Elder Scrolls titles like Skyrim and Elder Scrolls Online are extremely well-known, but there are a number of other games from Bethesda Softworks that players may not be aware of, one of the biggest being the Elder Scrolls Travels series. The Elder Scrolls Travels games were made for portable gaming systems, specifically Java-enabled mobile devices. There are four different games in the Elder Scrolls Travels series, while the fifth, Oblivion, meant for PSP, was never released.
These portable games are set within the Elder Scrolls universe, but they each only revolve around a small storyline and limited setting since, at the time of release, mobile gaming devices did not have the capabilities for a full game like Daggerfall or Morrowind. The four Elder Scrolls Travels spin-off games are Stormhold, Dawnstar, Shadowkey, and Oblivion Mobile. They were primarily developed and published by Vir2L Studios in the early 2000s.
While many either never played the Elder Scrolls Travels games or have never even heard of their existence, they remain solid additions to the franchise. The games were not considered overly remarkable even at the time, but they still allowed players to experience parts of the Elder Scrolls universe they could not before. The mobile nature of this series of titles also meant that for the first time, players could experience the world of Tamriel away from PCs or consoles.
The Elder Scrolls Travels: Stormhold - The First Mobile TES Game
Elder Scrolls Travels: Stormhold is a game consisting of randomly-generated dungeons that the player must traverse through in classic RPG style. It was developed exclusively for Java-enabled cellphones and places the player within the Stormhold prison, similar to Markath City's Cidhna Mine quest in Skyrim. The player, dubbed the Master Tunnel Rat, has been wrongfully (or perhaps rightfully) imprisoned by the insane warden Quintus Varus, whose guards intend to work their prisoners to death. It is up to the player to find any allies they can in this hellish jail and overcome the many dangers of the Stormhold prison, eventually facing off against the warden himself.
There are a number of different Elder Scrolls classes to choose from, such as Rogue, Barbarian, Knight, Battlemage and Sorcerer to name a few, each of which is tied to a specific race. For example, all Knights play as Redguards, all Barbarians play as Nords (the native race of Skyrim) and all Sorcerers play as High Elves. There are many different monsters to fight off, some of which can even give the player diseases that drastically affect gameplay, like blindness and even vampirism.
The Elder Scrolls Travels: Dawnstar Took Players To Skyrim
The Elder Scrolls Travels: Dawnstar was also released exclusively for Java-enabled cellphones in August 2004 and is a very simple single-player dungeon crawl. The story revolves around the player as they attempt to find a traitor among four of Dawnstar's champions and put a stop to raids from rival tribes in the north. As with The Elder Scrolls Travels: Stormhold, the player can choose between a number of Elder Scrolls classes with different skills that will determine their race.
There are a number of enemies to fight and NPCs the player can interact with to purchase armor or potions, but a lot of the game revolves around picking up clues from the written dialogue. From these clues, the player must pick the right champion as the traitor or they will lose. Dawnstar received mixed reviews since it included very low-quality graphics and sometimes nonsensical writing, along with a monotonous setting and slow framerate.
The Elder Scrolls Travels: Shadowkey Was Set In The Western Reach
A few months after Dawnstar, The Elder Scrolls Travels: Shadowkey was co-published by Vir2L Studios and TKO Software, made exclusively for the N-Gage platform. Shadowkey has a single-player mode as well as a two-player co-op, allowing players to in on another's adventure via Bluetooth. This free-roaming RPG is set in the Western Reach where the borders of the Elder Scrolls' Skyrim, Hammerfell, and High Rock meet, and the player must travel between these three provinces in the midst of a bloody war. There is a broad range of towns and other locations the payer can visit in their travels, each adding ample flavor and depth to the game.
As with the other Elder Scrolls Travels games, the player can pick from a roster of different races, each one with its own benefits. This time, however, there are far more to choose from as even Kahjiit or Argonaians can be picked, and classes are now chosen independently of race, with the addition of the thief class (one of Skyrim's best builds). The story for Shadowkey centers around an unnamed player who must save their village from pillagers, but then gradually uncovers a much grander scheme at play.
According to the main story, the Shadowmage known as Skelos Undriel is on the run from the Battlemage Jagar Tharn and his agents. Skelos flees to the city of Dragonstar to hide amongst the chaos of the war being waged between the three surrounding provinces, where he then looks for the Star Teeth, powerful artifacts that could control the Umbra'Keth. The Umbra'Keth was a powerful monster born from the terrible conflict between the three provinces, but the player eventually manages to destroy it using the seven Star Teeth they've collected.
The Elder Scrolls Travels: Oblivion Mobile Retold The Main Story
The final Elder Scrolls Travels game was an adaptation of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion that was developed for mobile platforms by Vir2L Studios. The game largely follows the same story of Oblivion's main quest. Oblivion Mobile is a fairly simple two-dimensional game set in the land of Cyrodiil wherein the player must find the true heir to the Empire and prevent the Daedra from pouring into Tamriel from their realm of Oblivion.
The game's story is congruent with The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion's, and the mobile version allows the player to experience the same setting and situations, albeit with much simpler graphics and gaming mechanics. As is a staple for The Elder Scrolls titles, the player must choose their class, each of which grants them specific armor and abilities. Oblivion Online was mainly a way for players to experience Bethesda's newest big release at the time even if they didn't have their own computers.
The Elder Scrolls Travels games are titles that were intended for mobile, and as such never drew as much attention as Elder Scrolls games like Morrowind or Skyrim. Those that have played them may have vastly differing opinions on their greatness, but their existence is a testament to Bethesda's determination not to exclude the mobile gaming market even at the platform's very conception. The Elder Scrolls universe is only ever enriched by each addition, so whether the games are considered worth playing or not, fans can still be glad they exist.
