The Elder Scrolls: Arena - Humble beginnings.
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- Do people read the description?
Hey I'm Lycan and in this video I'm looking at the first in The Elder Scrolls franchise. How did it all start? Why is it "forgotten"?
Let's find out.
Not sure why or even how this video has gotten a lot of love recently but thank you to everybody! You all rock, never forget that.
your videos are so underrated the quality is so nice you deserve way more subs
11:00 about RTFM. I was in high school in the nineties. Nobody had Internet access from home. I had homework to do and could only play a few hours a week on the PC.
Reading game manuals used to be a huge part of the gaming experience. I used to plan my parties in Might And Magic 3, I used to read the lore, the rules, the bestiaries. It was a way to play the game when you couldn't play the game. Having an in-game tutorial would actually have wasted my computer time.
The computer was for active gameplay: tactics. The offline time was for planning and thinking: strategy.
The best games would even let you print the dungeon maps so you could study them offline.
The devs knew that kids needed that. Sure, in-game tutorials and lore take space on the disk and developer time. But maybe, having a manual was also a design decision, not just a tech limitation. Manuals let us play the game away from the screen.
That was simply perfectly written! I miss manuals. I really do feel they made a huge part of the experience like you said.
Thank you for this. Seriously.
@@LycaniteTV > Manuals don't really matter nowadays, though. I remember them fondly but I am not sure I miss them. We're all always online, there are wikis and walk-throughs and Let's-Plays by the gigabyte. We're all grown ups making our own decisions because we don't live with our parents.
Kids are the target audience for manuals. Would kids enjoy them today? They would have to read PDFs on their phone, which is super uncomfortable. And they also have access to the wikis and youtube.
Nah, I think manuals were super important in the past, but they don't make much sense anymore.
Not sure where you were in the 90's but beside using a 300 Baud modem on my Commadore 64, I was using Web-crawler to search online in 94 on my 486 PC. I think that was 2400 Baud at the time. Then 14.4, 28.8, 56 and on and on.
This game has such a distinct and specific atmosphere. It came out before my time but for some reason it still invokes feelings of nostalgia.
That's a wonderful way of describing it! It really does make you feel nostalgic.
Humble beginnings indeed, gonna binge your videos right now!
I hope you have a good time with them. Let me know what you honestly think about the video and the games. It's always interesting to hear how others feel about these games.
I was not disappointed. Well done material. Thanks.
Glad to hear it!
This was fun! Another please!
Working on Daggerfall now. Should have the next video out very soon.
ive been looking for videos that analyze early elder scrolls games i’m so glad i found this channel i would love to see you cover battlespire and redguard aswell
I've added Battlespire and Redguard to my ever growing games list so I'll be getting around to them eventually haha. Fear not, friend! And speaking of the early Elder Scrolls games. I just watched one today about Arena that was far better than anything I could ever hope to do by a guy named Jwlar here on RUclips.
I don't think you did anything wrong by using passwall. You found a smart solution that wasn't even a bug or anything like that.
though it can create a bug as I found out years ago hehe.
I really hope they find a way to port Arena to Unity the way they did with DF. I like Arena, I just get impatient with the clunky slow controls
I feel you on that one. I kept thinking how amazing it would be if somebody did come along and give it the same Unity treatment.
Shame how much Arena is overlooked. I had a really good time with it.
Who know maybe we will get it one day, fingers crossed!
There's currently an OpenTESArena project which is basically what you're asking for. Still a long ways away, check it out: www.youtube.com/@afritz1265
@@miguelbranquinho7235 DUDE YES
Wait Dagger Fall is in Unity ?
@@AchillesRage501
Daggerfall isn't in Unity, there's a fanmade Unity port of the game. I can't remember if it requires you to have the game files yourself or not off the top of my head though tbh.
Holy hell man, how is this your first video and it is so well made? I genuine thought im watching Liam Triforce right here. You are gonna blow up real soon
Oh man I hope I don't blow up! That sounds painful! Hahaha I'm kidding of course. Thanks a ton for the lovely comment, it means the whole world to me.
Have a fantastic day!
There is only two games in the TES series I have not finished. Skyrim, cause I always tended to get bored, or distracted by another game, or work, or whatever, so never could finish it, and have a hard time picking up where I left off after months or even years of letting it sit, and so always end up restarting. And Arena. Mostly, cause at the time I could not get past the first dungeon. It might be cause I was just a wee lad at the time, or because I was more into the Wizardry games at the time in the early 2ks. Or maybe cause Daggerfall was already around by the time I got Arena, and actually I am pretty sure that Morrowind was already out. In fact I got both Arena and Daggerfall in one of those dual disk combos things that stores used to sell in those big exagerated boxes. Whatever the reason, I just never did get far into Arena.
God I had a blast playing this game back in 2016, even after Morrowind this game felt like doom but in a medieval world, it felt great to hunt for the daedric artifacts too.
cool shit, glad the algorithm recommended your daggerfall vid! multiple cool videos definitely earns ya a sub 👌
Thanks a ton! I'm super glad you like the videos so far.
You’d be surprised how many game series have people ignore the first two. You should cover some of them.
Castle Wolfenstein 1 and 2, Fallout 1 and 2, Baldurs Gate 1 and 2, Duke Nukem 1 and 2, GTA 1 and 2
You're 100% correct on that. I remember talking to a guy once and telling him that I enjoyed Duke Nukem 1 and he thought I was talking about Duke Nukem 3D. And it's the same with GTA. I've never met a person in real life who has EVER played the first two games on the PS1. Sometimes it feels like I dreamt all those games ahahah.
However I should say (and hopefully you'll be happy to hear this) but I have full plans on covering all the games you mentioned.
@@LycaniteTV Actually as someone who's 100%ed them, GTA 1 and 2 are PC games first and foremost. The controls are not good on PS1 and several missions were cut and censored, plus the multiplayer is cut(Multiplayer that still works on original hardware FYI, Direct IP to IP can never shut down). GTA 1 graphically is mostly intact, but 2 looks terrible and had the Day/Night cycle option removed(PS1 is stuck on Day and Dreamcast at night). Also for years people kept sharing the DOS version of 1 and not the actual windows version.
If you ever want to play those, either get original hardware and use like a Windows XP or 98SE or something(XP worked for me), OR for GTA 1 specifically use the READY2PLAY version my buddy posted on the GTAForums. Works great and also includes both London packs. It's 100% faithful if you want it to be, I compared side to side and I've beaten it both ways. You CAN enable Widescreen or muck with the frame rate, but I keep those checkboxes on stock, thank you very much.
Now, my champion. Rest well this night, for next video we sail for the kingdom... Of Daggerfall!
I hope you enjoy the video! Massive apologizes if you don't haha. However what I will say is i am going to be taking a look at the Unity version sometime soon, everyone has been telling me to check it out and so I shall!
@@LycaniteTV I've loved every second of these videos!
@@alligatorboy2000 That's wonderful to hear! I'm so glad you're enjoying the videos, it really means so much to hear that. I hope they continue bringing you some laughs and smiles.
Take great care of yourself, pal.
The equivalent of the running jump problem you had (and an RTFM) on my end was in Secret of Evermore in Antiqua, where I had been stuck at this river with a lift bridge with its lift on the other side and a broken bridge. I looked around and around 'till either by checking the manual or finding it by accident, you could switch control between the main character and his dog, with the dog being able to leap the gap in the bridge and go to activate the lift bridge and bring it to the main character. Tried out Lidl Choco Pillows cereals after they changed the recipe on the Pirkka ones, making'em less solid and tasty, tho this is a bit too dense in dark choco flavor. Ah well.
Clause? Claws? Oh, CLASS!
Good video, clear sound and voice, very good!
Why thank you!
in arena, you cannot walk from city to city, you must use fast travel
True but at least you could fast travel. If you get lost outside of the city you can always open map.
Will you revisit Redguard and Battlespire? They're often, sadly, left out of these discussions. They were even left out of the TES Anthology.
It might take a little while to get around to but I'll add them both to my list. Thanks for the suggestion!
Just a note on the difficulty level for non magic using classes:
"most" Fighter classes could compensate a bit by using enchanted armor. Plate Mail was the only type of armor that could spawn with essential powers such as passwall and spell reflect. Otherwise you were relying on trinkets.
Of course this is all to say that any thief class was basically boned.
Thanks I was very curious about that!
Lot of people don't seem to know this but you can jump forward by shift+J this let's you jump over short chasms of water and pits. This let's you run from a monster. If you have a bow you can jump over them and fire at them without fear of getting hit. I was doing this as a burglar but probably even more effective as an archer. Very good reason those thief classes have more fitness skills to leap better.
I think in a perfect world there would be some kind of game that combined the best elements from every Elder Scrolls game to create something truly special. Because there's always something to take out of every installment, even this one (as terribly clunky and outdated as it seems to gamers now). Some kind of game with Arena's dungeon design with riddle doors as side content, Morrowind's mechanic of becoming a living god through magic and alchemy plus the branching quest design and faction reputation system, Oblivion's good vibe, flavorful open world and quirky characters, tied together with Skyrim's polished combat, modern graphics and level of detail.
I think you've brought up a very interesting idea. I agree with you and maybe it's a "hot take" and I'll get roasted for saying this but I really do believe if you're creating games and you've got a franchise that's how it SHOULD work. You create something, see what works and what didn't and then for the next one you build upon the best of the game that came before.
There is room for creativity but lets say you add a new feature the fans don't like then you take it out for the next game or at least hear what the complaints are about said feature and try to fix it.
Over the course of my entire Elder Scrolls play through it wasn't hard to notice how many amazing concepts were just tossed out the window in the later games.
I really should have made some sort of video after I finished up Skyrim and sort of discuss the franchise as a whole.
ANYWAY! Sorry for the long winded comment but what can I say! You really did bring up a good point, pal.
Take great care of yourself!
Extremely underrated channel, great vid. You deserve a million more subs, king!
Wowzers! That's some high praise! I'm super happy to hear you believe in this little channel so much. Maybe with enough hard work, dedication and time I might reach the goal you believe I can.
Thank you so very much! Take great care of yourself, pal!
Back in the day, setting aside half a day to read the manual before playing was part of the new game experience. Now, you set aside half a day for the game to download.
I genuinely miss manuals and discs. Back then the entire box was almost like opening a present, you got to see all the neat stuff inside but then they got smaller and the content within started to go away... And then eventually... *sigh*.. Yeah we have nothing much anymore.
I remember playing this on my x3 or 486.... don't remember...but, I did finish the game and beat Jagar Tharn. Collecting the 8 parts? of the staff of chaos?? There was a place called fang lair. Dam I remember all this stuff. I'd really like to see Daggerfall remade. I think microsoft will ruin the Elder Scrolls games and lore. They like pushing their crap on consumers...
Currently on my second playthrough of Arena, my first was on DOSbox and now I've got an actual DOS machine to run the game on
Duuuude that's awesome! I never did say it in my video but I never could get the game running correctly but I'll bet on your DOS machine it runs perfectly, exactly how it should.
@@LycaniteTV Yeah it runs perfect, well, as perfect as Arena can run lol. The load times from CD are brutal though
Just found my new favorite youtuber to watch while I fall asleep check!!
There were actually 2 elder scrolls novels that came out between oblivion and skyrim. I wanna eventually play arena, was gonna wait until playing to watch this, but thatll be a long time
Thanks for the heads up! I'll have to look into those books.
@@LycaniteTV the infernal city and the lord of souls
Despite all classes appearing the same they do have distinct differences that aren't shown in the game. You can Google them or check manual if they are on it.
High Elf and Knight class are immune to paralysis. I didn't have to fight the spiders though there was another way to get the scroll.
Fun fact about Dagoth-Ur: If you try to passwall through it like the Halls of Colossus, you can…Up until the last door. That one is backed up by walls that can’t be passwalled through so you still have to go and get the last key, the diamond key.
Most likely, you’ll collect most if not all of the other keys in the process of looking for it but instead of feeling like you’re getting closer which each key, you’ll feel like you’re collecting junk and got tricked with every key that isn’t the diamond key.
So yeah, the devs definitely got their sweet revenge on Passwall abusers there. (:
my favorite thing about arena is how spell cost works, you don't get more spell points per level, the cost of the spell is the base + by your level :> I remember finding out how passwall lets you get pass SO many puzzles not all but a ton, and then screwed up by saving in a point and getting stuck as I think the walls come back if you reload so was stuck inside the room with the staff piece hehe.
Why am I just getting this video now? Oh my god yes please.
Hope you enjoyed the video, sorry if it was bad.
@@LycaniteTV hell no this video was fantastic I watched all the way through! I’m glad to see more elder scrolls reviews from different creators because you all have different viewpoints that I love to listen to when you get to 1 million subscribers please please let me cook for you
@@ChefQuinn I also love listening to others opinions and views on games, it's fascinating to me.
Thanks for giving my little video a chance and thanks for enjoying it, it means the whole world to me.
As for cooking. Deal haha. I'll see you at 1 million subscribers.
I played as a Warrior in Arena. Yep, can't survive without any magic and Warriors can't use magic! Not normally anyway. That's why there are potions and magic items to let magic-less classes to use magic. I find it funny that the lava becomes as safe as swimming on water after drinking the Resist Fire potion :P Not that it's a bad thing. It works! I like puzzle solutions that can be bought commonly.
Loving this game because you can really play a thief character and there's a lot of houses to plunder. Any other Elder Scrolls games there is a limited number of houses you can steal from.
Great video, wouldn't play this game myself cause Daggerfall exists but its still an interesting game, also you put Dagoth-Ur in instead of the palace
Gotta say, I never actually completed this game. Issue? IT GOT TOO REPETITIVE. Every quest was literally the same. Go there, meet that person, go find an item for them, and then go back and give them the item to get the location of the next piece of the Staff of Chaos. While I love how the game established the lore that later games built upon, and I see how it could've been fun if it wasn't for the repetitive nature, I kinda decided to stop playing the game once I noticed that I was looking at Walkthroughs (I like to play the game without any Walkthroughs and actually experience it as it is). One thing I'd like to note, though, was that during your video, you mentioned that you would see it to be hard to play a Knight/Warrior class of some sort. I personally played a Knight and I found it to be quite easy, actually. I found that same sword that shoots fire, and it was quite OP, allowing me to just kill everyone on a floor very easily and then get lost in the mazes as I see fit. I still love reading about the lore of the game though and seeing what others think of it
I‘ve just discovered your channel. Great review, keep up the good work!
Hey thanks! I'm happy to hear you enjoyed it. It means a lot hearing people had a good time watching the video.
Take care, pal!
If you really love the Elder Scrolls Lore as you say if your not already aware I recommend two channels. Camelworks and FudgeMuppet. Actually a third also which is a second channel of one of the Fudgemuppet guys. It's called Drewmora. These three channels are very Elder Scrolls lore heavy although in the past year or so they have started to diversify. There are 100's of ES lore videos on each. Fudgemuppet even has some lore short stories. Hell one of the stories is feature film length and it's amazing. It's about Reman Cyrodiil.
Those are some great channels! I often enjoy listening to their lore related stuff. They put so much love and effort into their works and I think it's great.
Arena was the one true dungeon crawling experience that Elder Scrolls never delivered again.
I always preferred Arena to Daggerfall, I really hope someone gives it some deserved love like Daggerfall Unity one day.
It really is the odd one out in the Elder Scrolls series for sure. It really was a fun game to play and I do think more people should give it a chance.
I agree with you, I really do hope that one day we will see Arena Unity.
I'm obsessed with Arena, Daggerfall is probably good too but I want to go by order. Though I played Skyrim for a while.
im playing through Arena as well. Also playing the Skyrim mod Skygerfall, that adds the main quest from Daggerfall but its in Skyrims engine. I still need to finish Oblivion >_>
I'm always looking for mods! Ever since starting the channel lots of people have suggested mods for me to make videos on and I've heard Skygerfall.
@@LycaniteTV My first TES Game was Skyrim, then Oblivion, and then Arena and the Skyrim Daggerfall mod. I mod Skyrim to add back in all the stuff Bethesda removed after started "simplifying" stuff.
Im one of those that gets annoyed when RPGS are made Easier to be honest. It feels like a part of its soul gets lost when their made for ease of access.
I also grew up with StarCraft Brood War and the Diablo games.
I played as a warrior only, it was pretty miserable, I mostly ran past enemies in the last 5 dungeons, I bought 99 healmore potions before the final dungeon and used all of them before the final boss, from there I just save scummed until I beat it.
I heard i digress and my first thought was Jay what you doing 😂
The game reminded me of a time of playing Wolfenstein but this was a RPG. Would like to see a remake though. Only did it up to Ice dungeon. I'm having too much fun looting houses. You can go to dungeon once your carry capacity maxes out go back to town if you arrive at night loot the houses until morning then sell your loot then go back to dungeon.
Arena is Amazing for that time. The game is very good when you learn to play.
I know it will probably never happen, but it would be cool if this game and Daggerfall got next gen remakes.
Great video! I beat Arena a few months ago and with that, I have finally beaten all the main elder scrolls games. I'm going to watch your other TES vids now. I'm excited to see your thoughts on Morrowind it's my fav.
Hey, pal! Thanks for the lovely comment. I'm glad you liked the video! It really warms my heart to hear that.
Also congrats on finishing all main line Elder Scrolls games, it's a wild ride, huh?
@@LycaniteTV True I was so happy when I saw that final cutscene.
@@sockymonkieIt was so satisfying to see it, very few people probably haven't ever actually played arena. Let alone actually beat it
Heard Stonekeep was planned to be bigger than it is right now which is pretty crazy. There's another dungeon crawler game caleld Stone Keep hmmm suspicious.
An elder scrolls series you say? Like commented and subscribed 👍
I like that you actually play the game and review it. Way better than most than just review the intro and bash bethesda.
Thanks, I do try my best. Even though this was my first video and I (hopefully) have grown I always do my best to look at the games from both sides.
It's not fair to hate on something just because it's a popular thing to do. I totally understand where your coming from as well just last month I found a video where a person was hating on Bethesda without ever playing their games. Really made me sad.
Random point I wanted to make, I beat the game as a thief by stealing magic items from Mages guilds I could then use as if I was a mage but with the easier leveling curve
I haven't read the description, but hope you found it out.
21:11 or you can use the resist fire spell or potion and swim through it as if it's water
Good to know! Thanks!
This is the only TES I haven't played, looks fun tho
I’m just not getting into TES and read very heavily into lore and where to start, I started playing on but after seeing how long the games are only doing the main quest idk if I can keep up, arena and daggerfall are just really boring and the mechanic of not knowing where to go or what to do isn’t annoying in itself it’s just more I’m wasting my time wandering aimlessly in a world that all looks the same and it’s really off putting. I keep switching every 10 minutes from Arena, daggerfall and morrowind because I’m just so bored by the first two. I really just want to know the lore and the story so I can get into oblivion and Skyrim
15:57 so what's really going on is that 50,000 giants used to live here. Now it's a ghost down.
It promises to be an enjoyable screening.
I got an elven shoulderplate of reflect spells on a dungeon. I was a Knight. I only beat the Game because of that
🎉just subscribed 🎉
Well thank you so very much! I hope I continue to earn that subscribe, pal.
Take fantastic care of yourself and stay awesome!
Again: Thank you.
13:40 yeah kinda not the smartest play not rebinding at the start of the game but what do I know havent played it yet, think ima give it a go today
I might be wrong since it's been a long time but I'm pretty sure in Arena you can't rebind any keys within the game itself. You might be able to through DOSbox but that somewhat defeats the point of trying to play the game as close to the actual launch state of the game.
As for yourself giving it a go I do recommend it. I had a surprisingly good time and I hope you do as well.
Take care and good luck, pal!
10:32 90s gamers were hard core lmao
Sure were. I'll never forget "RTFM" for as long as I live, haha.
looks like the algorythm noticed you
Prepare to become famous
Hopefully not to famous hahaha. Jokes aside this video has been getting a lot of attention lately, I was unsure why but hey if people like the video that's all that matters to me.
I just wanna make some people smile.
Just saying hello and thanks before I watch this one ❤❤
And here is a hello right back at you!
If your wondering how a thief gets through the game………………….they don’t.
Warriors you just use a lot of potions and magic items. (I should know I beat it the first time no magic)
We had internet in 1994.
Imagine if they remastered this with unreal engine 5
If I had the money I'd pay somebody to make that. 100%! The more I think back on this game the more I enjoy it.
Arena and darggerfall are not really talked about due to the fact that they play a lot like might and magic 6, a charming era of gamming the highlight of the times was dungeon desgin, epic cut scenes? Membererable characters? No but you went into a cave amd had to learn that cave like your home town to beat it, oh you wanted an epic reward? 9 times out of 10 you get 500 gold, for us that lived thru such days classic would play again but archaic is a understatement
Edit mm 6-8 did better then dagger fell atlest to my thinking
Heavens! I hadn't thought of Might and Magic for years! Damn I never hear many people talk about it. I think my first adventure in that series was either M&M 6 or 8.
It was given to me by a guy who found it at the city dump (along with an entire PC gaming collection somebody tossed out). The game had no box or case it was just the disc, he found that stuff and gave the entire collection of games to me.
The game barely ran at the best of times (due to the level of scratches) but what little I played gave me a ton of joy. Far out man, I hadn't thought about all of that in ages. Thanks for reminding me, what a good time.
Why is it called arena?
Is there ever an arena mentioned?
That's a good question and an interesting story.
In short this game actually started out as a completely different game, it was meant to take place in an actually Arena in which you would fight other team.
You'd do side quests and explore outside of the Arena every so often but the people working in Bethesda at the time had more fun doing those side quests rather than playing the actual Arena parts.
They shifted focus on the game and pretty much remade it but they were out of time and money and the cover of the game was already made (The Elder Scrolls: Arena) and so they just made up some stuff about how the people of the world call this place "An Arena" because of how brutal and violent it is.
That's the short version and there is far more to the story than that but I hope that roughly answered the question.
developers realized that doing side content and exploring the world is much more fun than doing arena which was supposed to be main part of the game
and as Lycanite said, now "arena" means all the tamriel is arena
I'd love to play this game but it constantly crashes, movement is terrible with a mouse instead of WASD, and swinging your weapon with the mouse is abysmal.
it says dagoth ur twice.
The steam port is so hard to play, the pixels make it so bad to play
I played my version on Good Old Games (GOG). You might have better luck with that version, pal.
Take care and good luck!
@@LycaniteTVWhy do you play a game but then be gone with it
arener
*laughs in 35*
0:13 You'd be yelled at by Daggerfall players cuz they're not insignificant minority you know? 😅.
What IS forgoe game is Arena and imho, for a good reason
Daggerfall just does so much better than Arena and Arena feels extra archaic
Excellent videos, distractingly bad cut-in art.
nah bruh
my main gripe is that the towns arent actually connected together in the world.. i like the idea that if i press w i will EVENTUALLY reach the other town.
just watched the video.. the spoiler warning is kinda pointless but i suppose its better to have and not need than get spoiled out of something your interested in.