When it comes to Bethesda’s iconicElder Scrollsseries, there are probably several titles that immediately spring to mind. Releases like 2006’sThe Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivionand2011’sThe Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrimare probably among the most popular titles in Bethesda’s long-running franchise, withSkyrimin particular remaining at the forefront forElder Scrollscontent for years after its initial release. Fans are also excited about the next long-awaited entry inThe Elder Scrollsseries, which is set to release sometime in the next few years, but there are still plenty of other mainline games and spin-offs that shouldn’t be discounted.
One of these,An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire, could potentially be coming back on player radars if Microsoft has anything to say about it. It may have first launched way back in 1997, butBattlespiremight be making a comeback thanks to Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda. With the aim to get evenmore Bethesda titles onto Xbox Game Pass, players might see someThe Elder Scrollsgames likeBattlespiremaking their way across in the future. If that’s the case, gamers might want to read up on whatBattlespireactually is and what they can expect from the title.
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Gameplay, Setting, And Plot
Originally designed as an expansion forThe Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall, Battlespireis a bit of a departure from what fans had seen ofThe Elder Scrollsup to that point. Battlespire, the tower that gives the game its name, is animperial academy of magic that trains battlemagesand members of the Shadow Legion. The tower is located in a pocket dimension in between various planes and floats on a large rock among the bizarre, otherworldly landscape. But it wasn’t just the location’s visuals that set it apart from previous games.
Theaction-adventure dungeon crawlerintroduced multiplayer to the franchise and also did away with features like the ability to rest, the reset of enemies when leaving an area, and the availability of merchants to purchase items from. Every NPC that players encountered could be spoken to, including enemies, which added an interesting layer to the gameplay.
Players could choose to play as one of six familiar races, including Nords, Bretons, and various races of Mer. They took on the role of an apprentice at the Battlespire, whose final test is disrupted after the tower is attacked.Battlespirealso introduced Daedric Prince Mehrunes Dagonas the main antagonist, and gamers had to fight their way through various realms of Oblivion to defeat him.
The Future Of Battlespire
The world ofElder Scrollshas a long and rich history of lore and worldbuilding, with the games spanning many different eras and regions of Tamriel. Some of the older games have been overlooked or have fallen into obscurity, mainly because of their age and their restrictions based on what platforms they can be played on, like the MS-DOS operating system required forBattlespire. Video games have obviously moved on a lot sinceBattlespirewas first released in 1997, and glimpses of the game in action might make players question if it would even be playable nowadays when action RPGs have modernized so extensively in comparison.
