Skyrim is similar to FF7 as in they were the most popular RPGs of their respective generation, many people's first RPG, and eventually had their reputation attacked, and them even being a good game has been put into question.
I'll be frank here, unlike FF7, which what it received has been outright character assassination based on supplementary material that shouldnt affect the quality of the original game. Skyrim is actually deeply deeply flawed game, and quite frankly the score I'm giving it seems perhaps too high.
First of all, its an incredibly basic game, with most quests devolving into go fetch something in a dungeon. And these dungeons are the problems. They're not inherently bad so much as, there's too many of them. And they swarm you with an insane amount of enemies you have been killing for way too long, especially those stupid dwarven robots I hate oh so much. This would be exarcebated in Fallout 4. Beyond this, the game cruely lacks player agency in many scenarios where it would seem obvious where to add it. For example, when X character says "we're having beef with Y faction". When your Dragonborn goes there, he immediatly gets attacked by mindless enemies who decide to kill you on sight without you ever having a chance to say, initiate a conversation, bargain with them, side with them, or anything. No this game is just made to be a dungeon crawler rather than an actual deeply involved world, and that's a shame, cause while I havent played them, I know that the previous entries, Oblivion and Morrowind, offer a lot more substance in that regard.
This is a very harsh blemish on this game, but I also reject the idea that Skyrim is completly devoid of substance, many quests in this game are actually very good, notably the civil war quesltine and the faction quests. And the core gameplay is also pretty good, even if simple, I found myself actually quite enjoying the combat, looting, questing etc.
What brings this game up is ultimately, THE VIBE. Skyrim is beautiful, the open world is beautiful, and walking in it feels better than pretty much any open world out there, bar perhaps Breath of the Wild. This game nails so much so high that I end up quite minimising its eggregious flaws, and I just look back on my time with it as a lot of fun.
Ultimately, yeah, it's baby's first RPG, its a shallow kiddie pool, its even frustrating in some regards. But it is an experience I am beyond glad to have lived. Ever since I started this game I always put the OST on spotify whenever I go for a walk and I will for quite a while.
TLDR: The shallowness of its core gameplay is overpowered by the beautiful world it lets you lose yourself in.
I'll be frank here, unlike FF7, which what it received has been outright character assassination based on supplementary material that shouldnt affect the quality of the original game. Skyrim is actually deeply deeply flawed game, and quite frankly the score I'm giving it seems perhaps too high.
First of all, its an incredibly basic game, with most quests devolving into go fetch something in a dungeon. And these dungeons are the problems. They're not inherently bad so much as, there's too many of them. And they swarm you with an insane amount of enemies you have been killing for way too long, especially those stupid dwarven robots I hate oh so much. This would be exarcebated in Fallout 4. Beyond this, the game cruely lacks player agency in many scenarios where it would seem obvious where to add it. For example, when X character says "we're having beef with Y faction". When your Dragonborn goes there, he immediatly gets attacked by mindless enemies who decide to kill you on sight without you ever having a chance to say, initiate a conversation, bargain with them, side with them, or anything. No this game is just made to be a dungeon crawler rather than an actual deeply involved world, and that's a shame, cause while I havent played them, I know that the previous entries, Oblivion and Morrowind, offer a lot more substance in that regard.
This is a very harsh blemish on this game, but I also reject the idea that Skyrim is completly devoid of substance, many quests in this game are actually very good, notably the civil war quesltine and the faction quests. And the core gameplay is also pretty good, even if simple, I found myself actually quite enjoying the combat, looting, questing etc.
What brings this game up is ultimately, THE VIBE. Skyrim is beautiful, the open world is beautiful, and walking in it feels better than pretty much any open world out there, bar perhaps Breath of the Wild. This game nails so much so high that I end up quite minimising its eggregious flaws, and I just look back on my time with it as a lot of fun.
Ultimately, yeah, it's baby's first RPG, its a shallow kiddie pool, its even frustrating in some regards. But it is an experience I am beyond glad to have lived. Ever since I started this game I always put the OST on spotify whenever I go for a walk and I will for quite a while.
TLDR: The shallowness of its core gameplay is overpowered by the beautiful world it lets you lose yourself in.