Todd Howard Needs to Abandon a Skyrim Feature and Do What Hidetaka Miyazaki Did in Elden Ring

The Elder Scrolls 6 is one of the most anticipated RPG titles in recent history, and Bethesda has a unique opportunity to evolve in one particular area. The foundations laid by Skyrim are legendary, but an area that could use improvement is the inventory and storage system.

In Skyrim, players had to purchase their own house, which is how you can safely store your items and clothes. Todd Howard and Bethesda could take a page from Hidetaka Miyazaki’s book and implement a system similar to Elden Ring where players can store the majority of items in their personal inventory.

The Elder Scrolls 6 Needs To Yoink This Elden Ring Feature

In Skyrim, the ability to own homes was a game changer at first, but their utility often boiled down to little more than storage hubs. Players were forced to return home to stash excess loot, creating an unnecessary interruption in exploration. And while that was a realistic system, it came at the expense of gameplay flow.

Spending 5 minutes fighting a boss in elden ring: 😐😔😬

Spending 5 minutes reorganizing my entire inventory so it looks prettier: 👀👀👀 pic.twitter.com/h4K77e565F

— 🌾skewclip🌾 (@skewclip) June 28, 2024

Elden Ring strikes a better balance by allowing players to carry a lot of items and gear without stashing their items somewhere. Items are sent to storage directly when the inventory is full, and consumables are automatically refilled from storage when resting at a Site of Grace. This quality-of-life feature eliminates the need to constantly micromanage inventory.

For The Elder Scrolls 6, allowing players to access their inventory on the fly, with a reasonable limit of course, could be an even bigger game changer. It doesn’t even have to strictly be a direct copy of Miyazaki’s creation. Bethesda can find the best of both worlds.

Me replaying elden ring while keeping my equip load low enough to medium roll pic.twitter.com/V2ufon6zMd

— It’s Luke! (@SSJSpeedRacer) April 8, 2022

To avoid an overpowered system, The Elder Scrolls 6 could use a version of another Elden Ring feature, the Equip Load. In Elden Ring, carrying too much gear results in penalties like slower movement and “fat-rolling” during combat, and it makes you calculate all the time.

But How Would You Balance Such a Thing?

A slight oversight to this is that your Equip Load isn’t affected by the hundreds of items in your inventory, just the armor and weapons you equip. With a similar system that balances these sides, we could get a storage system with a sense of realism while avoiding the issue of constantly needing to offload gear.

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You’d be more free to explore, but not to abuse the system. Players can carry everything they need for a long expedition, but face consequences for hoarding beyond reason. This would add depth without returning to Skyrim’s cumbersome house-centric storage system.

One of the most satisfying aspects of RPGs is collecting and displaying unique gear, and Elder Scrolls 6 should lean into this with better item organization and presentation.

While Skyrim allowed for basic customization of homes and their interiors, the system was rigid and uninspired compared to modern standards. Adding a crafting bench to Elder Scrolls 6 homes, and other cool new decoration features could do very well.

Skyrim’s display cases and mannequins were often clunky and limited, leading many players to avoid using them altogether. Elder Scrolls 6 could have auto-organizing collections or customizable displays so players can decorate their homes without battling glitchy placement mechanics.