Poll: Best Elder Scrolls opening sequence

The_Echo

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Mar 18, 2009
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No options for Arena or Daggerfall?
[small]Not that anyone would vote for those anyway...[/small]

I'm gonna say Skyrim, because it was the coolest.

But the main reason I try to do everything on one character in Oblivion and Skyrim is because fuck doing the intro again.
 
Oct 2, 2012
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Morrowind for me. The dream sequence and the being woken up by Jiub was just well done I think. I loved the male Dunmer voices in Morrowind, the music and the warm lighting of the boat made me feel comfortable and kind of excited. I was curious and in the unknown but not completely lost or painfully confused. It did what it had to do admirably and it was fairly unobtrusive so you didn't feel like you had to jump into the main quest.

In Morrowind you were released with a task to bring a letter to some dude. Not important at all and easily ignored from a roleplaying perspective.

In Oblivion and Skyrim it is harder because the events are more epic. An Emperor pretty much helping you escape prison and then telling you to do something before getting assassinated? Or a mythical dragon appearing and fucking shit up and the person you escape with begging you to go get some help afterwards?

Both of those feel so much more obligatory than Morrowind's to me and most of my roleplay characters' personalities would require them to actually do something about what happened (thereby starting the main quest). Those openings kind of made it hard for me to roleplay without lying to myself so I don't like them as much.
 

Zweiblumen

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Mar 21, 2009
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As has been noted before, Jiub is the best of all NPCs ever (possibly exaggerated to some degree by myself) with his warm welcome. Man, now I really want to play Morrowind again.

On another note, Morrowind theme song is the best out of the three.
 

DoPo

"You're not cleared for that."
Jan 30, 2012
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Saviordd1 said:
I'm going with first impressions here, and Skyrim was (In my opinion) a nice way to slide into the universe and the setting, much better than Morrowinds "Get the hell off my boat"
Hmm, now I realise I actually find Morrowind's style actually more immersive. I didn't care I was just thrust into a new universe and people started talking to me about "Dunmer", "Khajiit", etc. It always felt more attention grabbing to me the fact that there apparently is this big world out there and you're not treated like something exceedingly special. Other games (including TES ones) would immediately try to make it as if the random schmuck you just made is immediately important...while you're still a random schmuck trying to scrounge the money to buy a pair of boots with actual defence value. It always feels out of place. Also, double goes for exposition dumps and weird, uncanny explanations ("Hey, don't forget we use coins for currency", "If you hit an enemy with a pointy stick, it would hurt them" - whoever ever says that in reality is a fucking moron. Or stoned, I guess. Don't know if there is a difference, but at any rate, it's not something I like hearing from NPCs). Being put into a world where people don't try to explain to you stuff children should logically know is way better, IMO.
 

piinyouri

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Mar 18, 2012
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The one were you start in chains/prison/bondage.

Seriously though, probably Morrowind for the afore mentioned reason that it's short and sweet.
 

jollybarracuda

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Oct 7, 2011
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Morrowind's intro is leaps and bounds my favorite intro for a TES game. It's pretty much just waking up on a boat, creating your character, and then jumping right into the game. No story sequences or dungeon to get through. It does suffer from not making the main quest feel very immediate, but that also helps it down the line, as the main quest starts out with just a few delivery missions before really getting anywhere interesting.

So yah, Morrowind. (Please let the Skywind project be available to us soon!)
 

likalaruku

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Nov 29, 2008
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Morrowind, because during Skyrim & Oblivion's opening sequences, I'm too busy being thinking about how much better the Morrowind version of the theme song was.
 

00slash00

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Dec 29, 2009
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all the elder scrolls intros kinda suck. morrowind, as people have said, is good only because it was so short it was barely there. i liked oblivions intro the best, but it may not hold up as well today. i could tell skyrims intro was supposed to be epic, but it just dragged. just getting to the town felt like it took forever. mostly just gave me time to appreciate how crappy the textures looked
 

joshuaayt

Vocal SJW
Nov 15, 2009
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Morrowind, by several miles. "A'ight, here you are, on an island. Go to Balmora eventually. Know where that is? Fuck you, figure it out yourself."

All three of the games listed let you get lost, but in Morrowind you were lost by default- The world felt at its strangest, and most mysterious, when you didn't have an obvious task thrust upon you by the fates, because you didn't have that reason to forge ahead.

I wasn't too fond of Oblivion's intro, because it was a frustratingly long cavewalk and the story really wasn't that interesting, but leaving that cave and seeing the gorgeous, vibrant outside world for the first time was admittedly all the sweeter for your captivity in darkland.
Plus you could make a save right before leaving the cave, and remake your character there, so you only really had to see it once.

Skyrim didn't have that sudden contrast with the pretty colors, because you started outside, and you couldn't skip the intro with clever saving, so...
Fuck Skyrim's intro.
 

BreakfastMan

Scandinavian Jawbreaker
Jul 22, 2010
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undeadsuitor said:
DoPo said:
"Wake up. Stand up. There you go. You were dreaming. What's your name?"
Those words, and Azura's speech from intro vid, still haunt me to this day. They set the scene better in 5 minutes than Skyrim's did in 30.
Oh, god yes. I got chills just reading that sentence again and remembering that film (good chills, mind you). No other game in the series will ever be able to touch the level of emotion Morrowind's opening instills in me. I mean yeah, Skyrim's was very well executed and exciting, but it will never really compare to Morrowind's to me.
 

RedDeadFred

Illusions, Michael!
May 13, 2009
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Depends. First play-through -Skyrim because it is actually really awesome.

Every other play-through -Morrowind because it is short.

Of course, there are mods to make you opening way different in all of the games if you choose to.
 

Reaper195

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Jul 5, 2009
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The one where you start off as a prisoner.

I've never played Morrowind before, and I played Oblivion a couple of times many, many years ago. Skyrim is the most I've played of an Elder Scrolls game, and was the game that really introduced me into medieval fantasy (The first being Game of Thrones, but that featured much less fantasy than Skyrim). So I can really only say Skyrim, since I've never seen Morrowind's, and Oblivion was too far long ago to really remember.
 

OneOfTheMichael's

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Jul 26, 2010
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Skyrim, though it's being reconsidered because I find a very annoying glitch happening everytime I attempt a new game, I get stuck at the chopping block because glitched alduin just flies around aimlessly for hours
 

Lygus

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Apr 7, 2013
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Morrowind. Simply because it requires player's imagination, gets you thinking what's happening around here and motivates to ask questions and find out everything on your own. THAT is what I call an adventure.

Skyrim intro is perfectly suited for an action game, but for RPG... Fuck it.
 

endtherapture

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Nov 14, 2011
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Lygus said:
Skyrim intro is perfectly suited for an action game, but for RPG... Fuck it.
Tons of RPGs have big opening sequences with loads of action and exposition - Baldur's Gate 2, Kingdoms of Amalur, Dragon Age, Torchlight 2, Dark Souls etc.
 

Sandernista

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Feb 26, 2009
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undeadsuitor said:
DoPo said:
"Wake up. Stand up. There you go. You were dreaming. What's your name?"
Those words, and Azura's speech from intro vid, still haunt me to this day. They set the scene better in 5 minutes than Skyrim's did in 30.
Even last night's storm couldn't wake you.

I read in St. Jiuub's voice, and so did you.

OP: Morrowind has the best by far.
 

excalipoor

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Jan 16, 2011
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Of the three, I preferred Oblivion's, but only the first time around. Morrowind's is quick and neat, giving you the essentials and nothing else. The whole world feels open right from the start. It's great for people like myself who can't stick to a single character.
 

DoPo

"You're not cleared for that."
Jan 30, 2012
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Jove said:
Ok you're on a boat...no idea why.
You're being transported to Vvardenfell. It becomes quickly apparent. The emperor ordered your release and your relocation.

Jove said:
You're also a prisoner...you don't know why.
Neither do you in Oblivion. Also, why does it matter? In Skyrim you've been "caught trying to cross the border" - that doesn't really do it justice to me - ck did he stay afterwards. So he was trying to enter. Why? Why would a Khajiit be sneaking into Skyrim? Makes no sense. Or an Argonian. I can understand some others but, again, we lack motivation to properly justify it. I'd certainly file that under "don't know why you're a prisoner"

Jove said:
You go up and fill out your information about your class and everything else about yourself and then you leave without having a goddamn clue what to do and why you should care.
Erm, you're given a clue. You are to deliver a package to Caius Cosades in Balmora. After talking to people in town would you'll quickly find out that you can try either waling on foot and following the signs along the road or just taking a cab bug for a small fee. Once you meet Caius, you are given some money, a place to stay and he points you towards the guilds for basic quests and money income.

Or you can just bugger off, if you wish before or after Caius. Oblivion sort of doesn't work in that respect "Ugh, I'm the emperor and a scripted sequence just stabbed me to death - here is a trinket, you have to save the world with it" - you are supposed to care but I couldn't. If you do bugger off it just comes off as something douche-y.