How to Oblivion

How to Oblivion
In this episode of How To, I look at Oblivion, a game released at an awkward phase in life where RPGs were just discovering that there was this thing called 1080p and that if you spoke seductively to your console, it might let you play in that resolution. Thusly, Oblivion is a flawed masterpiece. Flawed in its many concessions, but a masterpiece in what it was able to achieve in both narrative, and player driven narratives.
It's a super cool game with no exploits or bugs. It is the perfect experience. It's a party game that you play by yourself, in silence with many hentai body mods for both mer and beastmen alike. Seriously. Go look at Nexus mods and tell me there aren't like half a million sex mods on there.
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Music:
Scheming Weasel (faster version) by Kevin MacLeod
Link: incompetech.filmmusic.io
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investigations by Kevin MacLeod
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Screen Saver by Kevin MacLeod
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burnt-spirit by Kevin MacLeod
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Circus of Freaks by Kevin MacLeod
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clash-defiant by Kevin MacLeod
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crossing-the-chasm by Kevin MacLeod
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outfoxing-the-fox by Kevin MacLeod
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Strength of the Titans by Kevin MacLeod
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The Ice Giants by Kevin MacLeod
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[@radudumitriu9444]

I'm glad this critique comes in a timely fashion and I am certain the devs will adress these in a patch shortly

[@StoicDivinity]

Uhh. Bro, it's been more than a decade and all development is in ESO. You should at least ask for a Cyrodill expansion next, but we got Greymoor, so here we are

[@SadBoyKisser]

@@StoicDivinity it was a joke

[@StoicDivinity]

@@SadBoyKisser it's not tho 🤣 nice try tho

[@SadBoyKisser]

@@StoicDivinity guess I couldn't pull a fast one on someone as cunning as you. You got me, it was an elaborate scheme I cooked up in a failed attempt at fooling you.

[@StoicDivinity]

@@SadBoyKisser amen! And thank Vivec, get off my staff, n'wah!

[@anthonyalexander8886]

You spent like seven minutes talking about the faces in this game and didn't mention the fact that you can't have a beard.

[@chucknorrispawnch]

You can get a beard in character creation. Even tho all it does is make your characters jaw dark.

[@DrArku]

You can sort of paint your chin greenish-brown I guess.

[@bjornolfactory9363]

And it usually makes your ENTIRE BODY PURPLE!

[@dukeofmeranien]

Beards are too tight for the body so the blood flow is restricted, making the body purple

[@NinjaSushi2]

Never thought about that..

[@Alboridian]

Elder scrolls 6 will have 3 skills: Fighter, mage and thief.

[@dwarf9938]

Nah,mage and fighter are too close together to be distinct skills.

[@Nathan-zw7nq]

The thing about this is that yeah, alot of the rpg elements are not present in Skyrim. But the one thing that makes Skyrim inferior to Oblivion and Morrowind is story and dialogue/speechcraft depth. I mean the game is so bland compared to Morrowind and Oblivion. Skyrim was my first Elder Scrolls game and I used to love it. Now it is a chore to play because it os just so dull. It's that stupid girlfriend who has a really tight body and that's it. No personality, no depth. Being an action adventure game masquerading as an rpg did not make Skyrim inferior. Having a poor story with very little branching and interesting choices and options did. I would much rather play Morrowind or Oblivion any day. I also bought Fallout New Vegas recently and it is awesome. I just hope the combine the absolute smoothness of Skyrim's combat with the Obsidian style storytelling and little hand holding. And bringing back some of the rpg elements would be nice, but it is not a priority.

[@Apoc2K]

Or they just bring it down to one class: Stealth Archer.

[@darkeninjx5619]

TES 6 might have no skills

[@orestmarkheva7325]

@@Apoc2K yes and 20x multiplier for stealth attack, so you can headshot Akatosh from a bush

[@Anaverageguy41]

I used to get my speed so high in Oblivion that I could legitimately race the sun across the map and win But the moment I went over a slight decline in terrain I was like a goddamn bullet and would take massive damage upon hitting the ground because I'd be at least 20ft in the air because of the speed I was going I have very fond memories of this game

[@theFROZEX]

Remember kids Skooma is bad for you

[@theorangegremlin334]

*FUCK THIS MAN RIGHT HERE IF YOUR NOT O’DING ON SKOOMA YA DOING IT ALLLLL WRONG*

[@maxhadanidea]

what the hell did you do

[@alexello1189]

Ahh yes the kachow build

[@bobbyhamiltoniii4578]

That shits hilarious lol

[@SinOfAugust]

Strat-Edgy: “What I adore about Oblivion is that it is easy. Oblivion is accessible, direct and simple...” Also, Strat-Edgy: “So anyways... it was quite difficult to get it to run...”

[@rvfiasco]

It could be that I just bought almost an 800 dollar laptop or I haven't tried to mod it, but so far so good...lol. I bought it on Steam as well.

[@omni6982]

Whats funny is oblivion isnt that hard to run

[@rvfiasco]

@@omni6982 One would think! Lol

[@Rynewulf]

It's his mods, like most KZbinrs. Oblivion worked fine on Vista and Windows 7 and I've never heard of anyone complaining about Windows 10 (although I see when i get around to a replay). He's probably just got 50 mods in the load order but blames the game, happens so much on YT it's infuriating

[@omni6982]

@@rvfiasco one would know

[@Leispada]

"If you turn down your music in this game, what do you hear" "WELL MET"

[@L3raje]

"Have you heard of the high elves ?"

[@peterleonard49]

BY THE NINE DIVINES STAY OFF THE ROADS. It's the daedra you see...

[@TehUltimateSnake]

“I don’t know you and I don’t care to know you”

[@vogonp4287]

@blackrave404 Disgusting creatures! I hope to never see another!

[@gabfar4328]

"JUST GIVE ME THE FUCKING NUMBERS" The numbers Mason, the numbers

[@xZippy]

I like how "Sten the Ugly" is one of the most normal looking dudes in the game.

[@DivinityOfBLaze]

When/If you do Skyrim. Remember the super easy to learn spell "Transmute Mineral Ore" which allows you to turn iron ore into silver ore, and silver ore into gold ore. This would, in all seriousness, absolutely DESTROY a gold based economy. And it shocked me there was no "underground" operation of randos who arent mages but just know the spell and buy up iron ore and silver ore to make gold ore for smelting and selling.

[@zaatas]

I don't think magic is a common ability everyone can learn. So many things would be different. Why would you need firewood in a world where everyone is a flamethrower. Wouldn't blacksmiths be out of a lot work if every grunt could just summon a sword stronger than a steel. My headcanon is that mages do inflate gold prices. A gold coin would feed you for weeks in medieval Europe. It cost like five just to buy a loaf of bread in skyrim.

[@Albertosn3]

I was under the impression that the spell was a borderline lost art since there's only one or 2 places you can find it in the game and I don't think merchants sell it

[@DivinityOfBLaze]

@@zaatas Mechanically speaking everyone can learn magic in Skyrim. And it's also a pretty low tier spell. Would be easy enough to set up "illegal" operations. Kind of like meth labs but you make gold.

[@zaatas]

I mean the place you find the tome in, highly implies what the bandits end goal was. Mine iron, turn it into silver/gold. Apparently not so profitable to make mammoth hunting not worth the effort. Also the camp really isn't filled to the brim with all the awesome treasure printing your own money should bring. Maybe they were just getting established? Mechanically, you can't even cast this low tier spell without first upgrading alteration skill and skill tree points or increasing your total mana via levels or equipment. So practically speaking, you'd have to already have a magical background or aptitude to even consider using the spell. Which some bandits do have, 2 can be found at the same camp as the tome is in. But even when you can manage the mana requirements to cast the spell once, its just once. Time to take a break, its going to take you another hour of waiting to turn that silver chunk into a gold one now. What im saying is it still takes effort. Gotta mine that iron, gotta find some twat with a healthy magic bar to sit in a dank cave all day to turn 4 chunks of iron into 4 chunks of gold, which gives you 2 gold bars.. Which must be very small bars indeed to give you only enough gold to make 2 rings, or one necklace. Lets not even touch other professions, like alchemy. Oh you're so good you can turn 1 wheat and 1 blue flower into a 800 gold potion. You think that might have an effect on the economy of wheat and blue flowers? Or you're so amazing at sharpening knives you can turn a dagger worth 3 gold into one worth 500. Skyrims economy doesn't make sense and most games don't. I mean look at the farms. They aren't farms. That's not a farm. Its a shitty garden that wouldn't feed a single person for a year. Best to save those rocks for when you are outside of the obvious glass house.

[@marrvynswillames4975]

@@zaatas iirc, in universe everyone have magika, its Just that most people dont care to train, normally if they actually know some magic its Just an basic cure spell

[@flibbernodgets7018]

Pst! Nobody tell him about Skyrim. He's gonna be REALLY mad if he finds out.

[@StratEdgyProductions]

What?!? What have you heard?

[@flibbernodgets7018]

@@StratEdgyProductions ummmm... Nothing! I'm sure it's fine. Well I gotta go! I'm desperately needed in... ah, not here!

[@kingoffallou]

@@StratEdgyProductions Have you heard of the high elves?

[@xAndySix1989X]

@@kingoffallou Shh The Thalmor will hear you.

[@innoclarke7435]

@@StratEdgyProductions Do you get to the Cloud District very often? Oh, what am I saying... of course you don't.

[@alexanderrahl7034]

What greatly annoys me about fantasy games set in medieval times, is the utter lack of Spears, but the stupid abundance of swords. To put it in modern terms. Swords throughout history, were the ancient equivalent of a pistol. Or even combat knife. Spears were the equivalent of a rifle What im trying to say, most of the time except for.some exceptions, swords were either secondary, or a last resort. And almost everyone had a spear.

[@gabemoses1004]

Plus from what I know swords were expensive as hell and the average person couldn't afford one

[@zer0768]

@@gabemoses1004 yep. It was very time/cost intensive to make a 3-5lb chunk of metal that felt good in the hand and had a nice edge on it and functioned well as a sword in general. Pretty cheap and easy to get a straight stick and slap .5lb of sharp steel at the end.

[@bhavjotsingh5820]

@Pangolinstirfrylungjuicecough On the contrary, people who aren't able to do magic would want a longer weapon to stab the people who can do magic before they got a fireball to the face. A spear would give them a little bit more of a fighting chance over a sword

[@22thevoice22]

Have you ever seen a spear fight one on one? It's silly. It's when you have groups facing off that they excel. Lindy Beige has a great breakdown on it.

[@Predalien195]

@@22thevoice22 Silly yes, but the fact is that most untrained individuals with spears vs even trained people with swords come out the victor or at least have MORE of a fighting chance. Trained people with polearms vs trained people with swords... the polearm almost always comes out ahead. Spears just make sense to be in the game vs there not being an excuse as to why they arent there.

[@Nas675]

Dinosaurs: "sure, let's put dinosaurs in our game, heck ya" Spears : "nope, impossible, that's ridiculous"

[@Wrizzla]

I will never forget how i leveled my imperial warrior. Daedra Armor, Daedra Sword, Daedra shield, everything enchanted. And i was like: Allright im ready to turn up the Difficulty. Moved the slider slightly to the right, got into a cave, took a hit aaaaaaaand dead. One shotted by a ogre on Level 51 :D That slider was made in hell.

[@MinscFromBaldursGate92]

It was all ogre then.

[@foxstorm2920]

@@MinscFromBaldursGate92 take my like and leave.

[@BooserBoi]

It's not the slider if you're level 51 and getting one shot.

[@jaykelley103]

@@MinscFromBaldursGate92 reddit ass joke. Corny ass

[@kakyointhemilfhunter4273]

@@BooserBoi It’s the godawful leveling system

[@timturbo7727]

Since the faces are so ugly i always just made a lizard and called it a day

[@cyberninjazero5659]

@@bokrugthewaterserpent3012 Redguards were better in Oblivion

[@goolabbolshevish1t651]

Breton was op as shit for the magic resist.

[@Argonian0727]

That’s exactly why I started playing as an Argonian

[@timturbo7727]

@@Argonian0727 well i also played oblivion for the first time as a kid and i was like HOLY SHIT I WANNA BE THE DRAGON MAN

[@zer0768]

The best part about this comment, is that in oblivion that does not necessarily mean you played an Argonian.

[@22thevoice22]

I thought you were going to tell me more about strong Nordic women at one point and was left disappointed.

[@StratEdgyProductions]

I'm disappointed I don't know more to tell you.

[@ShadowmarkReturns]

Hello Edwin

[@cyberninjazero5659]

@@StratEdgyProductions Well the next game is full of them so consider this an incentive to do some research

[@soulsmith4787]

@@StratEdgyProductions Try Daggerfall Unity; they have a nexus mod page, if you download and tweak the right mods you can a very enjoyable experience.

[@misteryjeux]

@@soulsmith4787 there is litterally a 40 minute vid on daggerfall Unity on the channel,and it's not even a month's old lol.

[@chrisinfamous]

Did no one else catch the joke that he was LITERALLY “beating a dead horse” when he was talking about the layering of armors and clothes???

[@skillo6399]

...no dude, only you.

[@danylo211]

i do not understand

[@thelambsauce7307]

@@danylo211 you an idiot?

[@danylo211]

@@thelambsauce7307 just because i do not understand an expression from a culture that i do not belong to i am an idiot? not everyone is an american bro. chill out and be helpful rather than insult me which will not help anyone.

[@thelambsauce7307]

@@danylo211 it’s British you idiot 🙄

[@mftarik1255]

I love how you can just mash a slice of cheese together with a wheel of cheese and call it a health potion

[@KopperNeoman]

Perfectly fitting, given who you're playing as.

[@MiksusCraft]

A soup: +2 Stamina for 60 sec +1 Health for 30 sec

[@jfktheciavictim2988]

Wisconsin DayQuil

[@crimsonking440]

Yeah it's crazy how realistic games were back then. Todd must have taken a few classes at med school before he ascended to godhood.

[@DeAardappel]

Character just fucking chugging fondue mid-fight.

[@meetrasurrik6982]

Oblivion AI is the most advanced ever created. Its aged like fine wine.

[@luckystar9279]

Now its a tasty vinegar for a garden salad

[@luckystar9279]

@@alaricblack9788 growing another peen? Sounds more like fallout vinegar than oblivion vinegar

[@greendude0420]

Todd Howard is truly a God-Tier Developer. (but that's debatable)

[@carna-9501]

They run in front of my arrows... they never fail to do it

[@Brandon-1996]

It *ages,* like fine wine. The more time passes, the more beautiful it becomes. 😊

[@stev2862]

Brother that opening made me deeply uncomfortable...... Subscribed

[@807D14M0ND5]

I have just to tell my self it's a persona..

[@reesetorwad8346]

lol

[@katherine2596]

He's starting to sound like Sseth.

[@jordannewthomas3293]

@@katherine2596 I don't know youtube needs more creators like him. P.s. now I want to watch his stalker video.

[@chazzwozzio]

@@katherine2596 not a bad thing

[@xucthclu]

"Just give me the fucking numbers." - This is very much spot on. I honestly don't understand why some people that make mods make certain effects obfuscated by fluff text. I don't want the fucking fluff, I want to know what a perk does before I choose it so I don't waste a point in something I might not like.

[@karlmarx251]

You have summoned me.

[@Materialist39]

A specter is haunting Cyrodil...it’s a will o wisp, the specter is a will o wisp.

[@benjaminheim735]

the world needs you more than ever

[@SirDankleberry]

Oh look the pus filled pimple on humanity’s arsehole.

[@bioemiliano]

@@benjaminheim735 NO, please, world its fine being able to eat and have nice things, I dont wanna start eating my dead family out of hunger.

[@dmenor11ification]

Somebody call the Doom Slayer, a demon escaped hell again!

[@Camelotsmoon]

"Magic in oblivion is obsessively balanced." isn't something I ever thought I'd hear. I remember everyone was complaining how simplified magic went from oblivion to skyrim, I didn't realize it was even more complex in morrowind than oblivion.

[@goolabbolshevish1t651]

It was oh so much better in ES2 and 3

[@Vatis93]

He's playing like a scrub compared to what he does in Morrowind. You need to unlock spellmaking to become a God - he didn't even mention it. Melee/Archery is ONLY good for delivering poison and enchantments. Which get ridiculous if you stack Weakness to X spells. Destruction is king, followd by Illusion's crowd control, and Restoration's stat boosts. Alchemy is a cash cow, with poison being the strongest weapon in the game. As for complaints over levitation, have you seen acrobstics? There is a reason people spam jump.

[@geomidia8998]

@@Vatis93 I'm current playing as a mage/thief in oblivion, I'm lvl 100 in archery, acrobatics, security and sneak so I can 1-shot most enemies in the game pretty easily, thing is, when I fail to do so, I'm dead. Why? Because a fucking skeleton carrying a long ass sword too heavy for a skeleton to carry it ambushed me in a corner. Yeah, I could use some potions/healing spells but it would just drag the fight on and on and I hate the combat system in that game. So, you either abuse the exploits or drag the difficult slider to the far left. Not fun.

[@Vatis93]

@@geomidia8998 I get that from a casual standpoint. I'm not saying the game isn't flawed. Being a stealth archer in Oblivion doesn't work well depending on your level / difficulty slider. The solutions are not glitches, but clever use of mechanics. Let's say you're playing on the highest difficulty. You deal 8 x less damage, and they deal 8 x more damage. - SOLO - For defense you should prioritize mobility through SPEED and Acrobatics, combined with spells like Detect Life (fixes your ambush problem), and stealth / invisibility. But how do you kill enemies without making it a chore? Option 1: Poison. It's not affected by the difficulty slider. You can burn through enemy health even without significant investment in Alchemy. The downside is that it takes around 10 seconds for enemies to die, and the resource management. Option 2: Destruction. The numbers you can dish at Journeyman and above are stronger than weapons could ever hope to accomplish. The limiter is your magicka pool, which you want to boost any way you can. Spellmaking alter really is big thing, as damage over time is more efficient. Option 3: Weakness to X effects. They stack multiplicatively, but only affect spells cast after them. Example: Weakness to Magicka 100% for 3 sec, then cast a separate spell with the same effect to equate to 300% more damage. There is also a Weakness to Poison spell, which can be multiplied off Weakness to Magicka. Option 4: Enchantments can use Weakness to X effects, and stack with each hit. This means you can multiply spell and/or poison damage with every swing from a dagger - or at ranged with a bow. Option 5: Drain Life 100 (1 sec). Yes, this is the finger of death combined with Weakness to Magicka. You can even combine this enchantment with Weakness to Magicka 100%. How do you do any of this safely? The answer is crowd control: Paralyze, Calm, Fear, Frenzy, Command, or Turn Undead. I particularly like this combination: * Spell 1: Paralyze 1 sec, Weakness to Magicka 100% for 5 sec - Touch * Spell 2: Fear (or Turn Undead) for 10-15 sec, Weakness to Poison 100% for 5 sec - Touch * Attack with poisoned dagger. There are plenty of setups you can do for ranged / melee, and destruction / enchantments / poison. Bow and daggers are your friends for enchantments & poisons. Be creative with the spellmaking alter, that's half the fun right there. - FOLLOWERS - Another option is to use NPCs themselves, as they match the difficulty slider. Option 1: Summons. Only one at the time though. Option 2: Followers, you can look up quests and never complete them. Tell them stay put when you want. It's possible to walk around with an army, and give them items by pickpocket 0 weight items - like conjured dremora armor you fixed and dropped. Option 3: Enemies, via Frenzy or Command. I recommend solo for less micro management. It's quite fun when you get into it. Only hassle is leveling up, and keeping resources in check - in that case there's the duplicate glitch, but I never used that personally. Casually though, yeah - just turn the slider down as you get to higher levels.

[@geomidia8998]

@@Vatis93 Yeah I'm aware of the mechanics in the game, like abusing the poison/weakness to X effects BUT, it won't make me like the combat system anymore (literally), as I said, my char is a thief/assassin (with some knowledge of magic) so I seek for those 1-shot kills most of the time, I have a custom bow that do 50 points of burning damage + my stats (100 on the important skills for an assassin) + my enchanted armor, in total, I can easily do 200+ damage on most enemies but I can stand it when a pathetic skeleton tank my stealth shots like it's nothing, c'mon. I have more fun on my D&D sessions than playing Oblivion/Skyrim these days, the combat is lame

[@TheDKing67]

In defense of Oblivion character creation. This was in a time when we had physical manuals!!!! I remember building my character on the way home from the game store.

[@807D14M0ND5]

Ok when you said that I imagined some kind of elaborate paper system to create face combinations that lets you pull out pieces of the page to make them change and pop up like in those children books. But no I have the manual...this is just in my head

[@roninwolf3347]

He's talking more along the lines of skills and attributes not fat faces and burn victims.

[@connorforce01]

This is how dumbed down peoples understanding of RPGs has become. First thought goes to what the character looks like and not how the character is built. In Skyrim picking a race is as much depth as you get.

[@cyberninjazero5659]

@@connorforce01 Ironically Skyrim had the stat information in its character creator

[@connorforce01]

Skyrim had stat info? I only recall making a character and naming them, that was all there was. Even the racial bonuses were just text blobs that explained nothing, you'd have to look in the active effects tab after creating your character to see what you actually got, not that it made much difference.

[@Nabo42]

There is a transcendent moment in Oblivion when you enchant enough armor pieces to get a combined, constant 100% chameleon effect.

[@undergravitydownforce714]

ah yes :) one of the very few moments of this

[@magnuss3378]

or 100% aegis

[@Travybear1989]

@@magnuss3378 LOL mentor's ring+Breton+100% Aegis is almost god-like. If anything such a combination is at LEAST demi-god like (akin to Hercules) as almost nothing can kill you at that point.

[@Travybear1989]

@@magnuss3378 Sorry, forgot this was Oblivion lol.

[@Danny1o1272]

Whoop dee doo

[@daddydevito4405]

No matter how much you may hate or get frustrated with this game, you cant deny that when you're just wandering around or going between locations and any one of "King and Country", "Through the Valleys", "Sunrise of Flutes", or the heavenly "Wing of Kynareth" comes on.. just all those feelings are melted away by a calm relaxation and an awe of the lands around you.

[@nobodykayaks1041]

yes especiaally if you b=never return the amulet, its like skipping the minute men quest in fallout 4 i dont touch the main quest til ive levelled up my minor/major skills then enjoy the diverse enemies while im powerful. levle 1 has a charm to if after the 20 hour mark

[@TerrorZelle]

​@@nobodykayaks1041try alternate start mods

[@NMahon]

Despite all of its flaws I have an endless amount of love for this game. It's so weird and janky and dull in some ways yet still so charming and fun

[@reesetorwad8346]

@N. Mahon --- Well said.

[@FumblsTheSniper]

Many of these things are only flaws if you don’t think about what was even possible at the time.

[@NMahon]

rocks absolutely, like people make fun of the random dialogue between npcs (which can be hilarious!) But when that came out I had never seen anything like that before, it really was a living world compared to what came before

[@davorbrijacak]

I've tried playing Oblivion again recently and I thought I was gonna have mindless fun since it fails as an RPG but no, it was boring as hell. You can make fun of AI only so much before it gets boring.

[@FumblsTheSniper]

Meister Dejv I know you didn’t bring up morrowind or any other TES games, but I do know you probably say the older ones are better. Even though they are completely broken messes without the community doing things to make combat playable. Or you can make combat pointless by exploiting the games systems and being able to 1hit everything after only a couple hours. I’m just trying to get people to stop being so unobjectionable about the various games in the series. It’s what lead to fans of the game having no voice and Bethesda giving up on us in favor of appealing to the mass markets. Even then they do a lot of good with Skyrim and ESO, as much as there are obvious shortcoming.

[@AliBaba-sw4ej]

8:11 Sidenote: Since walking speed in Oblivion is dependent on character height for some reason, High Elf Female has the highest base walking speed since they are the tallest race.

[@carmelita_fox2479]

Altmer have 10% more walking speed from Morrowind to Skyrim due to their height (no clue about Arena and Daggerfall), it's an intended feature

[@FumblsTheSniper]

This review picks on little things he wishes were in the game but ignores the fact that there are a ton of other little things being taken for granted or completely unknown for years. That revelation about height difference leading to that minuscule character speed upgrade was basically unknown for years if anybody even realized it at all.

[@carmelita_fox2479]

@@FumblsTheSniper If nobody notices then maybe it's just a small detail which doesn't make the game any better or worse? Also, this has been known for at least a decade, check the wiki or watch speedrunners consistently pick Altmer for this exact reason

[@peddazz2365]

did stamina regeneration not also increase the smaller you were

[@adam1984pl]

High Elf Female make me think of Sean Youn-my fav.actress.

[@spartandud3]

Bethesda has some how made character creation more convoluted while dumbing down the stats. It's almost artistic.

[@adammusia9527]

Protip for hand to hand killers: you can watch two people fighting in the Imperial City's Arena district (outside) for about a minute to get +5 hand to hand, then in a chest few meters to the right from these two you can find unique, non-leveled +20 hand to hand bracers, you can easily get 60 hand to hand (or even a bit more) on lvl 1 without any training

[@crimsonking440]

Tbf if you never sleep you could have every skill at 100 on level 1.

[@adammusia9527]

@crimsonking440 yeah, and fight low lvl goblins for the whole game, because nothing better will spawn + never get any good leveled loot + never get deadra quests, seems to me that it defeats its purpose. I gave some advice about actual bonuses you can get, but not leveling is a terrible thing to suggest, it was good as a meme-run to talk about on a forum in mid 2000s, never as a sound tactic to go through this game's difficulties.

[@Predalien195]

Fun fact... if you do the item duplication trick while wearing an item, it essentially permanently attaches itself to you even if you wear or use something else. So you can still do the layering thing... just exploiting Bethesda's lack of quality control.

[@RealShuraalex]

I've played roughly 1500 hours of oblivion in my life, I've watched pretty much every worthwile Oblivion analysis there is (some of them 5 hours long). Yet whenever theres a new "oblivion" video in my feed I click that fucker soo fast! For gods sake I haven't played oblivion in nearly 6 years now.. I guess what I'm trying to say is Thank you people for keeping this game alive in the collective memory! And thank you Strat-Edgy productions for this video, you've got yourself a new subscriber!:)

[@Brorrowind]

@blackrave404 Did you win the goblin wars? Did you create black soul gems with that one altar that only works on specific days?

[@Brorrowind]

@blackrave404 The goblin war is this strange sub system in the game that basically runs in the background once you finish that one quest where you have to help those people that want to build a new village clear out the nearby goblins. Once you finish that you can put the goblin shamans totem staff into other goblin caves and that cave will be attacked. There's a whole article on it on UESP, very strange and amusing system few people know about.

[@Brorrowind]

@blackrave404 Yep, pretty much. It's a very odd system but it's quite funny.

[@conorfiggs234]

Buddy I got the video for you… the 12 hour oblivion retrospective video

[@Travybear1989]

Hell, I'm probably over 3,000 at this point.

[@sinnerclaws3385]

I've been playing Oblivion on and off since release, it was one of my all-time favourite games as a kid. And yet I am just now finding out that you could dodge via acrobatics. What.

[@ba-a-a]

You forgot about the most important part of Oblivion, the Dark Brotherhood quest chain, best quest chain in entire franchise.

[@Pathologic9]

It was something expected but unexpected at the same time it was wild.

[@Durdles26]

I wouldn’t say the quest chain is the best. I would say it has some superb individual quest but the overarching story is alright. It’s really only a series of single ideas with a weak revenge plot where the guy forgets you can’t kill ghosts with an iron dagger…

[@darkmammoth2232]

@@Durdles26 What quest chain do you think is the best? I’m genuinely curious.

[@Narhijan]

@@darkmammoth2232 Temple of Nine with the paladins was my favourite

[@leeroy5639]

Well done dude, I really enjoyed this. Oblivion was my introduction to the Elder Scrolls and i can say with relative confidence that I’ve put more hours into it than any other game I’ve ever played. It allowed me to hang on to my virginity just a bit longer 🙏🏻

[@choppermuscle6358]

I'm never letting go of my 100,000 + hours character

[@NeonBlacklightTH]

What pisses me off about Oblivion is the leveled loot system, whoever thought up that idea should be struck with a shovel. If you want to get a weapon or ring or whatever that is on that given list, you would have to level up your ass up to LV30 and it's absolute aids if you're a mage character because holy shit do you level up slow, casting the same spell over and over while standing over a bed, spending gold on trainers, and waiting or resting for hours upon hours on end. If you don't want someone to say get the Blackwater Blade at its max power early level, fine. Just make the quest in order to get it more difficult to where getting the sword is worth while, that's it! Oh and another thing that pisses me off, the weight system. Holy fuck why does a glass battleaxe weight 62 pounds!? ...As a matter of fact, going back on the Blackwater Blade, why the fuck does it get heavier the more powerful it gets!? No wonder people did the infinite Bound Armor exploit because by the time you enter a dungeon and pick up a loaf of bread, you automatically gain a gravitational pull for how fat and heavy your ass is!

[@etherraichu]

I would recommend a mod called Quest Reward Leveller. You active it and it brings any items in your inventory up to the power level they would be at if you just got it. its amazing, I never had to delay a quest because I wanted a better reward. It even works for sigil stones As for the wieght thing, you'll notice they never call it weight. The glass battleaxe doesn't weigh 62 pounds, it costs 62 encumbrance points. the reason it takes so much is first, its a battle axe. And second its made of glass. its tricky to carry something with those properties around. This obvoiusly doesn't address every issue, like it doens't explain the blackwater blade. but it helps.

[@NeonBlacklightTH]

@@etherraichu It still doesn't quite fix the issue, especially for those who play Oblivion on console who pretty much must suffer through all of that noise just so they could get one of these leveled items at their max level, and even then odds are they found or made something better depending on what they're doing. As for the weight, they could call it weight percentage or whatever for all I care, the weight system is still ridiculous especially those who aren't full on warriors. The amount of dedication on Strength just so you can carry a good portion of loot is insane. What if you were a full on mage character, or a pacifist illusionist, or a thief who prefer to not kill but run? Maybe if there was a passive with the given equipment skills like say if you're an expert on Blades, bladed weaponry would weigh less in your inventory. Sort of like how the armor skills work but instead of having to equip it the weight would be decreased in your inventory, and could possibly weigh even less when equipped? That or have Strength provide more carry weight per point to make it worth while.

[@mftarik1255]

I quick saved before taking sigil stones to get the feather effect for my rings

[@liquidsleepgames3661]

@@NeonBlacklightTH ironically i made characters of all three pacifist mage and thief i even ran through with the dungeon starting clothes had 85 armor too sheild is broken

[@NeonBlacklightTH]

@@liquidsleepgames3661 At that point, if it wasn't for how slow leveling mage skills were, I would go full mage (I personally do my best to play as a Battlemage type character with replacing my Alchemy with Heavy Armor) but holy hell does it take forever. Thankfully someone had discovered a special exploit that I didn't even knew existed back when I used to play Oblivion that not only can make your overall stats but attributes and skills go beyond the hundreds if not thousands and millions even. All you need is an enchanter and some soul gems, specifically grand soul gems for the best enchantments, the duplication glitch, and perform the specific glitch in question. I believe the person who discovered this glitch was called "Spiffing Brit" or something.

[@justbull6841]

"You can't become a god in Oblivion" Hello, I am custom spell making. My name is fortify insertstatname here. Tldr what alchemy was to Morrowind, fortify stat custom spells is to Oblivion. You can make spells that fortify your stats and become god, moving faster than the game can load the next area and acquire stacking magic items that make you 100% resistant to all forms of damage.

[@brothir]

It's much more broken in Morrowind. Just slap on Soul Trap on Self on any fortify attribute and the effect becomes permanent. In fact, slap Soul Trap on Self on any effect and it becomes permanent, like summons.

[@_DMNO_]

isn't the goal of the Shivering Isles dlc to become a god?

[@gandalftheguy5355]

@@_DMNO_ Yeh

[@dreenarmookington2240]

Not to mention stacking Skooma for speed buffs

[@KopperNeoman]

A Daedric Lord, actually. Not the Tenth Divine, just an entity of similar power. (Who, ironically, becomes weaker after his madness strips him of his knowledge of chim)

[@gm2407]

What a brilliant idea, Martin as a constant companion throughout all other missions until only the main quest is left. Love to see him in shivering isles.

[@morgansutherland6091]

I was also thinking it’s actually a sick idea, like for Martin to learn about the empire he will rule (or would have)

[@Maggerama]

No matter how hard I tried at customizing my character I always came up with some chthonic amalgamation between Nick Cave and a moonfish.

[@MoriartyTheFifth]

Psyched for the Skyrim analysis.

[@anoobindisguise4337]

He better mention Requiem at least once. Exactly his kind of mod.

[@MoriartyTheFifth]

@Trash Person Honestly the reason that I wanna hear his critique is because just from morrowind to oblivion he scrutinized the magic degradation and imo the jump from oblivion to skyrim is horrendous. Plus a couple of other things he mentioned that they go in the opposite direction with in skyrim. Watch Indigo gamer on bethesda he has a lot of the same issues as strat.

[@JudasBrennan]

@Trash Person Oblivion is the worst TES game. No wonder he doesn't like it lol

[@automaticocelot452]

@Trash Person You watcher his Skyrim vs Morrowind video?

[@davorbrijacak]

@A Handsome Fella Morrowind gud, Skyrim meh, Oblivion bad.

[@JornadoTV]

* First minute of the video passes * Strat-Edgy: "Aight, Algorithm isn't looking anymore. GRUDGEFUCK"

[@shii5795]

When playing fantasy games, like Elderscrolls, I'm always all in on Magic. Stealth usually happens naturally as an additional skill along with lockpick/security depending on if there's a spell that can handily lock/unlock. Oblivion really put the limiter on magic, but fuck I wasn't prepared for how screwed magic was in Skyrim. :

[@MinscFromBaldursGate92]

''Look how they massacred my boy.''

[@Durdles26]

The most fun I had with Skyrim ever was with a mod that added tons of magic and I played a pure wizard.

[@tristanseaver9054]

Seen any ELVES lately? HA!

[@TotalNegan]

I love the thumbnail lol the guy fits right into an oblivion npc

[@therealdannymullen]

I assumed it was going to be about a mod where he's a daedric prince lol

[@confounded_feline]

@@therealdannymullen Aww that's not a real thing? I got my hopes up

[@viveka2994]

@@confounded_feline what do you mean mod? Isn't that Mehrunes Dagon?

[@Green-Raccoon777]

That IS an Oblivion NPC. Specifically, the Count of Skingrad.

[@TotalNegan]

@@Green-Raccoon777 Yes but i'm referring to the guy's face that he photoshopped onto the NPC. His name is Kenneth Copeland.

[@TheSleepiestPlurals]

I loved this game's hand to hand. Making hand to hand characters is the best, especially because you can enchant things to fortify your hand to hand skill. I made an orc punch-mage the last time I played. Basically he'd blast away with ranged spells until an enemy came close or he was out of mana, then he'd smack em with crazy good strength, it was great.

[@matthieuleperlier251]

The level-scaling thing could be solved with "elite enemies" spawning among regular enemies, so instead of increasing every enemies stats as the player levels up, you'd get the same enemies but elite versions of them would spawn and make the fights more difficult.

[@maxgoodman1080]

Absolutely love the unexpected FriendlyJordies at 23:24

[@mitch9347]

Stooooooge!

[@eyedine]

I don't understand the point about racial biases being "streamlined" in Oblivion. Oblivion takes place in Cyrodiil, with the comparatively progressive policies the Imperials implement compared to something like the Dunmer of Morrowind or the Nords of Skyrim. Most people in the game reflect such. The Dunmer in Cyrodiil aren't the same as the ones from Vvardenfell, they don't have the same ultranationalistic or religious pride that causes a lot of the inhabitants of Vvardenfell to hate other cultures and races immensely. There are few characters in Oblivion that would actually have a reason to be Xenophobic because Cyrodiil is the closest thing to a Melting Pot in Tamriel.

[@perplexedcats7687]

Very good point.

[@TKsh1]

And Skyrim has all those Stormcloaks Nords being xenophobic to dark elves and argonians in Windhelm. It's nothing spetacular nor it affects anything, but it's there.

[@cyberninjazero5659]

@@TKsh1 I'll disagree there Skyrim removed the reputation system which effectively knee capped the role playing including the racism aspect (though granted some of that is due to how Speech was reworked. Reputation as a system should've stayed).

[@reesetorwad8346]

@Ivan --- Exactly, and I mean really precisely exact, we all want the universe to make sense, thank you, well said. It doesn't matter about hardware limits that devs must work inside, that is a real thing, I'll NEVER deny that, but it's more about...imagination.

[@Andrew-hk8qi]

If fantasy were to reflect reality it would be in the melting pot where people would be most "racist."

[@jebemtigolaz]

"I'm no communist" Here's a funny thing; Putin isn't one either.

[@erinmayo5170]

Say it louder for the people in the back

[@rhyderrek6155]

Neither is China

[@fafikommander1903]

@@rhyderrek6155 Naa, they are still at least resembeling communism. Your right to possession is still not existing.

[@Acxe001]

Fafi Timo Now do they? Communism without the transparent democracy? Marx, Engels, and even Lenin would disagree. Also communism never denied the right of possession. It’s only the private property for the means of production what should be banned according to Marxism. Which is not the China’s case either. They call themselves communist, but in reality there is nothing communist there. China is just your another capitalist country, just with a bit stricter government regulations. And the Russia is not communist in ANY way. Russia is way closer to fascism actually.

[@jebemtigolaz]

@malcador the sigillite Right. And CIA trains capitalists, amirite?

[@TheMoosenugget]

One of my fondest memories of Oblivion was one of the first fights I had ever gotten in. It was some bosmer who called my character, a nord, a "snowman". I died whilst laughing at that one.

[@chronovac]

Ya see, I know that I have a bias towards Oblivion as it was my introduction to the Elder Scrolls games, but I enjoyed playing it the most out of all of the Elder Scrolls games, mainly because I'm a quest guy rather than a roleplay or combat/gameplay loop guy. The quests in Oblivion were the most fun for me and felt more creative, my personal favorite being the murder house quest or the painting quest. It wasn't mindless tasks like Morrowind guild quests or "go to X tomb and clear out the draugr" like in Skyrim. Even the shitty quests were memorable (fucking cure for vampirism quest was godawful, enough so that it actually mattered if you contracted it and made it important for you to seek out a temple to cure yourself). I know it doesn't really matter but that's just my two cents.

[@cyberninjazero5659]

Oblivion without a doubt had the best quests in the series

[@FumblsTheSniper]

This video ignores that entirely and I’m not sure why. Getting immersed in quests and character interaction is far harder to pull off and much more important to a fun game than making sure to give a proper numerical character sheet to players. Especially when we all know that very few people would consider not having that as a negative as opposed to being something that would have been nice in addition.

[@Mazekial]

Yeah, MY biggest complaint with Oblivion is that once you do all the quests there’s no real incentive to keep playing. But my biggest praise has always been said quests and how it generally feels like the player has to put effort in. I’ll always love everything about the Mages Guild and Dark Brotherhood quest lines, in particular. And the curing vampirism quest really made the disease feel like something that was nigh-incurable, while also giving the Count of Skingrad some oh-so-deserved screen time. Don’t even start with me on Shivering Isles.

[@FumblsTheSniper]

Mazekial even I don’t bring up shivering isles because it’s so good that it’s not fair to bring it up in this kind of dialogue.

[@cpl.kokirikid5845]

@@FumblsTheSniper Now hold on, I get that "I couldn't break the game hard enough with magic" seems like one of the weaker critiques, but things like different weapon class effects and the outfit limitations seem more valid. Also this video seems more like a critique than a retrospective so why would he talk about something that's completely fine. P.S. I'd fix the enchantments thing by having it tied to your willpower stat or something

[@danhulson8703]

i think Oblivion was the best middle ground in the series for role playing and ease of use,and i put thousands of hours in it when it came out

[@ronz7665]

I come back to this every couple months. And recommend it whenever possible. One of my favorite intros. You have a way about you to remain slapstick without being grating and still putting out a through review full of hot takes. Its fun to see you play the game the way you enjoy it as appose to the dishwater bland "play the game the way an average person would garbage." I think your background and style makes for unique content that can be digested over and over. Thanks for making great content.

[@NinjaSushi2]

In Oblivion, the harder the difficulty, the less damage you do, and so it seems like every enemy is a meatshield when in reality you're doing 1/6th damage while the enemies do 6x damage.

[@cidacit6273]

The main weapon for Roman soldiers was a short sword. Like the only time the sword was the main battlefield weapon, and everyone forgets it.

[@epyjacek]

Some of the older chinese kingdoms used swords, both single edged and double edged versions, as main weapons. However, you point stands. No one else had as much success as the legions, especially after the Marian Reforms.

[@viveka2994]

Yeah, he shouldn't complain

[@viveka2994]

@@epyjacek Arabs used more curved like cutlasses too, though this was more 11th century, not Rome.

[@OmniValor]

The Gladius is one of my favorite weapons

[@adammiller4122]

I’m 35 and have played the Elder Scrolls since Morrowind. Never played a sandbox game to compete since. Actually playing it right now, my phone must have heard me talking about it, because soon after I stumbled onto your video from last week. Been binging your content ever since, man you really hit the nail on the head with your concepts, and your knowledge of gaming history is incredible. Thanks for putting these together dude.

[@viveka2994]

kenshi.

[@viveka2994]

try that sandbox

[@blorb2120]

I now fall asleep to long oblivion reviews and guides, this is the life.

[@Chickidydow]

the metaphor at the beginning is actually a genius way to contextualize the different qualities of the ES games, well done

[@Asdayasman]

Paul: "Cat, could you go away? I'm trying to write this script." Cat: "You know what would help?" Paul: "Please don't show me your butthole." Cat: "This is MY butthole."

[@StratEdgyProductions]

My GF asked me what I was laughing at. I closed my browser...

[@Asdayasman]

@@StratEdgyProductions Full credit, I stole that joke from @SJSchauer.

[@garrethansen5653]

Your account and content are SEVERELY under-subbed.

[@zeldasasmrchannel]

For once KZbin recommended has done me good. This was gold!!! Subscribed.

[@LordBriareos]

Great vid, but I do have one critique. You talked about their being no children, relatives or spouses in the game but there are in fact many NPCs with adult children and spouses. There's a pair of twin brothers you can meet that quiz you on if you remember how to recognize one vs the other, there are also several quests you clearly didn't do if you never encountered NPC relatives including one where a father asks you to help his sons fend of a goblin attack, one where a woman's husband went bandit and took a family heirloom with him, another woman's whose husband got tricked by an all female bandit group and lost a (you guessed it) precious family heirloom, one where a woman's father went missing after having some shady dealings with a local loan shark and many other quests. The game is underpopulated, not as drastically as you imply as there exist many roadside villages, farms, homesteads and inns, but enough so that it can break your immersion if you think too much about it. The Imperial City is the only populated area imo with a relatively realistic population outside of small villages. The major towns like Bruma, Skingrad and Anvil could definitely have used significantly more NPCs even if it was just in the areas surrounding the city.

[@da_roachdogjr]

Silly Khajiit, why do you punch with such sharp claws?

[@spindash64]

"to measurrre my abilitiiiieees"

[@automaticocelot452]

For some reason, I really love you talking about Bethesda games.

[@lordbrobert1884]

I have been chosen by the almighty algorithm, and for once, I'm genuinely glad. Most of the time youtube recommends me content that you couldn't pay me to watch. But this time they nailed it. Awesome work, man. You've earned a sub from this 6 month old fantastic video.

[@xXNaKXx]

How do you only have 85K subscribers and produce content like this? Thank you very much for all your hard work getting content like this. I absolutely appreciate it.

[@Rawrshuga]

The lack of numbers in a supposedly epic story was an issue with Fallout New Vegas as well. New Vegas felt damned near deserted and the "war" of 3 person teams of Legion and NCR didn't feel like there was anything more than some border skirmishes going on. Sure, it's a limit on how the engine handles the AI, so then tailor the story to the technology for goodness' sake! If one's engine can't handle 10 characters in an area without maxing out the CPU, then don't make a large scale epic story, right? Noooo...

[@DoctorSargeMD]

Oblivion was one of my all time favorites. Besides Runescape back in 2004, Oblivion was my first real introduction to fantasy RPG games. I loved almost everything about it, even many features people hated, like speechcraft. I loved discovering the Thieves guild and Dark Brotherhood, and that many quests were modest in nature. Not every quest had to be "press a button, something awesome happens".

[@SOLSTICES41]

The moment of punching the dead horse while roasting Tod was smooth, love it. Good rants, I think it’s time I finally regress back into some of the older titles before Skyrim. At least now I know what I’m in for.

[@ArnieMcStranglehold]

my good fuckin' lord the rant about faces and the face part of the character creator had me in *TEARS*, it's so accurate, and so hard to make a good face that doesn't seem to have some kind of seeming affliction.

[@guyedwards22]

Just gotta say, I finished your "How to Morrowind" video and immediately thought "Damn, I want to hear this guy talk about Oblivion". And guess what was first in line in my recommended? Looking forward to laughing my ass off man

[@preyo6511]

Mark and recall was a really cool system. You had to learn the spells then plan ahead for how to best use them. Fast travel killed that.

[@preyo6511]

@@JohnZombi88 Wasn't talking about Daggerfall. Morrowind didn't have fast travel, you had Mark & Recall, Silt Striders, Boats, and your own 2 feet.

[@littlebrav0856]

Friendlyjordies was the last thing I expected to see in this video. Excellent work

[@DeimosXVX]

Your content is exactly what I'm after when I'm feeling nostalgic and want to look at people's experiences of elder scroll titles. Maybe in a decade when TES6 is out I'll pop back and see what you think.

[@nighteatingyou]

This channel has spiritually enlightened me

[@sunbro6998]

In some ways, Todd has been a genius about The Elder Scrolls series. Starting from Daggerfall, he just kept taking things out of the game or simplifying things, and kept calling it a new game. I think in truth we haven't gotten a new game, just a remix that leaves out more and more instruments. I wonder if the next game will just be a single note.

[@skiesthatroar5402]

TES 6 will actually just be you watching a playthrough of the game

[@cyberninjazero5659]

>There are people out there who actually unironically believe dumbing down meme to its most over the top extent Cringe

[@sunbro6998]

@@cyberninjazero5659 so you think the ES series from daggerfall to skyrim have gotten deeper and more complex at a character creation, skill and combat function?

[@cyberninjazero5659]

@@sunbro6998Combat Function DEFINITELY So and I will make the case for the other aspects. I think that when considering the matter most have rose tinted glasses and don't actually have an accurate memory/account of how the mechanics functioned in practice and why certain changes where made and just go "Durr Dumbing Down". And I definitely think that mechanics complexity was ADDED in Oblivion from Morrowind (On top of being more fun to play). The video itself already went over the additions to combat (And admitted that Morrowind botched it so hard he skimmed over it) but what most people focus on instead is "Grr smaller number of skills!" It doesn't matter to them that in Morrowind a Spear was the same as a Greatsword gameplay wise it was there to me I don't count "Functionaly the same but looks/is named different" as depth. Quality > Quantity. It should also be noted that while Enchanting as a skill was removed the actual mechanic still exists in the game. Radiant AI was a massive addition and while people bemoan Essential NPCs they ignore that they were a safeguard for this system (although I agree that there should've been a Player Character exemption) people also ignore the perk system I know Strat mentioned melee perks all being the same but Light and Heavy armor were differentiated and Medium armor always sucked so enhancing the contrast and giving both the remaining armor types something helped diverge the playstyles. Strat is factually wrong about Absorb Attribute and Absorb skill not existing as effects in this game. The removal of levitation that most note was actually first implemented in the last DLC of Morrowind for the same reason here Interior City cells so that larger (more immersive) cities could exist. It's glossed over in the video but the Guilds and Quests have been massively improved. In Morrowind the guild quests where on par with the radiant quests of skyrim. I won't defend the level scaling system as implemented but I will say that it could've been handled well if they took an "encounter range" implementation where certain areas and enemies had a set range of levels they would scale to. Which brings us to Skyrim now I will admit there are somethings that are undeniably dumbed down the removal of the Reputation system being the most noticeable and unforgivable. Guilds have taken the worst fall (This game is the originator of the "5 quests to become" Guildmaster meme which was not the case for Oblivion its honestly shocking how bad this was handled). Cities have also shrunk. Unlike with Oblivion there is no tradeoff here this is pure loss (except maybe cities, which might have been shrunk for consoles) But as for mechanics well let's see what was removed shall we? People complain about Attributes but the (necessary) shift to an action combat system meant that Agility was redundant since it was Inferior Strength. Speed and Athletics where replaced with Sprinting. Personality was a dump stat (arguably so was luck). The remaining three stats made their way to Skyrim. Strength=Stamina, Endurance=Health and Intelligence=Magicka. But before you condemn character progression as being dumbed down let's talk about THE PERK SYSTEM. Many noted the One-Handed and Two-Handed skills as "THAT GOSH DANG TODD HOWARD DUMBING THANGS DOWN AUGAIN!" However due to the perk system. Specific perks for specialization with Swords, Axes or Maces existed for one handed and Hammers, Axes or Greatswords for Two-handed. The perk system is the added depth and complexity of Skyrim. Mercantile (which wasn't well implemented in Oblivion that's why I have the fix in my essential mods list) Wasn't just Dumbed down and absorbed into Speech. It was made the main way to level Speech and had perks devoted to it. While I agree that the perks themselves could often be found lacking THE SYSTEM was an amazing addition to/for role-playing as can be seen by mods that properly utilize it like "Skyrim Redone" or "Ordinator". While Weapon degradation no longer exists that's because Skyrim introduced (/replaced Armorer with) Smithing now the player could make and improve their own equipment and to stop that from being a slog of "Make/Improve an item have it degrade/breakdown get materials again to remake it" the players achievements in creating and improving their own gear would give a sense of progression. There was a dumbing down in Skyrim but outside of the reputation system it was not a mechanical one. Hell including the reputation system it's not a gameplay/game feel one it's a writing one.

[@sunbro6998]

@@cyberninjazero5659 read part. Too long and rambly. I have played all the games from ES on, and can't help but feel an overall degradation. Was some things better here and there? Perhaps. But it was pretty awesome being able to design your own spells from scratch with few limitations, being able to fly, being able to climb (really climb), having truly random dungeons with no idea what is down there. I played Skyrim, very pretty, but it just peters out for me. Seen 2 dwemer dungeons, seen them all sort of vibe.

[@terrysherron2581]

absolute best and most thorough channel i have ever stumbled upon. Love you Fallout 1 and 2 videos so much

[@ThisiswhyWecanthavenicethings]

I watched a few of your videos. Than, I watched this one and subscribed. ggs. great video man.

[@jcferrell931]

Just binge watched all three Elder Scrolls commentaries this far. Love 'em! Gotta say, one big strength I feel Oblivion had was that you're not "The Chosen One"; you're helping them. I think this is a much better system for RPGs in general, though I know that's subjective. I'm just saying, it felt okay to play whatever race and class you like in Oblivion, whereas playing anything but a Dunmer in Morrowind or a Nord in Skyrim felt... off.

[@chrisjames3272]

Romans stopped using spears as a melee weapon after the marian reforms, around 50bce. Before then, only a fifth or so of their troops used spears. The stopped using phalanxes at the camillan reforms, which were way before the empire became a thing.

[@viveka2994]

Yup, Romans rarely used spears, they specialized in swords and used spears because of Phlanxes, so why is he complaining about spears when Romans did not specialize in them

[@princesstinklepanties2720]

@@viveka2994 I think its just a misunderstanding of the time periods, since romans used the gladius, and the middle ages used spears/polearms

[@viveka2994]

@@princesstinklepanties2720 yeah but it's common knowledge that romans did not use spears commonly

[@TrueCarthaginian]

Using the idiotic politically correct date system is ultra cringe.

[@Schoenmann3]

I'm actually quite pleased u hit the addiction topic, u a real one lol

[@anakinraliere5637]

so overall, stop me if im wrong, u just spitting on every aspect of oblivion. Nice work dude.

[@umbrellacorpsecurity6511]

"Exploit" the system ...imagine bringing in the fun police for a single players game. Why do you think people are still talking about Morrowind and how you can basically become a GOD in the game if you want

[@williethenerfherder2193]

Pillars of eternity 2 made the same mistake of nerfing the cool shit.

[@friedmoses5692]

I really thought that was the vampire from the dark brotherhood for a second

[@elgatto3133]

It's televangelist Kenneth Copeland with lucian lachance's face

[@dallyink7412]

@@elgatto3133 Yes like they said, a vampire from the dark brotherhood.

[@friedmoses5692]

El Gatto oh so you mean an oblivion npc? He legit preaches like a priest of mara or sum bs

[@Smylie-Guy]

This is my favorite of your intro skits. Edit: but your post analysis of outer worlds intro hits the hardest. never stop bein you my dude.

[@Jake-jf1bg]

Swear tg that this is my new favourite KZbin vid, plus loved seeing friendly Jordies get a feat 😂 gained a new sub my friend 👍

[@cyberninjazero5659]

The essential mods list for anyone interested in revisiting Oblivion "Oblivion Character Overhaul" "Mercantile Progression Fix" "Attribute Progression Redesign" and "Supreme Magicka" I also recommend "Manimarco Revisited" "Blademans Better Birthsigns" and "Oscuros Oblivion Overhaul" If you think OOO has too many additions and only want the gameplay benefits then "Vanilla Combat Enhanced" "Oblivion Scaling Unclusterfucked" and "Unleveled Quest Rewards" give the pure gameplay changes without the new mechanics

[@sureokk]

Is there one that adds spears and armor pieces?

[@cyberninjazero5659]

@@sureokk Oblivion already has the optimal number of armor pieces but yes it's called "Separates [Pauldrons]" and "Spears with Leveled lists" for the other request

[@DanMcLeodNeptuneUK]

Strat : I love Oblivion, it's my favourite. Also Strat - Spends one hour shitting all over Oblivion. Seems legit. I agree.

[@passingrando6457]

It's how fans that started with older TES games appreciate newer ones. Any Morrowind player is going to constantly shit all over Oblivion, even while replaying it obsessively. I jumped on with Morrowind, and Daggerfall players were doing the same thing with Morrowind back in the day, believe it or not. A rude song being censored, the dumbing down of spell creation, the ease of contacting daedric princes. All gripes I heard when I joined the TES community about 18 years ago. I love Oblivion. I'm still going to curse Todd's catfucking lying mouth for the dumbing down of gameplay elements, ignoring older (and cooler) lore about the setting (like Cyrodiil being mostly jungle, Ayleid ruins being giant, sword-shaped ivory towers, etc etc), and repeating the same with each new game. You know Skyrim originally had more mages than most human provinces, unique ice and wind-based magics, at least a couple people in every town that could shout, and their own different (but related) set of gods? Yeah, how fucking much of that made it into TESV? That's why older players inevitably shit on the new games.

[@MSBH-wx7fe]

@@passingrando6457 The funny thing is that Bethesda made lore to cover up they're design decisions. For example, that tiber septim was the one who transformed cyrodil from jungle to grassy plains by using his god hood. And that mages became looked down upon in skyrim because of the winter hold event. The jungle thing I can understand probably due to tech limitations in Oblivion. But the magic in skyrim is fucked imo. I prefer Oblivion's system.

[@passingrando6457]

@@MSBH-wx7fe Yeah, to paraphrase what a friend of mine had to say about it, explaining why you made the setting shittier doesn't make up for making the setting shittier in the first place. Truth is, they just wanted to capitalize off of GoT's popularity and changed the setting to match better. Same with Oblivion and lord of the rings being super popular around that time. At least Kirkbride had the decency to get high as shit while ripping off Hindu mythology for Morrowind and make it even weirder. That said, I do find having the lore explain why videogame mechanics exist to be a cool concept, despite that Beth has done some stupid things here and there with it. Like Vivec not wanting to fight you because you could just hop back in time/to a parallel time (IE load a save) until you beat him anyway. Elder Scrolls genuinely has great lore. I'm quite fond of Molag Bal being so obsessed with dominating and defiling the current kalpa because he faintly remembers being the overgod of the previous one. Also, Pelinal Whitestrake being a magitech cyborg or android. The Reman dynasty space race with the Aldmeri Dominion. The lore is bugfuck insane and I love it.

[@arandompasserby7940]

Oblivion will always hold a very special place in my heart. Despite how dated and awkward the whole thing looks today, at the time, it was miles beyond what we had on the PS2 or Xbox, or even on the PC outside of games like Half-Life 2 or Doom 3/F.E.A.R. (ran on the same engine). And as a very young teen who was never into fantasy games or RPGs before then, I was sucked into its world, no matter how flawed that world may have been - something that Skyrim could never do for me. The game was also my first foray into modding, and I'm sure I doubled my 300 hour+ game time screwing with the game with my friend and laughing at the crazy stuff we came up with. ... It's just a shame that Oblivion was also the game that introduced the world to DLC with horse armor. Truly, behind every great horror lies Todd Howard.

[@JustDaZack]

I'm 40 secs into this video and I'm already absolutely entranced by the amazing delivery and choice of words, WOW!

[@TheSaival]

stratedgy videos always are fun :D

[@artcrime2999]

I really missed the morrowind weapon swing stats. Axes did more damage as chops instead of thrusts. Swords were close to equal, and spears were great for poking but awful with chops. It made you consider your movements per attack swing.

[@beentheredonethatoriginals5673]

To your credit I watched the entire video and was bummed when it was over. Huzzah!

[@Blackoser]

Dude sick video, thanks for that! :D

[@dustinbaugh601]

Potion effects may not be stackable, however spell effects are. The trick is to have multiple individual spells of the same type...easily doable when you become the arch mage at the mages guild and gain access to the spell crafting table. Simply create a spell with a duration enabled and name it whatever you want but add a number for your own benefit. Then create a second spell with the same effect as the first, this time adding a 2 in the name etc. The spells will stack. For instance if you've already learned how to time your jumps perfectly when encountering a slight incline to "super jump". Cast let's say 5 variations of mastered increased athleticism in sequence then super jump off a set of stairs and you'll soon find yourself capable of flight. Athleticism buffs your speed and Acrobatics buffs your ability to jump...so if you make a sequence of custom spells for both then try to super jump off a staircase or some other slight incline in...say Bruma it is entirely possible to jump from the mountains in Bruma to any other area on the map...provided you plan your landings exclusively in bodies of water. This method also can allow you to jump into the background of the game since all you need to do is clear the city walls since the game loads in chunks. Bypassing the gates effectively bypasses the loading screens and will be quite the buggy mess if that's something you're into... if not than just avoid landing inside city walls... if you do however and wish to resume normal game play just fast travel to fix it... also fyi if you play a heavily modded game you may want to consider not using mods... this often could cause the xbox 360 to crash just playing vanilla (background jumping I mean). Anyways if you want to know if you are falling yet just cast a simple fireball and watch which way it goes.

[@samroy8628]

Love these elder scrolls videos man!

[@gojiralives3698]

Glad I found your vids for sure mate!

[@froderickalabaster]

the analogy in the beginning video is actually so spot on for no reason

[@apoletestry3766]

That part about Oblivion hiding shit in it's character creation makes so much more sense to me now. You see the first time I played Oblivion I tried to be a wizard swordsman, but because I didn't know what the fuck I was doing because I was missing important information, making my game play experience incomprehensibly frustrating.

[@codymccarty9327]

The Alchemy rant at around 24:00 had me laughing so hard I had pause the video.

[@cheddar813]

This is the most entertaining review I've ever watched

[@2sadto]

You did a doctor rockso impression I love it