Why The Elder Scrolls 6 Should Embrace Multiple Endings for Ultimate Player Choice

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Summary

  • Multiple endings would make player choices feel impactful in The Elder Scrolls 6, enhancing overall immersion and agency.
  • Daggerfall’s six possible endings show that multiple outcomes are feasible, challenging the series’ narrative tradition.
  • The Elder Scrolls 6 has the potential to evolve its core design philosophy by offering multiple endings, a natural progression from player freedom.

Approximately six years have passed since Bethesda confirmed the development of The Elder Scrolls 6, but they’ve remained tight-lipped about the game since then. Various theories have been bandied about concerning the game’s setting and mechanics, yet no concrete information has emerged from Bethesda. This leaves ample opportunity for speculation, particularly regarding a trending feature in RPGs.

In contrast to how The Elder Scrolls games have consistently presented a single ending to players, and considering the growing preference for multiple endings in choice-driven RPGs over the past ten years, there’s a compelling argument that The Elder Scrolls 6 could benefit from offering more than one conclusion. While it might be an unprecedented move for the series, it would mark a departure from a longstanding pattern and embrace a core design element of the franchise.

Why The Elder Scrolls 6‘s Story Should Have Multiple Endings

Multiple Endings Would Make the World Feel More Reactive to Player Choice

A key feature of the Elder Scrolls series is its strong focus on giving players choices. For many years, The Elder Scrolls has prioritized player autonomy and dynamic role-playing. However, while it offers a broad range of choices during gameplay, each main storyline (except for one) ultimately leads to a single conclusive ending. Regardless of the decisions players make throughout an Elder Scrolls game or whether certain side quests have multiple resolutions, the outcome of the main story is usually determined in advance.

In recent years, games like The Elder Scrolls have been known for presenting stories that lead to a single conclusion. Given the growing trend and preference for multiple endings in choice-driven RPGs, it’s reasonable to anticipate that The Elder Scrolls 6 might consider incorporating more than one ending to cater to its audience.

Regrettably, even when a design principle such as this is engaging and immersive within an Elder Scrolls game, if the main story doesn’t account for the player’s decisions made earlier, it might leave the sense of agency feeling underused. If The Elder Scrolls 6 were to incorporate multiple endings, it would make players feel that their choices truly impact the broader storyline, rather than merely influencing temporary events. This would significantly amplify the series’ focus on player agency, allowing players a more direct role in shaping the overall narrative.

Daggerfall Proved That Multiple Endings Are Possible in an Elder Scrolls Game

In the development of The Elder Scrolls 6, a significant hurdle could be managing multiple possible endings. This is because it becomes essential to determine which non-compulsory conclusions align with the series’ canon as it progresses. Yet, Daggerfall demonstrated that several endings can coexist in an Elder Scrolls game, thanks to Bethesda acknowledging each one concurrently during the “Warp in the West,” a period where temporal and causal rules are momentarily disregarded.

In the grand finale of Daggerfall, there were six distinct outcomes, such as the Empire achieving absolute dominion over the Iliac Bay or the King of Worms climbing the divine ladder to attain godhood.

It’s understandable that it may be tough to persuade ardent Elder Scrolls enthusiasts that another event similar to the Warp in the West could occur, given their perception might be that it serves merely as a pretext for The Elder Scrolls 6 to have multiple endings. However, Bethesda could devise an alternate narrative rationale for why The Elder Scrolls 6 features multiple endings when most games in this series don’t, and Daggerfall has demonstrated that such a scenario is indeed feasible.

Bethesda has always managed to combine player freedom with a strong narrative framework in its games, and The Elder Scrolls 6 could take this balance even further. Instead of multiple endings being just a popular trend among modern RPGs, they would represent an organic development of the core design principles of The Elder Scrolls series. Addressing the question of canon would be necessary, but as Daggerfall demonstrated, creative answers can emerge when one is willing to challenge convention. If Bethesda is up for the challenge, The Elder Scrolls 6 could provide players with a story that genuinely reacts to their decisions in ways that the series has seldom explored before, offering more than just the illusion of choice.

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2025-03-10 00:47