The ****, I looked that up months ago and all I got was links to mods.

^I think Oblivion is better than any other Elder Scrolls game. That's just my own opinion though.

this was the first video game I ever bought for myself and it's continued to be my favorite game and the one ive sunk the most time into by far.

personally I think its story is far more interesting than the newer scrolls games and what it lacks in polish (fighting mechanics, graphics, npc standing still all the time, etc) it makes up for in immersion and personality. this could be a combo of nostalgia and personal preference, but the wildly diverse landscapes and factions are better here. it also does smaller things like no fast travel (and by extension a very well worked travelling system), enemies not leveling with you, an infinite amount of spells and magic (levitating, water walking, jump etc that aren't present in later games always irks me plus enchanting is one of the best parts of morrowind), mortal npcs, amongst others that add up to a much better experience as well.

on top of that axes aren't blunt weapons ffs and where the fuck have the spears gone

starting out in morrowind can actually be super frustrating for that reason too. the dice roll combat system looks clumsy as hell when youre missing 90% of sword swings but damn if it doesn't feel great once youre dummying everyone that fucked you up in the earlier stages

That's one of the things I hated about it. Your character just feels like the most useless, geriatric old senile idiot at the start of the game. Your walking speed starts out ridiculously low as well. I also don't like the way the skill improvement system works. The game felt really grindy and boring to me. I really need an RPG to have a decent combat system before I can care.

In other words you require game mechanics to make up for your inability to immerse yourself.

It's a game. It expects me to engage in the use of all sorts of combat mechanics, spell mechanics, etc. etc. , so I'd like those things to be fun to play around with. Nothing breaks immersion quite like getting stuck in a piece of terrain while being attacked by annoying winged creatures that refuse to be hit by more than every 17th blow.

Dragon's Dogma was a perfectly immersive RPG experience for me. I loved the environments and everything was just exciting and well crafted. Some of the most intense RPG missions I've ever played. Loved the forest areas and dark dungeons especially much.

yeah but I think that's also the point. Youre not some unkillable god character at the beginning so its a much better frame of reference for when you eventually become that. It's a slow process but imo the right call for a game like this