Morrowind's weapon variety makes Skyrim feel like a toy store

[EbonyWarrior]

I've been replaying Morrowind on OpenMW after years of Skyrim, and I just realized how much the weapon design fell off. Like, in Morrowind you've got claymores, longswords, broadswords, katanas, dai-katanas, wakazashis, shortswords, daggers, hand-to-hand, spears, halberds, axes, war axes, maces, warhammers, battle axes, bows, crossbows, throwing stars, throwing knives... and that's just the base game before expansions.

Skyrim has like what, 10 weapon types total? And half of them are just different models of the same thing. A greatsword is a greatsword. A mace is a mace. There's no personality to the arsenal anymore, no reason to hunt for specific weapons beyond raw damage numbers.

And the thing is, Morrowind actually makes you CARE about weapon variety because of how the combat system works. You're not twitch-dodging, you're managing hit chance and damage rolls. Finding a better claymore or finally getting enough skill to use a dai-katana actually feels like progression. In Skyrim you just grab whatever has the highest damage number and move on.

I get that Skyrim was going for accessibility and streamlined combat, but man, did they throw out something special. The weapon variety alone makes me understand why people still boot up Morrowind in 2026.

 

[ScrollsOfTamriel]

I think you're conflating two different things here though. Morrowind has more named variants of similar weapon classes, but Skyrim actually has more mechanical variety in how weapons behave - enchantments matter way more, perks like Impact or that one that staggers on power attacks change how you actually use a weapon, and the whole smithing / tempering system gives you reason to experiment beyond just "find the legendary version."

That said, you're right that Morrowind's sheer catalog feels more exotic. A dai-katana isn't just a reskinned katana - it's a different thing with different stats. Skyrim flattened that down to Nord sword, elven sword, Daedric sword, etc. and called it a day. It's less colorful, even if the underlying mechanics are arguably deeper.

But the hit chance thing cuts both ways. Yeah, in Morrowind you feel progression when your weapon skill goes up and suddenly you're landing hits. In Skyrim that's... just not a thing, and some people find that way more satisfying because you're not fighting RNG. Different design philosophy, not objectively worse.

The real loss imo is that Skyrim doesn't make you hunt for weapons the same way. In Morrowind you're genuinely excited to find a specific artifact or unique drop. Skyrim's unique weapons are cool but you can just craft better gear than most of them, so there's no real treasure feeling. That's the actual problem, not the number of weapon types.