The Elder Scrolls 6 is in development and we hope that Todd Howard and Bethesda plan to give us a living world with NPCs that are well made.

The Elder Scrolls 6 is one of the most awaited games of the last decade. Bethesda Game Studios and Todd Howard made history back in 2011 with the release of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, which is now considered one of the best games ever made. And now, Bethesda has the chance to build upon its legendary RPG formula and learn from past mistakes.

Times have changed, and we need better NPCs. | Image Credit: BioWare

Not just the studio’s own mistakes though. Today we’re looking at the problem of bland NPCs in games. This is a problem we saw most recently with BioWare’s Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which had lackluster NPCs with bland writing that was just unexpected. Given how crucial NPCs have become to modern storytelling, we need Elder Scrolls 6 to go all out on NPCs.

Todd Howard and Bethesda need to upgrade the NPCs in the Elder Scrolls 6

Show us a world that’s alive please. | Image Credit: Bethesda Game Studios

One of the biggest complaints about Dragon Age: The Veilguard was that its NPCs felt lifeless, robotic, and uninspired. It was part of the many problems we found alongside its overly safe and sterile writing. The character dialogue ended up sounding more like workplace meetings than organic conversations. That’s what Bethesda and Todd Howard need to look out for in The Elder Scrolls 6.

This isn’t exclusive to The Veilguard though, it’s one of the weak parts of even The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, a game known as one of the best ever made. NPCs in Skyrim were often rigid, had predictable schedules, had limited interactions, and repeated the same generic dialogue lines. But we know that Skyrim had so many good things going for it that these issues were barely noticeable.

The thing is, with how long we’ve waited for the Elder Scrolls 6, expectations are very high. And it’s not entirely unreasonable because we’ve seen games that have done these things well. Games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Cyberpunk 2077 have very good NPC interactions. And because gamers have experienced these games, we now expect NPCs that react dynamically to our actions.

One of Skyrim’s biggest immersion-breaking issues was that nothing significant happened unless we changed it ourselves. There was no progression to social events, guilds didn’t really do anything, and major events only progressed when the player intervened. This made the world feel artificial rather than a living, breathing fantastical world, and we need Elder Scrolls 6 to do that.

There’s a lot of good games out there to take inspiration from

Skyrim is one of the most popular RPGs and is still played today. | Image Credit: Bethesda Game Studios

AI technology has come a long way since Skyrim came out. And despite The Veilguard‘s failure to fully implement this developed technology, there’s still hope for Bethesda. We really do hope that TES6 grasps the opportunity to revolutionize NPC interactions.

You know what would’ve been really cool? The Nemesis system from Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, but that’s unfortunately locked behind a patent. Another crucial element Bethesda needs to focus on is environmental storytelling. One of the reasons The Veilguard felt so dull was that its world didn’t change in response to the characters who inhabited it.

Todd Howard and his team have a chance to make Elder Scrolls 6 the most immersive game in the series. That won’t happen if they repeat the mistakes of Skyrim or The Veilguard. We know very little to no details about the game and when it’s coming out, so let’s just hope Bethesda is locked in.