Ranting about Why I Love Daggerfall's Dungeons

The dungeons in Daggerfall get a lot of hate, and that's not without good reason. Here are some details about how I rewired my brain to love Daggerfall's dungeons.
Mods mentioned in the video:
Roleplay and Realism
Penwick Papers
Climates and Calories
Smaller Main Quest Dungeons--upon further inspection, this has been listed as Hidden in the Nexus, so I'm guessing Cliffworms has some work to do on it.

[@Unmedicated_Moments]

The microphone quality adds to the atmosphere and vibe of the video

[@JamesThomas-kx5sj]

Agreed. Reminds me of playing games over teamspeak circa 2008. The keyboard sound also adds to it

[@RaineErasmusWalker]

#based lo-fi chad

[@DanielRumbacher]

tbh i like these kind of videos. its more like the yt of old. i dont like it when yt videos have the production quality of a hollywood movie. i like it when its your regular joe on yt with an old mic and stuff.

[@astrarobotica]

It's substance over style. I can appreciate some good editing and production quality, but I'm more impressed by people who can articulate their own original thoughts. A lot of people are good at 'flashy' video production because they just mimic what other youtubers do, but then they also mimic their concepts, opinions, and speech patterns. Sure some people have both good production quality and original content, but I definitely value the latter over the former. Nothing makes me want to click on a video less than when the thumbnail has a big red arrow pointing to something taking up 60% of the image with a guy in the corner making a quizzical face. It screams someone who's desperate to play The Algorithm Game for views. Sincerity like this is so refreshing.

[@Yoni123]

It distracts from the quality of the content

[@milesromanus7041]

My bro got paralyzed for half an hour

[@micah_raygun_]

Sometimes you're the bird, sometimes you're the statue, amirite brother 💀

[@yeoremuthare677]

⁠​⁠@@micah_raygun_I think you meant "amirite brother 🗿"

[@TomBombadil7]

Yo Angelo!

[@loreleij1130]

“And while they don’t make sense from a narrative design perspective, they are part of a video game…” 10/10, thanks for sharing your perspective

[@deltapi8859]

Back in around 2001 I played the game for at least 5 years, 1 hr a day. It warms my heart to see people in 2024 enjoying this game so much.

[@micah_raygun_]

It's such a great game! Daggerfall Unity makes it much more stable than what you played. I played my share of DOS Daggerfall and it was fun, but it was rough with the crashes and bugs. It's almost difficult loving this game so much since it makes other games pale in comparison lol

[@deltapi8859]

@@micah_raygun_ yeah it raises the bar. I nowadays also play Daggerfall Unity. It's much smoother and the community tries to bring out the core of it into a modern time. So it's really appreciated.

[@deltapi8859]

@@micah_raygun_ I'm waiting though for a mod that is called "unleveled world" since the rubberbanding is the only thing that is keeping me from going back. Also a mod called rogue or something where your character gets deleted when you die. All the hardcore elements :D

[@micah_raygun_]

@@deltapi8859 boy, do I have some news for you! Check out Unleveled Mobs and Quests by JayH--i think this fits what you're looking for. Unleveled Loot by Ralzar is also great. Finally, Ralzar also has Ironman Options, a mod that will delete your save on death and prevents manual saving. there are other more lenient options as well. I find that just using the honor system is sufficient for permadeath playthroughs since my rig can be unstable at times, but Ralzar makes great mods so you should check it out!

[@deltapi8859]

@@micah_raygun_ oh man, awesome. Exactly what I waited for :D Daggerfall Hardcore terror mode :D thx

[@Professor_Vince]

You prolly gonna hate me for stating, but I think that's what kids find with Minecraft. The joy of spontaneously finding a colossal branching cavern, preparing the resource to dive, building a safespot to save and cook, placing markers, getting effed by spawning mobs unpredictable terrain.

[@micah_raygun_]

No hate, you have a point. Minecraft rewards exploration and dungeons feel new each time you find one. And kids yearn for the mines, after all

[@Zephranthes]

There's something beautiful about talking about fun and dopamine while an enemy mercilessly canes you for 10 minutes

[@NerdHerdForLife]

Daggerfall is absolutely the game where I learned to not worry so much about 100%ing dungs.

[@pyroparagon8945]

If you get a wagon and the "drafty doors" mod, it's definitely doable and very satisfying, if a bit time-inefficient.

[@ByrhtnothsDeluge]

Glad to see someone else who loves the dungeons. The resource management is such a fun aspect of the game. It feels so satisfying when you bring the right tools to deal with the enemies in a dungeon.

[@ItsAnOcean98]

i picked up daggerfall for the first time today, and a lot of my early criticisms with the dungeons have just been contextualised with this video, you really made me see what bethesda intended back in 96' and its made me appreciate just how hands-offish the design is, it reminds me of the modern from software design of games in a lot of ways, awesome video man subbed x

[@micah_raygun_]

Wow today was your first day playing Daggerfall? That's awesome! Well, kind of lol. The game is not very approachable for new players, but I hope the game grows on you once you get the hang of things. And you're right, the way the game drops you in with very little instructs and just asks you to survive against the odds can make it feel like a From Soft game

[@ItsAnOcean98]

@@micah_raygun_ i spent 2 hours trying to leave the first tutorial dungeon, but we got there 😂😂

[@micah_raygun_]

@@ItsAnOcean98 hey you made it out of Privateer's Hold, great job! It's a very daunting intro dungeon, so making it out is a rite of passage. Good luck in your questing my fellow Daggerfall enjoyer!

[@shonins]

I love the idea of the old-school dungeon, because it's so rewarding when somebody uses their head and approaches the thing logically; taking time to check for hollow stones on the wall, emptying some water from your waterskin to see if there's a tilt to the room based on where the water flows, and etc. This has always been so much more engaging to me than just rolling perception. I remember reading an anecdote about Rob Kuntz (guy who originally made and played Greyhawk's "Robilar" character) and his tackling the infamous Tomb of Horrors. . . he marched about 50 or 100 henchmen into the false entrance ahead of him, and when it collapsed on them, he went a-searching for another entrance; He then proceeded to march the rest of his henchmen through, while he crawled invisibly on the dungeon ceiling and scryed into the adjacent rooms. . . Which I imagine some people would find awfully cowardly, but if cowardice keeps you from taking a dirk to the belly or getting turned to stone in fantasy Vietnam, my character is probably taking those odds over any other game in town. . .

[@johnpittman3756]

I bought Daggerfall when it first came out. My children all played it. Together we have thousands of hours. I have played it on all windows platforms since I bought it. The best place other than dungeons is Castle Wayrest where you can kill and loot without reputation penalty. With a good computer and graphics card Daggerfall Unity with mods is like the greatest toon style 3D with levitate game in existence. I like the max custom character where in 4 or 5 months playtime , with leveling and magic items I have everything I use and all attributes are 100, and all daedric enchanted armour. After I get tired of tanking around, I play a thief. I only completed the game once. I like the role playing the most.

[@micah_raygun_]

This is beautiful. My son is only a year old but I'm so excited to bond over video games as he gets older. Knowing me, I'll still be playing Daggerfall Unity when he's old enough to grow interested in games.

[@johnpittman3756]

@@micah_raygun_ My oldest grandchildren sneak to watch me play since my daughter thinks they are too young for such a violent game. But soon they will be old enough and it will be 3 generations playing it.

[@BriteRory]

I'm 38 and my two children (my son is 18 and my daughter is 15) are both gamers, and I've been trying to get them into these older games, but they don't have much interest. My son likes the original Fallout and Morrowind, but other than the music (he is a musician first and foremost) he hasn't really taken an interest in Daggerfall. My daughter is obsessed with the computers from the late 70s through to the mid 90s, but not so much the games, go figure! But like you I've played Daggerfall on every computer or device capable of it that I've owned going back to when it was new, and continually find myself returning to it. I wish I could share my passion for this game with anybody at all in person; with my own children it would be a dream!

[@Blentastic]

You know what dude. I think you've inspired me to just play retro games and rant about anything and upload it. It's not important if anyone watches

[@micah_raygun_]

Do it, man. I wasn't expecting my videos to get any views, these topics are just stuff I wanted to get off my chest in a way

[@Sanguivore]

That’s an awesome idea! :D

[@RaineErasmusWalker]

Giga #based Just play for yourself, noone cares about KD/R and achievements. Old games are free of many cancerous modern design trends and are often a liberating experience to play❤

[@sp123]

The growling sound in the dungeon is so scary

[@antonkoldunov7789]

What a cool video, man! I have never played Daggerfall before and just came here through a random youtube rec. Really feeling like I need such a dungeon dive in my system right now. I hope you make more similar videos in the future!

[@micah_raygun_]

Glad you liked it! If you give Daggerfall a try, there's no shame in leaving Smaller Dungeons enabled--this game can be a bit intimidating at first. I've got ideas for more Daggerfall/RPG rants cooking, stay tuned!

[@munchatize_me]

Your videos got me to try out Daggerfall and so far I'm loving it, thanks for bringing awareness to this dusty gem.

[@puretestosterone9614]

I love the way you make commentary and you gritty mic. Also love the keyboard sounds. Well spoken! Good luck in the dusty dark out there

[@Ralzar]

Nice to see someone playing this with some proper graphic and lighting setting. Hate how most players keep the dungeon brightly lit :D

[@micah_raygun_]

It's just so nice and scary when your light goes out mid-fight and you have to run to the nearest light source to know what you're doing.

[@Ralzar]

@@micah_raygun_ Haha, I actuallymade the first version of this, "Torch Taker", when I was playing with low light settings and I ran out of torches mid dungeon and I realized how dumb it was I could not just grab one of the torches. So I had to pause my playthrough and make a mod to fix it :D

[@micah_raygun_]

@@Ralzar the hero we don't deserve lol. I use Torch Taker too, though I'm not sure if it came up in this video. In my next rant I'll discuss emergent narrative in DF. I'm going to highlight some other mods of yours like C&C and Realistic Wagons since those have been such conduits for my preferred play style.

[@Ralzar]

@@micah_raygun_ Coo :) Though I assume you meant Darker Dungeons, which is basically Torch Taker 2, though you can set the mod settings to make it act like the original Torch Taker.

[@micah_raygun_]

@@Ralzar had to check my mod list to see if I was misremembering, but I do indeed have Torch Taker v1.0.7, looks like a pretty old one. I have ambient dungeon light set to 0 in the DFU settings. I'll check out Darker Dungeons to see if it's worth switching over--i need to check for updates to my current mod list anyway Edit: okay updated to Darker Dungeons, thanks for the tip

[@vulpesgraham218]

This video has convinced me to finally play this game. It’s also inspired me to do more iron man runs of my favorite games. Thank you for making this ^^

[@jabberw0k812]

I was playing with the Skyrim Sewers mod lately, and it kind of highlighted how much I miss the more maze-like style of dungeon crawling, with more interlocking hallways, and multiple floors. And since it's just a non-linear series of corridors that I was exploring for fun, I kind of just wander around until I find something cool, or another exit. Very different from Skyrim's vanilla caves/dungeons, where I just follow the path to the end, kill everything along the way, and then never come back there again.

[@micah_raygun_]

Yeah those linear dungeons feel almost like amusement park rides with how on the rails they are. Though some of the newer TES games have cool environmental storytelling elements in them that Daggerfall dungeons lack to give them credit where it's due. I really wish Daggerfall had a sewer level, man I love a good sewer level

[@Sanguivore]

Stoked to see some love for OSR roleplaying in relation to my favorite fantasy world!

[@lordnorthumberland277]

I thought this was a much older video for a bit. Reminds me of a much better time in youtube when anybody would just make videos raving about their hobbies and interests. Good stuff

[@zelurstak]

One of my dreams in gaming is to find a game that would somewhat simulate the dungeons from those older d&d editions. That the dungeon would be so big that you just couldn't explore it fully the first time you venture there, and that it would truly offer some interesting exploration choices (mainly non-linearity). But I'm also a nit-picky with the dungeon design in general. I don't generally like procedurally generated, random labyrinths, there should be some rhyme and reason why things exist in the dungeon. But that said, I think I generally appreciate Daggerfall's huge messes more than the later Elder Scrolls' small linear ventures (exceptions are the castles and citadels that offer more immersion in the later games).

[@micah_raygun_]

I can agree that the random nature of the Daggerfall dungeons are a pale shadow of the real OSR dungeon diving experience, but I'm of the mind that all video games will disappoint in comparison to the real deal. Interestingly enough, while the Daggerfall dungeons were generated procedurally, the dungeons themselves are static after they were initially generated when the game was created. This means there is an opportunity for developers in this kind of system to modify the generated dungeons to add more hand-crafted details and trim the random factor down. For a game with so many huge dungeons this would be a monumental task, but if a game had a good Kickstarter backing I could see this method making for a nice blend of what I'm looking for in a dungeon. The point I was making is that Daggerfall at least provides the same gameplay loop of OSR games, and that huge dungeons are just a part of the loop that I love so much.

[@solthas]

You might like to try Arena's dungeons. There's 18 I think handmade pretty dang cool dungeons. They're also huge. Arena's quite a cool game.

[@zelurstak]

@@solthasInteresting. Thank you. I haven't played Arena, but maybe I should then.

[@reghy2]

Try Arx Fatalis

[@zelurstak]

@@reghy2Played through it couple of times. Ultima Underworld and Arx Fatalis are probably the closest to the thing I'm dreaming about, that I've played.

[@stevewithgloves]

I love how you mention that you rewired your brain to enjoy pain in video games but that also means that you rewired your brain to be happier in general!

[@electronkaleidoscope5860]

I first played DF in high school sometime around 2015 out of curiosity on the OG engine, and went in with the warning that it was easy to get lost in dungeons- and that warning was sincerely all the context I needed to have a good time with it. I don't get why someone would go out of their way to play an old game like this only to try to iron out or mod out those particular kinks you can't find anywhere else. I'm not some super pro RPG gamer or something, my first fantasy RPG was skyrim, I just kept my head on straight while descending and was fine. I've been getting into the game again lately and having a blast, but watching videos it drives me insane when people in a similar vein- recommending the game to new players- say "the *only playstyle that works* is a magic user" or at minimum some kind of turbo min/maxxed high elf build with every resistance under the sun (robbing the player of the resource management element you talked about!). My 2015 build was just a plain warrior guy, and my current dude is a Khajiit with the vanilla barabarian class for the hell of it, I've not cast any magic at all on the character. It's like people are afraid of the game, or afraid to ever fail or be sub-optimal at anything. Daggerfall is incredibly flexible with several options to get any one task done, and those moments of failure and challenge are the main event. To box everything interesting away in a no mans land of supposedly incorrect choices is a mistake, and in doing so they're taking this game that is so much more open and explorative than anything modern and stuffing it into an artificial box smaller than even the most shallow modern RPGs at times. I feel conventional wisdom about daggerfall right now often hurts new player's enjoyment of the game far more than help them get into it. Nightmare labyrinths ftw! :3 Yopu said it best here: the world is bigger than the player!

[@micah_raygun_]

Based barbarian enjoyer. It sounds like we're birds of a feather here. I also get upset when I'm watching Daggerfall content and you see the usual recommendation of making a completely safe and optimized character. I actually started making videos only because I was so bummed out about all the Daggerfall content I was finding on KZbin--it seems like everyone (except Adventure Art and maybe some channels that I haven't found) are wanting to play the game completely differently than me, so it's hard to engage with other Daggerfall players for me. If I have the time I'll put together a new player guide that is free from all the "here's how to make this game playable" jargon that you see thrown around these days. The game is totally flexible and is a huge sandbox with a multitude of options for character creation. People shouldn't feel like they have to play a "safe" build in order to enjoy the game.

[@electronkaleidoscope5860]

@@micah_raygun_that sounds like an awesome video idea you should go for it :D

[@thomasracer56]

Also picked up the game in 2014 in high school, started by trying to play a thief and rushed out of Privateer's Hold, ended up a penniless vagrant that couldn't steal from shops and could only hang out at the library. Didn't tale long for me to reroll a monk with questionable spell resist that specced heavily into speed for some reason. Liches were always a suicide dice roll of who would die first in melee range. Still thoroughly enjoyed it.

[@eldonhill4840]

@@micah_raygun_ I would love a video like that, I'm sure there's a lot of other people that would too.

[@NerdHerdForLife]

I never even considered doing an unarmed build in Daggerfall.

[@ihaveacookie4226]

Unarmed is op

[@JackPitmanNica]

All of these wicked daggerfall videos on youtube recently, I don't know why, but I'm happy :) Thanks for the vdeo!

[@lamedrawings]

Oh boy a random daggerfall video from 3 months ago! My favourite!

[@Cewrin]

I want to be in a labyrinth. I want to get hopelessly lost. I want to feel like I'm deep in a hostile underworld far from home. Darkness, danger, and death!

[@yugi_kyogami]

Out of Morrowind and Skyrim, Oblivion was the only one that I actually played for some time but my interest grew weary until I left it out. But Daggerfall is my favorite until this day. I always go back to it and with the new engine and mods you can make your experience way more immersive and you can really feel that you are living inside this game. Sometimes I climb the tallest city tower just to watch the static starry sky on a snowy night while the eerie music plays. This game has one of the most magical atmospheres that I played and I am so glad that there's still people playing it to this day, thanks for the video!

[@BananaGatorProds]

The labyrinthine-esque nature of the dungeons is the best part for me. While future titles had dungeons with more cohesion and unique design they all felt way too gamified. A quick 10-20 minute romp works well for most people but I love the idea of getting lost in a dungeon for hours at a time. It makes the game feel like an actual adventure.

[@RyanPinks-bc8dy]

When you start playing Dungeons and Dragons people tend to get into this thing where they want to make themselves or characters from Movies and TV Shows. I remember when I first got out of that way of thinking. I created a character that was born without eyes because, his mother's nemesis cursed him. Well, his parents created animated eyes for him. So now he creates permanent animated eyes and hands. He is used to having these eyes and hands moving around to do different tasks. When someone first meets him they pry think he's pretty wacky cause he acts like this is all normal. Well, he is a gnome and his hobby is cartography or map making. He uses these eyes to scan areas and then uses the hands to draw it on paper. I can only imagine the jokes you can come up with for this character to use. I imagine a party member asking for a hand and him giving them one of his animated hands lol. Having interesting and/or wacky characters can make a game feel so much more fun.

[@janespright]

Jesus Christ, this is like dark and darker but was out already out 100 years ago! This is exactly what I wanted to play for so long. Thank you!

[@dabrams84]

Ah dude I was playing Dark and Darker a few weeks ago and I couldn't stop thinking of these classic dungeon crawler games while playing it so I downloaded Daggerfall and now I can't stop.

[@ryftedmage1404]

I’ve been obsessed with the dungeon design of the game. Nothing has come close to how addictive they feel. I wish more games had dungeons like this. It’s probably the only reason I play the game. There are a few things about them I’d change though. I’d like maybe more cohesion with the map in terms of different areas. More types of different areas, much like biomes in minecraft. With different enemy types and gimmicks. I just feel like with modern procedural generation we could have such an advanced version of these dungeons. Modern generation could also generate into the overworld so that it feels more natural and that the outside of the dungeon could represent what’s actually inside. Perhaps you’d have multiple ways to enter in or exit. Now another thing is enemy variation. If there were more enemies I feel like it’d really spice so much up about the game. I also felt like maxing out skills was way too easy and leveling up was way too slow. I want so badly for a modern title to tackle this design and change these aspects of the game. If I could program it I would do it myself

[@m_r2215]

There actually is a mod on nexus called ironman options that makes the save file innaccessible if you die with customization options

[@micah_raygun_]

I'm familiar with it, but I prefer to use the "honor system" to prevent crashes/falling through the map from ruining my file. I trust myself to not cheat myself out of a good time.

[@DirtyFNsocks]

I have never anchored in a town like that before AGH lol genius. Love this format and I gotta say finishing the video only to come back for a few more minutes is great haha It feels like scenes after the credits hah.

[@ham8426]

Grew up with daggerfall on original hardware, dungeons were always the bane of my existence, and even now I'm still not fond of them, frequently looking for quests that don't involve a dungeon trip, but i think they're best approached later into your leveling and progression so you can fight the onslaught of enemies more reasonably. I also sometimes do go for dungeons because they are fun to fight through when you're built for it but early on a lot of dungeons may have enemies you can't handle.

[@blueshellincident]

Still haven't made the leap from Morrowind to Daggerfall, but I play a lot of TTRPG games so my yearning for roleplaying games is already fulfilled. I'm happy to see folks playing any RPG though, one of my favorite genres!

[@Motavian]

@9:40 Slow burn entertainment is the way. Don't break that dopamine/reward schedule. Have you also tried Ultima 5? Its narrative is more controlled, but it has excellent world-indifference in many ways and it's one of those games where you need to keep a notebook open and draw your own maps.

[@dabrams84]

📝"To play: Ultima 5"

[@TamaHawkLive]

Oblivion really had the most faithful nod to classic dungeon diving of the modern ES games. Morrowinds were barely inhabited and Skyrims were honestly just too big in width, which meant a lot of open empty space in between the mobs and that wide space takes away from the claustrophobia of dungeon diving in my opinion.

[@luhbell]

great video man excited for this channel & your future uploads. I've tried Daggerfall unity before and got my ass kicked, but i'll go back with fresh eyes. Would love an oblivion vid someday too since you mentioned it was your first

[@FingerSpazm]

I always thought daggerfall was mostly a dungeon crawler. Its the best part of the game for me and dungeons are absolutely insane!

[@asteroidmonger]

Are you using the ironman options mod or just an honor system? I'm on my first Ironman run using the mod and expanded enemies, travel options, plus other mods. Trying to tweak it into a sort of roguelike. Some of the best gaming to be had this Daggerfall.

[@micah_raygun_]

I'm using the honor system, as I want to have some protection against things like unexpected crashes, falling through maps when using Travel Options, and other stuff. I know there are options for the mod that give you that kind of protection, but I'm fine just deleting my save on death. I'm glad to see someone else plays Ironman characters though! It really is similar to a rogue like

[@Slydeish]

I actually really enjoyed this review. I am in the process of building some post apocalyptic terrain for my County Road Z campaign and I needed some background noise, but I genuinely enjoyed this video.

[@dabrams84]

I was playing Dark and Darker and the play style was obviously inspired by classic dungeon crawlers so I've been playing Daggerfall for two weeks now and I'm hooked.

[@All-shall-say-Jesus-is-Lord]

Never realized dungeons were not meant to be cleared. I never played old school rpgs, but it makes so much more sense now.

[@Zhohan-]

“Let me kick this nerd’s ass real quick.” 😂

[@laurencelikeit459]

I am liking this video. well done. you have quite the back up character there, and your gameplay is fast and furious. I really like the attitude you approach the game with.. I will try it out instead of the intense A type personality gameplay I usually do. 😉 I played an Argonian in TES 1 Arena. LOL

[@micah_raygun_]

Thanks! Yeah this character was meant to feel kind of like playing Doom. 100 speed and strength makes the hand to hand build feel like a machine gun (when you're not stuck in paralysis 😉) Good luck on the next character! The trick is to not worry too much about being optimal and to just pick a theme you like and build around it.

[@prinzbach]

It was nice listening to your passion for this game while working!

[@weebotaku3132]

Im 43 in March, born in 81. Im lucky my dad was obsessed with new tech, so we would get 2-3 computers/consoles every year. I had nearly everything starting with IBM MS DOS floppy games and Atari/Calico Vision. I became a Sega fanboy as we chased Sega 32x CD but i also loved retro Arcade titles and computer games. Anyways, i never played Daggerfall or games like Minecraft because i feel like developers should keep improving rather than mimic a retro gameplay. In mid 90s on PC Id rather be playing rpg shooters like Heretic/Hexen or even Kings/Space Quest, and SONY Playstation/Sega Dreamcast/90s arcades had my attention.

[@FloowSnaake]

Great memories

[@sugoha_2548]

I love daggerfall's dungeons so much, i love that they're big and i love getting lost in them. Infact, it's my favorite aspect of the game probably. I think of it as a roguelike experience (which it basically is). Beside, actually completing a dungeon after 45 mins of struggle is much more rewarding than completing any of skyrims or morrowind dungeons. I love morrowind, it's my favourite game, but since every dungeon in that game is just a copy paste, it might aswell be more than just a linear cave with 3 bandits in it... Mark and Recall, Water walking, Water breathing and Levitation spells really enhance the dungeon experience though.

[@KSharp2]

"I've never seen anything like it. I had him paralyzed right? And I'm working him with my good walking stick, and he's just going on and on about how much he enjoyed being there, and how it was 'fun' to him. It was terrifying."

[@iusemyrealnamebefore]

I love how half of the video is you getting paralyzed. It was so relatable.

[@joshblacker3512]

The first quest getting out of the initial dungeon was to kidnap a dude to take him to a ‘wedding’ well i got him to his destination, but it was a decrepid fort, there was no wedding. I went inside to see what was going on. It was at least a 3-4 floor dungeon full of orcs! I killed them all and made my way out. Best experience i had. I do NOT like the time sensitivity of quests. Give me fucking anxiety trying to get everything done, its impossible.

[@etherax4594]

Have you checked out the Wizardry series? Everything you said here reminds me of it, and I'm 95% positive you would fall in love with Capcom's 1993 release of Wizardry V: Heart of the Maelstrom.

[@KnjazNazrath]

Like given because this gentleman knows never to get involved in a land war in Asia. Truly, you have a dizzying intellect.

[@gogogusto]

Started running B/X d&d not too long ago and I love this style of dungeon. Wish more games had it. Fantastic video by the way.

[@EricAbroad]

I too am a masocist by nature when it comes to game adventures. Why? Becuase of the immersion! Games arent scary when they are easy. Easy games arent immersive. Rewards are less rewarding, and failure doesnt impact as much as it should. Ive never played Daggerfall, but now I want to check it out!

[@harelokimahatma5718]

haha.. this was your video too :DD i literally dowloaded daggerfall unity same day after watching few videos about where amongst this was one of them! to be honest the hype about this is as big as morrowing and oblivion back in the days' - i can't stop playin and in joyous awe about this new found gem ^^

[@micah_raygun_]

I'm glad you're liking it! You'll never have another first playthrough, make it count c:

[@lordofthebored3660]

Hello! Came here from Reddit.

[@micah_raygun_]

Greetings, fellow dungeon delver! 😎

[@milesromanus7041]

Same here ✋🏼

[@micah_raygun_]

@@milesromanus7041 thanks for coming by! 👍

[@thispurplebean2]

Same

[@thetrueraven2170]

i've been playing oblivion recently and loving it and have been going down a elder scrolls rabbit hole on youtube, this game looks awesome and it's amazing it's free. i got the unity version installed ready for when i'm done with oblivion, any tips for someone who knows like nothing about the game? any mods you use that you feel are essential or just help the game a bit

[@micah_raygun_]

Tips and mod recommendations are a huge topic that I'm hoping to explore in an upcoming video. For now, I would check out the mods listed in the description. The Daggerfall Unity homepage has a lot of great recommendations about mods and settings to enable: www.dfworkshop.net/ Hopefully my new player guide will be finished by the time you're finishing up Oblivion 🤞

[@thetrueraven2170]

@@micah_raygun_ awesome, looking forward to it

[@V0lk]

I played Daggerfall when it first released. It was freaking amazing.

[@micah_raygun_]

I've played the DOS version too. A bit buggy and prone to crashes, but it's still very charming to this day and was revolutionary back when I was one year old.

[@gheewilly8089]

Those stats... Is this character a Wizardry lizardman? :o

[@olaf5929]

First thing is there are dungeons generated procedurally, which overall do not make much sense since they will tunnel up and down just to lead to rooms or passages with nothing in them, while quest objective will always be at the furthest point away from the entrance. The thing gets more complex since every object in the dungeon may be a teleport focus so if you use it you teleport to a hidden and inaccessible part of the dungeon. The second batch are the pre-generated story dungeons, which tend to have pretty distinct open areas/trapped areas/monster congestion often with treasure vaults and secret passages. What do both of these offer? A sense of adventure because while it is a straight line from start to finish it is hidden behind a string of wrong turns and bad choices you will need to make to get to your objective and back.

[@Naruga]

I had plenty of dungeons where it starts with a fork, one way is s huge labyrinth while the other way had quest objective in like the 2nd room .

[@nathanwailes]

thanks for this channel, I've been interested in trying out Daggerfall for years b/c of the size of the world. IMO you should get a better mic and adjust the mic level to be a bit louder relative to the game audio. I wish there was a modern game like Daggerfall (size of the world) but with a more-sophisticated model of the world. Mount&Blade is the closest I can think of.

[@sedzimirpiast951]

YES EXACTLY, you’re supposed to hop in, do what you went there to do, and then get the hell out, my thoughts exactly and why I like Daggerfall so much!

[@pitchwife7573]

Micah you would LOVE Tales of Maj'Eyal

[@JourneyManJoel5]

Been getting into daggerfall unity I love the content I dropped a sub my man

[@cryo4183]

Can you tell me the info on that build? It looks like so much fun

[@kobold7466]

i love having climates and calories mod on and feeling like a real homeless adventurer living off rat meat and living in a dungeon for 2 weeks

[@Hayden.1234]

I love Oblivion and Skyrim and I tried Morrowind but I've never seen Daggerfall gameplay. This game genuinely looks like a great time and I'm going to try it out. I'll also mention that a lot of new indie devs are making games that look just like this!

[@unkosherfood]

it confounds me that a modern equivalent to this game doesnt exist. i still play daggerfall (unity) off and on and keep trying new dungeon crawlers, but nothing does it as well or as broadly as daggerfall. the closest thing to its dungeons are some roguelikes like legends of grimrock, but none of them have the cohesiveness or broader open worlds or magic/item systems. it doesnt need anything impressive graphics wise, just the most basic clean looking system thats easily optimized and versatile to add all these cool things like climbing in. would have sold way more and been better received than certain recent releases. i love the other elder scrolls games, but theyre a completely different genre than daggerfall in my eyes.

[@ArgentumSilvam]

There's a game being made by some of the people behind TES Arena and Daggerfall called 'The Wayward Realms'. It looks like they're trying to make a Daggerfall like game with modern technology.

[@santiagofantoni2643]

I play very little of daggerfall but dungeons was the only thing interesting i found to do, the wildernes was empty, it was the only place i found with enemies and stuff to do. What can you do outside of that?

[@Yominication]

For me, dungeon spelunking is the only worthwhile part of the game, that, and reading books

[@solthas]

I like DFU's smaller dungeon seeds. Gotta say they still feel pretty ridiculous sometimes! Yeah climates and calories and penwick papers and all those are sooooo gooooooood! I'd love for dungeons to extend outside a little. That would be neat.

[@ozaffer77]

new to daggerfall from morrowind>skyrim>fallout & I love the dungeons, my favorite part so far.

[@wuffymcwuff]

I've been playing daggerfall here and there for well over a decade now and while I do enjoy the dungeon crawling experience in daggerfall, the dungeons in OG daggerfall were just way too big to the point where I'd try and mainly get non-dungeon quests. I've been loving daggerfall unity's "smaller dungeon" option (which only affects the procedurally generated sidequest dungeons, the main quest dungeons are the same). No more spending hours upon hours combing through the hallways looking for a bear that you need to kill for a fighter's guild quest and a 200 gold reward, or having to give up on ever finding the quest objective. It makes the overall flow of the game more bearable and I have a lot more motivation to complete sidequests, whereas in the original I would usually get burnt out pretty fast

[@KhaziirEverflight]

Daggerfall might be my favorite Elder Scrolls game, hoenstly... tho i do play with the smaller dungeons setting turned on mostly. i really wish there was a game with a map the size of daggerfalls map, but actually filled with stuff and so on, and modern graphics (tho still stylized to remind of daggerfall )... the wonders a passionate and dedicated team of devs could do in that regard with modern engines and hardware capabilities...

[@DKC_Returns]

Hey bro. You can right click to zoom in on the map :D

[@actuallyKriminell]

I think Daggerfalls Dungeons appeal more to people who seek a level of intellectual challenge as well. Its like a puzzle that you have to solve, quite literally sometimes. instead of a Skyrim-esque hack and slay power fantasy

[@CommieApe]

glad someone likes them because the dungeons are way too big and too much is generated to where doing anything in them feels like a waste of time. I like that unity has brought about quests and gameplay that keep you in the overworld or really limit dungeon exposure.

[@tiefensucht]

Can it be that they had the same designer that made the sprites in Dungeon Keeper? Its like 100% identical design.

[@GreenSpleenSubmarine]

I love this video so much. Daggerfall and games like MechWarrior 2 were before my time but I love playing them. I might make ranty videos like this on a different channel.

[@xezazase]

I'm playing 5e. They did great at streamlining the rules and it's what needed to happen, yet... I really miss the whole dungeon/loot/equipment loop. Finding ways to save up, managing resources, judging when I was powerful enough to take on a certain area...I miss these things and I find myself mourning the fact that gold has become meaningless.

[@Naruga]

I bought the first cd version back in the day and learnt quickly to get a horse and cart, use recall and save on a seperate files with dungeons. I once tried to get past a trap in a sneaky way and recalled myself into a room I couldn't get out of and couldn't get into the void from there either (travelling the void was a common way to locate targets in dungeons if people got fruturated lol.)

[@dannynoon013910]

This channel is really cool

[@micah_raygun_]

:D

[@duartemarco]

I love rants

[@austinbevis4266]

If you love it then you’re raving not ranting

[@BaldRice]

I've been addicted to MW recently, one thing I noticed about these older tes games is they heavily reward you for going off the path and just randomly exploring, most games nowadays if you wonder away from the main quest the other areas would either be locked or the items you're looking for don't spawn in till after a certain criteria. Theres other stuff to that make these games superior to most modern day titles, for example not every enemy you come across would be named bandit, they all have unique names and family trees. And every person can be talked to to get information on almost any subject, idk for me Morrowind and below is what you want to play, oblivion is great and all but its basically just water colored skyrim.

[@gokufirespit8418]

To your point about how old school d&d works I like to run my new age d&d more with the old school mentality of “dungeons are dangerous, so don’t be there longer than you need to be”. On the player and the dming sides alike it’s a way more fun way to play the game when you don’t know if death is waiting behind every door.

[@GES1985]

Daggerfall was the GOAT. It's still the best in the series. Deserves an official remake just for better graphics and bug fixes.. but leave the rest alone! Lol

[@micah_raygun_]

I think Daggerfall Unity is as close as we'll get to a remake, which is fine because this way Bethesda can't mess it up lol

[@darrylforsythe8924]

Been getting into daggerfall unity recently and with mods its honestly amazing stopped my current oblivion play thru so i could explore daggerfall

[@manilapcgaming7217]

Niice! Hope you can list recommended dungeons for newbs :)

[@micah_raygun_]

Ahh I can't really recommend any specific dungeons, as there are so many of them, and they won't be marked on your map until you receive a quest that sends you to one. As a general rule of thumb, you can check out the cemetery/graveyard dungeons as a low level character. These are already on your map but aren't very large and this theme of this video doesn't really apply to them. I'd say just join your favorite guild and get quests. The Thieves Guild is the only one that won't send you to a dungeon.

[@mr.lonewolf8199]

If you love Daggerfall pay attention to Wayward Realms, upcoming spiritual successor to Daggerfall. Made by the same guys behind original Elder scrolls games

[@LeDingueDeJeuxVideos]

I have "slight difficulties" following your thoughts whenever game sounds kick in...

[@retroartist9186]

Started playing daggerfall and i can't stop returning to this world, there's quite nothing like this game, specially with mods like climates and calories

[@eweesplace]

Dude, this video got me pumped

[@ImmersiveReactions]

Best part of this game is the dungeons they are amazing

[@gangstalkerofgangstalkers]

I love the mental case dungeons. It's werid to me that people play with small dungeons. You play with smaller ones so you get out of the dungeons faster to enter more dungeons?

[@Mantelar]

I liked them because you didn’t know what you were getting into. Skyrim was the first game that made convenient exits to its delves. Before that you’d often struggle with whether you had the resources to make it out of a dungeon, not just find the thing at the end. And the flow of the dungeons had little internal logic in their older games. They weren’t made for humans, especially the caves.

[@pwn3ronetwothree]

I think my biggest problem with the dungeons is that things you have to kill inside of them can sometimes just be stuck in a floating room, with no conceivable way to reach them. I got sent to kill a wereboar, and after like, 3 hours IRL of just wall humping, checking the map and clearing the entire dungeon I decided to noclip and find this boar. He ended up being in a jailcell floating in the void with no way to get to him.

[@micah_raygun_]

This is a very fair point, these situations are simply bad. I still love the dungeons overall, but these are glaring issues. One time I got warped into a room that led to a hallway. The hallway had a trapdoor on top that could only be opened from above. You're forced to reload or use the console

[@pwn3ronetwothree]

@@micah_raygun_ And to be entirely fair, it's only happened to me once, granted I've only been playing for about 15 hours or so. Aside from that hiccup, the game has been entirely playable, and aside from the typical "I got paralyzed and beaten to death by King Lysandus because I made the mistake of arriving in the city of Daggerfall at night" or "I got paralyzed by a wizard and beaten to death" or any other number of paralysis based complaints, incredibly enjoyable.