There is very, very, very little chance that Bethesda is going to be releasing The Elder Scrolls VI any time soon. This, of course, is as it should be. If we want an open world fantasy game that absorbs, immerses, and stuns in the same way that Skyrim did back in 2011, we're going to have to strap in for a long wait and let Bethesda take all the time it needs to make sure the sequel is everything it needs to be and more.
So, while we patiently sit around in anticipation of The Elder Scrolls VI dropping some time in 2029, there are plenty of other titles on the horizon that should more than tide us over, including one promising-sounding game that's in the works from an indie studio founded by veterans of the Elder Scrolls series. The currently-unnamed RPG is apparently aiming to be a spiritual successor to The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, one of the earliest games in the popular fantasy franchise.
This new studio is called OnceLost Games, and is made up of some of the key figures from the early days of The Elder Scrolls, including Vijay Lakshman, who was lead designer and producer on Arena (the very first game in the series), Ted Peterson, who worked on the series from Arena to Oblivion, and Julian LeFay, who's known to some as "The Father of The Elder Scrolls."
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It's incredibly early days for the studio's first game, which shouldn't come as a huge surprise given that the the project doesn't have a name yet. The title is currently in pre-production while the team seeks financing for the project, according to an announcement on Discord last month (via PCGamesN). OnceLost did share a few of the "principal game pillars, however, and it sounds like the team is planning an incredibly ambitious title that's "inspired by classic RPGs", is set in a "huge dynamic world" full of "rich lore", and will feature "robust character generation and advancement." It certainly sounds like a Bethesda-style RPG, so I'm here for it so far.
In an AMA on Reddit last year, LeFay told fans that "I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't interested in doing a Daggerfall sequel, or maybe a Daggerfall reinvented." It certainly sounds as if what OnceLost has planned is some kind of spiritual successor to that game, especially with the promise of "non-linear and branching endless quests, which evolve the world, like a great virtual gamemaster running a pen and paper campaign."
It's hard to get too thrilled about such vague details at this stage, but I'm cautiously optimistic, given the pedigree and experience of the team leading this new project. According to the studio, we can look forward to some "excitement announcements" before the end of the year, so hopefully we'll be able to better judge this mysterious RPG soon.
Featured Image Credit: Bethesda/OnceLost GamesTopics: The Elder Scrolls, Bethesda