An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire

Battlespire is an action-adventure video game in which the objective is to progress through a series of seven levels by defeating enemies, solving puzzles and collecting objects.^[4][5] In contrast to its series predecessors such as Daggerfall, Battlespire is a linear game set in a dungeon.^[6] Players navigate through the world in first-person perspective,^[7] and use the keyboard keys to move, and the mouse and point and click control to look around and interact.^[7] Combat consists of clicking and dragging mouse button to swing weapons in one of four directions.^[7] The function keys can be used as hotkeys to control inventory items and magic spells.^[8] Magic spells are obtained at character creation or acquired from scrolls found in libraries, and can be customized by type, area of effect and range, and assigned to a hotkey.^[9][7][10]

Players create a character at the start of the game, altering their appearance from one of six races, and selecting one of eighteen classes, or manually creating a custom build by spending a limited amount of points to adjust the character's hit points, skills and attributes, starting magic spells and equipment.^[9][11][12] Skills can be incremented by using them throughout the game.^[11] When a level is completed, players earn experience points that can be used to increase skills and attributes.^[9] Players can interact with characters using a dialog screen and have multiple choice responses.^[7]

Battlespire also supports multiplayer using a local area network or via the Internet using MPlayer.^[9][5] In this mode, players can either complete the campaign co-operatively one stage at a time, or compete in individual or team deathmatch battles.^[9] In the campaign, multiplayer players cannot save the game during the level or enter dialog with non-player characters.^[9]

In a realm of Oblivion, a pocket universe enhanced by magic, is the Battlespire: a training base and college for aspiring elite Imperial Battlemages who serve the Emperor. As one of these Battlemages, players are sent to the Battlespire, whose trainers, the Preceptors, have been killed by Daedric monsters under the command of the Prince Mehrunes Dagon. They must investigate what has caused the Daedra to overrun the Battlespire and save it from destruction by following them through a number of other settings throughout Oblivion. They are guided by the notes and messages of another adventurer, who ascended the Battlespire before players.^[13][14][15]

Upon entering the Battlespire, players are trapped inside and cannot return. Upon investigation, they learn a servant of Mehrunes Dagon corrupted a mage in the Battlespire to betray the Empire and let the Daedra inside. The Daedric army is revealed to be assembling in other realms and plan to use the Battlespire to launch an invasion of the world of Tamriel. Players follow the path of the Daedra as they open corridors through the realms, including the Soul Cairn, Shade Perilous, Chimera of Desolation and Havoc Wellhead. They meet lovers Jaciel Morgen and Deyanira Katrece, who have been attacked by the passing army. Katrece sacrifices herself to assist the player's progress, and Morgen vows to also help them defeat Mehrunes Dagon. After defeating Dagon's bodyguards, players call on Morgen to distract him for long enough to kill him and cast him into an empty void of Oblivion. Having defeated Dagon, players free his captives and return to Tamriel to receive the praise of the Emperor in liberating the Battlespire.^[16]

Following release of The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall in 1996, developer Bethesda Softworks simultaneously prepared three projects to capitalise on the success of the game.^[17] Battlespire was first planned by Bethesda Softworks as an expansion pack for the game as Dungeon of Daggerfall,^[16][18][13] but instead, the studio decided to simultaneously produce several spin-off titles set in The Elder Scrolls universe, Battlespire and The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard,^[15][13][19] announced at E3 1997.^[20][21] The spin-offs aimed to present further stories and worldbuilding set in the Elder Scrolls setting of Tamriel,^[22] and fill the gap between the planned release of a sequel to Daggerfall, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, which had been delayed to allow more time for development and accommodate the release of the side projects.^{[16][15][13][23]} Intended as simpler, more action-focused counterparts to the main series,^[18] the games reflected feedback from players of previous Elder Scrolls titles that the scope of Daggerfall was too large.^[23]

Development of Battlespire was directed by lead programmer Julian LeFay, who had worked as a lead on previous Elder Scrolls titles.^[22] The game was made using Bethesda's proprietary game engine named XnGine used in Daggerfall,^[12][15][24] upgrading its graphics to SVGA.^[9] Le Fay stated that whilst the game was broadly based on mechanics in Daggerfall, it presented an opportunity to "try a few new things", including modifications to the combat system, dialog and artificial intelligence of enemies.^[25] The developers opted to use two-dimensional billboard sprites for non-player characters and enemies instead of 3D, to provide a higher level of detail and allow the team more time to optimize the game and work on other features.^[14][19] The relocation of additional staff from Morrowind to the project allowed for development of a narrative and characters that were not originally intended to feature in the game.^[16]

In 2022, Bethesda released a version of Battlespire on Steam and the Xbox Game Pass alongside other Elder Scrolls titles.^[26][27]

Several Bethesda Softworks staff retrospectively reflected that co-development of Battlespire and Redguard was strained and their unsuccessful release led to a period of contraction for the studio. Both executive producer Chris Weaver and lead programmer Julian LeFay considered that the studio overextended their resources to produce these titles, and as a result experienced attrition of several employees, including LeFay.^[23] Studio director Todd Howard stated that Battlespire and Redguard did not benefit the company, and were "close to going out of business" by the time of the company's acquisition by ZeniMax Media in 1999.^[44] Whilst the developers could not identify what elements, if any, made their way into future Elder Scrolls titles, Weaver stated the games gave the studio time to test gameplay ideas and provide opportunities to further plan and develop Morrowind.^[23]