Actual detailed travelogue list to follow
Twitter thread from 5/11/2021, in which I am not amused by the tail end of the hunt through Ustengrav for the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller.
Actual detailed travelogue list to follow, but for now I’ll say that tonight I hit the first thing so far in Skyrim that actively pissed me off.
10:53 PM · May 11, 2021
Any player who, long before me, made it to the end of the hunt for the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller only to go MOTHERFUCKER will know exactly what I’m talking about here.
10:53 PM · May 11, 2021
Narratively speaking I get why it was done, I get that it opens up the next chain of quest events, but from a enjoyability of gameplay experience, I _really_, _really_ didn’t like that I had to slog through a dungeon with no payoff to get to that point.
10:54 PM · May 11, 2021
And there was loot to be had. But I also kind of feel like there wasn’t sufficiently awesome loot to make up for not getting the thing I slogged down through there for to begin with.
10:54 PM · May 11, 2021
It also didn’t help that I really didn’t enjoy trying to get through the sequence of gates that required me to have to use the Whirlwind Sprint shout. Comma, the shout I had trouble with up on High Hrothgar.
10:54 PM · May 11, 2021
More experienced players than me may have dealt with that just fine, but for me, so far, the combo of keys necessary to deal with that Shout is still awkward and annoying, particularly in conjunction with a puzzle that requires timing before it resets.
10:55 PM · May 11, 2021
And then to have the quest not actually _deliver the payoff_, and have the quest marked as “Failed” in my quests list, didn’t help my enjoyment in the slightest.
10:55 PM · May 11, 2021
I kept playing for a while after that, just to get to a point where I could in fact accomplish something–killing the next dragon. Because being actively pissed off is NOT what I started playing the game for, and I wanted to not end on that note.
10:56 PM · May 11, 2021
So I did at least get to a point of closure for that part of the plot, and I ended on a point of success.
10:56 PM · May 11, 2021
Notes
- This post was written on 3/17/2022, but backdated to the time of the tweet thread for organizational purposes.
- Post updated on 12/28/2022 to reconstruct the original Twitter thread in the body of the post, and to remove links to Twitter.
Angela Korra'ti
As Angela Highland, Angela is the writer of the Rebels of Adalonia epic fantasy series with Carina Press. As Angela Korra'ti, she writes the Free Court of Seattle urban fantasy series. She's also an amateur musician and devoted fan of Newfoundland and Quebecois traditional music.