» Wed May 02, 2012 10:32 pm Ever since Skyrim came out, I've been seeing all sorts of threads comparing Oblvion and Skyrim. These forums can be extremely negative, largely because people who don't like Skyrim come here to complain, while those who do like it don't come here at all because they're too busy playing the game to defend it against its critics on the forums. To be honest, I myself strongly prefer Skyrim to Oblivion, and I'm not sure I can buy into the arguments to the contrary. Yesterday there was a thread about this very subject in this very forum, and it was controversial enough to be locked before I could post. A brief look at the OP left me slightly confused, and many of the arguments in favor of Oblivion's superiority seemed to be based more on nostalgia than anything. It seems to be a common trend on these forums for fans of one ES game accusing the next game of being Bethesda selling out to the mainstream. It's happening with Skyrim right now, and as someone who started with Morrowind, I jumped on that bandwagon with Oblivion. In the Past Elder Scrolls Game forum, I've even seen Daggerfall fans bashing Morrowind for the same reason. Somewhere, the people who really liked Arena are probably criticizing Daggerfall right now. Nostalgia tends to run rampant amongst Elder Scrolls fans, even if we don't like to admit it sometimes.
Thus, I feel the need to make an unbiased comparison of Skyrim and Oblivion and give my opinion on the matter as free from nostalgia as possible. I think I can accomplish this goal, since my nostalgia lies with Morrowind, and enough time has elapsed to remove my bias against Oblivion. Mods also made Oblivion much more fun for me (especially Nehrim, but that's beyond the purview of this post) and cured much of my resentment. I am still hesitant to compare Morrowind to either game, since I can't be entirely sure of the validity of my opinions due to emotional influence. But, since Morrowind isn't the subject here, it shouldn't be an issue, and, without further adieu, I can jump into my anolysis. I plan on dividing this post into several sections in accordance with what the previous topic mentioned.
Quests
Quests seem to be an obvious jumping-off point for my anolysis, so allow me to begin. I will break them down by plotlines and by general trends. To the best of my knowledge, spoilers are not banned in this particular forum, so I will not refrain from using them. After all, it's rather difficult to compare plots without all of the details being on the table. If you object to spoilers and haven't played one or more of the questlines in Skyrim or Oblivion, I would advise you skip this section. Honestly, though, Skyrim has been out for three months and Oblivion for almost six years, so I don't think I really have an obligation to keep spoilers to myself.
Mages' Guild/College of Winterhold
To be perfectly candid, I thought both of these plots were sub-par, but for entirely different reasons.
Oblivion's Mages' Guild was flat, uninteresting, and unmoving on a personal level. While I liked the whole concept of a sinister threat moving in the shadows to eliminate the Guild, the sense of mystery quickly disappeared, only to be replaced by progressively growing disappointment in the quest line as a whole. To begin with, the recommendations were extremely tedious. A few of them were fun, like Fingers of the Mountain and the Bruma prank one, but for the most part, they were just a waste of my time. The zombie-filled cave was particularly cruel to the low-level characters who were usually trying to join the guild, and the Leyawiin one was far too long of a dungeon crawl through an uninteresting cookie-cutter fort.
Getting to choose your staff was fun, and encountering the necromancers at the cave was a nice twist, I will admit. But the tone of the entire plotline from there seemed wrong for the Mages' Guild. I like Harry Potter as much as the next guy, but I prefer my wizards to be scheming, aloof, and power-hungry, not crusading against evil constantly. You are not given a choice of whether or not to fight the necromancers; there is no side to be picked. While I normally don't mind this sort of thing, especially if the enemy is obviously evil, the reasons for banning Necromancy in the Guild seemed extremely arbitrary, and no real effort was ever made to convince the player of the ban's validity. Traven seemed to be an arrogant and incompetent ass the entire way through, severely undermining the emotional effect of his sacrifice to defeat Mannimarco. When the two councilors defect to Necromancy, it cannot come as a surprise because we didn't know them or have any sort of personal connection to them. Raminus Polus didn't even have a personality, nor did anyone in the entire Arcane University. The destruction of the Bruma guildhall felt extremely stupid, as well; apparently, neither the Fighters' Guild next door nor the entire city guard (which can apparently hear you commit an assault all the way across the city) doesn't really care when the King of Worms himself and all of his followers just walk into the hall and start killing people and setting the place on fire.
The fight with Mannimarco was also exceedingly disappointing and anti-climactic. After casting one effect that is scripted to do nothing, he attempts to beat you down with a mace (despite having Blunt as a minor skill) and goes down like a chump. The dungeon leading up to him is another cookie-cutter cave without distinguishing features, utterly unmemorable and tepid.
The College of Winterhold was also unimpressive, but it its own way. I started playing it with high hopes; it seemed to avoid the pitfalls of the old Mages' Guild from Oblivion. No tedious quests are required for the player to gain entrance, and you are immediately thrown into a group of vivid characters. Brash apprentices, squabbling teachers, a paranoid professor, a scholarly Orc who retains his race's tendency towards anger, a wise old archmage, a kindly old instructor, and others await you inside, all capped off by the deliciously sinister Ancano. Unfortunately, things went downhill from there. The player is immediately plunged into an excavation of Sarthaal, much-renowned by anyone interested in ancient Nordic lore (especially anyone who did the Snow Elf investigation quest in Bloodmoon), which somehow doesn't manage to reveal any new lore at all. The plot moves entirely too fast from there, as if all of the build up and exposition had been removed entirely to leave the player with nothing but a grossly distended climix that the writers attempted to stretch out over the entire questline. Annoyingly little lore is given about the Eye of Magnus, leaving it as a vague MacGuffin that's really only there to fuel conflict. The appearance of the Psijics excited me greatly at first, but their lack of real involvement and any real detail about what the hell they've been doing for the last 200 years is left entirely absent. I expected to be able to join their ranks or at least get to wear one of their really cool robes, but even that small privilege is denied.
As nonsensical and rushed as the plot often was, however, it did get a few things right. Mzulft was a solid dungeon better than anything offered in the Oblivion Mages' Guild. The few details about the Synod are quite tantalizing, and the Synod mage you meet at the end was quite the interesting character. Labyrinthian, however exceeded it mightily; it was a masterpiece of level design with its varied challenges, great difficulty, and emotional plot details. Something seems exquisitely poignant about a group of eager apprentices slowly realizing their mistakes as their numbers dwindle, forced to press further on into the ruins and into progressively greater danger. The ending is downright tragic, and casts Savos Aren in an entirely light when you find out how we was forced to abandon his promise to his friends to keep the world safe from the horror of Morokei. Morokei was an intensely difficult and rewarding boss fight even at Adept difficulty, and the build-up of him constantly mocking you, first in Dragon and then in English, was quite impressive. My only wish was to tie him into the plotline better and serve as more of a real villain rather than just a scary boss at the bottom of a dungeon. The quality of Labyrinthian itself was so great that it completely overshadowed the ending. Morokei was just so much more menacing and horrifying than Ancano, and he felt like the true climix of the plot. That, in my opinion is bad narrative design.
Thus, I have to say that while both questlines were fairly bad as a whole, the College of Winterhold was better because of its detailed characters and quality penultimate adventure, even if the ending didn't quite live up to it. The Mages' Guild had better narrative structure, strictly speaking, but it felt completely hollow and just fell flat.
Thieves' Guild
The Thieves' Guild is an area in which I feel like Skyrim has thorough superiority to Oblivion, despite a few exceptions.
The Oblivion Thieves' Guild was one of the better parts of the game, in my opinion. It was one of the few plots that managed to escape the relatively repetitive hack-and-slash pattern of Oblivion, largely by prohibiting the player from killing anyone. Unfortunately, the whole thing felt rather disjointed and lacking in direction at times. I very much appreciated Hieronymus Lex as an antagonist, but he was far too easily defeated to be truly satisfying as a character, no matter how funny his ironic fate was. The Gray Cowl was another cool factor, but I think that the disconnect between its related quests, the ones about Lex, and the miscellaneous jobs detracted from the quality of the Thieves' Guild. There was no real enemy; just a few particularly crafty marks, an easily bested watch captain, and Nocturnal Herself. None of those make a particularly compelling enemy. We are given very little detail on Lex, just that he hates the Thieves' Guild, and our inability to best Nocturnal as well as her minimal activity in the plot makes Her unsuitable to be called villain as well. The Grand Heist was a truly amazing quest, perhaps even exceeding Skyrim's delve into Labyrinthian, and, in my opinion, the best part in all of Oblivion. The entire thing was breathtaking and thrilling, but one great quest does not a great questline make.
Conversely, Skyrim's Thieves' Guild achieved its greatness by offering many quests of consistently good quality. There is not a single quest in the Skyrim guild that can match up the the Grand Heist, but the median Skyrim Thieves' Guild quest is better than the median Oblivion one. The plot is more cohesive, and actually contains a legitimate plot twist. Mercer's betrayal came as a real surprise, and after it becomes clear that he is the real enemy, we receive good reason to hate him. He has lied to the Guild for decades, stolen from them, betrayed the Nightingales, and, if none of that were enough, he even attempts to murder your character. He is a bastard through and through, and the true villain Oblivion's guild lacked. When the time to kill him comes, it's not just an obligation; it's something you want to do. Similar to the College of Winterhold, the Thieves' Guild of Skyrim also contains a number of nuanced characters like Vex and Delvin. The focus on the Ragged Flagon allows the player to become more acquainted with the characters than the constant shifting and relocating presented in Oblivion. Irkngthand can't match up to the Grand Heist, but it's a solid dungeon crawl in its own right, filled with its own brilliant and splendid vistas, fearsome enemies, and devious traps.
The narrative structure of Skyrim's Thieves' Guild exceeds Oblivion's by miles, even if it didn't end quite as amazingly. Taken holistically, I think Skyrim's guild and its plotline are better than Oblivion's.
The Dark Brotherhood
This one has me legitimately torn, but I believe Oblivion's Dark Brotherhood quests are better than Skyrim's, even if Skyrim's surrounding feel and lore are superior.
The Dark Brotherhood quests in Oblivion were without a doubt one of the most fun and original parts of the game. Sneaking onto a pirate ship in a crate, dropping a minotaur head on an unsuspecting Bosmer, and sneaking back into the starting prison to kill the guy who mocked you a the beginning of the game were all exceedingly fun and interesting quests. You actually got to know plenty of characters on a personal level, which was really fun (even if you did have to murder them eventually), and the death of Lucien Lachance was a truly shocking and saddening scene. I was actually disgusted at the game, which is fairly rare in a game full of mindless violence like Oblvion. It was pleasingly ironic that the most violent quest line in the entire game was the one that managed to ascribe the most personal and moral significance to a scene of violence and make you step back and think for a moment instead of just hacking through more enemies. The whole plot is fun, shocking, and satisfying, and as a whole probably the most fun quest line in Oblivion, hands down.
Skyrim's Dark Brotherhood is a solid quest line in its own right, but it pales in comparison to Oblivion's. Sure, there was nothing badly wrong with it, but there wasn't anything just felt so sublimely right like Oblivion's did. The characters were generally less interesting, even if they were pretty cool, and the assassination of the emperor was not nearly as difficult and rewarding as it should have been. Commander Maro was a pretty good antagonist, but nowhere near the villain that Mathieu Bellamont was. Cicero was entertaining, but he was a bit gimmicky. The ending was slightly painful as well, with most of the characters dying (again!), and Astrid's betrayal was merely uncomfortable, since we didn't know her enough for it to be truly sad.
The only thing I really think was better about Skyrim's Dark Brotherhood than Oblivion's was the background lore. Bethesda finally knocks the Dark Brotherhood off its pedestal; it is no longer a stupidly effective Mary-Sue assassin's guild that always gets its mark, but a troubled and struggling organization that can actually be challenged by outside forces. The Listener is killed by common street thugs, and the Wayrest sanctuary is destroyed by ordinary corsairs (I guess that settles the pirates vs. ninjas dispute). Cicero's journals paint the portrait of a very disturbed man, although his final fall into madness feels a bit contrived and forced, but more importantly, they bring the DB back down to earth and believability. It does away with the implication in Oblivion that the only thing that can threaten the Dark Brotherhood is enemies from within.
Of course, better lore doesn't always equate to more fun. I have to say Oblivion is better when it comes to the Dark Brotherhood.
Companions/Fighters' Guild
This is another case where I think that Oblivion beat out Skyrim.
Oblivion's Fighters' Guild was quite a well-crafted plot involved with some fun quests and a seriously evil enemy. Sure, the second half felt a little too much like those cop dramas where the loose-cannon subverts the by-the-book police chief to bring down the bad guys, but overall, it was still fun despite a slight lack of originality. You actually get to know characters, especially Modryn Oreyn and the Donton family. You meet Viranus Donton and bond a little before he unexpectedly dies, making his death more tragic and personal. It isn't exactly Lucien Lachance, but it's still dismaying and sad.
What really made the Fighters' Guild great, however, was the Blackwood Company. I loved them as villains for a variety of reasons. First, they don't just come out of nowhere; they slowly build up to become the main enemy in the plot, much like the necromancers in the Mages' Guild were supposed to turn out but failed so miserably. They hire Maglir, another annoying Bosmer, giving you reason to dislike them on a petty and personal level in addition to despising their underhanded and sinister ways. Their name evokes the Blackwater company, which was involved in some pretty heavy controversy in the Iraq War at the time of Oblivon's release. Whether that's intentional or a cool coincidence is uncertain, but it's pretty fun regardless. Most importantly, though, they demonstrate in a game about extraplanar demonic invasion, psychotic assassins, and sinister necromancer cults that you don't have to be supernatural or world-threatening to be evil. All it takes is some shady business practices and callousness towards sentient life. Blackwood may not be the most horrifying or menacing antagonist in Oblivion, but they are certainly the biggest bastards.
In stark contrast, the Companions were probably the worst questline in all of Skyrim. It's an exaggerated case of the pitfalls that befell the College of Winterhold. Sure, the characters were interesting and the deaths were sad. Sure, the werewolf thing was cool. But the narrative structure was utter crap. The Silver Hand is way too nebulous and leaderless to be truly villainous, and their individual members are way too weak to be taken seriously. They're just so damn pathetic. The plot is practically nonexistant, and it doesn't have a staggeringly great dungeon like Labyrinthian or a badass boss like Morokei to bring a tremendous highlight to any of it. The whole thing feels terribly disjointed, with one thing barely flowing into another. The real quests are entirely too few and short, and the attempt to stretch out the plot by cutting it with randomly generated radiant quests feels like a pretty obvious cop out. Ysgramor's tomb is lackluster and disappointing. The lore is good with Hircine and Ysgramor and all, but the plot falls flat.
With that reasoning, I think Oblivion's Fighters' Guild is far more interesting than the Companions in Skyrim.
Main Quest
Well, now that all of the side questlines are out of the way, I feel that it is time to discuss main quests. In this particular arena, I think Skyrim has a heavy advantage in depth, coherence, and personal involvement as well as the simple 'coolness factor' (although that's completely subjective).
I personally expected much more than I received from Oblivion's main quest. The opening with the Mythic Dawn assassinating the Emperor was certainly jarring and shocking in a good way; killing the guy who ruled the Empire for the previous three games was certainly a good way to change up the pace. But it just didn't live up to expectations from there. The Battle of Kvatch was fun, but after rescuing Martin, the whole thing became repetitive and tedious.
Infiltrating the Mythic Dawn requires annoyingly little thought or strategy; you just go on a series of retrieval quests to get some books, which an NPC proceeds to interpret for you without any input. The shrine itself was rather boring as well; the Mythic Dawn cultists go down like chumps on all but the highest difficulties, and their combat AI's tendency towards flight often led to stupid wild goose chases through large portions of the dungeon. Regardless of whether or not you decide to wear the robes and pose as a cultist, you still end up fighting almost every cultist in the cave, giving only the illusion of choice without any real freedom.
The player is then almost immediately informed that the primary portion of the main quest will consist of four smaller retrieval quests, only one of which was particularly inspired. Giving up a Daedric Artifact felt like a lazy way to shoehorn a Daedric quest into the main plot without having to make a real link, although the ability to make a choice for once in the plotline was still refreshing. Sancre Tor was actually distinct from the game's other dungeons, but in a bad way. As cool as the undead Blades were, too much of the fort was filled up by Wraiths. Freaking Wraiths. They're difficult to fight, but not in a fun way; the constant burdens and frost damage felt like cheap artificial difficulty rather than a legitimate challenge. The quest for the Great Welkynd Stone leads you through an Ayleid ruin identical to pretty much all the others, complete with a cool glowy MacGuffin at the end guarded by a lich who fights like all the other liches in the game. Only the Great Oblivion Gate was an interesting part of this portion of the plot, but even that was fraught with too much build up. The game pressures you into closing a series of randomly generated Oblivion gates outside of all the cities in Cyrodiil beforehand, of which only Cheydinhal's is actually a real quest. The Great Gate itself was well-executed, though; the Daedric Siege Engine's insectile and hellish design was fascinating, and the strict time limit forced the player to make real decisions about which enemies they would fight and which they would leave.
Finally, once all the MacGuffins (which don't actually do anything but advance the plot) have been gathered, Martin lets you step through a portal into Paradise and enter the home stretch of the main quest. Paradise was a pretty well-exucted version of the trope where there's a really nice looking place filled with secret dangers and disturbing situations, and the actual quest portion of it is pretty good. I liked the non-destroyed Ayleid architecture and the general aesthetic of the place, but Mankar Camoran's speech was irritating in its lack of lore comprehension. The writers were going for a revolutionary perspective on what we already knew, but missed and landed in 'just plain wrong' territory. Camoran couldn't even be bothered to attribute Daedric planes to their correct owners. The villain himself went down way too easily, and the fact that he could wear the Amulet of Kings at all seemed starkly contradictory to the lore about the amulet.
The grand finale in the Imperial City was cool, although I was bothered that the Oblivion Gates were purely cosmetic and couldn't be entered, which screwed with the idea of open world a bit. It was interesting having to fight Daedra in a city for once and having a legitimate battle, but the lack of a real final fight was disappointing. Martin's sacrifice was suitably heroic and his duel with Dagon looked cool, but there wasn't really anything for the player to do other than hack through a ton of Dremoras to get there.
Overall, Oblivion's main plot felt a little repetitive and uninspired. It was mostly one dungeon crawl after the next with very little intrigue, thought, or anything other than hacking stuff up with a sword. No real reason was given for the actions of the Mythic Dawn, Mankar Camoran, or Mehrunes Dagon at all. I realize that Michael Kirkbride later came out with one of his obscure lore documents explaining the whole thing, but it's poor writing if the whole plot isn't self-contained. If you need material outside the games to understand it, something is wrong. Mankar Camoran really only seems to be doing all of his schemes because he's crazy, and Dagon is apparently just a mindless engine of destruction or something.
Skyrim was a refreshing change of pace from Oblivion in its more innovate main quest with much stronger ties to pre-existing lore. The opening is even more riveting than Oblivion's; a bunch of pansy pushover cultists jumping out of the walls and on to the swords of waiting weaboos doesn't really compare to a giant black dragon swooping down from the sky and wreaking havoc as Imperial troops frantically try to stop him. It does a much better job of setting up side quests and the civil war as well, giving the player an early introduction to major playes like Ulfric and Tullius. The escape from Helgen is faster and more interesting than the drawn-out crawl through the prison sewers of Oblivion, and the game does a better job of giving a sense of escalating conflict. First, it's just one dragon. Then, after a long and dangerous journey through Bleak Falls Barrow, fighting all sorts of monsters, from bandits to spiders to Draugr with a few puzzles along the way, there's another dragon. It actually takes a while to find out what's at stake or even what's going on, and there's some real complexity to the situation.
Learning Thu'ums from the Greybeards immediately sets the player up with a mentor and a way to access optional lore about the situation without cramming it down your throat, much like the heretics from Morrowind or the documents in Vivec's palace. The coolest part about the Greybeards comes later, though, when you have to choose between supporting them and supporting the Blades. There are two real sides to choose from, neither one of which is objectively superior to the other. The Blades stand for strength, fighting evil, and loyalty, while the Greybeards value wisdom, caution, and a more philosophical approach the world. There are distinct benefits to each and your choice is entirely left to your own values.
The incarnation of the Blades presented in Skyrim is pleasantly similar to their Morrowind iteration; as spies who add an element of intrigue and espionage to the plot rather than just a bunch of guys who wear Japanese-style armor and do a crappy job of saving the emperor. The Thalmor are amazing villains; they're scheming, sinister, racist, and wear outfits vaguely reminiscent of SS uniforms. The most compelling aspect about them is perhaps that you can't simply just kill them like you do with basically every other group of bad guys in the Elder Scrolls. You can slice up a few of them and embarass them at their own embassy, but you can never kill their leader in Skyrim or even come close to giving them a major defeat. The Thalmor are present enough in Skyrim to be an enemy, but not too important in the game to be its major villains. They're left as a shadow over Tamriel to be dealt with in a future game, sticking their vile hands into everything from the civil war to the College of Winterhold. This foreshadowing is quite clever and creates anticipation for the next game, rather than just leaving it hanging so that a new plot can jump out of nowhere at you, as has been the custom before.
Anyway, enough of that tangent. Back to discussing Skyrim's plot. Alduin maintains a much more constant presence than Dagon or Camoran do in Oblivion. You see him again resurrecting Sahloknir and other dragons at other mounds throughout Skyrim, and you get to battle him once more atop the Throat of the World with Paarthurnax. He doesn't say quite as much as he should, nor is he characterized quite as much as I would have liked, but the abundance of in-game books and lore about him does help establish him more as a character. In any case, he's still lightyears ahead of Mankar Camoran or Mehrunes Dagon when it comes to quality as a villain, simply because he's actually there in the game all the way through.
The portion of the plot that deals with the Elder Scrolls themselves is extremely strong; probably my favorite part of the main quest. For the first time, what the Elder Scrolls are is elaborated upon in game. Sure, you get to interact with them in the Grand Heist of Oblivion, but you really don't get to know what's going on. And Skyrim's explanation of the Elder Scrolls is absolutely amazing. The mind-bending nature of the scrolls and their unfathomable complexity demonstrates that Bethesda hasn't become afraid of making weird lore like they did with the Thirty-Six Sermons of Vivec. Septimus Signus is an insane character whose madness isn't simply played like a joke like most other madmen in video games. His ramblings actually contain useful information, and his cryptic rhyming dialogue was well-written and fun. Truly, Signus was a great NPC, and his involvement is a much better way of integrating a Daedric Quest into the main questline than Oblivion's method. Alftand was a well-crafted dungeon, large and building a sense of suspense in the player as he slowly uncovers more and more of the fate of the expedition as the enemies become more and more sinister. One of the best parts of the whole thing was that the expedition didn't strictly have to be there for the quest to function, but Bethesda added it anyway to add a new level of depth to Alftand. That's good design philosophy. Blackreach was absolutely breathtaking in its alien majesty, beauty, and size, reminiscent of Morrowind's originality. Indeed, even the room in Alftand before it where the left centurion comes alive while the right one remains in shambles bears a pleasing resemblance to the battle against the Imperfect in Tribunal.
Unfortunately, the Skyrim main quest seems to peak there. The ability to make a difference in politics with the peace summit was cool, and trapping Odahviing was a fun scene, but neither part really matches the delve into the blackest depths of the Dwemer halls. Skuldafn was an interesting dungeon, full of running battles, cool interactions with dragons, and a fun Dragon Priest fight at the end, but it was a little too short for my taste. And while Sovngarde looks extremely beautiful, it was a bit devoid of content. The final battle with Alduin is slightly too easy, and doesn't feel like a suitable conclusion to the main quest.
Overall, the Skyrim main quest was far superior to Oblivion's. It had much greater depth, actually explaining Alduin's motives through the Greybeards, Paarthurnax, and in-game books, connections to previous lore in the form of the Thu'um and he Alduin/Akatosh dichotomy, and had a much better sense of progression and pacing than Oblivion's main quest. The darker tone provided by the ban of Talos and the dominance of the Thalmor along with a civil war feels much stronger than Oblivion's almost fairy-tail environment.
Daedric Quests
Ironically, despite Oblivion being largely about Daedra, its Daedric quests were generally inferior to Skyrim's. Perhaps it was the wearyingly constant adherence to the tired formula of "Visit shrine, make offering, do quest, get reward," that held Oblivion's Daedric quests back, while Skyrim was more free with their implementation in creative ways. I think the best way to prove my point is to do a quest-by-quest comparison of the Daedric princes in each game, since they were generally the same.
I preferred Azura's quest in Skyrim to her quest in Oblivion. First, the offering of glow dust at a specific time of day was slightly annoying, and the quest itself was a generic and rather short, venture through a vampire-infested cave. There was nothing particularly interesting about these vampires in either mechanics or difficulty, even if their story was tragic. On the other hand, Skyrim's quest was slightly more approachable and its element of real choice between Aranea and Nelacar allowed more roleplaying. In addition to the dungeon crawl being longer and better-developed, the final encounter in the star itself is beautiful from an aesthetic standpoint and quite difficult at higher levels of play with the volleys of fireballs hurled by the Dremoras.
Honestly, Boethiah’s quest was fairly weak in both Oblivion and Skyrim. Skyrim’s version opened strongly and gave you a good feel for Boethiah herself (himself? itself? xirself? Damn gender bender) with the sacrifice of a companion, a creepy manifestation of the Daedric prince, and the crazy followers, but it goes downhill pretty fast from there. It turns into a short and uninspiring fight with a group of extremely easy enemies. Oblivon’s quest is similarly boring, and involves killing nine combatants with excellent loot in easy fights with plenty of waiting space in between. The hardest part of the quest might be deciding which loot you take with you. Goldbrand and the Ebony Mail are each cool in their own way, although I’m not sure how many Heavy Armor/Stealth characters exist to take advantage of the latter.
The Clavicus Vile quest in each game was flavorful and humorous, if a little sub-par in the gameplay itself. Barbas is funny, especially as an actual dog, and I really enjoy the fact that he was the Creeper from Morrowind, but both quests effectively degenerate into a short dungeon crawl to retrieve an artifact, which you can then exchange for the Masque of Clavicus Vile at your own option. I like that both quests showcase the petty and scheming nature of Clavicus, but they’re functionally the same. I can’t really call one better than the other.
Hermaeus Mora’s quest is good in both games, but better in Skyrim. They’re each about killing random samples of people from a multitude of races, although Skyrim’s sends you after fewer targets. They’re functionally very similar, but I thought Skyrim’s was better designed for a number of reasons. First, Mora’s reasoning was better explained with the giant puzzle box, and if you played Morrowind, there’s the anticipation of finding a certain heart of a dead god inside that you haven’t seen in quite a while. Second, Septimus Signus, whom I’ve already mentioned as one of the better NPCs in TES is involved. Finally, the cruel deception of Mora is better emphasized in Skyrim’s version, when Mora doesn’t even spare one of his most valuable agents and turns out to have been lying to him for his entire life, leading him astray. Mora is properly portrayed as scheming and untrustworthy, and the feeling you get watching him betray Septimus is downright slimy-- as it should be, in stark contrast to the random acts of violence he has you perform in Oblivion.
Once again, Skyrim’s increased freedom compared to Oblivion rears its head in Hircine’s quest, creating a far more interesting narrative with greater content and replay value. Skyrim’s version of the quest tells a more personal and human story of a man with a real and miserable curse, while Oblivion has you either mindlessly slaughter a unicorn or ride it off a cliff, depending on how creative you were. Your ability to choose between the Ring of Hircine (tempting for us Bloodmoon fans) and the Savior’s Hide as well as make a moral decision simply made the whole thing a lot more interesting. Also, getting to see the Bloodmoon again, even if you didn’t get to participate, was cool.
Malacath’s quest can be argued either way. In Oblivion, it can be satisfying to free the Ogres and let them take over the plantation, although I liked fighting the giants and thought Yamarz’s betrayal was a good twist, if a bit too predictable. Skyrim’s quest is more difficult, although it doesn’t have quite as fun of a plot.
Obviously, there’s nothing for me to compare Dagon’s Skyrim quest to. I suppose there was the Mehrunes’ Razor DLC, but I’m only discussing vanilla versions here to maintain consistency.
Mephala’s quest was definitely better in Oblivion. Turning the two families on each other and then watching them fight was slightly humorous and made the player feel quite devious and scheming, while the Whispering Door was just creepy. If you didn’t have the Pickpocket skill, killing Farengar was pretty much the only way to do this quest, which was way too short, and that’s just cruel and leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The whole betrayal thing to power up the Ebony Blade was a good idea for a mechanic, but it requires quite a bit of murder to actually get the thing all the way up. Despite that mechanic, Oblivion seemed to implement the Ebony Blade better, since the Skyrim version can’t be tempered and can’t decide if it’s a one-handed or two-handed weapon when it comes to skills/perks.
The Skyrim quest for Meridia was better than its Oblivion Counterpart. It had everything its predecessor had and more. The dungeon crawl was a great deal more interesting with its twisting passageways, reflecting lights, and cool-looking shades. Furthermore, the fact that you could stumble across it in any dungeon in the game made it quite a bit more of a surprise if that was the first time you encountered it. The final battle was better-executed, the sky view of Skyrim was awesome, and Dawnbreaker was much more interesting an item than the Ring of Khajiiti.
I believe that which game did Molag Bal’s quest better is debatable. Bal himself seemed much more evil in Skyrim than he did in Oblivion with his house-shaking, cage trap, and inducing you to murder two people, but the corruption of the hero in Oblivion seems to fit his theme even better. I personally prefer Skyrim’s for its scarier nature and greater length, but I can see the other side of the argument here.
Namira’s quest is similar to Molag Bal’s in that each version of it seems to emphasize a different aspect of her domain, and both quests are fun. It was comical in a sick way to extinguish the torches of Arkay’s priests and watch them get beaten to death by those crazy hermits, although the cannibalism in Skyrim had its merits, too. On the subject of cannibalism, I thought it was a cool mechanic to implement in Skyrim with Namira’s Ring, but it was annoying to search corpses while wearing it because of the dialogue box.
Nocturnal’s quest was definitely better in Skyrim than it was in Oblivion. The Oblivion version required no stealth or thievery at all; just some troll-killing, and then Skeleton Key completely invalidated the Security skill. It was one of the worst-designed artifacts in the game after an easy and uninspiring dungeon crawl, and the stealth theme failed almost completely. Its Skyrim counterpart benefited much from being tied to the Thieves’ Guild heavily and forcing the player to give up the overpowered Skeleton Key in exchange for a choice of some very useful and interesting powers. Nocturnal was just a lot better developed in Skyrim, and the quest’s dungeon is far more interesting and stealth-oriented than it was in Oblivion.
Peryite’s quest, like Nocturnal’s, was far better executed in Skyrim than Oblivion. In Oblivion, Peryite sends the player on a maddeningly long trek through a rolling landscape of Oblivion with no landmarks, thus making it extremely easy to get lost. Worse yet, the entire affair had remarkably little to do with Peryite’s sphere of influence as a Daedric prince. The Skyrim quest had much stronger ties to Peryite’s theme of pestilence and cures as well as being set in a much less frustratingly locale populated by a unique set of enemies. Spellbreak was also much more interesting in Skyrim with its ward effect when raised rather than a standard spell reflection effect.
Sanguine’s quest was hilarious and fun in both games. They both tie in quite well to the fun-loving prince’s attitude with humorous twists in both. Suddenly finding yourself naked and being chased by Leyawiin’s guards was a good way to put the player on his back foot, and the Hangover-inspired Skyrim quest’s absurd humor was very entertaining, with its goatnappings and Hagraven marriages.
Call me crazy (pun intended), but I preferred Sheogorath’s quest in Skyrim to his quest in Oblivion. As funny as Khajiits panicking at a false end of the world as it rains burning dogs is, the quest itself had too little to do. Skyrim’s version was equally comical, and maybe more so, since it had the benefit of taking place after all of Sheo’s development in the Shivering Isles. The tie-in to Pelagius is another one of Skyrim’s satisfying connections to previous lore, and every moment of the quest is practically boiling over with humor. Whether it is trying to balance the mad emperor’s doubts with his ego in a fistfight or frantically trying to convert threats into a more friendly visions (all of which having the voice of Pelagius, even the women), there’s really quite a bit more content and humor than Oblivion’s version. It also helps that Wabbajack’s effects become more varied in Skyrim.
Vaermina’s quest was true to her theme in both games, but the execution was far better in Skyrim. The Oblivion version was extremely difficult to start without first earning substantial progress in the Mages’ Guild thanks to the required black soul gem, and then it turned into an interesting but short dungeon crawl. Not a bad quest, but its Skyrim version was even better. It kept the same bizarre atmosphere as its Oblivion counterpart, but it also added a gripping story, several cool cutscenes, and more varied and fun combat encounters with some great treasure. Also, it has more of that personal choice for which I am such a svcker.
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Upcoming: anolysis of notable side quests in each game, general trends in quest design, and world design opinions.
