Meet Ayatollah Roxorowski, the hero of the Empire :terrorist:
I played Daggerfall for the first time sometime around '96 when its demo found its way into my computor. Since that time, I think I've started it a bazillion times, but I never managed to finish it. Fuck, I don't think I've even ever touched the main quest much further than meeting with Brisienna and slaying the werewolf for the Daggerfall castle maid.
And today I finished it. The feeling is sort of strange.
Looking back at this playthrough, I think it's kind of funny that people keep whining about the game's random dunjins being terrible to navigate, confusing, bugged and with points of no return. Because honestly, I never had any trouble finding my way through the random quest dungeons, and for the most part, I even thought they were kind of... logical? It gets especially easier once you play for a bit and start recognising patterns from the building blocks that form the dungeons.
The same, however, can't be said for the MOTHERFUCKING MAIN QUEST DUNGEONS, WHAT THE FUCK ARE THOSE FUCKING THINGS.
Some of them certainly aren't bad. In fact, they are rather regular. Like the ones with the lich dust and the werewolf, Shedungent, Orsinium and Woodborne Hall. But then you have Castles fucking Daggerfall, Sentinel and Wayrest or Direnni Tower, which are not only molochean deathtraps, but they also have all those motherfucking completely random levers and switches that you have absolutely no idea what they do, and pulling many of them means getting fucked in the ass one way or another. Also, once you hit level ~14, the game takes a serious turn into the non-fun territory. I guess it doesn't matter if you munchkin'd from the start and your dude has spell reflection up the ass, but fuck me, playing a regular archer with only the bare minimum of magic (+ a fuckton of all kinds of potions) just turned into a huge drag once every dungeon's population was composed 50% of liches. Fuck, even the vampire ancients weren't all that bad because I could kite and shoot them, but the liches? That's a giant lottery. Either it hits a wall with the fireball and explodes itself, or it explodes you (unless you luck out and save vs spell). Same with some of the superpowered lategame human mages and spellswords.
Some of the main quest dunjins were so infuriating that at one moment I just said 'fuck it' and just walkthrough'd through all of them (and I also just kind of wanted to be done with the game already). This includes all three capital castles (I have a hard time choosing which one of those monstrosities was the worst, but it might have been sentinel), Direnni Tower and THAT MOTHERFUCKING ENDGAME DUNJIN.
SERIOUSLY, WHO THE FUCK DESIGNED THE AETHERIUS AND THOUGHT IT WAS A
GOOD IDEA TO MAKE IT LIKE THAT.
Oh yeah, I was also really fucking pissed when I learnt that I'll have to go find Lysandus's Tomb ON FOOT because I told the Underking to go fuck himself, and Elysana's ambush quest didn't give me the location, even though apparently it should have. Hnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg.
I did like the plot, however. The political intrigue runs pretty deep, and it takes a loooong time to decipher everyone's motivations and agendas. I also like how the 'best' endings are arguably the ones where you give the totem to the 'bad' guys, that is, the Underking or Mannimarco.
Daggerfall, fucking Daggerfall.