After the release of The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, Bethesda took an interesting direction. Instead of jumping straight into another mainline RPG, two side games were put into production. One of these two was An Elder Scrolls Legend Battlespire, the last game in the franchise with series creator Julian Lefay at the head.
Battlespire was not like the other games in the series, in that it was mainly a dungeon crawler with linear levels. This is not to say that the game itself is bad, far from it in fact. The game went in a different direction but managed to have a large impact on the series going forward.
Battlespire was the first game to truly explore the realms of Oblivion, and it was quite the experience. while the later game of the same name would show a realm with an influence from Mordor in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films, Battlespire was both more subtle and inspired. The setting gave you a constant feeling of dread and isolation, you were helpless and knew you were in a place where you were not welcome. This created an amazing atmosphere that one can argue influenced many later dark fantasy and horror themed RPGs.
Battlespire didn’t just dip into Oblivion however, as it greatly expanded the lore of the realms and the Daedra first hinted at in Daggerfall. It was here that many of the characterizations took hold and also where we began to see the various lesser Daedra. Battlespire introduced us to the Dremora among others who would become series mainstays, and gave them a distinct society.
The strong visual design by Mark Jones helped this game out immensely, as did the voice acting. This was the first time major voice acting was done in the series and it was handled extremely well. You could speak with the various Daedra like the Dremora and interact with them in various ways, such as negotiating. This added a level of depth and immersion that the series has not really seen since.
On that note, Battlespire was a game about immersion even without many of the traditional RPG elements of the series up to that point. The game and an amazing character creation system that was even deeper than Daggerfall had, and let you truly create the character you wanted in more than just appearance.
Battlespire was not a perfect game. Being made on aging technology caused it to have some issues, and there were major bugs that held it back. In spite of this, I love what the game offered. The multiplayer mode offered an interesting contradiction to the game. The game itself used its music and setting to create a tense atmosphere, but here were other players coming into the game. While the idea was not handled well here, I feel this opened the door for later successful implementation of the concept in games like Dark Souls. This isn’t even mentioning the influence on The Elder Scrolls Online decades later.
Battlespire was different but in a good way, and I feel it helped the series because it tried new things. While it is not a traditional Elder Scrolls game, it is an important Elder Scrolls game. This is one that should be acknowledged more for the role it played in the series evolution.