For almost all intents and purposes,The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remasteredis an incredibly faithful remake of the original game. It’s retained almost every aspect of what madeOblivionan enduring, if imperfect, classic: the stilted voice acting, the obtuse mini-games, and even the bugs, glitches, andcrashes synonymous withOblivion. But it does add one or two new elements that show just how far the game itself and its cultural legacy have gone. That includes a bizarre console command totally exclusive to the remaster.
As first reported byAquaScum333on Reddit,Oblivion Remasteredhas a console command that references the classic “Potion Seller” viral video. Consisting of a three-minute improvised dialogue between a haughty merchant and a desperate knight, characterized by face-morphing camera filters, “Potion Seller” is exactly the kind of thing that belongs inOblivion. However, the original video, first posted on YouTube byChallengersandQueerscreenwriterJustin Kuritzkesin 2011, postdates the original game. The console command quotes directly from the video, and gives the player power sufficient to defeat a dragon, let alone a man.
Oblivion Remastered Has A Secret “Potion Seller” Reference
How To Claim The Potion Seller’s Power
If you’d like to test this Easter egg for yourself, simply activate the console (press ~ on PC only) and enter the following text (not case-sensitive, but capitalized here for ease of reading):
Altar.Player.PotionSellerGiveMeYourStrongestPotions true
Press enter, and you’ll activate the console command, whichgreatly powers up your unarmed attack. Punch any NPC, and they’ll go flying high into the air, dying instantly. The flavor text that appears after you activate it also references theAsterix and Obelixfranchise, claiming it gives you “the means of defeating the Romans coming to conquer the last free village of Gaul.”
Do be aware thatactivating any console command will permanently disableachievementsfor your current playthrough ofOblivion.
In the comments of the initial Reddit post, a user by the name ofHoshiqua, claiming to be a dev at Virtuos, explains thatthe console command was originally introduced as a means of testing the remaster’s new ragdoll physics. That certainly seems a likely story, considering that, after activating it, a single punch is enough to ragdoll any NPC.
Whatever the case, though,thisOblivion RemasteredEaster egg is undeniably fun. Even if you insist on getting all the achievements first, I’d recommend taking on the potion seller’s power and going into battle with as much of the Imperial City as possible to truly test this bizarre console command.
The Remaster’s Easter Egg Demonstrates Oblivion’s Cultural Impact
Almost 20 Years Later, Oblivion Still Has Staying Power
Although Kuritzkes himself, in aKnow Your Memeinterview, has stated that the original “Potion Seller” video had nothing to do withThe Elder Scrolls,it’s undeniably become associated with the series in the intervening years. Something about its no-holds-barred dialogue evokes a low-disposition character inOblivion’s Persuasion mini-game, while its twisted faces could have come straight out ofOblivion’s human-potato character creator. You could put someOblivionbackground music behind it and no one would bat an eye.
Still,it’s hard not to see this as a bizarrely satisfying meta-homecoming forOblivionand the Potion Seller both. It’s been subject to no end of in-jokes and memes, mostly focused on its janky gameplay and inhuman dialogue. That’s given it a kind of enduring popularity, a second life beyond its initial groundbreaking release.
Now, in 2025,Oblivionis culturally relevant again. Although the remaster has done its best to preserve what made it so popular, it’s undeniably been affected by everything that came after it. Simply put,The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remasteredcontains a reference to a reference to itself, and I can’t get enough of it.
