developed by Bethesda just aren't my cup of tea. Sunk a couple hundred hours into Skyrim back in 2011-2012, but that's it. Tried getting into Oblivion many times since then, but it never clicked with me. Even tried getting back into Skyrim, and best I could do was 8 hours tops before giving up, even with mods.

[@slish438]

@@damienfritz5626 That's a shame, those games are fun to get lost in.. Though, if you happen to be looking for the real RPG experiance than Bethesda doesn't have it as they tend to make theme park sandboxes rather than role playing fantasies. Most people won't enjoy what I'm about to recommend but if you have the stomach for it try Pillars of Eternity. That series lead me into early D&D Balders Gate and Planescape Torment, which are far more RP than Bethesda is even capable of currently.

[@asturias0267]

@@slish438 I also recommend Pillars of Eternity. I haven't beaten it since it's pretty long and I have a short attention span, but the writing and world building is pretty unique.

[@electricVGC]

Came here from Patrician's video. Glad to see some creators out here still make short-form content.

[@Swordbound]

The lockpicking minigame has a reliable and predictable pattern to it, but whenever I hear someone talk about it they seem to do so in frustration and proceed to spam auto-attempt. Then again I think the persuasion minigame is fun too. While easy, it's fun to do it fast when you see the pattern.

[@guarfield2551]

Yeah, I liked both systems

[@ian-0]

and i, the viewer of a 7 hour long retrospective of a rpg game from 2006, too belong on the spectrum to some degree. enjoying the video bro

[@HachiFPS]

I started this video after my wife wanted me out of the hospital room while she was giving birth. My son is 19 now and I’m almost finished with the combat section!

[@cephaleaorion4888]

real

[@arazos9394]

Really can't get enough of the multi hour Elder Scrolls retrospective. Thanks for fueling my addiction.

[@voidhunter2800]

I think the feeling you are describing at the end is the feeling of home, something simply clicked with you and made it feel like a home, im much the same with the mmo that's currently eating the majority of my time. It has some stuff that im not a fan of, and on certain occasiins it drives me mad. But i love it because it feels like another home to me. I might just be pulling words out of my ass to sound smart, but that's just what i think as to why Oblivion resonates so strongly with you. And such things, are always great to have, memories and things to give you a good time can be sparse so enjoy those you have if you wish.

[@TyeTaylor]

KZbin is just a competition to see who can make the longest Oblivion video

[@lollipophugo]

5:31:51 "a fresh of breath air" lol. Proof that I watched it through. Good video, some different takes than I necessarily agree with but other people's perspectives on these games are always interesting. Huge effort, mad props.

[@ajajaman2]

This is fantastic, I'm listening to this and glancing on my 2nd screen while grinding Runescape.

[@mememan9890]

Absolutely phenomenal video. Reminds me of all the joy I experienced when i played this game as a kid on my Xbox 360 back in the day.

[@PrivateSessions]

The "good ole days". Playing this game when I was young was a pretty incredible experience; even if all of it doesn't hold up today, I can still appreciate the wonder and amazement it made me feel at the time.

[@vexile1239]

How many 360 consoles did you go through? I went through 4

[@tylerh2548]

4:52:15 It doesn't help debunk Glarthir's paranoia when the supposed consiprator ring-leader's brother is dressed in a black hood and comes out of nowhere with an assassin's dagger to kill the poor fool. Gaston Surilie, you have a sense of irony.

[@djwoody1649]

I really enjoyed hearing your thoughts on what was a huge part of my childhood. I think I share that final indescribable thing you mentioned with regard to Oblivion, that you felt you hadn't mentioned - I certainly share the nostalgia too. I'll be sure to have a poke round your channel to see your other videos and I appreciate how much work has gone into this. Us Elder Scrolls fanatics seem to have an obsession with vicariously living other's experiences of the series, perhaps in an attempt to 'chase that dragon' you mentioned; to feel something akin to the wonder we experienced in our first encounter the games.

[@bingboompow8861]

100000 percent agree with everything you said

[@joelsweeney4024]

This has got to be my 3rd or 4th rewatch/relisten of this now lol, great stuff!

[@joelsweeney4024]

Oh good lord, does that make this my 4th or 6th time listening to it now?

[@plebisMaximus]

The EU4 music is what makes this the best longform analysis of Oblivion. You got top tier tastes, my guy.

[@curly432]

I really enjoy going back to videos that barely had any views and now they have tons. This video was awesome when it came out. Thank you for it

[@caesumisrude]

6 hours long video of the game I have been playing since a kid? Omg ideal for when I can't play it, but at least can listen. Thank you!

[@Cjak001]

This is definitely the best Elder Scrolls audio analysis I've listened to; very entertaining stuff.

[@Savaris96]

I will never forgive Oblivion for giving Emil fucking Pagriarulo a career

[@MoonMoverGaming]

Regarding the Mythic Dawn seeming to be omniscient: Gee, it's almost like they have spies in every city. Oh wait, they do. Those spies sometimes attack you and there is a small quest involving them. Heck, one would even think that their leader is a powerful wizard who's in direct contact with an all-seeing evil deity. Oh wait... Yeah, I'm willing to believe that they could find out about Martin and where you stashed the Amulet.

[@abyssalplein]

Oblivion was the first open world game I was ever exposed to and it holds a special place in my heart. your video really highlights the problems that have only become more apparent to me as I’ve gotten older but it’s obvious that the game is special to you too which I appreciate. I really enjoyed the video and can’t wait to watch your other stuff! Side note: I love the Shivering Isles expansion but taking disability studies classes in college have really got me thinking on the ethics of portraying mental illness in location and essentializing characters to characteristics of madness even though I know that’s the point. It’s a discussion I’ve never seen brought up anywhere so I was wondering if you, someone who made a around 6 hour long video on Oblivion had any thoughts.

[@lazaglider]

Sincerely hope this video blows up, I'm 3 hours in and you've kept my attention so far. Wonderful in depth analysis, no BS. You deserve many more views.

[@Morgan_Blackhand]

First the 5 hour retrospective I watch once a year and now this? You're giving me a lot to listen to while I do chores, bro

[@rvbxn04]

Imma put this in the background while playing skyrim

[@TainyaGaming]

I had it in the background while playing dark souls

[@ASMCourtney]

bruh, sitting here playing skyrim listening to this on the other screen.

[@AtemiRaven]

How the hell do you only have like 7000 subscribers? This channel has better content than most 500,000 sub channels. The quality and narration is excellent.

[@vexile1239]

50k

[@Mandalore1987]

Slight note on how you can get a idea of who the true traitor is in the brotherhood, you could have brought that head you found to applewatch as it's the head of the traitor's mother and if you drop it near the members one of them loses his focus and starts mumbling until he snaps back out of it. You still won't be able to point him out as the traitor but it's a small detail i liked about that this quest.

[@ThatPenguinPDizzle]

44 mins in "this video turned out a lot longer than i planned" hehe, but it's really entertaining

[@bennygerow]

I've never played any of these Oblivion games, yet here I am. That speaks volumes to the quality of videos you make.

[@Browsley]

This is an absolute gem! Thank you for so many hours of entertainment, my guy!

[@mattallred]

Watched your Skyrim video last night, admittedly got about 5 hours in before falling asleep, but you seem to know your lore pretty well. I'll give this one a shot tonight :)

[@iron4urmaiden886]

Love your work man, keep up the great work!

[@wyattbottorff2473]

I really have come to appreciate just how objective your take on games is. You arent afraid to call them out on their shortcomings, and immediately remind us that some of that is a product of their time or development cycle. A lot of us have a hard time finding patience for gaming anymore because we have had so long with them now we can see them for what they COULD be or could have been, we look towards the potential in gaming. I am one of those who have largely given up on gaming as a whole. Ive returned to Runescape, TF2, Oblivion and the like. I dont think Ive seen you cover modern games but if you start to Id love to watch because maybe we will find some gems out there. I know you said you dont read a lot of these comments anymore but I do appreciate your effort.

[@doodookaka]

Love your use of the CK2 OST and Halo 2's OST so far, never knew I needed a thieves guild montage w/H2 tracks in the background till now. I very much agree with your philosophy about quest context, and your broader conclusion about the Thieves Guild and DB being the better questlines of the game. Considering your early praise of Bethesda's systems-focus, your general seeming like of Skyrim, and fundamental praise of this game as a kind of hybrid 'fantasy sim' as opposed to standing upon the strength of its quests--which you consider mediocre, I suspect I might disagree with you, but I need to watch the rest (and your Skyrim video) before I say more. Such a detailed, intricate and insightful analysis, thank you.

[@foxysobek8109]

Why do I continue to watch these? And I fucking love them Everytime. Subbed brotherman Also, shout-out to RuneScape lol

[@RazzleTheRed1]

I remember my first time playing Oblivion, after completing the sewers I just wandered around for a while and picked a dungeon at random to enter.... I then got completely trashed on by Umbra because I just happened to pick one of the worst places for a first dungeon XD

[@markdavis180]

These kinds of long form videos are my absolute favorite, you've earned a sub my dude.

[@TitanfallTeachings]

If you thought those were birds my guy I'm sorry. Those are frogs.

[@paddyg-jones1596]

Praise the divines for youtubers doing so many of these! Over the past week I must've watched (literally) 24hrs worth of retrospectives, cheers guys! Great video by the way!

[@IfYouKnewYouKnow]

This really is an amazing and in depth vid, great work man🙏. I'm super surprised YT hadn't shown this to me sooner

[@pixi7633]

2:34:23 "I'm as dumb as the limitations of the game force me to behave" is my EXACT feeling towards the only part of the Dark Brotherhood quest I don't like. Lucien and Mathieu's handwriting and way of explaining contracts in the Death Drop orders are COMPLETELY different. There should've been an unmarked option to go to Lucien in person, show him the letters he clearly didn't write, and be able to catch onto the traitor without the player being forced to act like a moron and mindlessly murder 90% of the Black Hand

[@leangreenmememachine5246]

When you get big, don't forget us

[@Tempesta]

Fun story, I picked up Martin right before I contracted Vampirism and he followed me for a handful of IRL days of playing as I desperately sought a cure. He was scolding me for constantly stealing after the shops kicked my ass out. Only as soon as it was cured and I got him to safety I realized it was Sean Bean's voice that had been scolding me, I was delighted and it endeared Martin far more than if I had just rushed through. For all its flaws I love this game

[@narvi2]

Great series! Thank you for your enormous effort and honest view on Oblivion. I've watched it all and now going to write a very long commentary)) Back in a day I've spent countless hours in Oblivion and I just loved it. It was like "Wow! What a huge leap forward from Morrowind!" Now many years later I really think that Morrowind (flawed inside out itself) is paradoxically better and I even came to not liking Oblivion at all. It's a big commercial game intended for a wide audience and no surprise that every corner of it is plagued with compromises. I think it's the main reason why all of its elements end up so shallow and surface level: none of them are going to extremes. And it's essential to make something new and meaningful. One went to extremes with game systems and made Dwarf Fortress, another one with dialogues - and made Disco Elysium, others brought thematic component of a game to new limits, and we've got Papers please and Inside, FPS gameplay - Quake III, narration through puzzles - The Witness, some creators tried to bring pure expression to new limits almost discarding all the other components and the whole movement of Flat Games came to life and so on and so on. All these and many other creators had an important question to the universe and their games were their way to find the answer. It naturally lead them to cross the limits and bring the key components of their creations to new unknown areas. They didn't think "Oh, it's too much! Players won't get it, my game won't be successful". And it seems to me that these words were hanging on Bethesda's office wall written with huge burning letters. And it's such a pity! Because yes, you're absolutely right - many small parts of the game are made with such love. Never the less all of it bumps into the same overall intention to make something eatable for as many consumers as possible. I still remember my best experience with Oblivion when I accidentally became a vampire. It started an absolutely new life for me full of strange and disturbing events. It felt great because it was just happening to me: no quests, dialogues, scripts. I was so lonely, nobody told me what to do, how to live now. I had to find out on my own how to feed and organize my routines to avoid sunlight. The game was just responding naturally. I was chocked when I first looked at myself and saw how my appearance changed! There was a woman merchant, who was my friend. I often sold her loot during daytime. And often lock-picked her door at night and drank her blood. Once I found out that her lock difficulty level became higher. She changed the lock!!! She never woke up, but apparently still suspected something. She kept smiling at me and was so friendly while chatting with me. One day I was petrified when I saw that her face became older. Nobody told me this story through dialogues, books or any other medium, it emerged from game systems and my deeds. I made it and I saw the consequences. Unfortunately it's a very rare thing in this game. It seams almost random. I imagine how some inconspicuous little developer was quietly creating all of it in the darkest corner of the office and producers just overlooked it and it was too late to not include it in the final game))) Besides many flaws, displayed so well in the video I'd like to point out a couple more. Oblivion aesthetically looks to me childish in a way. Especially in comparison to Morrowind. UI design, fonts, colors, landscapes, faces, all of it's appearance. The second one is its thematic neutrality and even shallowness. What is it about? What is the game as a whole trying to tell us? After I don't know haw many hours, spent with the game, I genuinely don't know. Once again, Morrowind being much poorer than Oblivion, had some strong distinct themes pronounced clearly yet without preaching and leaving player enough space for interpretation. It seems like its authors had something important to say and used the game as a medium. And in Oblivion it seems like the narration is just added to the game as one of its parts. Hm, honestly all of its parts leave the same impression: they were added just as constructional blocks just to make the game function. And it's not how good games are made.

[@jamesbrincefield9879]

I don’t think NPCs age when you feed on them...

[@narvi2]

@@jamesbrincefield9879 You're probably right. I couldn't find any information about it. But! I *remember* it) It's probably just my imagination. And I think this fact also shows what a great impression this bit of the game had on me.

[@ManTheRabbit]

Rly love the working in of ck2 music ❤

[@Moguns57]

I really enjoy this style of video. This is really good!

[@Ninetyninefingers]

This is brilliant and I subbed because of it, ty for putting it together

[@MrFreshBanana]

I have to say: This is one of the best -- if not *the* best -- enormously long Oblivion videos I've had the pleasure to sit through (I'm only at 1:33:00 right now. But, I'm confident my point will hold in five hours time). This is quite the accomplishment, I have to say. You have a talent for this weird KZbin/presenter/analyst/critic thing. One constructive criticism though: Use a controller for the cinematic shots, if you have one. Just slide the sensitivity slider all the way down: Voila, trailer material!

[@PrivateSessions]

I learned that controller trick when I got to Skyrim. It really is a huge game changer for sure. Thanks for the kind words :)

[@MrFreshBanana]

@@PrivateSessions Nice! Can't wait to get to the Skyrim content! Just finished the first guild part. I thank our overlords at KZbin for the remembering-where-you-last-stopped-the-video feature. You're so fucking right about the mages and fighters guild. What the fuck were the leads thinking. I'm at 3:36:53 right now. Sithis is calling, brother

[@skillest231]

Awesome video, 1:30hr in so far. I thought you may be interested. Oblivion WAS going to have holidays that the NPCs celebrate as a DLC, and it was cancelled in favour of the Horse Armor (I know). Items would change in shops to represent festivities, and NPCs will say lines when you greet them with holiday themed lines. Some voice lines for these were already pre recorded and can be found in the games files, such as people saying "Happy Saturalia!" and whatnot.

[@Mephilis78]

Speaking of cash... In the imperial prison, always be sure to take the staff from that goblin witch. It is the most expensive loot in the starting dungeon. BTW thanks to Shadiversity I can't say dungeon normal anymore, I pronounce it "Don John"

[@johnlindsay7301]

Scarcity of experience is better than constant indulgence. What a quote. I’m gonna remember that one. 30:46

[@ParanoidTyphoon]

Superb work! You deserve way more views for the effort and thought you've put into this!

[@SebLeCaribou]

I'm a year late to the conversation, but wow, great great job with this video. The script is on point, with enough derision and sincerity that flaws and compliments feel genuine. The editing supports the script very well. Bravo.

[@t7ango44]

Fantastic video bro. Impressive 7 hours work.

[@_alexrossa]

i appreciate how in-depth this video is

[@EmmyRae1885]

As someone who has been obsessed with Oblivion since I was 7 and watching my parents play, this was a very enjoyable watch

[@DarthMirasshtar]

This man fucking gets it. Great video and a hell of a first vid to see from your channel. You got my sub man. Can't wait for this ES5 vid next...

[@LezbionestHere]

Oh boy. I ws a massive oblivion fangirl back in the day. I am so ready for this

[@vladimirvparfenov3935]

have i mentioned before how much i loved your thieves’ guild heist montage? the sudden shift in tone is not unlike the disco dance scene from ‘Ex Machina’- a delightful, memorable inclusion.

[@christopherbronson3275]

Looks like I just found a new long form retrospective KZbinr to sub to

[@SmallAngryNerd]

I love how insane the imperial guards are! Wes Johnson's "AUUGHWAHUGHAWAH"

[@casualcallie7195]

This had 1.5k views yesterday. Now there's over 50k. Good on ya bro.

[@RyanBride620]

My man wasn't joking when he said he had the second best oblivion video. Lol solid video. All your shits good my dude