It seriously feels like a disease. Ever since I played Skyrim for the first time back in 2011, it’s been rooted in my mind to the point that it’s taken away from how much I enjoy other games. I’m not sure how this happened, and I’m not sure how to fix it. At this point, ten years later, it seems that this is going to be permanent.
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The most confusing part about this phenomenon is that there have been other games I’ve loved that didn’t have the same lasting effect. For example, The Legend of Dragoon and Fire Emblem: Three Houses will forever be tied as the greatest JRPGs of all time for me. I’ve put over 1,000 hours into both games, and I’m certain that they will stick with me for as long as I live. But somehow, I’ve been able to let them go enough that they don’t prevent me from becoming fully immersed in other games.
Yet with Skyrim, it keeps popping up in my head like that annoying song you’ve heard too many times on the radio. Sometimes when this happens, there are obvious comparisons to draw between Skyrim and the game I’m playing. For example, when I played through The Witcher 3 last year, I naturally associated some parts of the game with Skyrim and felt a longing to go back to it, despite the fact that The Witcher 3 is a phenomenal game in its own right.
But what’s really troubling is that I find myself doing this with games that barely resemble any aspects of Skyrim at all. Not too long ago, I finished Bravely Default 2, a turn-based JRPG that follows four characters through a (mostly) linear story. The goal is to strategize and figure out which jobs to assign to each character that synergize the best for boss battles. The game has essentially nothing in common with Skyrim, aside from the fact that they could both be considered fantasy games.
Yet, I could not help but find myself thinking, “I wish the music was prettier like Skyrim’s,” or “I wish these towns looked more interesting and included more stuff like Skyrim’s.” Bravely Default 2 was a pretty solid game overall, so I was annoyed at myself for taking away from the experience by comparing it to a game that isn’t even in the same genre.
It’s not just the ambiance of Skyrim that I’ve found myself comparing other games to. When I tried out Horizon Zero Dawn, I found myself constantly thinking about how much I wish using the bow and arrows felt similar to how it did while I played Skyrim. While playing the Witcher 3, I spent much of the time missing Skyrim’s simplistic but extensive skill trees.
You’d think maybe the solution would be to play the hell out of Skyrim to the point that I get bored with it, but after starting the game over countless times and putting around 1,500 hours into it over a span of ten years, I’m pretty sure that’s never going to happen.
There’s something peculiarly special about this game that I can’t quite put my finger on. And while other people might not have the same issue as me to this degree, it’s clear that with Skyrim still trending ten years later, there are others out there that know exactly what I’m talking about. So, for now, I must simply apologize to the majority of games I’ve played after Skyrim for not being able to give them my full attention. I can’t wait to find out what impact the Elder Scrolls 6 is going to have on me.
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