They did. They're called slaughterfish. But every fantasy game in existence has real life creatures in it as well, so why not fish?

Yeah, they should be called Chalmon or something. And, swords shouldn't be called swords, they should be called schwoerds or something.

Okay, I'm being sarcastic.

+1

A bit more variety wouldn't hurt but I like the style and feel of Skyrim.

Might have something to do with the climate. Skyrim is pretty much cold and covered in mountains. The water creatures found in the past games probably wouldn't survive the freezing waters of Skyrim. Not to mention the Mountains that are at the borders between the provinces that may be keeping the other creatures out. Cold cold cold.

Heh.
It's far better to stick with names that can be related to, when you try to make names up you can often ruin the suspension of disbelief if you flub it.

Add more pics to your blog please, your character looks pretty awesome.

But yeah, no need to reinvent the wheel if its already there.

I think the OP makes a great point. One that has struck me.

While there are some fantasy type creatures in Skyrim, it is all strikingly earth like. So much so that things like Khajiits seem way out of place. There seems to be a progression

Morrowind - pretty much everything creatures was not just a fantasy creature, but a fantasy creature unique to Elder Scrolls (eg nix hounds, cliffracers, dreughs, scribs, netches, Ogrims etc. Not standard fantasy creatures but unique fantasy creatures

Oblivion - had real world animals (bears, boars, deer, etc), and a lot of standard fantasy creatures from earth mythology (minotaurs, ogres, imps, trolls, etc) though sometimes with a Elder Scrolls spin. Apparently a lot of Morrowind fans dislike the intro of real world animals and "real world fantasy" creatures, and felt that diluted the Elder Scrolls franchise. Some (not all of course) seemed to then develop a "hatred" for Oblivion that resulted in a complete dismissal of the game. For me I started with oblivion so the real world aspect never bothered me much.

Skyrim - largely real world with just a few fantasy creatures.


I'm wondering if Bethesda will or even should just give up the Elder Scrolls motif and lore entirely in TES VI or VII, and just go with a real world Medieval world with some fantasy thrown in.

This is just my opinion, but I like real animals in the game. This is Skyrim. Which means it is a cold land that caterers to Furry creatures that have adapted to its climate. Its only when you get further from civilization that a character runs into the more fantastic and Supernatural creatures. Lets face it, the Nords are Infamous for drawing thier swords and swinging first and asking questions later. Who knows, maybe a 1000 years ago, Skyrim might have been filled with all sorts of manner of mystical creatures. If so, the Nords have done a pretty good job wiping them out of existence.

But, I am more than fine with the number of fantasy creatures in the game. Granted, my main is a level 71 Bosmer, who has seen and done just about everything. And this is only since after Christmas when I first opened my Collector's Edition of TES: Skyrim. Man, those were a long 6 weeks of waiting to play the game!

I disagree.
There are dragons, trolls, giant spiders (made famous by Tolkein), giants, beast races like Argonians and Khajiits, mages, elves, ancient dwarven underground ruins, witches etc.
And minotaurs and such are mythological creatures, not fantasy creatures

I agree with you op. Skyrim doesn't have a "Epic Fantasy" feel to it, it has a more dark, mature and gritty feel like a Conan book. However I think that is what Bethesda was aiming for, a harsh frozen north land, ruled by large muscular men who have a distaste for maigc and live a very rough life style. I was expecting a epic fantasy feel myself, however I still think they did a good job and portrayed the type of environment they were looking for.

Spriggans are not "nature gods" at all in TES.

Automatons powered by magical gems fueled by souls of bound creatures isn't fantastical?

What the [censored] are you expecting? Just because the game doesnt have the kinds of fantastical creatures you want foesnt make it any less of a fantasy world. And as mentioned, there are many fantastical creatures. More then Morrowind and Oblivion.

Sci-fi is basically fantasy on the other end of the time spectrum. Fantastical technology in an advanced world. Albiet, Steampunk is considered sci-fi as their stories are often beyond our time yet still Victorian themed.

As i mentioned, sci-fi is just the same as fantasy but on the other end of the spectrum. Things like Death claws are indeed fantastical creatures, but they were brought about in a very science fictional way.

There are different types of fantasy. Like you said Sci-fi is a type of fantasy, but do you search for it by the word fantasy, or sci-fi? The problem with the OP is he worded things wrong, it's not that the game doesn't offer a fantasy feeling, nor is it that it doesn't offer magical creatures.

It doesn't have a "Epic Fantasy" feel to it, and I agree with him. When I played it I said "Wow this reminds me a lot of Robert's books and how he tried to blend magical elements with realism." Skyrim does have that feeling, and he was just expressing his feelings that he felt it would be a little more "epic fantasy" like the last two but it isn't and he is right.

You lost me at Unicorn.

Aside from the oblivion gates, Oblivion is simply a midevil RPG, and Skyrim has dragons. The worlds were made based off actual biomes, so i see nothing that sets Oblivion above Skyrim in terms of "epicness".

Probably the only difference is Skyrim has better designed landscaping, which allows it to connect to home easier.

In the end, its all opinion based, and he is not "right" about Skyrim being less "epic". Its his opinion.

Fist off I think that Bethesda did a good job and I think that they portrayed the type of fantasy they were looking to do.

However Epic Fantasy refers to a genre of fantasy where magic is dominate and it is widely populated with magical creatures, which is kind of the feeling both Morrowind and Oblivion gave us. Now Skyrim does have magical creatures, a fact we already both agreed on.

However it doesn't have this sense that magic drives everything such as a Dragon Lance book conveys. It is more of a world that lacks magic, where people that use it are far and few between, and you really don't see any magic influncing nature, such as floating land masses. It tries to be a dark gritty game, in area that has little magical influence, much like a Robert E. Howard book is written. To me I would call it "Gritty Fantasy", now I don't think that is really a fantasy genre, but this game in no way reminds me of a Everquest, or Dungeons and Dragons game.

Ill put it like this. Oblivion reminded me of Dragon Lance, of DnD and Everquest, it had that "feeling" of magic to it. Skyrim reminds me of Conan, Beowulf and Season of the witch. They are all fantasy, but they have their own "feeling" of magic to them. I think that is all the OP was trying to say, he expected more of DnD, and got Conan instead. I agree, I think Skyrim did a good job and I think they made the world that they wanted to make, but I felt the same way too. Not that it makes the game bad, it just makes it FEEL different.

In a way,In oblivion there was a sense that something was watching you and protecting you from afar, it was VERY hopeful, however in Skyrim that feelings not there, there's teens being molested, Children being teared apart by werewolves , A conflict with both sides being human and very grey, It has a familiar feel to things such as "Warhammer:40k" not "Lord of the rings"

I'm not saying Bethesda did a bad job at all. I think they did a great job with Skyrim. I am very happy with it.

Dragons, according to TES lore, use magic to fly. They are the very definition of magical creatures. The shouts are, IIRC magical in nature. So whether you see it or not, there is quite a bit of magic, and it dominates much of the TES world. There is even a level of perpetual unchanging...ness... where as time seems to be in a stand still as far as technological progression is concerned. Basically magic has filled the need for technological innovations, and has essentially put them in a standstill, if not a slow downfall of sorts.



I thing the issue here is we are agreeing but wording things differently, so it seems like a dispute. o.0

I don't get that vibe, at all. I think the game's ubiquitous humor dissipates all that (horrible bards, cicero, crazy talos worshipper, trolls' comical animations, NPC one-liners, etc. etc..). I thought Dragon Age: Origins felt much, much darker.

Anyway, there I am, wearing enchanted tavern clothes that fill me with health and vigour and a pair of boots that enable me to strike at my enemies' weak spots, killing Ice Wraiths with the Ghostblade and wall of flames, under two moons which are a dead god's body, looking up at the holes torn in Oblivion by the children of the god who designed the world, but didn't realise it was a trap to ensure permanency through change until it was almost too late, with a gem given to me by the Lady of Dusk and Dawn that can trap life energies from dying creatures in my pocket, and I thinks to meself, "well look at this beautiful world. So fantastic, so bizarre, so full of improbability and paradox, and yet it all feels so normal. How we all take it for granted. Why, the reason I can't reach those stars is that a spirit from before linear time died, and it's essence became 'things fall toward the centre of Nirn'. I feel the wind in my hair, and know I am blessed with the breath of Kyne. How utterly sublime is our everyday reality, and no messing."

Stay away from http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Hircine then

Final Fantasy........that's my only comment


It was an example. Not to say Skyrim needs unicorns.

Perhaps Ogres, Minotaurs and the other fantasy creatures not overly present in Skyrim simply don't thrive in the cold weather or fled that area a long long time ago because it was basicly the Dragon stronghold and no matter how stupid of a mythological creature you are, when an area is controlled by gigantic flying fire-breathing monsters with large appetites its usully in self-preservation or basic survival to leave the area, and they probably just never went back once they found warmer climates to the south.

Larger myth creaters like the Ogres live in caves, but in skyrim there would be too much competition with the Trolls and Udyfrukets over caves, This is pretty common in our real world as well in which certain areas of the world have creatures that other areas don't, not even including different continents but in the same nation you can have one kind of animal that only lives in the north and the people in the south of the area have never seen because of food, climate or competetion with another spceies of animal.

This is also why there are no Racers in Skyrim, because of the dragons, and no dragons in Morrowind, because of the Racers.. There isn't enough sky for both of them.

because floating snake skeletons made of ice giants four tusked mammoths and sabretoothed tigers werewolves and vampires ghosts and people with plants that act as there hearts three tusked walruses and dragons are so mundane and ordinary. but dont get me wrong skyrim isnt a high fantasy game they said that during development maybe next game we will get a high fantasy game especcially if its anything but hammerfell. theyve pretty much exhausted all the dull places odds are in favor of the next game being high fantasy but in all that imagination and innovation i do hope they keep a shred of familiarity or at the least biological believability.

so final fantasy is the only series allowed to have machines in an ancient setting? machinery is an iconic trait of the dwemer and there ruins it has nothing to do with final fantasy.