Yeah its kind of an apples to oranges sort of thing.
The world has already decided that Skyrim is one of the greatest games of all time going by sales and "remasters". Its difficult for me to weigh in on that assertion since every time I try to play it I'm bored to tears after beating it twice. I think there is definetly a layer of nuance to the formula in Skyrim's popularity in that its less that its the BEST game, and more that its the ONLY game in its "modern" genre.
While a very good game Skyrim pales in comparison to its predecessors in that the story telling is declining in every game after Morrowind. It feels less like your character exists in the world and more like traveling through an incredibly well realized painting of a world.
So I want to say that Dragon's Dogma is my answer to this strange comparison. Dragon's Dogma inovates with some real cool shit. When the game is going its some next level madness, the climbing, the monsters, the awe inspiring magic. A lot of the weapons and abilities have a weight to them that is lacking in most games.
Its unfortunate that for as high as Dragon's Dogma's highs are... its lows are chipping away through bedrock. The world is a chore to navigate, the NPC and villages feel pretty wooden and stiff, and worst of all whenever you have to backtrack through an area for some excruciatingly bland sidequest you need to go through it all again for no reason.
And unlike Skyrim -which until Avowed or Tainted Grail come out remains undisturbed in its niche - Dragons Dogma has a spiritual successor in Elden Ring which I think does everything Dragon's Dogma was trying to do 1000% better sans the party/monster climbing excitement.
TLDR; there is a total conversion mod for Skyrim called Enderal which is definetly worth a look if you're jonesing for Skyrim 1.5. I hate what they did to the skill system and character advancement but the rest is superior to Skyrim in my opinion and your character actually has a bit of a voice. Not as good as Fallout 3 or NV but better then Skyrim and Oblivion.
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