There’s no denying the popularity and success of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Having gone a decade as a solid game that almost everyone has tried or played extensively, it’s safe to say it managed more than perfectly to create the recipe for a brilliant open-world medieval fantasy game. With tons of quests and customization, players aren’t likely to run out of content either.
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Despite how well-thought-out Skyrim is, like every other game out there, it definitely has its flaws and weird elements. This is bound to happen with big games, no matter how immersive and realistic the world might seem like. That being said, Skyrim is so adored that most of the memes are amusing celebrations of its logic rather than legitimate criticisms.
10 How To Patch A Wound
The best way to heal in Skyrim is obviously through healing potions, or through help from the school of Restoration, which has a bunch of healing spells at the player’s disposal. However, the cool part about the world is that just about any consumable item, aside from some alchemy ingredients, can restore health.
Stuck in a fight with no potions or magicka to heal? All it takes is just a hundred wheels of cheese or some other crazy amount of food that no regular being would ever be able to carry. Plus, realistically, what does it even look like for the enemy to see the Dragonborn inhale thirty sacks of raw potatoes?
9 Daedric Goodies
Daedric lords are powerful creatures from the Planes of Oblivion and along with them comes a whole host of powerful and intriguing Daedric artifacts. From swords that can absolutely annihilate the undead to a mace that deals immense amounts of damage, the Daedric quests really make it worthwhile for the player.
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From a lore perspective, however, it’s pretty insane to think how one person is able to collect all these artifacts with no repercussions. One would imagine that groups like the Vigilants of Stendarr would have a few words to say, or at the very least come knocking at the Dragonborn’s door at some point.
8 No One Escapes Cidhna Mine
Skyrim is full of highly dangerous locations, some of which have become a bit legendary over the years. It’s not just untouched dungeons that NPCs are afraid of walking into, but also places like Cidhna Mine, which is infamous for being a place nobody gets out of… ever.
Except, of course, the Dragonborn. With them, anything and everything seems perfectly possible. Sometimes it’s a bit jarring how easy some things are, versus how difficult NPCs make them sound like. Cidhna Mine and its quest was a perfect example of that.
7 Dragonborn Issues
As the story goes on in Skyrim, the player will start to rack up quite a reputation for themselves. Especially after defeating Alduin and saving the province from an invasion of dragons, one would imagine every NPC to have a different attitude towards the player.
Wrong. In Skyrim, it doesn’t seem to matter what one achieves. Even after completing the main quest, some NPCs will still try stupid things like attacking the player despite them being a godlike Dragonborn, and guards will even belittle them by inquiring about their sweet roll. The Dragonborn deserves some real recognition!
6 The Best Quests
It’s pretty evident as the main quest begins that Skyrim is in danger, and there’s a constant reminder of that present while the Dragonborn travels the province. More and more dragons will pop out to harass the player and serve as proof that the world is changing and affected by a rising evil.
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And yet, players can safely ignore this threat and instead focus all their energy on more “important” matters. Chopping wood, killing a few bears and even gathering some nirnroot, there’s really no rush to deal with Alduin the World-Eater. It’s almost as if Alduin is also okay with just waiting for the Dragonborn to be done with their errands.
5 Deadly Words
Each Elder Scrolls game has brought something unique to the table, and with Skyrim that unique feature was definitely Thu’um. Language of the dragons, it’s learned early on in the game as the player travels to the Greybeards to receive their first lesson on dragon shouts.
Think about it for a second: a language with the ability to magically and physically harm others. It’s all fine and dandy, given that Skyrim is a medieval fantasy world, but it still is pretty absurd to think that mere spoken words could have such an immense effect.
4 Convenient Boss Chambers
The best games out there know very well that subtlety is the key to any successful form of storytelling. Things shouldn’t be too obvious for the player right off the bat. Sadly, with big games like Skyrim, this is much harder to execute since a ton of content needs to be churned out in a short time period.
It’s why many of the dungeons in Skyrim, although a far cry from the repetitive halls of Oblivion dungeons, start to feel a bit boring after a while. How many times have players walked into a large room at the end of the dungeon and expected the obvious? It’s a trend at this point.
3 Dragon Priorities
Skyrim‘s crown jewel achievement has to be the addition of dragons, those massive creatures that feel real and scary whenever they fly above the player’s head and upon landing on the ground, fight and spit fire in a realistic way. In many ways, the developers outdid themselves, but the dragons aren’t without their inconsistencies.
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For one, the dragon AI can be surprisingly slow. Sometimes it will even go after a completely unrelated and minor target instead of the Dragonborn themselves, which makes fighting them much more difficult and annoying. Somehow, a bear or some bandit is much more interesting than the one person who can realistically kill it.
2 The Thane Of Whiterun
Skyrim has nine holds, each of which has a main city or town with a Jarl at its head. The Dragonborn, upon helping around in each hold, can be promoted to Thane and in some cases receive rights to purchase property. There are other perks as well, which when abused start to make no sense at all.
The classic example is becoming the Thane of Whiterun, which is possible very early on in the game thanks to the main quest. As Thane, the player can pretty much get away with murder every single time, simply thanks to their status. Realistically, this doesn’t make any sense, and is proof of an extremely corrupt system.
1 Visitors
NPCs are the bread and butter of Skyrim. They say funny things and do weird things, and sometimes they annoy players so much that they just have to be killed instantly (*cough* Nazeem *cough*). While it’s understandable that handling so many NPCs in such a big world is tough, there are some things about them that are just plain bizarre.
Every player has been there, walking past an NPC who’s mid-sentence talking to the Dragonborn, before they enter their home or an inn or a shop, only to have them follow you inside so they can finish whatever sentence they started. Really, was it that important for them to talk about the Cloud District and mercenary work?
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