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Before you all take your Blades of Woe out, let me clarify something. No. I do not think Starfield is better than Oblivion Remastered. I had been expecting the former for years, and it was underwhelming, to say the least. Modders are doing their absolute best to carry the space odyssey, but there is still a long road ahead. Yet, with Oblivion Remastered‘s release, something about the jank crossed my mind. How come we treat Oblivion better than Starfield? Yeah, it looks much better, and as a remaster, there are fewer bugs and issues. But the jank is still there. What’s the difference?
Nostalgia Is Playing a Huge Factor
When I look at some of the jank in Oblivion: Remastered, especially the character creator, I can’t help but feel nostalgic, and many out there feel that way, too. This is just one example, though. Some weird mechanics are still there, and a few dialogues and gameplay aspects remain as we remember them from 2006. However, if history has taught us anything, it is that we’ll gobble everything up as long as it has the faintest hint of nostalgia. That’s not bad by any means.
Nowadays, nostalgia has become the driving force behind many products. Almost everything is a reconstruction of something we’ve seen in the past, from movie reboots to game remakes, and that’s how the industry operates. Then, why was the jank so hated in Starfield?
For starters, it was worse. Say what you want about Bethesda’s latest space voyage, but it crashed during take-off, and it will take a while for it to finally fire up those thrusters properly. As I said, I’m not defending Starfield, but it is weird how we don’t seem to accept the jank like we used to. Yet, there might be a simple explanation: in the past, there wasn’t a lot of competition.
If we look at open-world games from the early 2000s, we didn’t have as many as we do today. Bethesda always stood at the top of the food chain in that regard. No one could even dare compete against OG Oblivion. Even when Skyrim launched, people hated many parts of it, and some believed that Oblivion was far superior. I’m one of those, at least in the vanilla aspect. Modded Skyrim is something else, but I digress.
However, it is wild to see that in 2025 people are absolutely crapping all over the facial animations of Starfield, when let’s face it, those in Oblivion Remastered aren’t that great either, but hey, it was part of the jank charm, right? Or that’s what we tell ourselves. In the end, nothing will beat nostalgia. Bethesda could launch a Morrowind remaster tomorrow, and if it plays exactly like Starfield (which I doubt it would), people will praise it as if it were the new Dragonborn’s coming.
There’s Jank, and Then There’s JANK
On the other hand, the dissatisfaction with Starfield is understandable. The hype levels were up the roof. After Fallout 76, Bethesda lost some trust. Some might even say it all went downhill with Fallout 4, but I loved that one. Yet, with the re-release of Skyrim on yet another platform, we all want something new. And yes, the sci-fi RPG dropped its space ball. Naturally, many people see Oblivion: Remastered as a blessing and a hint of how Elder Scrolls is still in good hands as we prepare for ES6, if it manages to launch sometime in this decade. But we’ll likely get two more Popes during the Elder Scrolls 6 wait than the actual game.
In any case, it feels strange how we can love something with flaws yet hate something with a burning passion. I’m not saying it’s undeserved, but it sometimes feels a bit arbitrary. While one game is jankier than the other, they still share some of the same faults. Maybe if we ever get a Starfield Remastered during the next decade, we’ll also react fondly. Who knows? We could even be looking at the loading screen with rose-tinted glasses. Yet, I highly doubt it. I guess it’s just time to wait and see Bethesda’s next big product to see how well we handle the jank.
