With Bethesda shadow dropping The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5 last week, many were understandably worried that the Skyblivion project — a work-in-progress mod for Skyrim scheduled for launch in 2025 that's being made by a fiercely dedicated team of community members — was having its thunder stolen by the official release. However, the Skyblivion developers quickly assuaged fears as soon as the remaster's release date was leaked, assuring fans that they believe "both projects can exist and thrive together, offering unique experiences for players."
The team has now expanded on this in the wake of Oblivion Remastered's launch, explaining that while the release from Bethesda and partner Virtuos Games is a true remaster that preserves the original experience and simply elevates it with modern Unreal Engine 5 visuals and other improvements layered over the Gamebryo Engine used for the 2006 RPG, Skyblivion will be more of a full-fledged remake that makes significant changes to Oblivion's worldspace, quests, combat mechanics, and more.
"Oblivion Remastered is gorgeous and, without a doubt, the best way to enjoy the original Oblivion experience as it was in 2006. It brings updated visuals plus some much needed quality-of-life enhancements," wrote team member Evan on the Skyblivion subreddit. "However, it is a 1:1 remaster of the original meaning every item, rock, tree, enemy, and, for the most part, landscape is laid out the same as it was in 2006. Skyblivion is a complete remake of the original Oblivion to bring it up to par with modern RPGs."
The Skyblivion team then proceeded to list out most (but not all) of the changes that the mod makes to the vanilla Oblivion experience, which I'll also list here (with shortened descriptions):
- Every area and interior have been remade, with major changes to many based on context or in-game dialogue (libraries have stocked bookshelves, places described as noble estates are overhauled to look the part)
- Interactable items have either been remade or given a Skyrim model so that every weapon, armor, and miscellaneous item has a unique model
- All of Oblivion's systems and menus have been overhauled, with many "remade or iterated upon" and a new perk system added
- Cities and settlements in Cyrodiil have been reimagined, with some offering entirely new areas to explore and others featuring major design changes inspired by Oblivion concept art
- Restored cut content is also featured, including Sutch — a large city that's been overrun by bandits
- Every in-game sound has been remade, and 22 original music tracks have been composed and added to the existing Oblivion score
- Many boss fights are being reworked into challenging "Legacy Bosses" with scripted elements and unique stages
- Cyrodiil now features many new biomes and weather systems, with each of these also affecting interiors in that region; ruins in a swamp, for example, will have plenty of moss and other types of vegetation growing within
- New enemies seen in The Elder Scrolls Online and other entries have been added, and variants of existing foes have been added as well
On top of all of this, it was also confirmed that since Skyblivion itself is a mod for Skyrim, tons of Skyrim mods will work with Skyblivion without any trouble. With well over 100,000 Skyrim Special Edition mods now available on Nexus Mods, you'll have plenty of ways to tweak Skyblivion to your liking.
Oblivion Remastered is great, but Skyblivion is calling my name
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While Oblivion Remastered is undoubtedly great — the game's critical acclaim, rave reviews from fans, and incredible launch performance with Steam player count peaks of over 200,000 speaks to that plenty — the full-on remake approach that Skyblivion is going for interests me far more. Oblivion's (in)famous jank has always been charming and entertaining, but for me, it also made it difficult to get immersed in its world; that's something I care a great deal about in open-world RPGs, so I've always enjoyed Oblivion less Skyrim or even the older 2003 title Morrowind. Skyblivion seems like it's going to tone that jank down while simultaneously making Oblivion's world more expansive and thoughtfully put together, and that's right up my alley.
I'm glad to see the Skyblivion team remain confident in their vision and continue pushing towards a 2025 release, as this is a project that people have been contributing to since 2012. If you're wondering if you should play Oblivion Remastered first or wait for Skyblivion, I'd say jump into Oblivion Remastered now to experience the classic RPG, and then do a "replay" with Skyblivion once it's out so you can compare it and all of its foundational changes to what is essentially the original experienced plussed up with Unreal Engine 5 graphics and some other quality-of-life adjustments.
Note that Oblivion Remastered is available for $49.99 on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5, though there's a sweet deal on the Steam version of the RPG that knocks it down to just $41.49 at Fanatical. On both Xbox and PC, you also have the option of playing it with Xbox Game Pass. When Skyblivion comes out later this year, it will be free, but also exclusive to the Steam and GOG versions of Skyrim Special Edition. Additionally, you'll also need to own the original Oblivion GOTY Deluxe Edition, as Skyblivion uses files and content from the game.
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