Every Feature The Elder Scrolls 6 Should ‘Steal’ and Drop from Starfield

Highlights

The Elder Scrolls 6 should implement in-depth customization similar to Starfield, allowing players to personalize their characters and customize their experience.
Loading screens in The Elder Scrolls 6 should be minimized or eliminated to enhance player immersion and create a more seamless gameplay experience.
The addition of outpost-building feature in The Elder Scrolls 6, similar to Starfield, would be a valuable and immersive feature for players.

Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls series is one of the most successful RPG franchises in gaming history, and the lifespan of its latest mainline installment, Skyrim, is proof of that. However, the series is also quite aged at this point, so it needs to continue adapting to current gaming trends to stay above the competition. One way The Elder Scrolls could accomplish that is by implementing several features from Starfield in its next installment, The Elder Scrolls 6.

With the announcement of The Elder Scrolls 6, many fans have wondered whether some of the distinct features of Bethesda’s latest IP, Starfield, will carry over to the next installment of their favorite RPG franchise. After all, there are plenty of noteworthy features in Starfield that could benefit an Elder Scrolls game, especially as the series is now around three decades old. At the same time, there are also a few Starfield features The Elder Scrolls 6 should avoid if it hopes to make a positive impression.

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In-Depth Customization (Steal)

Customization goes a long way in video games, especially in modern gaming. Many gamers crave an in-depth amount of customization that allows them to personalize their experiences and become heavily immersed in them. Starfield has an enormous amount of customization that goes far beyond the character creator itself. Aside from character Traits and Backgrounds, which is a new feature to Bethesda’s character creation, Starfield players can customize their own ships piece by piece and even personalize their journey through the game by playing it as a story, a sandbox, or a mixture of the two.

It’s likely The Elder Scrolls 6 will include customization to the extent of Starfield‘s, and it certainly should if Bethesda doesn’t already plan to implement it. While past Elder Scrolls titles have allowed players a decent level of customization, they have paled in comparison to Starfield‘s. It goes without saying that players would not only leap at the thought of attributing innate characteristics like Traits and Backgrounds to their Elder Scrolls 6 characters but also at the thought of being allowed to customize other parts of their experience as well.

Loading Screens (Drop)

Loading screens are very common in Bethesda titles, but it’s high time that changes. Almost every transition in Starfield is accompanied by a loading screen of some kind, and it has left most players agreeing that there are far too many. Glorified loading screens between ships grav jumping in Starfield from one galaxy to the next makes sense, given the amount of time it would take players to manually travel between them. However, a loading screen when entering any building or ship tends to break immersion, and as Bethesda aimed to make Starfield an incredibly immersive experience, its countless loading screens are a tough pill to swallow.

It would be a nice change of pace to see loading screens almost entirely absent in future Bethesda titles, as the developer designs its games with player immersion in mind. If The Elder Scrolls 6 were to allow players to enter buildings and towns without a loading screen, it would surely earn high praise from critics and gamers. Unfortunately, it ultimately comes down to what the game’s engine allows, so The Elder Scrolls 6 may very well end up in the same boat as Starfield.

Outposts (Steal)

One of Starfield‘s best customization features is found in the ability it gives players to build custom outposts on any planet. There is certainly more that Bethesda could have done with outposts in Starfield, but the feature has stood the test of time, as players are still building Starfield outposts and sharing them online.

Implementing some sort of outpost-building feature in The Elder Scrolls 6 would be a win for the franchise. It’s difficult to picture what the mechanics would look like in such a drastically different game world, but it’s far from impossible to do. Perhaps players could build custom buildings and/or camps in the wilderness of The Elder Scrolls 6 that they could call home. In any case, it’s a feature worth considering as Bethesda moves forward with the latest Elder Scrolls installment.

Jenassa, Lydia, and J'Zargo from The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

The Elder Scrolls 6 Can Greatly Expand Its Follower Variety

The Elder Scrolls 6’s followers could expand on one area where Skyrim’s options were underwhelming, potentially elevating the game.

Procedurally Generated Locations (Drop)

Procedural generation is rapidly becoming more common in video games, especially since the release of Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky. Starfield implemented procedural generation as well to create over 1,000 planets, each with unique biomes, flora, and fauna to discover. However, it didn’t take long for Starfield players to realize that each planet still looks and feels the same, despite being different in many ways.

It’s unlikely that Bethesda will go this direction with The Elder Scrolls 6 because the sci-fi space fantasy associated with Starfield calls for procedural generation quite a bit more than would be necessary for an Elder Scrolls game. It’s still possible the developer will consider utilizing the system moving forward, but it should disregard procedural generation when it comes to The Elder Scrolls 6.

New Game Plus (Steal)

Despite Starfield‘s New Game Plus being a fairly divisive feature among fans, it has still earned its place as one of the most innovative approaches to the game mode yet, in addition to being a first for Bethesda. While The Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchises do not have a New Game Plus mode to speak of, Starfield includes one that is an evolution of the traditional formula. Traditionally, New Game Plus allows players to start a new playthrough with certain aspects of their previous character still in place — like unlocked skills, character level, acquired and upgraded gear, etc. However, Starfield‘s New Game Plus centers around its story, as the world and the characters in it are drastically affected by each subsequent playthrough.

Even if The Elder Scrolls 6 chose to go a different direction with New Game Plus than Starfield did, it would still be a welcome addition to one of Bethesda’s most beloved franchises. The addition of a New Game Plus mode in The Elder Scrolls 6 would simultaneously place more emphasis on its story, as it would likely be unnecessary to start a subsequent playthrough unless there were some overarching goal beyond players simply continuing to improve their character.

Starfield may not have gotten everything right, but Bethesda should consider carrying over what Starfield did get right to The Elder Scrolls 6. There are plenty of features in Starfield that are unfamiliar to past Bethesda games, and it would be great to see The Elder Scrolls franchise evolve accordingly. Even if The Elder Scrolls sticks to its traditional formula, however, it’s likely to be an exciting time for fans of the franchise.