Link: https://www.gamesradar.com/games/rpg/this-elder-scrolls-like-rpg-gets-better-and-better-its-got-morrowinds-weirdness-skyrims-npc-schedules-and-itll-cost-usd20-max/

The Lantern of the Laughless Saint on Steam (Estimated Release Date: Dec 2026)

Screenshots

Trailer

I thought the visuals/art direction was rather nice. Inspired by Morrowind, but with its own flair. The grain filter on some of the screenshots is gaudy, this is not a pre-2000s movies and grain effects have nothing to do with gaming (old school or otherwise).

Not liking the UI, but I guess it makes sense for a co-op focus.

The ability to cast a jump spell that sends you so high that you won't survive the fall, and being able to kill every NPC, sets up the expectation that we'll have the freedom that Bethesda games promise and basically never deliver. Hopefully this delivers. Sandboxy stuff like that is my jam. I guess I should really try Morrowind at some point, but I've been also been given tons of words of caution of how it will show its age these days.

I guess I should really try Morrowind at some point, but I’ve been also been given tons of words of caution of how it will show its age these days.

I never played it on release and tried it much later in the late 2010s and it felt very playable. There of course elements that are objectively outdated, but most of them are accounted for with mods (that being said I've never played the vanilla version).

I would just get a guided mod list, since manual mod selection and integration can be a massive pain (although with manual modding, you can make the game function in a way that fits your play style). You can often add smaller mods later in your playthrough.

But worth keeping in mind that I don't find many of the game design choices in older games to be outdated. I am personally looking for a role playing game experience in an RPG. I don't find simplifying the UI, making certain elements less information dense and removing text to be a modernization. There are plenty of "real" UI developments that can actually make things more usable without impacting core game design (and Morrowind does need a lot of UI tweaks).

I would just get the GOG version and find a relatively straightforward pre-selected mods guide and see how it goes. There is a reason people still talk so much about it 20+ years later.

I guess I should clarify: I really enjoy RPGs as far back as Fallout and Baldur's Gate, and I even enjoyed the opening hours of the first Wasteland, but there are different growing pains with 3D. One of the ones I expect I'll like the least is real time combat with dice rolls for to-hit chance in first person, not to mention Bethesda's ideas of leveling by doing. And as much as people romanticize the game for not putting a quest marker on your screen and making you pay attention to NPC directions, I've also heard that the reality is a lot of vague and unclear directions, as well as large swathes of repeating dialogue among different NPCs. From my time with KCD1 and 2, the former trying to do less of the map marker and more of the directions stuff, I can see why that's usually just the romanticized version of things and not the reality of it.

That said, I should really just play it. I already have the GOG version in my account; no idea how it got there, but it's there. No better way to see how I'd feel than just to try it.

That's fair. I would just try it, without going overboard on modding (to not waste time if you're not feeling it). If you like RPGs, it's has the potential to a be a very compelling experience that sucks you in.

Nostalgia and romanticization are definitely a thing with older RPG games, but I would argue it's less of an issue with Morrowind (with mods of course) compared to other games.

Yeah, the combat in Morrowind is shit. I basically min-max my way out of it, so it's more of a side thing to exploration and getting into the world. The skill progression system is indeed needlessly convoluted; although I don't mind learning by doing. Both elements can be modded to have more gentle adoption curves.

There are definitely a lot of vague and unclear directions; but I would argue that there is enough going on that this issue is manageable. When I first played it in the late 2010s, I didn't find it to be all that noticeable. It helps that there is a lot to explore and you can just go with the flow. I thought the bad combat experience was much more annoying.

I've never played the original Wasteland. I've watched playthroughs; it clearly had a big influence, not only on Fallout, but computer RPG games in general. I would imagine it was a memorable experience to try it on release and there was a big contrast to Ultima-type fantasy RPGs of the period.

I can't with deal with UI screen with a window into the world UI model. It doesn't add anything to the RPG experience. This is one example of truly outdated UI paradigms. Although I have been meaning to try the remaster.

Okay, as someone who played Morrowind with only OpenMW

• Fighting, at first, sucks. Leveling it to not suck sucks. I get why they did go with it but...yeah. Thankfully you can get used to it.
• Lack of markers is coolio. Descriptions are good enough - got lost only once, and that corresponds with number of bad directions I found playing. And it bolts your focus onto the world, so it's good.
• Level by doing is most prolly my fav system of leveling. But Morrowind also has teachers.
• But graphics are...dated. That's why I used OpenMW. Old 2D games are charming, old 3D games tend to turn less so...