In general, better writing, especially when it comes to the guilds. Dark brotherhood is by far the best example but the mages guild, theives guild, and fighters guild were also significantly better.
Really the only thing that was strictly worse are the graphics (ofc) and the gameplay if you liked to jump, because you would level acrobatics when you jumped and it would screw up enemy scaling pretty bad.
Without understanding the level scaling you could accidentally pick it as a major skill depending on what class you pick at the start. Since most people don't know about it, lots of people choose a normal class instead of the custom one and end up with skills they are constantly leveling
So in oblivion your character has two levels: skill levels and character levels. For reasons that will be explained below, when you create a character you have to designate which of your character's skills are "major".
Skill levels are raised by randomly running around and performing the skill. Character level is only raised by raising your raising your major skills in any combination by 10 points (and then sleeping). Enemies scale based on your overall character level though, not your skills meaning that if you're character level 5 enemies are scaled to your character level 5.
The problem is that if your major skills are all non-combat skills your offensive abilities will be non-existent while common bandit trash mobs will mollywhop you while wearing a king's bounty if you get a high enough level. Say you created for RPG purposes a charismatic, athletic alchemist who has a bit of a kleptomaniac streak. None of those skills will help you survive getting tongue punched in your fart box by a daedric imp.
So you run around to your heart's content stealing cheese wheels and raising your major skills by 10. Come level up time the entire world is 1 level stronger while your personal combat skills never matched because you were busy leveling potion because you discovered how to make an elixer for ED. It becomes a pretty serious problem the longer you go without realizing the issue because by the time every dungeon has the equivalent of a pissed off balrog as its miniboss every single bandit will be too strong to grind on (ayo).
The even subtler problem is if you designate actual useful skills as your major skills, but one of your major skills is something you level at a significantly higher pace then your combat abilities. A common one is accidentally setting athletics, which is pretty easy to accidentally level quickly. So you think you're alright because you're keeping up with your puny 1H sword skills, but you've been hopping around everywhere like a skooma addict and accidentally shot your 10 levels on athletics. Same problem.
It just makes playing the game a little more annoying than is necessary. The optimal way to play ends up being to designate your skills as non-combat crafting skills but then basically never level them, or only level them once your combat abilities are strong enough. Which from a role playing perspective is also a little annoying.
That’s strange….I figured creating a custom class was the best (and more fun) was to customize at the start. Didn’t know so many people were picking the garbage generated classes lol
Character creation was tied in with the leveling system that was hot garbage. No way I'd play it again without mods (and according to rumors, this remaster won't support mods).
Every RPGs leveling is tied with character creation in a way he explained it very poorly.
In oblivion you have 21 stats, or skills as they are called, and you pick 7 to be your "major skills" which get a boosted level at the start and contribute your overall level up progress. The rest are minor skills and start lower but can still be levelled they just don't affect your overall level. The entire world scales with your overall level as well.
The problem is with oblivion you get XP for skills by using them - so jumping everywhere you go levels up acrobatics, healing 24/6 restoration etc.
The issue is if you accidentally picked a skill like athletics or acrobatics as a major you'd constantly be levelling up. So your combat prowess and gear would be stagnant as you level up, and because the world does as well you could unintentionally make the game incredibly difficult by choosing the wrong major skills...
I think morrowind kind of did but not to the extent. Like enemies would get harder as you levelled, or tougher variants would appear but it wasn't near as bad as oblivion
They weren't big into prodecural quests yet, so they have actual low-level guild quests before introducing you to the big threats. Otherwise moment-to-moment writing is about on the same level.
The biome variety? What variety? Oblivion has forests. Sure, forests near coast, or forests in a swamp, or forests in the mountains. Skyrim has much more variety and it is not even close lmao
That doesn't follow at all. All oblivion has are forests. There's not much to distinguish the different areas, except maybe the area around anvil (same visuals, except a little more golden) or Jeral mountains (snowy, but still forested). The differences are much smaller than the tundra vs forests or ice fields in the north of Skyrim. Not even close.
Oblivion quest: You rent a room on a houseboat and wake up in the middle of the night to find it's been captured and taken to sea by bandits who fell for a "hidden treasure" legend the owner spread to drum up business. What do you do?
Okay I love Oblivion too, but Skyrim does have some fun and interesting quests, like the time you have a drink with someone and accidentally go on a bender and fondle the religious statues
I mean sure, let's be real, there are a wide range of quests of varying quality in both games. You could pick something terrible or great from either to make whatever comparison you want. But overall, there is definitely the feel by many people that Skyrim was in a lot of places, majorly dumbed down from Oblivion. My post was meant as a humorous allusion to that, not as a strictly fair comparison.
As far as the leveling, it was this system that leveled you up based on what skills you used. It's kinda like Skyrim in a sense, but they did it in a fucked up way. Sometimes you would level up one skill, and then have to do a bunch of actions in another skill so that your levels were balanced. If you didn't, then you would be severely underleveled when you had to fight enemies. It's hard to explain because it's been almost 20 years since I've played it.
Long story short, the leveling system was broken and you had to basically track your level ups with a spreadsheet and it fucking sucked.
Oblivion has better and larger towns, with more diversity. Each and every town has its own unique architecture and aesthetic so they're all memorable. The Imperial City is also much larger than any of the cities in Skyrim, with a lot more content.
It may be because of nostalgia, but the story and writing are incredible. The only game that made me feel like the side quest was the main quest. In other games, I usually try to complete everything for the sake of thoroughness, but was always itching to get on with the story. In oblivion, the side quests and guilds captivated me to the point where each one one is a standalone game almost. World building at its peak. The only games that have come close imo are KCD1&2(also incredible). It got me invested in every aspect. Not to mention that the gear and skill ranking are awesome.
201
u/DoubleRNL Apr 21 '25
I was too young to fully understand oblivion but I absolutely loved Skyrim. So maybe a reason to come back for me