the bethesda approach of "let the player do everything in a single playthrough" could probably be twisted into a story that's actually deep and rich, by using the conceit to tell the story of an immortal that, through the course of the game, experiences so much that every individual event feels flat, leading to a crisis of the soul. probably through a groundhog day-esque time loop

everybody’s naming games that aren’t even close to being bethesda open world rpgs. the whole class gets an f. did not understand the assignment

I feel like this could be employed in a way that genuinely engages with Elder Scrolls lore and cosmology. Like the weird stuff that the Morrowind writer made up while locked in a room tripping on acid, and the "Warp in the West" anti-retcon that allows the mutually exclusive endings of Daggerfall to all be canon.