Recently, a Comicbook.com author discussed the aging design of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, proposing "four changes and one retention" for The Elder Scrolls VI: improve combat, quests, economy, and NPC design, while preserving the existing map exploration logic.
Combat is the aspect the author believes needs the most adjustment. Melee and magic in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim lack a sense of weight, and there are no mechanics for dodging, complex blocking, or parrying. Large-scale battles often devolve into continuous attacking, taking damage, and then pausing to use healing items. Improvements from skills and perks tend to be numerical, failing to intuitively change gameplay.
The quest and economic systems also face criticism. While radiant quests continuously guide players to caves, forts, and other locations, random objectives, enemies, and level-scaled rewards easily create a repetitive loop, lacking carefully crafted characters and narratives. Smithing, alchemy, and enchanting can form an exploitable loop for progression and economy, allowing players to obtain high-stat gear and potions early on and rapidly accumulate wealth.
Regarding NPC design, the author argues that "essential" status protection for key characters, limited dialogue options, binary outcomes, and underwhelming companions diminish the weight of choices and major events. What the author advocates keeping is the map discovery logic: players must physically explore to identify locations before fast travel is unlocked; map and compass icons can track exploration progress without completely replacing the process of discovering the world on one's own.