Yes, we almost got a portable version of The Elder Scrolls. And it turns out that it doesn’t look so bad.
We knew that Bethesda was working on a more linear, PSP version of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (titled The Elder Scrolls Travels: Oblivion), but it never saw release. Now, we know what that game would have looked like. Reddit user Morderax discovered playable discs of the lost PSP title (via IGN), so we can enjoy this lengthy video of it in action.
This is based on a 2007 build of Travels, which would be about two years after the PSP’s U.S. launch. Sony’s portable never really caught on outside of Japan, so it’s not surprising that a high-profile Western project like this would die. It’s a problem that the PSP’s successor, the Vita, also encountered (we’re still waiting for that BioShock game).
Still, Travels, with its linear approach to swords and sorcery, looks like it could have been a fun game. Oh, what might have been.