The Elder Scrolls

The Elder Scrolls is Bethesda's monument to the open-ended fantasy role-playing game. Each mainline entry drops you into a vast province of the world of Tamriel and largely lets you ignore the main quest in favor of wandering, looting, and becoming whoever you decide to be.

Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim each pushed the scale and systems forward, with Skyrim in particular becoming a cultural fixture that Bethesda has re-released for nearly every platform imaginable. The series later branched into a long-running online multiplayer world plus smaller mobile and card-game spin-offs, and its lavish orchestral soundtracks are a franchise signature in their own right.

The appeal comes down to freedom. Few series trust the player to author their own story to quite this degree.

The The Elder Scrolls franchise spans 2 books, 13 games, 3 music in the CrossBinge catalog.