Elder Scrolls: Castles is the latest installment in Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls series. MeinMMO editor Sophia grabbed the crown for you and took a look. Spoiler: Their king was murdered after a day and his one-year-old daughter now rules.
Bethesda has now released the second mobile spin-off for the Elder Scrolls series, Elder Scrolls: Castles. The game is based on the principle of Fallout Shelter with a pinch of Elder Scrolls: Blades.
I’ve been playing for over a week now and have watched the game. First of all: you will have fun if you like Elder Scrolls.
Murdered kings, immature successors and bad decisions
For me, Castles starts with the assassination of the king. No, not the one from the title, but his father Odar. He probably did things a little too much and his wife was fed up with his infidelity. A lightning-fast Argonian gets rid of him and I can now play his son Jofarr.
Who I promptly let marry his father’s mistress. Of course this annoys Queen Mother, but whatever. The ex-mistress and the king have a sweet little daughter together – the succession is secured.
And that’s also important, because this king doesn’t last long either: once underestimated the mildew on the fields and once messed with the magician too much? If the people’s satisfaction sinks into the basement. It was one bad decision too many for one (un)loyal subject and the second king was assassinated.
It’s good that the one-year-old daughter still exists. Hopefully she makes the right decisions. Ultimately, that’s what Castles is about: making decisions and collecting resources.
Basically, it’s an evolution of Fallout Shelter and Elder Scrolls Blades. Bethesda released the former in 2015, a few months before the release of Fallout 4. Blades, on the other hand, went live in 2019.
I have played both games and have to say: Castles skillfully develops the well-known functions of Fallout Shelter and mixes it with the best of Blades with known and unknown lore from the Elder Scrolls series.
At Talos – you can only do it wrong!
The main task in Castles is to satisfy your subjects. To do this, you build raw material farms and workshops in which your subjects work every day. A little later in the game you can also send up to three castle residents on quests and collect rewards.
Collecting, crafting and having children
In addition to collecting raw materials, the most important mechanics are the decisions you make for your ruler. This could be burning down fields with the above-mentioned mildew or quickly harvesting them before things get bad. A little tip: This can lead to assassinated kings.
But you are also dispute mediators and couples counselors: High elves keep coming and complaining about Talos worship. If you have sent two characters to bed together who actually already have partners, you have to settle the marital dispute.
The mating of your subjects is also a matter that definitely requires the attention of your Serene Highnesses themselves:
Your couple’s children take on the characters of their parents. So if you let castle residents with efficiency-enhancing traits have children, you’ll soon have an army of highly specialized workers. Or you do it like me and live in the drama.
Off to battle
Questing, on the other hand, personally reminds me of a better version of Blades: Instead of going through 3D dungeons, which just don’t look good on smartphones, your three fighters walk on a 2D battlefield by themselves.
There you can let them decide for themselves who to attack, or set them on specific opponents. In addition, depending on the weapon equipped, each character has a special ability that you can unleash on your opponents.
After successful completion, resources and experience points are rewarded. If you have completed up to three dungeon-dependent challenges, you will receive a bonus.
Of microtransactions and Elder Scrolls lore
All in all, Castles is a solid mobile game. It temporarily satisfies the hunger for more Elder Scrolls games. A new expansion for Elder Scrolls Online is already in sight. The Elder Scrolls 6, on the other hand, is still a long time coming.
As with most online and mobile titles, you have to be prepared for microtransactions here too. For example, the Emperor’s Package is touted in almost every level-up. This is very annoying at the beginning because you reach higher levels very quickly at the beginning. Since around level 30 everything has been a little slower.
The buttons scattered here and there for more potions don’t have much of an impact for me personally. But: I generally try to avoid microtransactions and have also actively decided against them in Castles. So far I haven’t had any problems because of it.
However, Bethesda is not reinventing the wheel with the game. You play it because you either enjoy relaxing building games or because you want to know what happens when an Argonian and a Khajiit have a baby.
I’m having fun with the game, even though I actually avoid mobile games – only Pokémon GO has a permanent place on my phone. In fact, Castles is full of references to the main games and their lore, which makes me incredibly happy: there are Talos-phobic High Elves, The Buxom Argonian Maiden, and Tamriel at the height of the Empire.
So Castles stays on my phone for a while and keeps me company. At least until I install Skyrim for the Xth time. Or until I try Elder Scrolls online again. By the way, we also have an exciting article about this here: MMORPG ESO was a flop in 2014, today it’s huge – developer says: That’s because of a man