25 years ago everything changed for gaming. That was when Bethesda first released The Elder Scrolls Arena. What had started out as a game about gladiatorial combat ( hence the name), evolved into the start of one of the most revered series in gaming.
I wish I could say Arena was like nothing else before it, but that is not exactly true. The game was taking influence from a custom D&D campaign made by the devs after they abandoned the gladiator style gameplay. There is also a clear influence from the Wizardry series as well, but I do not want this to be viewed as a bad thing. It is okay to show your influences, as long as you do something new with that influence.
Arena introduced us to the land of Tamriel and to many ideas and locations that would reoccur. It was here that the lands of Skyrim and Morrowind were first visited and where we first heard the name of Uriel Septim. Several recurring items would appear as well, such as Spellbreaker and the Oghma Infinium. The disappearance of the dwarves is mentioned in this game as well, starting the question of what happened to them,
Obviously there are some differences as well. Many of the artifacts would have their lore changed and the Daedra were not introduced yet. The orcs did not yet receive their unique characterization that would define them in this series, as that came in Daggerfall along with the Daedra. The Khajit and Argonians look different as well, but this point has not been retconned out, merely elaborated on as there being different types of Khajit and the Argonians appearance changing over time in universe.
May ideas introduced here would be tinkered with, such as the name Daggoth Ur being given to a character rather than a place in later games, the Dark Brotherhood would merge its characterization with that of its Daggerfall characterization from Oblivion onward, and so on. Another big change is that later games would have you join guilds, but you could not in Arena. Instead of joining the Mages Guild, you would do freelance jobs for them in this game.
It cannot be overstated how ambitious Arena truly was for the time. It gave us a massive world to learn about and many great quests to engage in. You could create a character to your liking and fast travel was a necessity. It was a bold step forward for RPGs, and everything set up here soon fell into place when Daggerfall followed soon after.
Looking back now, Arena may seem dated but it was a game that changed how RPGs and open world games would be played forever. Not many others can make the same claims.