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Ive been hearing people complain about the fact Skyrim is going to be low fantasy,
and that people want it to be more like Morrowind's environment style instead of Oblivion's
what is your opinion on this? Are you happy with low fantasy?
People should stay and chat about details they like and dislike about the features we know about Skyrim so far.

I nearly picked low fantasy, because I remember how appreciative I was of the lands in games like Oblivion and Age of Conan, but then I remembered how awesome the zones in WoW and Final Fantays 7 looked, and those games were definitely high-fantasy.

I'm honestly not sure, as I like both. It depends upon the game and its lore, to me.

MasterShadow wrote:I nearly picked low fantasy, because I remember how appreciative I was of the lands in games like Oblivion and Age of Conan, but then I remembered how awesome the zones in WoW and Final Fantays 7 looked, and those games were definitely high-fantasy.

I'm honestly not sure, as I like both. It depends upon the game and its lore, to me.

you make a good point. But for elder scrolls i want it low fantasy, I honestly love it that way. Thats one reason why i like Oblivion so much. Just makes me want to admire Bethesda's master piece of a landscape all day. I cant wait to do this for Skyrim. Im pretty sure ill be admiring it ALOT longer though.

I do like the low fantasy idea for Skyrim, because, by definition, it's a harsh and unforgiving land, and not a place where you're likely to see glowing faeries flitting around meadows with giant mushrooms.

Though, I don't think that the series should adopt this style as their only style for future games and books. The provinces all have unique cultures, and I would expect high fantasy with the aforementioned faeries in places like Valenwood or Summerset.

High fantasy. For it was what sold Morrowind to me. Then to see it go in Oblivion kinda broke the experience a bit. It didn't seem so fun killing rather generic monsters.

I would like to see more interesting flora and fauna in Skyrim.

Spiney wrote:High fantasy. For it was what sold Morrowind to me. Then to see it go in Oblivion kinda broke the experience a bit. It didn't seem so fun killing rather generic monsters.

I would like to see more interesting flora and fauna in Skyrim.

I like the low-fantasy idea, i would like to see those ruins in skyrim have a sort of ancient magic in them though,
making it feel really mystical and such.

mptrj wrote:I do like the low fantasy idea for Skyrim, because, by definition, it's a harsh and unforgiving land, and not a place where you're likely to see glowing faeries flitting around meadows with giant mushrooms.

Though, I don't think that the series should adopt this style as their only style for future games and books. The provinces all have unique cultures, and I would expect high fantasy with the aforementioned faeries in places like Valenwood or Summerset.

Yeah i really wanna play a game based in Summerset, after reading more about Valenwood I want to play in their too.
What province do you want to play in most

jakeuh_hates_dunmer wrote:

mptrj wrote:I do like the low fantasy idea for Skyrim, because, by definition, it's a harsh and unforgiving land, and not a place where you're likely to see glowing faeries flitting around meadows with giant mushrooms.

Though, I don't think that the series should adopt this style as their only style for future games and books. The provinces all have unique cultures, and I would expect high fantasy with the aforementioned faeries in places like Valenwood or Summerset.

Yeah i really wanna play a game based in Summerset, after reading more about Valenwood I want to play in their too.
What province do you want to play in most?

Well, it's pretty off-topic but I would honestly prefer Summerset, since I really want to see the Psijic Order.

Anyway, in response to Spiney, I can see that Morrowind did high fantasy quite well, and one solution I think would be great is that Bethesda could make the towns and cities closer to Morrowind more exotic-looking than the architecture bordering Hammerfell or Cyrodiil. Similar to the way Imperial towns were all very low fantasy in Morrowind.

hmmm, that is a good idea

jakeuh_hates_dunmer wrote:

Spiney wrote:High fantasy. For it was what sold Morrowind to me. Then to see it go in Oblivion kinda broke the experience a bit. It didn't seem so fun killing rather generic monsters.

I would like to see more interesting flora and fauna in Skyrim.

I like the low-fantasy idea, i would like to see those ruins in skyrim have a sort of ancient magic in them though,
making it feel really mystical and such.

Oh they can be mystical and all. But they can still be off the tangent of generic ruins, and have some unique element to them.

Im hoping these ruins will be very different from one another,I also really hope the creatures that will be in these ruins will actually look more like they belong there and live there. In oblivion i hated walking into a cave or an alyeid ruin and just seeing an enemy standing there,facing a wall, making annoying sounds. Im crossing my fingers for enemies showing lots of expression and doing all sorts of animations. Making themselves look at home. Not like their sleep walking

i wont vote low or high. I want something thats in the middle.

There could be low and high fantasy mixed, atleast some of the cities that are near Solstheim could now be heavily inflicted by Dunmer culture, and oder cities and villages could be more nordic/viking like. I also would love too have Dwemer dungeons like in morrowind with all dwemer creatures we know, maybe a few new and on the other hand in the snowy , icy regions of skyrim falmer ruins like cities of snow, icy caves and so on.

yeahh i agree
i hate to sound dumb, but i would honestly enjoy like a few forts or something near cyrodil, maybe some unique culture from high rock too!

I liked the low fantasy of Oblivion. There was no sensory overload of colors and crazy structures. However, when I was in the mood for that style, I went to the Shivering Isles.

Oblivion GOTY Edition satisfies both styles, hopefully they will be able to do something like this in Skyrim through the vanilla game or through DLC.

i picked low fantasy, i grew up reading the conan books and comics so im kind of biased. im very pleased with the frazetta-esque art direction the game is going in though.

But would this really be "low-fantasy" i always figured that was in worlds where magic barely exists and is known only to a very small aspect of the population?

I'm happy with High Fantasy - faeries and unicorns and people with green hair and violet eyes are fun and different. That's why I play games and read books like that. To experience something different.

Then again, Low Fantasy can be just as fulfilling and more realistic, making it easier to lose myself.

I guess I don't care, although High would be more interesting.

mptrj wrote:I do like the low fantasy idea for Skyrim, because, by definition, it's a harsh and unforgiving land, and not a place where you're likely to see glowing faeries flitting around meadows with giant mushrooms.

Though, I don't think that the series should adopt this style as their only style for future games and books. The provinces all have unique cultures, and I would expect high fantasy with the aforementioned faeries in places like Valenwood or Summerset.

I agree with mptrj on this one. It just doesn't make sense for Skyrim to be overly high fantasy. I understand that people like seeing some more out of this world creatures and environs, but you have to remember that a rough idea of what Skyrim is has been such (as far as NPCs and books describe) since the beginning. I think it would be a funky move on Beth's part if they suddenly decided that Skyrim was "Vikings....FROM SPACE!"

At any rate, you may be able to expect at least a "mid-fantasy" area or two, apparently there are several different "looks" to the various parts of Skyrim.

What do you mean by "low" and "high" fantasy? I always thought that low fantasy took place in the real world, but with fantasy elements, where high fantasy took place in a clearly different world, so I would choose high fantasy.

I think the definitions have changed over the years, but in a nutshell, Low fantasy tends to refer to "fantasy" elements happening in a logical, (albeit medieval) world. High fantasy tends to feature an alternate world or existence, with stronger fantastical elements.

That being said, with more and more "Higher" fantasy settings coming out (Final Fantasy's more recent entries, as an example. They're waaaay out there lately) the definitions have begun shifting "upward" where High fantasy refers to the crazy, impossible settings and events, where Low fantasy is generally used to describe a more believable or relatable, but still surreal, world. While something like LOTR could be considered a progenitor of High fantasy, given comparisons of late, it would be closer to the new definition of Low Fantasy, especially considering Tolkien states that his Middle Earth is meant to be our Earth, but a long, long time ago. (Relatively "realistic" settings, fairly relatable characters and races, with crazy stuff going down.)

With that in mind, you can look at Morrowind as being "high fantasy" because of its out of this world creatures, and especially the supernatural nature of its plot. Oblivion on the other hand had a more "realistic" vibe, giving you the feeling of it being Earth but maybe 800-1000 years ago, with some really supernatural events happening, so you could consider it "low" fantasy. Low fantasy tends to be grittier, which Oblivion really isn't, but you get the idea.

I understand that this may be an awful explanation, but given the way high and low fantasy have changed, it's hard to describe them accurately.

I loved Morrowind's varied regions. I have a feeling Skyrim will be mostly snowy mountains though. But perhaps we'll get some ashlands to the east, if Red Mountain's eruption reached across the border.

As long as it's lore-friendly (e.g. no tropical islands off the coast) I'd be glad for different environments. Although looking at what they did to Cyrodiil (which, before Oblivion, was supposedly dense jungle) I'm sure Skyrim won't be anything like what we're expecting.

Well, Todd Howard mentioned in the interview that there will be 4-5 distinct regions to Skyrim, so there will be a bit of a variety. I think it's safe to say there will be no tropical environments, but we'll definitely see some creativity.

Oblivion's level of fantasy was fine for me.That said though, I haven't played any fantasy game other than Oblivion. I wouldn't mind,in fact I'd prefer, if Skyrim was less fantastic. It should be more Dark-Age-like. Various forms of Fur,axes,wooden hilt swords. I would not like to see Glass making a return. And,I'd rather see more mundane beasts. Bears,eagles,whales,maned-lions,snow leapords,siberian tigers. Even rhinos would be pretty insane.

I want low fantasy, but in the past two Elder Scrolls games they offered an expansion catering to the fans of the opposite... fantasy style? Like, Morrowind was high fantasy, but Bloodmoon was low fantasy, Oblivion was low fantasy but the Shivering Isles was high (high, high, high) fantasy. I enjoy low fantasy, but high fantasy is fun too, and as they can be kinda hard to mesh effectively, as, say high fantasy stuff in a low fantasy setting wouldn't really make sense, the expansion pattern, I think, works well. I am excited about the inevitably low fantasy Skyrim and it's equally inevitable crazy expansion.
11.11.11

I picked low fantasy, but it really depents on what game it is. Skyrim is supposed to have a viking feel to it, so making it high fantasy ( floating things and stuff) would be silly. But to be fair, I like high fantasy better ( giant mushrooms in morrowind ftw)