I'm finding it really hard to get into Arena. Everything is unclear and I don't even know what I'm supposed to do. The only Arena threads I see here are asking how to get it to run. You all seem to love Daggerfall, though.

Is it much better?

Yes, but it's not much better in terms of clarity. If you want to get started on the main quest, the game will tell you where to go, but what you do in-between is entirely up to you.

Basically, once you get out of the starting dungeon, you should get a letter within a week or two (game time). That will tell you what you need to do.

Daggerfall is a much better game than Arena, but it's extremely tough. If you want to play it, be prepared to put some hours in.

Arena has very little to do. It has some small advantages over Daggerfall such as nicer wilderness, but Daggerfall has a million times more content than Arena.

Arena also doesn't have any real lore aside from the races and provinces. There are no guilds. There are mages and generic churches.

Arena's not a bad game, but it's not very user friendly, and really there's not much reason to invest a lot of time in it. Daggerfall is a bit easier to get into, but it's a much more complex game in the long run. Arena's dungeons are large, but you'll never get lost. In Daggerfall, on the other hand, you'll sometimes find yourself lost in the dungeons for days of real time. (Without a helpful cheat)

On the plus side, there is a (sort of) tutorial in Daggerfall. Unfortunately it stops in the middle after the first dungeon, and you're left to figure out a lot of things on your own. You'll also get some direction on what you're supposed to be doing in the main quest, and there's plenty of lore and guilds to keep you busy in the meantime. It's the largest Elder Scrolls game ever, and there's always something new to find.

But to answer your question, Daggerfall is an infinitely better game, probably one of the best I've ever played, but only very slightly more friendly than Arena. However, it's more than worth the effort to learn.

Arena is a basic RPG where you basicly slay monsters for XP and perform some small quests that involve escorting someone, delivering something or killing a monster in a dungeon.
It's all about slaying monsters and buying new equipment.

It's still fun though. But Daggerfall took the basics of Arena and vastly expanded it.

Arena's not a bad game, but it's not very user friendly

That's a very curious comment, particularly juxtaposed with

Daggerfall is a bit easier to get into, but it's a much more complex game in the long run.

Arena, being less complex, is hence more playable, i.e., "friendly", than Daggerfall.

I like both games very much. Daggerfall would win hands down if the code was robust.

I'm finding it really hard to get into Arena. Everything is unclear and I don't even know what I'm supposed to do. The only Arena threads I see here are asking how to get it to run.

There are many threads on how to play Arena. However, since the Wiki was updated a while back, your best bet is to check it out.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Arena:Arena

Daggerfall is the better game IMO, its character creation alone is the best I've seen in any game. Arena does some things better like the wilderness outside cities. The Arena dungeons are ideal if you fancy a quick dungeon blast and don't have a lot of time. If you're finding Arena a bit hard to get into, you'll find Daggerfall just as hard or sometimes harder.

You're best bet is to follow some guides as DM suggested, you'll soon pick it up.

In essence, Daggerfall is the first one that will feel like a TES game to you.

a TES game? A? I do believe I call it... The GREATEST TES game of all time!!

I don't disagree with that. I didn't mean to imply that either was easy to get into by modern gaming standards. For me, Daggerfall is so much more in depth than Arena that most players will just stop worrying about what they should be doing and do whatever they feel like, so in that roundabout way I find it more "playable." Playing Arena, I always had the nagging suspicion that there was something I should be doing. In Daggerfall, there are usually immediate goals, like, "Man, I need to finish this quest in 65 days," or "Did I just fall through the floor? How is that even possible? Now what? Am I stuck here? Seriously?"

Good times.

Shhh! Not too loud. The Oblivioners may be lurking on this forum...

I am an Oblivioner, but I do want to get into the other games and thought I should start from the beginning.

I'm not really that far in Arena. I'll keep playing until I can finish the main quest, and hopefully I'll learn to love it. Right now I have no money to buy Daggerfall anyway.

Its more the Morrowinder's that you must fear

And of course...those that dwell in the forum beneath this one..to whom Morrowind is GOD.

The only things Arena has over Daggerfall is that it's not as broken and it's got a far more interesting wilderness. There's no comparing Arena to Daggerfall outside of those two things, though - Daggerfall is just better.

Do towns have exits at all? I spent a ton of time running north through Riverwalk but couldn't find a way out. Then I did what I should have done at first and looked at the controls and found out how to travel.

I'm stupid, I know.

Or maybe I wasn't in the town anymore. The map is really really bad.

I'll just put up a wall. YOU CAN'T CLIMB IN MORROWIND! >:(

Although...levitation...damn. I will have to think this over. Get back with you shortly.

Complexity doesn't always correspond with user friendliness.

Take a look at all of the very simple but also very user-unfriendly shovelware that was released on the NES.

You should know if you're in a town or outside. If you know how to pull the local map up, which I havent played the game in a while so Im not sure, rather than the province map, then if there is a big square around you in the map - then you're in the city. Just keep going along in a city against the wall - or look for a door on the map if you know what it looks like on the wall, and go to it. Once you find the door, it may look a bit short, like it was built for dwarves or something. But then go through there and you will be outside.

And when you are, or if you are outside of the city, you might keep walking and eventually find little cities that dont have a barracks or gate around it. You may find all kinds of different buildings. I personally find it an interesting game - and I have Daggerfall, I just havent really gotten into it yet, because its so big, I dont know where to start off. I did walk for a long time once on Arena, and found this cave in the middle of the water after swimming out into the middle of nowhere. The entrance was odd, but it was a dungeon. And after I got into it, my game froze. =(

So you might encounter little bugs like that sometimes. But something like that only happened to me once, so save often, but not TOO often, meaning if you get into a small cave, then dont save 50 times before some glitch or bug happens, but you shouldnt need to worry about that in Arena, if at all. Just Daggerfall basically.

For the most part, most people favorite elder scrolls game is the first one they played, unless the played arena first like I did, modded oblivion is my favorite, but with no mods daggerfall is my favorite.

:D Exactly!

It really is. Morrowind comes in a close second just because of its vastly improved playability and graphics. (Heck, just having 3D object models. No more killing 2D cardboard cutout rats. ) But still, I can't stop playing Daggerfall. It has such beautiful complexity. It's a shame Bethesda never bothered coding in everything that they'd talked about being missing when they released it. That or fixed all of the many bugs. :rolleyes: But even with all of its shortcomings, Daggerfall is still the best TES in my opinion.

As for the worst, I'm still not sure if I'd put Oblivious above or below Arena... :shakehead:

I wonder if that's really true. Your exception makes me exempt from the simplicity of it as well. My first TES was Arena as well. And (not counting the spinoffs) I've played them all. Heck, I still own them all. Daggerfall is most definitely my favorite though. Modded (texture packs and such to improve the graphics) Morrowind comes in a close second. Not sure if Arena or Oblivious make for the extremely distant third...

Arena is probably the one case where that rule does not apply.

I hear you, Silver Phoenix. It's depressing how much wonderful stuff was left out of Daggerfall. http://www.imperial-library.info/gallery/daggerfall_1.shtml promised a much more varied and detailed wilderness.

The main problem with Daggerfall is it has lots of neat "specialized" things such as Daedra summoning, witch covens, and the neat Main Quest dungeons. But they're so rare, it feels quite odd to be going through all these generic areas and ad-lib quests and suddenly finding something "different", it almost feels like an easter egg.

*sigh* If only.

That's one thing I liked with Daggerfall, made it feel more real. I mean, witch covens should be rare, and not something one stumble upon in some local market square.

The one that I always really missed was the talk of regional factions causing regions to actually war with one another or prosper together and things like that, so that the world really changed a lot depending on what kind of meddling you did. It would have been nice.

And I can't remember now, did they ever put in the ability to contract lycanthropy to turn into a were-bear or a were-boar? Or was it still just limited to were-wolf even after the last patch so that even if you were mauled by a were-boar you turned wolf instead?


Yeah. I agree. Just like, if only Bethesda would remake Daggerfall with a modern engine, only affecting play controls and graphics/sound, but otherwise leaving all of the wonderful complexity of Daggerfall as-is. It'd be the best TES ever.