Elder Scrolls 6: 10 Ways To Make The Perfect Sequel
10. DON'T Introduce A Voiced Protagonist
Bethesda
I honestly can't think of anything more antithetical to a 'role-playing game' than a voiced protagonist. Bethesda introduced that feature in Fallout 4, but all it did was rob the player of their agency, funnelling them into a predetermined narrative and making all the wonderful distractions and side-quests of the open world feel more than just a little out of place.
The whole point of an RPG is to let the player live out a fantasy, to imbue their chosen character with a voice of their own and a journey they can craft along the way. Sure, Skyrim had the main Dragonborn arc, but as soon as players escaped Helgen Keep, they were free to do whatever they pleased. They could travel to the College of Winterhold to become a mage, or head south-east to Riften to make their fortune with the Thieves Guild - there really wasn't a narrative constraint on what they could or couldn't do.
A voiced protagonist undermines all of that, even if the game affords players a multitude of options to mess around with.
This is why the next Elder Scrolls title absolutely mustn't introduce one. It's easy to consider it an innovative step on the surface, but scratch a little deeper, and you'll realise it undermines the foundations of what makes these RPGs so compelling.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
