In May of 2018, our editor-in-chief, James Meetze wrote an opinion piece about his feelings towards Bethesda role-playing games. In it, he presents a hot take: Skyrim is a fundamentally flawed RPG. He references faults rooted in its design, its story progression, its leveling system and its players’ reliance on mods. Personally, I think many of the issues cited are actually some of its biggest strengths.

Like James, I have spent my fair share of time playing through RPGs. I have struggled through Dark Souls and romanced my way through Dragon Age. I have controlled legions of pixelated player models, from Earthbound’s Ness to Undertale’s Frisk. Name a Legend of Zelda title, and I have probably beaten it. I fall in love with learning about RPGs’ lore and delving deep into the minds of the protagonists.

Though I love most RPGs I have played, Skyrim holds a special place in my heart. Never in my life have I played a game that so deeply immersed me. The full control of the player to explore the world and build their own story amazed me. The experience the player has with the game is fully up to them, and I am infatuated with this concept to this day. So, I feel as though I owe it to the game to defend it—and to do my best to articulate exactly what it is that makes Skyrim an RPG in a league of its own.

Design

Skyrim’s open-world concept and its abundance of side-quests are debatably some of its best qualities. At the very least, it is what the game is most known for, with the exception of its iconic unskippable opening and the stock line about taking an arrow to the knee. I can admit that killing bandits and draugrs to get an NPC some random item eventually gets repetitive. However, one of the great things about Skyrim is that, while these tasks are great for grinding currency and experience, they are optional. There are plenty of extra, menial quests, but the game does not tend to force you to complete them. Extra, optional content should be considered a strong point, not a reason for boredom.

This game is personalized depending on the player’s tastes. Players can set their own goals and characterize their own protagonist. For example, I was determined to buy the most expensive house in all of Skyrim. I wanted to be a student at the College of Winterhold, where I would propose to an NPC. Having a horse and a dog was a must for me. Alternating between the main story and my personal vision made the game easy to binge. Boredom was never a problem for me during any of my playthroughs.

What’s more, Skyrim has plenty of unique, exciting quests. I remember being on the edge of my seat playing through the “Break of Dawn” storyline. By the end of it, the player is suspended thousands of feet in the air chatting up an actual old god. In the “A Night to Remember” quest, the player is tasked with piecing together the previous, booze-fueled night, offering a great source of comedic relief. In my opinion, Skyrim offers some of the most interesting, lore-backed side quests of any RPG.

Story Progression

After a long, unskippable cut scene and a short escape sequence, the player is free to explore the world. There’s no limit on where you can go, with the exception of map boundaries and areas that require keys. There’s plenty to explore: 820 books (307 of which exist only to provide written source of lore), 459 different locations to travel to and upwards of 1160 NPCs to interact with. And there is a never-ending list of general activities to do, from cooking to slaying dragons to getting married. Skyrim gives the player a character and a world, and the player is free to adventure to their heart’s content.

This is what RPGs should be at their core. They are a means of escapism. They exist so that the player can immerse themselves in a life story that is not their own. Skyrim executes this function flawlessly. They give you the information needed to progress the main story, but everything else is up to the player. You can play the game like you were actually transported there.

The instructions are clear. The player gets a place to go and a reason for going. The destination is even marked on the map. The thing that separates Skyrim from other RPGs is that there is a rich world of lore with an endless amount of quests to complete and things to collect, and its all completely at the player’s discretion. Some ventures will require some leveling up, especially when the player is just starting. Parts of the map are difficult to access due to higher level enemies, like the infamous frost troll on the trip up to High Hrothgar. Because of the roadblocks, the game is more realistic and encourages the player to branch out and explore different leveling strategies and side plots.

Leveling System

First, let me just say that the visual design for Skyrim’s leveling menu is gorgeous. Not only is the starry constellation theme aesthetically pleasing, but the layout is practical and easy to understand, even for casual players. Grouping the skill trees together based on which class they fit—the mage, the warrior, or the thief—makes building skill sets simple and straight-forward.

Skyrim boasts the idea that, with an infinite amount of time, there’s an infinite amount of things to learn. There is no cap on human mastery as long as time and effort is put in. The player can finish every skill tree if they want to, though it would take a very long time. Almost poetically, every attempt to pick a lock, every arrow that hits a target and every potion created adds to the protagonist’s fundamental understanding of a skill. In a way, not limiting mastery of skills is a draw of the game that appeals to humanity’s thirst for knowledge.

Skyrim’s replay value does take a hit because of the lack of limits for leveling up, but in a game as vast as Skyrim, replay value seems trivial. Sure, there is not too much incentive to replay it, but why does that matter in a game that takes around 500 hours to fully complete? Why consider a game that takes 200 hours to complete three times a better game?

Mods

I can admit that Skyrim has its issues with bugs and glitches. Most people can agree that Bethesda should be putting more time and effort into their games before releasing them. It is a pretty big problem when the game’s player base has to take it upon themselves to fix the game with mods. This is a flaw that modding highlights.

On the other hand, modding also highlights one of Skyrim’s strengths: community. Skyrim’s fanbase connotes loyalty, devotion and vastness. Skyrim is a heavily moddable game. Plenty of modders who play it and love it enough to slave over a computer to make mods for it. That says something about Skyrim’s ability to charm its players and leave a lasting impression.

At this point in time, the game is more than playable without the mods. Still, there is nothing wrong with downloading a mod that turns all trees into hands or one that makes every NPC’s death sound like Micheal Scott from “The Office.”

To Conclude

I will say that while Skyrim, to me, is a great game, Bethesda is not a great company. They are greedy, selling games for hefty prices despite bugs, and then having the gall to add microtransactions to that price. They can be lazy towards the end of the development process, and they often make promises that they can’t keep (how can we forget the canvas bag disaster?).

Despite Bethesda’s infamy, Skyrim is still a fundamentally good RPG. It has a little something for everybody: romanceable characters, an emphasis on medieval fantasy, gorgeous landscapes and intricate dungeons. Players can assassinate major political figures and then go out to buy a pet dog right after. It is a game for all types of players, from casuals to the achievement-hunters.

Skyrim builds a universe full of culture and political tension. Players can lose themselves in a new, unfamiliar world. They can live the life they want. The rich lore and interesting NPCs allow the player to enjoy Skyrim to such an extent that they can form an emotional bond with the game.

In essence, Skyrim is one of history’s greatest RPGs because it is fully immersive. The player can transform a blank slate protagonist into a reflection of their goals, their fears and their frustrations. Rather than the game fully controlling the player’s experience, the game is what the player makes of it. Skyrim’s execution of this was revolutionary. This is why I consider it to be an RPG in a league of its own.

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