Given the trajectory of the series (and Bethesda games in general) I have this creeping fear that it's going to be even more watered down than Skyrim is. It seems like with every game Bethesda releases they strip away RPG elements and dialogue and "streamline" everything, effectively making their beloved RPG franchises into action-adventure games like they did with Fallout 4. What are the odds they turn it around and actually make the excellent first person open world RPG the series deserves?
My dream is for TES to get it's own New Vegas, a return-to-form RPG from an outside company that actually knows how to write an interesting video game
Questlines should get locked off based on decisions and other questlines IMO, if they cant make the character builds interesting enough to feel different and meaningful this at least would force some kind of character identity just based on what you've actually done in the game, rather than always being the archmage, head of both the dark brotherhood and thieves guild at once, noted war hero who decided the political fate of Skyrim etc etc etc but this time you use a bow in actual gameplay instead of a sword. Like the Thieves Guild arent going to see the fucking Archmage stroll up and go "Hello fellow law breakers, how do you do?" and not instantly think that this is some kind of trap to fuck over the guild.
And yes self imposed restrictions exist but I have no self control, Im a dummy with ADHD if I see a quest the game lets me do Im going to do it, and the average player doing the game first time isnt going to have meta knowledge of what quests to avoid in order to keep a coherent character going either. Bethesda are so fucking lucky to have their modding thralls making their games replayable in an interesting way because otherwise there really isnt a huge reason to replay Skyrim unless you missed something by accident, everything just kinda feels the same.