What happened to the trolls? That’s the question so many The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered players are asking right now not because trolls are too hard to beat. It’s because one of the amazingly designed enemies from the original The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion received a big makeover, and fans are scratching their heads over the change.
The Trolls We Knew vs. The Trolls We Got
If you’ve played Oblivion before, you probably remember what trolls looked like: three glowing eyes, long gangly arms, and a creepy, unique look that stuck with you. These trolls were scary, weird, and very “Elder Scrolls.”
But in Oblivion Remastered, the trolls have been completely restructured. Now, they look more like big, hairy gorillas, and even though their famous third eye is still there but it’s so hidden that many players didn’t even notice it was still on the enemy’s face. The new troll design isn’t bad; the models are detailed and well-made. But that’s not the issue because fans don’t think the redesign seems like Elder Scrolls anymore.
They kept the original troll model in the Painted World
byu/SuperBreadBox inoblivion
“It looks good, but it doesn’t look like a troll from this world,” said one user.
“They look like hairy Warhammer orcs,” added another.
One user even joked:
“Bethesda was trolling us.”
People are already asking for a mod to bring the old trolls back in high definition. “First mod I want for the remake: HD original trolls,” one player posted on Reddit. Others chimed in too, calling the change a “baffling choice” and wondering why such unique enemy designs in the game had to be replaced with something more generic.
Old Troll is Still Hidden in Painted World
Interestingly, the original troll design is still in the game. During a quest where you enter a magical “painted” world, you can find the old troll design there, frozen in artwork. If the developers had access to the original design and included it for fun… why change it in the first place?
Right now, we don’t have an official answer from the dev team at Bethesda. It’s possible they wanted to give trolls a more “realistic” or “grounded” appearance. Maybe they were going for something scarier, or they thought to update the visuals to match other modern fantasy games.
But whatever the reason, it hasn’t gone over well with everyone.
Trolls might not be the most important enemies in Oblivion, but they’re among the highly memorable. Their design was spooky, different, and instantly recognizable—something that really stood out in a game filled with unique fantasy creatures. But now, players feel something special has been lost in the remaster.
