Todd Howard Can Top Elden Ring If He Brings a Coveted Skyrim Feature to Elder Scrolls 6

It didn’t take long for FromSoftware and Hidetaka Miyazaki’s beloved open-world action RPG to break records when Elden Ring initially dropped back in 2022. The game managed to ship over 13 million units in its first month of release.

FromSoftware didn’t stop there, as it brought out the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion for the game this year. Just like the base game, it brought many new components to the table that gamers couldn’t get enough of.

However, Bethesda’s upcoming Elder Scrolls 6 can surpass everything we’ve seen in Elden Ring if Todd Howard brings this one feature to the game.

Elder Scrolls 6 Desperately Needs Proper Crafting Mechanics

It’s now been more than six years since Bethesda first announced Elder Scrolls 6. The short teaser didn’t really showcase much other than a sprawling landscape. It’s confirmed that the game is finally in production, but Bethesda still hasn’t shared much about what players can expect.

We’re sure that Todd Howard and his team are working to create a magnum opus. However, it won’t be complete if Bethesda abandons the crafting mechanics we’ve grown to love in the Elder Scrolls series.

In Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, players had the option to craft themselves powerful armor and weapons, cook, and even produce spells. It was undoubtedly one of the best open-world crafting systems because players had the option to either completely dive into crafting or ignore it.

To get the best gear out there, players had to go out of their way, delve into mines, find alchemical materials, and build their path. However, for some odd reason, Bethesda backtracked on the open-ended nature of crafting mechanics in its future games.

All the recent Fallout titles and Starfield basically force players to go out of their way and indulge themselves in crafting or hunting for ingredients. What’s even worse is that the crafting feels repetitive as it’s streamlined and lacks the complexities we saw in Skyrim.

It’s the same problem Elden Ring suffers from as well. All you have to do is beat a boss, locate the hidden area, and get your hands on the required ingredients for crafting gear in the game. It gets quite repetitive in the long run and makes you never want to bother with crafting.

If Howard and his team really want Elder Scrolls 6 to be a bigger hit than Skyrim, the studio must bring back the predecessor’s crafting mechanics. Even though they were complicated, they brought a layer of immersion to the game, which you can’t find in any other RPGs out there.

Elder Scrolls 6 Must Also Support Modding

If there’s one thing Bethesda decides to cut that would cause outrage among fans of the Elder Scrolls franchise, it’s the baked-in mod support. The company made players wait for ages when it came to bringing mod support for Starfield, and gamers weren’t happy.

Day one mod support is essential for Elder Scrolls 6 for various reasons. Some of the best content we’ve seen in Skyrim in the form of new gear, quests, and enemies comes from unofficial mods. Nothing is better than running around a medieval fantasy with a rifle or lightsaber.

We also can’t forget that Bethesda is a company that’s known for buggy game releases. Seriously, you can’t go five minutes on the launch day of any game by the company without wanting to uninstall due to the onslaught of horrendous bugs. These range from simple crashes to corrupting your storage drives.

Without the crucial mod support, gamers would be left waiting for official patches. It’s been a decade since the release of Skyrim, and it still has bugs. If Bethesda can’t do the job itself, it must allow players to fix the issues themselves and play the game.

With that said, would you like to see any other feature in Elder Scrolls 6? Let us know in the comments below.