The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim vs Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen - Which is the better game?

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TiggyTog

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Poll The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim vs Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen - Which is the better game? (54 votes)

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 54%
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen 46%

It's 2022, and besides the Witcher 3, Dragon's Dogma is the game Skyrim gets compared to the most and has been getting compared to since both of their inceptions.

They've both been getting re-released on platform after platform, with Skyrim's most recent release being in 2021, and Dragon's Dogma's most recent release being in 2019. Both are waiting for a sequel over 10 years now.

With that said, what's the better game?

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FacelessVixen

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I'll abstain from voting since; on the surface, sure, comparing high fantasy to high fantasy, but the two approach high fantasy in two pretty different directions; Skyrim being open-ended and always allowing for the feeling of going a lengthy grand adventure, and Dragon's Dogma having some eccentricities/idiosyncrasies that, if anything, make that game stand out from other titles with the high fantasy aesthetic.

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Broshmosh

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This poll really needs a Tralse.

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styx971

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honestly setting aside i don't think these 2 are even alike gameplay-wise to be compared . that said i've started skyrim a handful of times and beat it once , i've started dragon's dogma 3 times and while i got farther each time it wasn't much more than a handful of hours so i can't say its 'better' i will say its possibly more interesting in its own way on a few levels but due to the nature of my dropping it i wouldn't call it better.

that said i would say skyrim while i enjoyed it is the worst/least interesting of the elderscrolls games i've played (3-5)

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Efesell

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Is this a popular comparison, actually? There is nothing about them particularly comparable other than being an open world which at this point you might as well just call that being a video game.

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Junkerman

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#5  Edited By Junkerman

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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Lab392

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when it's all said and done, i think i had more fun with dragon's dogma. at least, i look back on my time playing that game more favorably.

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cikame

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I love both, i'll pick Skyrim just because there's more to it, it's a world you can live in, buy a house, do funny things with physics like put buckets on people's heads... read books... but boy do i love Dragon's Dogma.

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Justin258

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Some part of me wants to say Dragon's Dogma because that game is more interesting on paper. However, every time I've tried to play it, I've given up after a few hours. I'd probably love it if I dedicated time to get to the part where it "gets good", but frankly I don't know if I have the patience to do that.

Meanwhile, I've played Skyrim for hundreds of hours across several characters for the better part of a decade. I don't really want to play it again these days, but the hours upon hours of time I put into that game don't lie. It has significant issues, sure - its writing is too player-centric and its gameplay needs some serious rebalancing, but none of that ever stopped me from just exploring its world and doing stuff. Writing about it kinda makes me want to do that again.

And I never played with many mods. SkyUI is the best UI put into any RPG ever, so I never played without that. I also usually used a mod that put souls into the correct soul gems and the audio overhaul mod. Otherwise, I never found mods all that necessary to enjoy Skyrim.

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monkeyking1969

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Apples vs oranges games that don't give or pretend to have the same "conception" of RPG game play.

With that said, Skyrim was a 'memory leak' disaster that a troop of sick howler monkeys could have created equally as well. The management at Bethesda has been the worst for decades; they don't care how crap their games function and they push crap out the door all the time.

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Onemanarmyy

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#10  Edited By Onemanarmyy

Technically Skyrim is probably technically the 'better' game, and streamlined to be easy to pick up and have a good time with for a large amount of folk. At the same time, it feels quite mundane because there's not much in that game that stands out or surprises you. Even the world itself is quite drab and samey.

I haven't played much of Dragon's Dogma apart from watching some streams and playing the demo so i can't comment too much on it. But from the get-go that game feels more interesting and exciting because it's a japanese RPG with multiple characters that sort of tries to create their own 'western rpg'. And that pawn-system always sounded quite interesting. But at the same time the demo made me feel like i would need quite some time to wrap my mind around the controls, and the partymembers would shout all kind of random shit as if i was playing a bullethell shooter or something.