A whopping 17 years after Skyrim.
Depending on how much you felt like Skyrim was an insult to RPGs, this news will either please or upset you. It turns out that The Elder Scrolls 6 will draw inspiration from its predecessor for its levelling and skills system. In short, that means if you hit an enemy with a sword, your swordsmanship ability will increase.
Personally, that’s how I like my RPG systems to work as it mimics real life. The more you do something, the better you get at it (at least typically). But diehard RPG fanatics who prefer cold, hard spreadsheets and numbers likely bemoan Skyrim for killing off the hardcore RPGs of yore. And, you know what? They have a point.
But, whether you like or love it, the system is returning if you believe the ex-Bethesda developer who made the claims over on Metro GameCentral. That developer is Bruce Nesmith, who left Bethesda in 2021. That means that some of this information is outdated, but we do know that Bethesda intended to maintain the skill system as little as two years ago.
Nesmith also claims that the magic system will remain similar to Skyrim, and that the game is unlikely to launch until at least 2028. He also reveals Todd Howard doesn’t like talking about a game until roughly six months prior to its release, so we’ve still got about a five year wait until we learn anything about it.
If you’d have told me in 2011 that Skyrim’s successor would take 17 years to arrive I simply wouldn’t have believed you. I might also have cried. It also means we’ll have gone two entire console games without a new mainline Elder Scrolls game. It’s bonkers, isn’t it? And begs the question: why doesn’t Bethesda have multiple teams, with each working on a new game in each franchise?
Oh, sorry! That would make too much sense.
