Arean vs. Daggerfall : The Elder Scrolls Series Discussion

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 9:42 pm

I wanted to play something to tie me over til Two Worlds is released, so I decided to try the first two Elder Scrolls games which I never played before. I have tried a bit of both, but so far I'm preferring Daggerfall due to its design. I don't think the auto-map even marks the names of locations in Arena, does it? I just wanted to know the opinion of people who have finished both games. Sorry about the typo in the topic

Don't know how I missed it, but I don't think I can change it.

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 1:13 pm

Daggerfall, since it pretty much expands on what Arena offered with cutting very little content, or making actual content better.

You have a real main quest that is not a "go save the bearded Emperor" cliché, faction quests, more variants of dungeons, a skill/stat system.. and I could go on and on.

But sometimes I miss the random wilderness Arena creates outside of towns. Or the water puddles that reflect buildings near it.

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 11:43 pm

But sometimes I miss the random wilderness Arena creates outside of towns.

Ah, if only they have that in Daggerfall (minus the can't get to other town/city part), though I probably bet it might iffy the system to have some random inn in the middle of nowhere.

But ya, try Arena just to experience it but play Daggerfall to live through one of the best Main Quest and Guild system in the series.

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 3:10 pm

I'm going to have to go with Daggerfall. Arena is fun, but it can't even come close to Daggerfall... or either of the other two Elder Scrolls games, for that matter, in my opinion.

» Thu Aug 19, 2010 12:34 am

I'd say Daggerfall for the sheer amount of content. Yes Arena has the whole of Tamriel, but there is no where near as much to do in it

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 1:52 pm

I would go with Daggerfall. More complex character customization, multiple factions, a better main quest etc. While Arena was cool, the main quest was very linear, and there isn't much to do outside of it except for small randomized quests and artifact hunting. I would still play entirely through both main quests because they're awesome games.

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 8:04 pm

Loving Arena very much right now, but as others have said, Daggerfall improves and vastly adds to the content. It is a lot of fun visiting all the other provinces though. And I like how the dungeons play out in Arena.

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 9:48 pm

Daggerfall took Arena, and made it more badass. But I don't recall if Daggerfall had the badass Tavern tune that Arena had.

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 10:44 pm

Daggerfall took Arena, and made it more badass. But I don't recall if Daggerfall had the badass Tavern tune that Arena had.

Sadly, it does not, assuming you are referring to the one that isn't annoying.

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 6:09 pm

Daggerfall took Arena, and made it more badass. But I don't recall if Daggerfall had the badass Tavern tune that Arena had.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7oh21VOYIM is indeed in Daggerfall. It's one of the three (or four) random tavern songs.

But Daggerfall doesn't have Arena's bad ass weaponsmith theme. Sadly.

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 11:44 am

Daggerfall

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 3:25 pm

Daggerfall by far

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 4:13 pm

Daggerfall (of course), DG was essentially exactly the same as Arena gameplay wise, with a [censored] load of lore, towns and epicness

» Thu Aug 19, 2010 2:06 am

Whilst Daggerfall is the superior TES game, there are some nice novelties about Arena, taken from an old post of mine. Funny, this was originally written for you, Seti.

In believability and, as you put it, whether or not the world feels "alive", the townspeople are far more interesting than the ones in Daggerfall. They can be asked about various rumors, including general/lore-based ones in addition to speaking highly of accomplished quests. You can ask them about their background, occupation, and the like - and most of all (this is my favorite), they put hoods up when it's raining/snowing! A nice little novelty, if I do say so myself. You can also encounter prosttutes, shifty thieves, beggars, and other unique characters in addition to the generic wandering townspeople. I'd say the cities feel much more vibrant and alive than those of any other TES game.

Another thing I enjoy about this game is the wilderness, which is pretty interesting compared to Daggerfall's. No, you can't travel all of Tamriel in real time - each city has its own confined "wilderness" around it, and reaching the end of the map only causes it to wrap around and place you back on the other side. Still, despite having been procedurally generated like Daggerfall's, you can find lots of neat things like abandoned castles, small villages, crypts, lakes, even functioning rowboats to get around faster in the water!

Damn that indent function looks nice! Anyway, I kind of like Arena's visuals better, too - the textures are all 64x64 whereas Daggerfall's can go twice as high in either dimension, but there's something about the first game that's just nicer. I think it's the color palette. Wheras Daggerfall has a very subdued and earthy palette of browns, greys and oranges, Arena's locations are alive with colorful stained glass images and lush hedge gardens.

Sadly, it does not, assuming you are referring to the one that isn't annoying.

The non-annoying one is actually in Daggerfall, but only plays if you run the game with General MIDI. Which has the added benefits of giving shops their own tune as opposed to the evil tavern music. I still play with Soundblaster emulation, though. Primarily so I can hear http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vIeqK8J3bI badass tune. :toughninja:

But Daggerfall doesn't have Arena's bad ass weaponsmith theme. Sadly.

Ooh ooh ooh! This one, right? If/when DaggerXL reaches a moddable state, I'm so re-implementing this song in the weapon shops and possibly some of the guilds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_-hz43Kei4

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 3:22 pm

I can play Daggerfall anytime. Arena is just too... draft for me =]

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 12:41 pm

One for Arena. Arena was an unqualified success; it worked within the D&D conventions to make an extremely playable game. Daggerfall ranged a bit beyond the D&D fence and was hence far more ambitious. But due to a lack of testing it must ultimately be ranked a failure, although a noble failure that had its moments. It's not far behind.

Perhaps you had to be there.

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 9:41 pm

Well I'm currently playing Arena so I voted for it. I dunno, it just seems better put together than Daggerfall. Daggerfall is just too massive, and has way too much going on. In theory I think Daggerfall would be much better, but it's downfall is just too many bugs, and not enough time testing to make sure everything worked alright.

Oh well, I'll probably think Daggerfall is better once I'm in the middle of playing that. Seems to happen with every ES game I play.

[edit] Also, I think I should mention that I have a very shallow understanding of these games (Arena and Daggerfall), I haven't put nearly enough time into them to give an in-depth critique of any sort.

» Wed Aug 18, 2010 9:00 pm

I've been playing Daggerfall since 1995 and I just started playing Arena a few days ago and I'm liking it a lot. I love the dialogue that NPCs give you. It's actually a lot more entertaining and immersive than the dialogue in Oblivion in my opinion. And I love how there are prosttutes in Arena at night. Daggerfall had them but they just had generic dialogue. They didn't say things like "I heard there's a cute new %PCRace in town. All the other girls will be jealous if they see us talking together." haha love it! I wish Daggerfall had kept that style. But I think I prefer Daggerfall over Arena just because there is a lot more to do and it's more in depth and it has more sentimental value to it.