Summary
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remasteredhas given players a whole new perspective onSkyrim’s smithing, with some arguing that it’s actually better without and shouldn’t be included inThe Elder Scrolls 6.
Outside of its wonderful pre-reveal round of speculation, leaks, and excitement, one of the most interesting things to come out of Oblivion’s recent remaster ishow it’s impacted The Elder Scrolls fans who had previously only played Skyrim. While Oblivion was plenty popular, Skyrim is another beast entirely and one of the most popular RPGs of all time,so it’s been great seeing how people react to the game before it.
Even better is the fact that a lot of players are discovering thatOblivion is actually a better game in many regards, mostly due to it being less streamlined and hand-holding than Skyrim. One great example of this is Smithing,which is a key mechanic in Skyrimthat’s completely absent from Oblivion, which some argue is for the best.
Smithing Isn’t In Oblivion, And It Seems That A Lot Of People Prefer It That Way
The Elder Scrolls 6 Better Take Notes
For those who don’t remember or are just forgetting after so much Oblivion, Smithing was a skill added toSkyrim that let you use resources to craft weapons and armourto your liking. In Oblivion, though, that’s not a thing at all, and weapons and armour have to be found and then maintained with Repair Hammers.
Over on the Oblivion subreddit,Redditor -Nimzo- shared their thoughts on that big difference and noted that they “don’t miss smithing at all"due to how it encourages them to explore dungeons for loot and actually pay attention to vendors. This push in the right direction towards finding new gear and feeling rewarded even has them hoping that smithing isn’t included in The Elder Scrolls 6, or at least changed around a bit.
As much as I like the idea of gear and loot being more rewarding, Fallout 4 and Starfield both had crafting mechanics and they’re such a staple of RPGs now that I can’t imagine them not being in TES6.
While the post has aton of upvotes and is one of the most popular threads on the subreddit right now, not everyone agrees with the take. A lot of players are saying they miss Smithing as an idea or enjoyed it in Skyrim, but that it needs to be tweaked considerably for The Elder Scrolls 6 instead of being removed.
Others are saying that they don’t mind it being absent from Oblivion since the two games are different, but that they did enjoy it in Skyrim. Even if there is a range of opinions about the mechanic, it seems that most agree that Oblivion is very well-suited without it and that the extra encouragement for exploring goes a long way.
