remasters

Sure, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered and Skyblivion either already have dropped this year or are set to arrive before 2025 is done. But the people crave more revamps of classic TES games, and the modders behind Skywind – a remake of Morrowind in Skyrim’s engine – have just dropped a fresh gameplay showcase.

Yep, in case you forgot, a group of folks have been dilligently working away on their own modernised interpretation of the game about taking a long walk to a mountain so the most charismatic being ever to rock a loincloth/mask combo can chat you up because you’re a reincarnation of his dead mate.

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This latest look at Skywind is a 20-minute long run through of the Imperial Legion quest to rescue Joncis Dalomax, a knight errant who’s ended up stuck in the Daedric Shrine of Ashurnibibi.

After picking up the mission from Imsin the Dreamer, whose revamped templar knight armour looks damn cool here, at the Buckmoth Legion Fort south of Ald’ruhn, the devs’ Dunmer adventurer makes their way to the shrine, running into a bandit shakdown on the way. They score bonus TES points for emplying the age-old tactic of giving up some cash, then immediately murder-deathing the robber to get it back.

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While there are plenty of cool details – I like the slightly Morrowindy visual flair that’s been added to the ver SkyUI-ish interface all of these Skyrim engine conversions have to use – the aspect of this gameplay showcase I found the most interesting is the architecture of Ashurnibibi. Sure, the exterior of the ruin looks quite Skyrim fort-ish, but once the player’s inside, you can see how much work’s gone into re-creating Morrowind’s otherworldly and jagged Daedric architecture. There are funky patterns on the walls, those weird doors, and murals of death providing the background for skirmishes with the likes of Daedroth and Dremora.

Naturally, this latest bit of gameplay concludes with an update from the Skywind team on their progress, and while the mod’s still without a concrete release date right now, it souns like things are coming along nicely.

“The team has been hard at work this past year and we are excited to share that all 2D art and writing for the base game has now been completed,” the vid’s narrator says, “Other recent advancements include major progress towards creature models and animations, as well as an extensive overhaul of weather, water, and lighting. Additionally, almost all 3000 NPCs have now been cast and voiced.”

Then then go through exactly how each aspect of the mod is progressing, with the bit that caught my attention being that someone’s still needed to play the most important voice acting role – Dagoth Ur. Vivec and Yagrum Bagarn are also still in need of voicebox providers.

Aside from that, the mod team’s looking for volunteers to help develop Skywind, with anyone who has experience “creating 3D clothing models, mixing and mastering voice acting, and implementing assets via the Creation Kit”. Voice file editors, navmeshers, and localisers are also in demand – if any of those fit you, you can head to the mod’s site to apply.

If you want to keep reading about modding that involves revamped versions of old Elder Scrolls games, make sure to check out our series of interviews with Oblivion Remastered modders who’ve been doing cool things – the latest is with ColdTyrant, who’s added a bunch of new faction quests (one of which includes a gacha reward system run by a beloved Morrowind character).

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