The Lorehounds Play - E04 - Skyrim

[00:00:00] Welcome to The Lorehounds Play, where the Lorehounds are your guides to pixel-based adventures. I'm Jon. I'm Brandon, and this is our fourth The Lorehounds Play podcast. This time for The Elder Scrolls V, Skyrim. In this episode we'll be breaking down the

[00:00:33] plot, the gameplay, our favorite side quests of Bethesda's hit fantasy RPG that we've all bought at least three times. Before we get started, quick reminder that you can send feedback to lhp at the lorehounds dot com or leave us a voicemail at the lorehounds

[00:00:50] dot com slash contacts and we'll get to those questions in the next episode. If you're enjoying our coverage of video games or any of the shows we're covering and you'd like to support us directly, head over to Patreon dot com slash the Lorehounds and subscribe

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[00:01:18] Brandon, before we get started on Skyrim, let's remind people what this podcast does. We're not doing live coverage of a new game. We're not, you know, getting hype on the game news. We're just two old men revisiting different games that we love that have rich stories

[00:01:35] and sort of talking through them, talking through what we loved about them, what we didn't love about them, why they're worth playing, etc. Yes, we're vibing on them old games. We're surfing on the wave of nostalgia. Not usually.

[00:01:48] It doesn't have to be old games, but it has been as of late. It sure has. It sure has. I think part of it is you and I have been busy and we need to

[00:01:56] do things that we don't need to replay as much. You know, it is so hard to play a new game to completion these days. But yeah, I know. I know. I know. Hey, Brandon, you're finally

[00:02:09] awake. All right. Well, I already played this one once. So let me go ahead and hit the skip option for the game. There's no way to skip option. Oh, no, I have to sit through this whole wagon ride again. Did you ask how many times I sat

[00:02:26] through the wagon ride? Yeah. How many times did you sit through it? Well, let's see. I don't think I have enough fingers and toes to count how many times I've heard that speech. Watch that man get his head cut off and picked what my face looks like.

[00:02:42] Spoilers. What about you? Do you have like a good guess number or like for me, it's literally immeasurable. Like I have no. Yeah, it's hard. I mean, I probably haven't played as much as you

[00:02:56] have. My wife is so into Skyrim like she's played it a million times. I actually got it for her. It was one of the first gifts I got for her was Skyrim's not special edition, legendary edition,

[00:03:08] the first like collection that they did for PS3. Sure. Yes. And because we met about 10 years ago and that was when that when that era was. And she said to me, I don't want to play Skyrim because

[00:03:21] I know I'll get too into it. And I think that was a hint that she did want to play it. And I was right. And I got it. I got it for her. And she lived in that world for so long and still revisits

[00:03:32] it to this day. I think maybe around 20 times is how many times I've at least started the game. Yeah, probably only done the main quest like twice. You know, that's a good that is a that

[00:03:43] is actually a better question is how many times I've done the main quest. Finish it, I should say. Yeah, it's maybe for me literally only like five times. And I have played this on just about every

[00:03:56] system it's been out on. Yeah, that's that was my next question for you. How many platforms have you bought this for? Well, sometimes I buy it as a joke for a platform, but oh yeah, no, like I think

[00:04:11] I my initial playthrough was on the Xbox, I believe the 360. Okay, I can't quite recall if it was that or the Xbox one. But I've bought it on I bought it since on PC.

[00:04:28] You know, I'm not going to run it down pretty much if you if you have a platform, I'm going to buy it on there. I don't I don't know if it's on mobile. I don't think it is, but

[00:04:37] not yet. That'd be not a fun one to play on mobile. I think it's gonna be on mobile eventually. It's it's gonna be on your fridge eventually. It's just it's just what it is. It's they don't know

[00:04:48] what it is. They have a joke version. Yeah, I think the joke version is actually on the What is it like Alexa systems? Like, okay, but there's a version that you can play on there.

[00:05:01] Oh boy. Yeah, it's if you haven't heard of this game before, I'm gonna describe it to you. And by the way, when I said spoilers before Brandon just said things that happened in the first like five

[00:05:11] minutes of the game. So don't think that you've been spoiled for the whole game. No, but this game is this open world sandbox RPG where you could just do anything like you just go around

[00:05:26] and you talk to people and it's janky the the NPCs don't move right and the speech is clunky and it's magical and we all love that way in it in its day it was janky and like that. Yes,

[00:05:42] it's never been. No, it never came out. Yes, it is a that is sort of a hallmark of of the Bethesda RPG is that they're all little off. Yes, even even Starfield now is still a little bit off.

[00:05:58] Yeah, but all kind of part of the charm long in the tooth for their time. Yeah. But yeah, the exact that's exactly right. It is part of the charm of these things. And you just get it.

[00:06:09] And most people do and a lot of people really don't. I would count myself in as a person who definitely does, though, who is playing, I think all console Bethesda RPGs ever. OK, I've I've

[00:06:24] always been a console boy at heart. I didn't really get a good enough PC to game on until well into adulthood. Me too. But everything that's been out since then. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think I've

[00:06:37] I've bought this. I bought it once while I got it for Christmas because it was like it came out my senior year of high school when I was still a poor child. And my parents got it for me for Christmas,

[00:06:49] and I did not like it. What? I'm not going to say what a great Christmas game, too, because how cold it all is. Yeah, I was a call of duty head in high school.

[00:07:02] Hell yeah. I was always, you know, trying hard to get my kill kill streak and and kill death ratio up. And I was I was definitely like playing with the boys. And that was that that was that. That's

[00:07:15] what I wanted to do all day. And I just wasn't I wasn't right for it at the time, you know, like it was not a genre that I was into, even though I was into fantasy world with like books

[00:07:27] and movies and whatnot. It was just not what I was looking for in a video game at that time. On the other hand. When I was in college, I brought my 360. This was on 360. I had it.

[00:07:40] I brought my 360 to college and I happened to have Skyrim and my my roommate started playing it. I was like, that looks awesome. And then I started playing. I knew nothing about playing RPGs.

[00:07:54] My character was a mess. I was I had like everything leveled up a little bit. He was a jack of all trades, master of none. And and I had a great time. I had a great time. And I think that's

[00:08:06] when I was beating it the first time I met my wife and I bought her the legendary edition. And then we all played on her PS3. So that's I'm up to two purchases now. I'm going to count the

[00:08:20] one my parents got for me. OK, I'm up to two purchases. We got a PS4 together, bought the special edition. We. It came out on Switch, got the Switch edition on PC. I eventually bought it

[00:08:37] once I had a PC that could run it. So that's five. And do I count game pass? Oh, yeah, I will count game pass because I paid for the upgrade to the anniversary edition. I did the same on my most recent playthrough. I got that version.

[00:08:52] I don't know if it was worth it. I'm going to be honest. It was very not very different. I played it for probably my most recent playthrough I played when I had my most recent child

[00:09:07] and I put 70 hours into it. OK, it was nice going back to an old, comfortable land. So I I just did all my like I did the greatest hits run of Skyrim and just had a pig in shit of a time,

[00:09:23] really enjoying, really enjoying it. And it looked great. I was because I was playing it back and forth. I on the in the living room, if I was sitting out there with the family,

[00:09:33] I would be playing it on the series X. And if I was in the quiet room with the baby where I had to sit there and not make any noise so the baby could sleep, I would be playing it with headphones

[00:09:44] on the Xbox series S. And so going back and forth between those two was very seamless. And it looked great because I was playing it at least 60 frames per second. And that was nice.

[00:09:56] It looked wonderful. Yeah, that's great. That's great. The series seems like a beast. I don't have one, but it seems like a really nice small beast. You know, you could just you could just run a lot

[00:10:08] of games seamlessly on it. It's pretty impressive. I really love having one. And I'll say I do appreciate that Xbox has been really into the play anywhere thing lately. They are all about, you know, you can go to your PC, you can go to the different Xbox consoles,

[00:10:23] you can go to the cloud, whatever you want. We'll sync up the saves for you. Yeah, I've never been like I've always been sort of an Xbox guy by default since the Xbox 360 era.

[00:10:35] But I there's nothing no, no like baleful human as such as a console warrior. So like I'm never going to be like, you know, it's I think it's all great. Whatever you want to play on, it doesn't

[00:10:50] matter. But I do like that you don't have to pay for something to get your cloud saves like you do on the PlayStation. That is pretty lame. They both have their goods. They both have their bads

[00:10:59] play. Yeah, it's a plastic box. Yeah, I'll play both for sure. I think I lean towards whichever company is being more consumer friendly that generation. And so the 360 I was all about.

[00:11:13] I was all about the 360, you know, hell, I had a PS three towards the end, but not not for a long time. And then the PS four generation, I owned a PS four for the entire generation. And I barely

[00:11:26] owned an Xbox one because the whole Don Mattrick mess with let's the the way that you had to lend games. I know that they didn't go through with it, but that whole PR nightmare where they just lost

[00:11:39] that generation in one press conference that worked on me that that the whole PlayStation where they go, let me show you how to share a game and they handed it to a friend that worked

[00:11:48] on me. That was good propaganda. And I was like, Yeah, I don't I don't want to jump through hoops with Xbox. And you do have issues where you you go if you were willing to do that once, you're

[00:11:59] willing to do it again. Luckily, Xbox didn't do that. It changed course. Phil Spencer took over and really took it in a drastically better new direction. I think I will say that like, as far as

[00:12:10] like human interface devices at these days, I'm much more concerned about ergonomics and comfort, which is why I gravitate towards the Xbox controller more than anything, because it's the most comfortable in my hands. I agree with that. Yeah, the offset thumbsticks are like my go

[00:12:27] to. And that's another reason why I tend to stick with Xbox on multi platform titles such as Skyrim for now. But yeah, that's kind of about it as far as like console stuff like I'm I'm staring at my

[00:12:41] PS five because Spider-Man two is burning a hole in my pocket. I haven't gotten to play with it yet. Oh, I played the first like three hours of it and it's really, really good.

[00:12:50] Hell, yes. So I mean, yeah, like you and I, you and I are on board with wherever the good games are. We're going to go right. You do it. I don't I've never understood allegiances to plastic boxes.

[00:13:01] Exactly, exactly. And I agree with you. I've been more leaning towards Xbox on the multi platform stuff, although lately I've been sort of shifting to PC a little bit. Yeah, just because

[00:13:10] I feel like that'll be my longest standing thing I can play on. You know, like I'm never going to lose the games on PC for sure. Anyway, enough about console wars, should we do an honor roll

[00:13:21] mention that the Activision deal just chain just closed? Yeah, that's that's that's pretty huge. Bethesda has been under has been under Xbox for a while now. But yeah, Activision Blizzard is

[00:13:38] straight up Xbox now. They did it. They had a I've never seen it before, but they did an acquisition trailer showing. I think this is what Xbox has now. Yeah, I think they did that for

[00:13:50] Bethesda, too. But it's yeah, it's it's a big deal. I mean, there's been a lot of debate over whether that was the right thing to do, etc. For me, I'm just like, I want these companies to do

[00:14:03] right by me. I want these companies to do right by consumers. And the best way to ensure that is competition. I don't think that Xbox was effectively competing with PlayStation for a long

[00:14:13] time. And this will help even out the competition a bit. And I hope that now they feel the need to win me as a consumer, you know, both of them for sure. Xbox seems has been doing pretty well by

[00:14:27] their employees and stuff, too. Like it's it's like an epidemic right now. All the layoffs and stuff of like game devs are just like, you know, they're like companies losing 50 percent of their

[00:14:38] like workforce and stuff. So that's it's kind of hard to see. And, you know, with big acquisitions like that, that's like a scary time for those people. But I mean, like whenever it gets down

[00:14:47] to the consumer, if this enables, you know, Xbox to have like a better catalog and like for me as an Xbox owner to have more opportunities to play games, then I mean, what am I really going to

[00:15:00] complain about? Right. Right, right. Yeah. I mean, if I'm going to have Game Pass, then I'm glad that there will be more things on it. I know I know there's concerns about, you know, consolidation

[00:15:11] of the industry. And I totally see that. Yeah, I'm kind of the other reason that I was not really that bothered by this acquisition was, as you said, Microsoft is known for being pretty good

[00:15:20] to its employees. We know that. Yeah. And it seems like everyone involved wanted it to happen. Yeah. And we know that there was this huge thing with Bobby Kotick and, you know, a lot of sexual harassment allegations and, you know, impropriety happening at Activision that wasn't being handled

[00:15:35] properly. Like it was very clearly not being handled properly. The shareholders even got involved and asked for Kotick to step down. He didn't. And it became very clear that Kotick and Activision's leadership was ineffective and incapable of solving this problem. So my hope is

[00:15:50] and I'm not guaranteeing this, but my hope is that Microsoft can step in and go, OK, cut that out. We're not going to do that anymore. That's that's done. You're fired if you do that. I hope that they can create a safer place to work for Activision.

[00:16:03] Yeah. And Kotick specifically, he is going to be out until I think he's done next year at some point. Like I thought it was till the end of this calendar year. He was he was staying.

[00:16:13] And then that's yeah, maybe maybe that's what it is. I read on it like, you know, barely like surface level. So, yeah, that'd be nice. And hopefully the culture that will change and we

[00:16:24] won't have to constantly read stories about people with a lot of money being super fucked up to their people. Yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah, it's just it's just treat your employees right.

[00:16:33] You know, just be nice to people. Be nice. Be nice for sure. The moral of all of that. Be nice. Yep. Be nice. Do the good guy playthrough. Do the good guy. Skyrim, I think I am neutral at best.

[00:16:50] Oh, yeah. Neutral at best. Yeah. I got a couple more logistical questions about the game for you, and then we'll do a break and then we'll go to full spoilers. Do you play in first or third person?

[00:17:02] First person every time. No, no exceptions. OK, I will occasionally break into third person to make sure I look good and then I will always go back into first person. All right. I want to buy usually character I've created. Yeah, yeah. I'm with you. I normally do

[00:17:18] that. My wife is always third person in Skyrim, which blows my mind every time I see it happen. I can picture a cooler looking like action whenever it's first person. When it's third person, you're literally seeing just this wire framed mannequin doing these like same bad attack

[00:17:39] animations or spell animations or whatever. But I mean, you know, if that's what you want. I feel like my head does better things for the game than the game does for. That's fair. That's fair. And you still get the third person animations when you get like the

[00:17:54] cool kills. So, yeah, it's it doesn't to me. There's not a lot of benefit to playing in third person. But if you like it, you'll like it. I know she likes to see her character for sure.

[00:18:04] That is like a that is that was never in the OK, before we get super into Skyrim, this was your first Elder Scrolls experience, right? It was. It was. Yeah. OK, I played.

[00:18:16] It's two console predecessors. I did play Marwan and I did play Oblivion. I think I spent much more time with Oblivion. It was Oblivion was my first like I'm a gamer ass gamer game for. Did you buy

[00:18:30] the horse armor? I did not. I was poor at the time. I was lucky. I had a horse armor. It did. It was it was it was the the proverbial like, what would you call it? It was the Trojan horse.

[00:18:44] Exactly. The horse armor that is doom us for the rest of eternity with microtransactions. If you're new to if you're new to gaming, the gaming metaculture, this was the first. I think this was the first microtransaction offered a cosmetic microtransaction offered

[00:19:03] importantly. Yes, it was. It wasn't content. It was just like a cosmetic thing that you could buy for your game. The horse armor did nothing for your horse except make it look pretty. It is a Fortnite skin. Yes. And this was the first time this ever happened.

[00:19:18] And it sold really well. And a lot of people I don't know if this is true, but a lot of people think that the success of that is what inspired the current culture of multi microtransactions.

[00:19:30] I wouldn't be surprised because since especially Oblivion, Elder Scrolls games have been such a cultural like and just Bethesda games in general have been such a cultural thing. Like a lot of people play these games. Yeah. So like they are sort of trendsetters in that way,

[00:19:49] even if they are weird, janky kind of pieces of shit. But they're just so lore rich and everyone loves to dig in. Mm hmm. Yeah, it is definitely I definitely credit horse armor with

[00:20:02] being the reason why I spent fifteen dollars to look like Fry in Fortnite the other day. My biggest Fortnite purchase was looking like Anakin Skywalker during the Star Wars run. Very understandable. I actually last sidebar about Fortnite, especially I just now started

[00:20:21] playing it for the very first time and I'm having a wonderful time. So we'll have to we'll have to drop in. We'll have to drop in together here soon, maybe. Yeah, I'd love to. Yeah, I'd be

[00:20:30] down. I'd be down. I'm not buying any skins anymore, but you don't got to be down. I'll play as Anakin and we'll have I literally just have one so we can be Fry Philip J Fry and we

[00:20:39] can be Anakin Skywalker and we can drop in and, you know, shoot some children. Fair enough. Fair enough. I also have Gangnam style as a sound, as a dance, so I can make Anakin go play Gangnam

[00:20:52] style and dance to it. That's wonderful. I have the I can floss the. Oh, good. Called the Rev. It's a full revolution. I'm doing the dance. It's a podcast. You can't see it. But the gaming industry is broken. I'm just going to say it after that. Yeah,

[00:21:06] and we are broken. We are broken old men. Yeah. All right. I think let's let's do one more thing. One more one more round of of basic questions. What kind of build is your default build?

[00:21:20] Like what kind of skill set? What what play style are you going with? OK, so starting from all the way back at the very beginning, Marwan sucked as far as like melee stuff. So I did more spells in Marwan oblivion on. I always do melee builds because

[00:21:38] they feel better to me. And I have two builds that I go to or two. I always make two characters very early. I make a this is the hero of the game as the game intends you to play it. So in Skyrim,

[00:21:52] specifically, I made a Nord and I did the whole main story. And then my one that I really love to play is I will make a Dunmer. I'll make a dark elf and I will play stealth. OK, and those are

[00:22:07] the two. Sometimes I play them concurrently because my Dunmer, I do more of an evil playthrough and my, you know, like in the in oblivion, I played as the like an imperial because I just I want to

[00:22:22] see like this is the intended way, quote unquote, that they want you to like experience this. And then I do like a let's break the game version with my dark elf. And that's that's fair. The way I always kind of run usually. What about you?

[00:22:36] I almost always play stealth archer. Oh, most always I do. I do the dark brotherhood. I do the thieves guild. I get all my stealth up and I just am. I'm I'm often also a dark elf.

[00:22:51] Hell yeah, because I have fun with it. You know, I the last time I tried to play when we decided to cover this, I started a new game and I was just going like full like aggro mage

[00:23:00] and I had fun with it, but not as much fun as I did as a stealth archer. It's just so well, especially in Skyrim. It's it's literally broken like it is like you can one shot dragons super early on in your playthrough. Yep. As long as your stealth

[00:23:16] is up really high and all your multipliers are up good and stuff. Do you when you play these games? What like difficulty setting do you use? Because I am not ashamed to say

[00:23:26] I just played on the easiest one. I didn't change it. I didn't even know you could change it for a long time. And then my most recent one, I think I still left it on normal because

[00:23:36] it was so used to it, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like there's nothing like if you want to power fantasy, you go very easy. But even normally, like the only things that you can run

[00:23:46] into that are like really mess you up or trolls and like, you know, stuff that like is a surprise. Yeah. I'm overwhelmed by some Forsworn. We'll get into some stuff later. Yeah, I'm definitely

[00:23:58] not against playing on easy. I do for a lot of games that I do lately just because at time and I don't feel like fighting with the game as much. I want to just experience it. But, you know,

[00:24:07] it depends on the game. Like Spider-Man is pretty easy. So I'm just doing that on the default difficulty as far as, you know, Skyrim. I didn't know if I could change it. So I did it on the

[00:24:18] default difficulty. But, you know, Jedi Survivor, I've been playing that and I did. There's like five levels of difficulty. I'm doing the second to easiest one because I wanted a little bit

[00:24:28] of challenge, but I didn't want to struggle that much. And it's been a nice balance. It's been good. That's good. Yeah. Most games I do play on normal, but on jank ass Elder Scrolls and Bethesda games, I just drop it easy because I want to experience

[00:24:40] the world. Definitely. I don't really want to fight. Yeah, I mean, that's. Yeah, I got really stuck on a part in Starfield and I I think we're going to save Starfield talk till after we talk

[00:24:55] about Skyrim. But I got really stuck on a part of Starfield and I think I'm going to have to decrease the difficulty. I think I'm on normal right now. Right. Not a bad move. Yeah. So I

[00:25:07] think that's all we can do on spoiler free. I think if you want to play this, please go play it. I know we convinced Dove 71 to go play it and Dove wrote in loving it. So I hope that you'll

[00:25:19] take our advice and go play this wonderful timeless game. You can buy it on anything that you own pretty much. So whatever whatever you want to play this game on, just go go buy it.

[00:25:30] You could you could play it on Game Pass too if you if you wanted to. So Brandon, let's take a quick break when we get back. We'll talk full spoilers. Let's. And we're back. All right, Brandon, let's talk full spoilers. I'm going to give a quick

[00:25:58] synopsis of the main plot and I it's been a while since I played it, so I had to remind myself by looking some stuff up. But I but I remembered it as I was reading. So here we go. You awaken as a

[00:26:11] prisoner on your way to execution. A dragon attack interrupts the executioner and you escape with the help of either the nationalist storm cloaks or the loyalist imperials. After killing the dragon outside Whiterun, your body absorbs its soul, allowing you to use the shouts of dragons.

[00:26:29] An order called the Greybeards determines you are the dragonborn, one who can shout like a dragon innately. Over the course of the game, you learn that the evil dragon Alduin is resurrecting dragons to seek revenge for his banishment. Based on the guidance of Parthenax, a surviving dragon,

[00:26:47] an Elder Scroll allows you to see into the past and learn the shout Dragonrend, which will allow you to defeat Alduin. You capture another dragon who bargains for his life by offering to take you

[00:26:58] to the Nordic Heaven Sovngarde, where you defeat Alduin with the three heroes who first banished him. It's uh, it's it sounds cooler than it is. I'm gonna be honest. The main quest might be the

[00:27:15] weakest part of the game. I think that for me the weakest part... let's go ahead and let's talk about how shitty this game is. For me the weakest part is actually the loyalist versus the nationalist

[00:27:30] part of the game. The racist nationalists? Yes, I never gave a shit about the Skyrim for Nords versus the Imperials, especially because like you know, I want to root for the Nords. This is their

[00:27:48] homeland and stuff, but I'm also super not for them shoving Dunmer into ghettos like they have been for hundreds of years. Yeah, yeah, like you want to be like you should be an independent state,

[00:28:00] but you're also like you're super racist. Yeah, you know, politics are complicated. What can we say? Get your politics out of my video games Bethesda. But yeah, like so that part was never as interesting

[00:28:15] to me. I come for the fantasy. I'm always surprised whenever I do the main story about how cool some of it is, like just Parthenax being a thing in general is so fucking rad to me. He lives at the

[00:28:30] you know the throat of the world. There's this dragon who's just up there contemplating his history, his past, like the future, everything. The greybeards are like a really cool weird Jedi order. The ability to shout, the shout in general that the dragon breath is words of dragons

[00:28:54] that mean different things that cause different effects. I always think that that stuff is so neat even if like half of my Skyrim playthrough time is just me in dungeons not interacting with that at

[00:29:08] all. I've always really enjoyed that one tidbit on the Xbox one version of the game. I believe they had to connect. You could actually learn the dragon tongue and speak. You could hold down. I

[00:29:23] believe it was like the right bumper. You could speak the dragon words and it would do whatever shout you spoke. That's awesome. I had no idea about that. It was probably my second or third

[00:29:33] playthrough of the game or maybe the second or third time I bought the game. I can't remember. I remember learning way too much Dova dragon language to be like, man, no one is ever gonna

[00:29:49] love me. I know so much dragon right now. But I had memorized at least 15 of the dragon shouts at one point. That's awesome. I love that. I love that. Super cool. Super cool. This whole main

[00:30:07] quest, the concept is good. The concept is good. The Elder Scroll does feel a little shoved into it. I will say that. That's the name of the series. Yeah. And the Elder Scroll you're like,

[00:30:20] was that necessary? Could you could you have just figured out a different way to look into the past and it would have been fine. But that's fine. That's fine. Parthenax, I got to ask you, did

[00:30:29] you kill Parthenax on your first playthrough? I've never killed Parthenax. I killed him my first playthrough. What? Wow. When my wife found that out to me, she was like, no, you shouldn't

[00:30:42] have done that. I agree. I agree with her. I'm with her on this one. I killed him my first playthrough and I state my regret. I confess to my crimes. Yeah, I'm sure the Greybeards were very happy

[00:30:55] with you. Yeah, they were happy with me. I don't know. I didn't trust any dragons. I was I was very distrustful of all the dragons racist. But I mean, they're they're like they're I think they're technically kind of demons. So I guess that makes sense. Yeah, they were

[00:31:09] they were. I mean, he's literally the only one who did not try to kill me. Right? Yeah. So well, I can't remember his name, but it was the dragon that you ride to Sovngarde

[00:31:21] that you have to catch. You went over him in the breakdown. But he's like, obviously, like he doesn't kill you and eventually you can call him. But he he doesn't. I think his is more

[00:31:33] of like this guy will kill me if I don't listen. So yeah, not as much of a like because Parthenax, I believe you're not willing to die at your hand, isn't he? I think so. I think so. But

[00:31:44] Parthenax, if I recall correctly, did a lot of nasty stuff under Alduin. He was not great. He was like a general of Alduin's initial army. Yeah. So he was not a great dude. Let's not let's not

[00:31:56] give him too much credit. I don't I don't regret killing him that much. I think on a human scale, let's get into some of this on a human scale. We have 100 years if we're lucky.

[00:32:07] If you spent the first 25 years of your life being a murderer, I don't think you should get the rest of those 100 years to, you know, do whatever you want. You should you should have

[00:32:19] to answer for that. But if you're a dragon and you live for a thousand years, you know, a hundred of those, you do you do a lot of terrible things. The entire world changes around you.

[00:32:31] Maybe the last 500 years you can just hang out in the retirement home for dragons, which is the throat of the world at the highest peak in Skyrim. You heard it here. Brennan Labarde is a murder

[00:32:40] apologist. Yeah, maybe maybe a little bit. There you go. There you go. You know what? I'm going to go kill Parthenax again after this podcast. Damn it. No, don't do it. The Greybeards are

[00:32:52] going to be so happy. They all. It's funny. I've never seen what the Greybeards do after that, because them and the the Blades, who is another faction who are like super anti-dragon who've

[00:33:04] also been in. They were like a major part of right. And right. I played a little bit of oblivion, but after Skyrim, they will cut you off also if you don't kill Parthenax because they're like,

[00:33:14] hey, we know that Parthenax is up there. We need you to go gank him. And if not, we can't hang out with you anymore. It's a fair trade. Yeah, honestly, I could deal with no blades.

[00:33:25] Delphine is not that interesting. I thought she was neat. I especially love the we're going to be throwing out a lot of names and nouns and stuff. Most of the other section ostensibly

[00:33:35] people have played this by now. Yeah, hopefully. Yes. Geez. But yeah, if Delphine I always love the secret door part and when she puts on her armor for the first time and you go kill up the

[00:33:45] you kill the bone dragon coming out of the carn like I thought that was like a really interesting thing. But after that, her introducing you to the blades going to that blades temple is really neat

[00:33:58] to me. I loved all the art in there, like all the stone, like it tells the story of Alduin from beginning to end on the wall. I didn't research any of that, by the way, this is all just like

[00:34:09] in my brain and it will be forever. Also, you get a cool you get cool katanas and shit from the blades, which is, you know, nice and we've interesting for the for the game. So you're

[00:34:21] a blade apologist, too. It's great. A little bit. It's great. A little bit. But I grew attached to them a lot more because of oblivion. Be a Delphine. I don't know, I have I have some I love a secret

[00:34:36] door tavern lady because she's got her tavern and, you know, there's a secret door in there that leads to her cool bat cave of blades bullshit. Nice. Let's see the Elder Scroll thing. I didn't

[00:34:49] want to mention that. I feel like a lot of the time the Elder Scroll is definitely just crammed in there because that's what the game is. Yep, it's shoehorned for sure. I do like that to get

[00:34:59] the Elder Scroll, the quest in general that gets you there sort of introduces you to her mass mora, which is sort of the Cthulhu kind of one of the daedric princes. That is a that is an

[00:35:13] interesting like all of the daedra from the Elder Scrolls world. There's some of my favorite parts that are like intertwined with all the games. I really enjoy any time that they become involved

[00:35:27] because they're like it's like one of the things that connects the universe really well is no matter where you are in the world, you can interact with shrines of these like sort of consistent

[00:35:39] characters that exist. It's like the books that you're going to you're always going to find the lusty Argonian maid. You're always going to find that in every game. I think it is the Cyrodiilic

[00:35:52] Brandy like skooma moon sugar if you want to party like it's all like consistent things that exist from one game to the other that ties everything together. It's always really you're always going to recognize some stuff like that and the daedric princes are a really good

[00:36:09] one because they're always some of the coolest like side quests in all the games. Yeah, well, we'll get into side quests later. Yeah, why don't we? Why don't we go to there now? We'll come back

[00:36:18] to DLC Scott side quests. One of my favorite side quests was the Mesa Mullag ball which is oh yeah you you can I forgot what city it's in but it's in one of the western cities. I think Markarth

[00:36:32] I believe Markarth right right and you have to go into this house and this trends like hey you got to go do a bunch of evil shit for me and I'll give you this cool mace that'll let you take souls

[00:36:42] for every kill. He'll fill a soul gem with every kill very useful very very useful. I don't know why but I always like that shrine that was a good that was a good shrine to do then just yeah all

[00:36:54] the all the like the the backstabbery involved too is really cool. I love a sentient weapon like that's always a I can't even remember if the Mesa Mullag ball was but I feel like it's

[00:37:08] one of the ones that talks to you. I think it does at first and then it just kind of goes silent but yeah it's a it's got like a green glow to it. It's great we love it we stan it we do

[00:37:22] you have the Daedric quests you know all of them as one of your side quests can you talk more about that? One of the things one of the Daedric quests that really I really love is actually the

[00:37:36] Clavicus Vile the Adedra's best friend with Barbas the dog that's really fun where you get to meet this dog and it's one of the I think they call it a radiant quest when you hit certain

[00:37:48] levels or deltas within the game quests will run up on you. I'm sure if you've played the game since the DLC has been out you'll be walking into a city randomly and a bunch of dragon priests will come up

[00:38:00] and try and stab you to death for no reason. That is because you're like level 10 now and you're able to play the Dragonborn DLC. It's one of those quests where a dog will run up and it'll go

[00:38:16] through this whole like a little quest of running around with this demon dog that talks to you named Barbas and you have to basically like lead someone to the shrine of Clavicus Vile. That's really fun

[00:38:32] sort of a meme-y one is I'm going to say a lot and I'm very sorry Merida the break of dawn. So Dawnbreaker is a one-handed sword that you can get. Yeah that's already his beacon I think

[00:38:48] it's the quest line. Yes and the beacon is so fun because like it's one of those things that pops up now on the internet to me all the time because the beacon when you find it it's another radiant quest

[00:39:04] where you talk to it and it's just because it just looks like kind of a big golf ball. Yes and it just in this this booming lady's voice she's just like a new hand touches the beacon listen hear me and

[00:39:19] obey and it's just like it's such a like to me an iconic Skyrim like thing to do the Meridians beacon quest. Plus she lifts you up into the air when you get there yeah. Yeah you get to see like

[00:39:32] a bird's eye view of all of Skyrim basically. I'm sure it crashed a number of lower end machines and even Xbox 360s and that there's an R-Rod for you right there having to load in the whole world

[00:39:45] all at once. Did you hear what they had to do to Morrowind to make it run on the Xbox original? No. Apparently some some of the loading screens are so long because the console is rebooting

[00:40:00] during the loading screen because you know what they need to clear the cache. Yeah that's insane. Which is insane it was actually rebooting your Xbox because it just couldn't handle the game. That's wild it's it's so funny because it does look so bad. But there's the jank.

[00:40:20] Meridia's beacon she's a really interesting Daedra too because she hates undead right which is yes very uncommon for a Daedra. Yeah she's like especially with Dawnbreaker the sword it's like a very paladin like thing which I enjoy especially on my Nord playthrough of that one because my

[00:40:39] ultra good guy playthrough it's fun to run around with that sword and you know. Yeah with a demonic sword. Yeah a demonic sword but that kills demons. Right right yeah she's certainly one of the most

[00:40:51] interesting Daedric princes. But yeah I mean I don't need to really go too into all of them. Mehrunes razor is another good one that sort of dovetails with there's a quest that you can go

[00:41:06] into like a museum of some of the bad guys from the first game the mythic dawn. They were very tied into oblivion like in the opening quest it's like a cult that worships. Right right yeah I've

[00:41:21] played that part. Yeah but like so you can go to a museum there and it sort of starts you off on the quest the quest to get Mehrunes razor which is like a staple for assassin builds. It's a very

[00:41:34] good decker. But yeah like if you find a Daedric prince or the threads of a quest of a Daedric prince and you haven't played it those are like mandatory side quests in my opinion. Yeah they're

[00:41:44] super fun. Good call good call I'm gonna bring in the dark brotherhood here you know we'll keep on the evil on the evil train love the dark brotherhood I love the whole we know thing with the note

[00:41:59] and the handprint great great world building I love the the twist I said to you I said to you my wife when I was playing in front of her I was like I think I'm I think I'm gonna make her I

[00:42:11] mean think I'm gonna make Astrid my companion spouse and she goes okay she knew the twist already she knew the twist already yeah so Astrid betrays you and of course you cannot wife her

[00:42:25] because she dies very violently oh yeah and uh yeah yeah um it's still a great it's still great quest I love Cicero I love hiding in the night mother's coffin and listening to the to the

[00:42:40] conversation and there's just so many good little tidbits there and I like assassinating the emperor as the cook that's really fun yes the fake emperor of course really good stuff they've always been sort of a staple for those games like I remember not enjoying the dark

[00:42:59] brotherhood experience as much in Skyrim as I did in Oblivion the intro to it is always like a like a cool like how are they gonna make it in this one this one you have to like basically go and

[00:43:09] assassinate people for a little boy in Skyrim you just literally have to murder anyone and you'll get a note when you wake up after a rest um because they're like we saw what you did basically we

[00:43:24] sent it um but yeah the the dark brotherhood is probably the first like main quest I will get to whenever I make an evil run um because you just can't miss it because they they really do like

[00:43:39] with other like guilds and stuff like the dark brotherhood is always the coolest one to me because it's just like the most metal what's what's not to love about that yeah it's a really

[00:43:47] great side quest what's your next favorite side quest um so I have a night to remember um that is the uh oh my gosh what are the movies uh The Hangover uh there's a quest that is basically

[00:44:02] The Hangover in Skyrim where uh you you you take a sip and you know what now that I think of it that is a daydream quest um it literally just hit me now but yeah I can't get away but over the the

[00:44:19] the line of the quests you um you you you get drunk and you wake up I think also in Markarth um and uh you have to find out over the like what you actually did over the uh over the course of

[00:44:35] like you find that you like you killed something on a farm or maybe you didn't kill anything but you like I think you stole some stuff like I can't remember but I really remember like just

[00:44:45] really enjoying it like is this straight up just The Hangover but you know medieval and it it is uh like I I just remember having so much fun with that one uh did it was like a cool novel idea

[00:44:58] yeah yeah that's really fun I don't think I've played that one so interesting you have one more on your list why don't I I'm gonna let you keep going and then I'll do my last one okay uh the the

[00:45:10] next one was Diplomatic Immunity and that is one where you um you have to attend a fancy dinner that's actually isn't this in the main the main storyline it might because I think Delphine

[00:45:24] sends you on it oh yes I hate you have to turn in all your gear you hate it I absolutely fucking hate this quest this is like every time I played through this is often where I stall out for the

[00:45:34] main quest I like it uh I like killing Thalmor it's really fun I hate high elves and their snooty asses so it's very fun to like as soon as like I always fail to to stealth through once I start to

[00:45:49] go outside because basically you have to attend a fancy dinner and you have to talk to all these rich people and um you have to turn in all your gear so you don't have any of your shit and over

[00:45:59] the course of it you're you know you're you're you're mingling and then you're led to the side room you get your gear you go outside to try and sneak into their embassy and then I just murder

[00:46:10] everyone involved all of them um uh which you know every time you run into Thalmor I like to go ahead and get them you know taken care of knocked out done done but yeah I really loved that one uh

[00:46:23] just the uh uh just the this the sneaky that you would losing all your gear is fun to me I don't know why called the the Dungeons and Dragons in me but like it's a very it's a very RPG quest that I

[00:46:40] I like when you gotta schmooze a little bit with the rich people that's fair enough fair enough yeah I did not I definitely understand why you wouldn't like it though

[00:46:48] I spent a long time getting this gear don't put it in a box please I I play a lot of magic the gathering lately and we're magic players are notorious for being really cranky about card

[00:46:59] discard effects and milling cards you know things that take away your stuff yeah and uh yeah I I feel that I feel that it's it's part of my identity yeah luckily you don't lose it for long unless

[00:47:12] you lose it forever which I'm sure there's a way to mess it up and you lose all your gear in this box in the Thalmor embassy wouldn't that be fun um my third quest I'll put on and it's another

[00:47:22] big one I'm I kind of cheated and I stole the big ones but it's so good the the Thieves Guild I love it I love all the betrayals that you uncover through it I love the Nightingale armor

[00:47:33] I know it's not even that good but I love how good it looks um I it's so cool and you can never do the last quest in it and then keep the master lockpick forever the skeleton key whatever

[00:47:49] it is um that will unlock anything you can you can get that indestructible lockpick forever if you just don't turn in the last quest guess who's never turned in the last quest oh yeah I have once

[00:48:01] I have and I've regretted it but at least I know how it ends I think do you I think you get the Nightingale armor before that I think so so yeah I don't even think you need to do that to to get the Nightingale armor

[00:48:16] hmm regrets I have them yeah um the Thieves Guild experience has been uh pretty pretty good throughout uh series wide I think um the uh there used to be like a Mage Guild and a Fighter's Guild

[00:48:30] in the older games too so there was like more opportunities for those quests the Thieves Guild is like the last one that's stuck around in this game yeah I mean you have equivalents right you

[00:48:38] have the College of Winterhold for mages you have the Companions for the Fighter's Guild yeah I guess that's that's the the closest analog uh the Companions we uh we can get into a little

[00:48:47] bit especially with um uh Dawnguard but the um the College of Winterhold is a little bit disappointing uh it's like there's some neat stuff in there but like it's just not as meaty as I

[00:49:03] would want for like a like I think mages kind of got done dirty a little bit with Skyrim yeah the idea of being able to use a thing in both hands was a little I think maybe because it dual wielding and stuff was never a thing before

[00:49:21] so I think they kind of got their they got carried away with it and that that's probably just uh it being a you know 2011 thing yeah it's a growing pain yeah yeah it's something that

[00:49:30] we'll get into more in the future but um I think it's a little bit disappointing yeah it's a growing pain yeah yeah it's something that wouldn't have you know they would have never

[00:49:39] done that now to like make it like a big thing like you can have fire in one hand and ice in the other um I just think it kind of like maybe cheapened the magic experience a little bit uh

[00:49:49] so yeah I've never even really done a full magic run I've done like a well I guess I'll be a wizard for a little bit I'll do the college I'll be the I'll be the you know the master of the College

[00:50:00] of Winterhold and then I'll just go do whatever and I'll have some spells fair enough fair enough I I don't think I've ever finished the College of Winterhold but I've played

[00:50:09] a decent amount of it pretty much every run I don't know I ended up I end up there for some reason I just end up there and uh but I prefer I prefer the the thievier guilds and uh I've not

[00:50:22] really played the Companions much I think I beat it once I think I I finished that side quest once I just didn't love it that much so I I haven't gone back to do it I'm with you they're cool idea

[00:50:33] I just don't I think maybe it's also too early in the playthrough like you're kind of involved with other stuff they get like backburnered real bad they've got a great hook I will say um like

[00:50:44] you know because you just think they're a regular guild and then it's like no we're a secret society of werewolves like okay that's a cool fucking hook um right which is a good segue right into

[00:50:57] the Dawnguard DLC yes um this was a very cool bit of DLC um by Skyrim we hardly knew you I'm sure we'll be back to playing you now on to the DLC um this was neat they they introduced like um

[00:51:14] skill trees for uh for vampire and werewolves at this point um I really liked that uh that you could kind of expand um but the the the story itself was really neat for Dawnguard uh because

[00:51:31] it sort of it brings in like they all like have like both of the DLCs have like main hooks but like some of the stuff that happens on the side um are like some of the best parts to me um you get

[00:51:49] also crossbows are pretty pretty bitchin so it's nice to have those yeah that you can use for instance with one of the things that I loved about Dawnguard was the the snow elves um so they

[00:52:00] are uh they're a cool like there's a couple in the entire like canon of the elder scrolls there's like races of people uh who have since disappeared like the Dwemer is like a the dwarves um which are

[00:52:16] you know dwarves is kind of it's complicated in that sense because they're more like um I guess Norse dwarves they're just elves basically like a different race of yeah but the snow elves are really neat because like they have basically been locked underground and they've devolved

[00:52:34] into goblinish creatures called the Falmer um they're like blind uh just monsters basically right and nobody knows how that even happened yeah yeah like it's a cool fun mystery um and uh like what the Dawnguard eventually gets to is you find like uh these um

[00:53:00] they uh the the last two basically snow elves and uh one of them is a vampire uh and it's sort of like the progenitor of like a big part of this whole thing um I really like whenever you get into

[00:53:15] like the big mysteries of the universe situation and finding out that the Falmer were indeed the the last sort of snow elf descendants was really cool um this is a cool bit of world building yeah

[00:53:28] um the uh going to the Solkarn was that part of Dawnguard I believe it was I think so yeah yeah yeah that was that was you had to because I think her mother was there right

[00:53:42] Serana's mother yes so let's just let's just say Serana is the best companion she doesn't die she just she just carries all your shit she's a good fighter excellent and she's got a lot

[00:53:53] of sarcasm which is great she yeah she's really I think last time because of uh uh Maren I've I you know was happy about goth chicks letting you know the podcaster audience know like

[00:54:07] I I'm very weak to to them uh so you know what's what's not to love of a vampire princess walking around with you Lord Harkin's daughter she's great uh pretty great um the did you so wait you played

[00:54:22] so you did play this obviously I played through this whole thing yeah a couple times I think I always play at least some of this DLC yeah like the way it likes it uh radiantly gets to you

[00:54:33] even if you're not like looking for it is nice for that like it'll be like why not go do the vampire shit at least get Serana right yeah yeah it's true did you do like a vampire run did you make

[00:54:46] a vampire character or did you just go with like a vampire hunter route oh I played as a vampire a lot of times yeah okay I enjoyed playing as a vampire for a little bit I think in the end I

[00:54:58] thought that the downsides were outweighing the powers of the vampire so I think I did eventually cure myself I don't think I've ever kept the vampire the vampiric curse or whatever

[00:55:10] right yeah and then they have the uh where you could they I think they wanted a parody with werewolf where you have like a full transformation um yeah which I did not enjoy uh I think it kind

[00:55:21] of was lame to be a floaty vampire man um yeah yeah I didn't really like it like it was cool the first time but I was like I'm not gonna play through the whole rest of the game like this what are we even

[00:55:30] doing here right yeah the again there's there's downsides to being a vampire and it's not fun to play with those those uh things that you gotta think about you know also like um maybe it's just

[00:55:42] like a clash that for me specifically but if I'm playing a like fantasy game like that maybe I don't necessarily want to play it in like a like I I want to either play a vampire game or I want

[00:55:55] to play a fantasy game maybe I don't want to play both I mean you are the leader of every guild in Skyrim you are the dragonborn you are a vampire you've been a werewolf how many more things do

[00:56:08] you need it's it's so much yeah it's like it's like uh it's like your first dnd campaign as a dungeon master where you want to be like you want to include literally everything like let's be a

[00:56:19] transformer next let's do that I want to be Optimus Prime in this fantasy world do you um do you often go vampire hunter though you seemed like you were figuring it I usually do um just because like I've

[00:56:32] done it before and I'm like I know I didn't like it so if I just want to hang out with Bobby yeah definitely I definitely do that got to um but yeah there's like a lot of other cool stuff about

[00:56:43] that dlc I love the the demon horse that you get from the the soul card and the spirit horse rather I can't I can't remember the horse's name but uh I always just yeah dark brotherhood horse that you

[00:56:54] can summon that's true that's true do you remember that blood main bloodmare something like that yeah but that's that's another good spirit horse that you can just summon anywhere hell yeah you throw

[00:57:05] it off a mountain doesn't hurt it well it'll hurt it but it'll come back yeah never stays gone long no but yeah very good expansion I enjoyed it I love the additions uh since we're talking about

[00:57:18] underground stuff I did want to mention I did not find black reach until like five playthroughs in really yeah I don't know what it was but it took me a long time and I had thought I saw everything

[00:57:28] in Skyrim and then all of a sudden I found this weird trippy black reach place I was like what the hell is this and that's just that's the joy of Skyrim right is every time you think that you

[00:57:38] know everything there seems to be something else yeah um that's a the black reach is such a cool thing like I think it's a little criminally underused for how cool it is it's kind of

[00:57:50] there's literally I think only one quest that you can find down there and it's like a nurn root quest which nurn root is a I think they started that in oblivion uh where you just got to collect

[00:58:01] all the nurn roots and there's red ones down there I think that's what it is but um yeah like it's such a cool like alien place uh and I think Elder Scrolls does a great job

[00:58:13] especially with like making things feel alien and unique for fantasy worlds um like it feels like you're on a different planet when you're in black reach uh yeah it does well the the

[00:58:24] bioluminescence the yes the the weird bugs that you find and like why are there giants there they're inside come on get out of there it sort of just shows like the that you know the eight the

[00:58:35] giants exist all throughout Skyrim it's right it's neat right um yeah I really love that area that biome if you will it's really cool um one thing I was going to mention also with the addition

[00:58:47] of uh Dawnguard uh they got the character makeover so at down at your favorite place the ragged flag in in Riften uh you can find someone to change your appearance that wasn't actually

[00:58:58] a thing until Dawnguard either oh I didn't even know you could do that all right so let's talk about the other DLC I think it's called Dragonborn yes do you want to talk about that because I never

[00:59:09] played it all the way through so um that DLC the Dragonborn DLC is sort of the spiritual like sequel to uh to the game because it sort of wraps everything up for you um

[00:59:26] it picks up on some threads that were left in the main storyline with Hermaeus Mora um which you know you you're fighting the initial like the original Dragonborn the very first one

[00:59:37] Merak is his name um with two a's very fantasy name m-i-r-a-k uh he's the he's a former dragon he's a former dragon priest um and uh like it takes you to like a whole other land you go to

[00:59:54] Solstheim Solstheim um and it is like a little place that's sort of on the edge of Skyrim and there are like uh it's basically a Dunmer settlement uh well there's one there technically

[01:00:09] part of Morrowind right I believe so yes yeah so that's that's kind of cool I know people people freaked out about that they're like they're bringing back Morrowind I definitely did because Morrowind was my first experience and they do bring like some very visually obvious things

[01:00:23] at the the community of Raven Rock which I it's it always sticks in my head there's a Raven Rock park near my house uh vaguely near my house so uh and there's also a Raven Rock place in Fallout 3

[01:00:38] so I think maybe there's like some sort of a weird connection to them to having places in their games called Raven Rock interesting uh yeah um but yeah the Raven Rock location uh is in Solstheim uh

[01:00:53] and uh it introduces like a bunch of new gear and stuff but mostly like the the interesting part is that you're you're dropped into like this throwback place um the Dunmer like in Morrowind uh have like

[01:01:08] that's another part that looks like really alien and unique like there's everything looks like it's made out of chitin because it is like there's like chitin armor and stuff and there's these big silt strider like that was a fast travel mechanic as you could ride

[01:01:22] these weird giant fleas with long legs um kind of like a bus um it's hard to explain unless you've you know unless you kind of know what I'm talking about I think I've done about as good as I could

[01:01:36] um yeah it's it's northeast of Skyrim I'll get into the geography uh it it uh and there's like big ash wastes too it's a bad place the Dunmer have had it really bad yeah they have like it's

[01:01:49] just a it's a it's a bad place I think the Argonians might be the only race done dirtier in Skyrim yeah maybe maybe they have it pretty rough too and the Khajiit the Khajiit oh man the Nords

[01:02:00] hate the Khajiit they do and it makes sense because they're all backstabbers thieves and drug dealers oh my god cancel go ahead buy some skooma you're canceled Brandon I definitely you

[01:02:12] know I'd get canceled in Faerun or wherever the hell we are not fair and what is it tell Tamriel Tamriel yeah sorry did you ever um did you ever play the Elder Scrolls online

[01:02:25] I played for a little bit um I just found it to be a less fun version of these games yes but I will admit that I didn't give it the fair shake it deserved

[01:02:37] um I think I gave it a pretty fair shake and I didn't care for it that much really the the combat's really clunky that's really the problem is it really is a lot of a

[01:02:47] lot of these games you want you know in the Elder Scrolls it's like it's not the Elder Scrolls and it's not World of Warcraft right it's not doing either thing well it's doing both things medium

[01:02:59] yes that is a very good way to put it um and to me didn't thread the needle enough to to really dig in but I know some people it hits just right and it's like their game it's like it's a destiny

[01:03:13] thing where it's like they're still doing the same shit and it just it it hits everything they need yeah and at least there's like there's ongoing lore that ties into the real world

[01:03:24] of this of these games that people love I get that I get it I love lore myself I just I don't I don't think I can commit to that you know I'm not at a point in my life where I can

[01:03:34] play an MMO same and I mean they've just last year had like a gigantic DLC for that so it's still going still got a great community um maybe one day maybe one day I'll get involved but I can't

[01:03:47] see it happening in the near future I can't even record podcasts at a regular time I know I know it's tough it's tough I mean I could barely find time to play uh Spider-Man you know and that's

[01:03:57] single player for sure god thank god he needs me the city needs to be saved they sure do and now it's not even just Manhattan you can go to Brooklyn and Queens you can you can go to the all the

[01:04:09] boroughs you can go you can go get a pizza from Queens oh I didn't know if you could go to Staten Island or the Bronx I haven't I haven't ventured that far yet I don't even know I haven't even

[01:04:19] fired up my PlayStation I'm gonna do it as soon as we're done with this just to look at the title screen and then go pick up my children there you go there you go well why don't we move on so that

[01:04:28] you can get there eventually um I gotta I gotta play the Dragonborn DLC because it looks really fun it's good I don't really want to spoil it but like it just um it's one of those things where like

[01:04:38] with the Snow Elves situation like the farther you go into the Dragonborn DLC the more like just interesting world building they get done um you find out stuff uh about like Hermaeus Mora that

[01:04:50] you wouldn't have expected it like it sort of spirals into like a straight up Cthulhu plot that's really cool um it's neat to like figure out finally like why the Dragonborn are a thing

[01:05:04] um I really do strongly recommend it and like it feels to me like when I think of the ending of the game it's kind of like it ends there uh for me like it ends with Dragonborn all right

[01:05:16] that's good to know I really gotta do this my wife is a big fan of that DLC she plays it all the time when when she plays uh I know she really likes that area she likes the armor you get there she's

[01:05:25] that's why she plays in third person she wants to look at a cool character and every time I look at her characters they are always just decked out with the best gear you can imagine yeah very it

[01:05:37] is very cool honorable mention for the third DLC they did it's not really it's not a playable you know new area it's just you can make a house it's called Homestead you can make a house you can

[01:05:50] adopt children and put them in the house you can uh you can do a lot of stuff there so it's more about like building uh modding so um uh with uh Hearthfire is a great time to talk about it because

[01:06:03] uh I ruin every playthrough with modding and that's how they always end I liken it to using cheats for Minecraft the instant that you don't need to dig for your resources is when I lose

[01:06:17] interest whenever I start Hearthfire I know that I'm almost done because I need to deck out my house and I'm like I don't want to go and find all this shit so I could make a cool statue in the side

[01:06:30] room of this house um so I end up cheating and going to like a mod room where they have like boxes of resources uh that I can just use to to fully deck out my house I look at it I'm like

[01:06:44] cool I'm gonna make a follower live here because oh by the way with followers I never have any followers ever except for occasionally Serana um okay because they always scare the shit um

[01:06:55] what's her name what's her name the first one you get oh god Lydia Lydia Lydia uh my first playthrough she died in a fight that was that that was that I don't think I ever got any more followers but

[01:07:10] then because I didn't even have the DLC on my first playthrough you know I was just playing the vanilla game yeah um eventually Serana became my default companion I think um uh the warrior from the

[01:07:23] companions is a pretty good follower Ayala the Huntress or something like that yes Ayala the Huntress she's great there's a few that are pretty good but Serana has my heart forever yeah um this goes into the

[01:07:37] Fallout games too but with companions I never like having them because I'm always like trying to do something and they scare the fuck out of me like I'm like oh shit there's a there's an even denser

[01:07:47] companion system in Starfield I'm just gonna tell you you have you have a companion the same way you usually do but you also have a crew that seems good like I wouldn't mind having people at a base

[01:08:00] but I don't want someone no they stay on your ship okay yeah I like that I just don't want someone to be like standing in a hallway that I didn't expect to be there there's some pretty fun dialogue I'll

[01:08:13] say that they've improved like the companion dialogue for Starfield I will say that like uh even as far back as like New Vegas and stuff the companions have always been cool like they're

[01:08:25] good it's just the experience of playing with them I don't enjoy very much fair enough sort of like a um you know fall in order like I like that I like that it's a thing but maybe I don't have as

[01:08:35] much fun playing it um fair enough fair enough I will tell you the gameplay is smoother in Survivor so I think we're gonna have to cover it eventually I'm down to do it eventually for sure I would love

[01:08:47] to see what's going on with the rest of the story it's yeah I've heard that it's not as strong of a story towards the end I'm enjoying it so far but I'm liking where it's going they've expanded some

[01:08:59] of the um some of the gameplay I'll do a quick gameplay spoiler here you can dual wield as a mode now instead of just as a finisher hell yeah I like that great yeah there's a lot of there's a

[01:09:11] lot more customization of like how you play and you don't have to press a button to grab onto a climbable thing which is great they eliminated that you can use a blaster too can't you I haven't

[01:09:24] gotten to that part but yes I've seen it in trailers yeah yeah you can definitely do now it's on the trailers that's all right yeah um all right all right I think that's about all we have

[01:09:35] to say about the main game um do you want to do a quick Starfield check-in before we since we kind of already alluded to it before we head into feedback sure I'd love to what have you played

[01:09:47] on Starfield I've played I have walked to the slicing machine like six times on three different platforms okay and let's let's by the way let's keep it like relatively spoiler free for sure on

[01:10:04] this discussion um the the uh much like Skyrim there is like a dreadfully slow introduction to moving around in a video game yeah where you have to deal with lore that you have no clue what they're

[01:10:19] talking about you're just like getting vague like world building thrown at you which is fine uh you know that's the way that stories start especially in fantastical or science fictional realms um

[01:10:34] I've done that several times uh like I'm by the last one it was very much like a yada okay come on let me move and then I've gotten into um uh with the my most recent and it was like a week

[01:10:48] into the game maybe I uh I got into a bit of a firefight in one section uh got to experience some of the action in the game and that's literally it um that's all I've been able to do I have not

[01:11:01] I have not had video game time pretty much at all uh you are you're way in there though I'm I've played like 15 hours of it I've I've had a decent time which I know is kind of scratching

[01:11:15] the surface on a Bethesda game but I heard that new game plus is really a lot better because of that and I can tell why based on the story but I'm not going to spoil it here but I

[01:11:26] I can tell what they're going for and I'm I like the twists and turns they've gotten in the story I think it's I think it's the strongest Bethesda main story I've played like there's a lot of good

[01:11:37] there's a lot of good stuff in the main story I've mostly done the main story because I've been trying to get to new game plus and then explore more but um I kind of got stuck at a

[01:11:46] mission so now I have to now I have to um you know go figure out what I want to do on um uh you know do I want to go do more side quests or do I want to lower the difficulty for sure yeah

[01:12:00] this year has been something of a banner year for excellent games that unfortunately take for fucking ever to play I know so like I'm just kingdom boulders gate yep yeah like I'm I'm

[01:12:11] just so far behind and I just I've had the the least amount of time I've ever had in my life I have to chase a one-year-old around my five-year-old does not like video games right

[01:12:20] now she just wants to watch you know bluey and and uh every single day it is either frozen or frozen one followed by Moana followed by Encanto every single day we're watching that shit which I

[01:12:32] enjoy they're all great movies they're all great it doesn't doesn't give me time to play video games especially whenever I'm trying to chase around a baby so fortnight's fun and fast

[01:12:42] yeah you can hop in for 10 minutes play around and log off yeah yeah same thing for destiny I've been playing the game for like seven years so like I can hop in get some stuff done even if it's just

[01:12:53] manage inventory and then hop out um but yeah so like story games I'm just having a rough time getting to I I heard that spider-man 2 is like 30 hours and you're done like I can do it feasibly

[01:13:05] yeah like it's the other one for sure that has fallen through the cracks has been um final fantasy 16 like we were supposed to cover I don't know if we're gonna cut this but we were

[01:13:15] supposed to cover it like I just have not been we're gonna cover it this month and then we were busy so we were like oh let's do skyrim we've already played that for 700 hours each yeah

[01:13:25] conservatively uh but yes like um so it's just you know it's wild times right now every I'm sure everybody you know all adults can uh can sort of uh especially children having adults can

[01:13:36] can understand but man what a great game like what a great year for games yeah I mean you could you could just have the games of this year and be busy for like three more years straight up and definitely

[01:13:47] as a big Bethesda game fan like starfield is one that I cannot wait to get to um very very eager to do it I did not like space flight uh I'm sure I'll get good at man like at the ship eventually

[01:14:01] it's not great it's just not it's fine it's fine it's not it's not my favorite part of it I do it as little as I can and I hear like as soon as you get a better ship it's much it's like a much

[01:14:14] better experience but uh yeah the original ship's pretty bad I had to buy a better ship because you you get to a point where they're like you have to travel this far and you can't do that in your

[01:14:24] current ship oh okay cool yeah yeah all right well I uh I hope that people enjoy starfield and skyrim and all the bethesda suit we're talking about let's take a quick break when we get back

[01:14:37] we'll do listener feedback and we're back all right Brandon we've got listener feedback I think mostly for the first time on this podcast usually because we cover a different thing every month I

[01:15:00] think it's hard for people to write in but we gave a lot of leeway a lot of a lot of lead time on this because we kept putting it off and so people got their skyrim feedback in so we've got

[01:15:10] four today I'm going to start off with Davie Mac and by the way you can send this stuff into lhp at the lorehounds.com use the lorehounds.com go to the contact form leave a voicemail whatever you

[01:15:22] want go on our discord server and at me um and we'll get this on the feedback for the next episode I'm not sure what we're covering next Brandon but we'll keep it we'll keep it on the discord and on

[01:15:33] the twitters and you can follow us for free on patreon if you can just click the follow button and you'll get updates so that's an option for people if they want to see what we're doing

[01:15:44] anyway Davie Mac wrote in and said hey guys not sure if this is too late but I just wanted to send in my brief feedback for skyrim I think this was sent two months ago it's a game I wanted to love

[01:15:54] and I gave it about 40 hours of my time but unfortunately I'm afraid I didn't click with it I know I probably should have powered through to the end as I heard the final mission was great

[01:16:04] but I just had a hard time with the whole you get to be the head of every single guild approach to the design of the game it just kind of pulled me out that I could be the head of the mages

[01:16:14] simultaneously while being the head of whatever group it was that hated mages it just kind of broke my immersion I wish it locked you out of things and forced you to choose I feel like that

[01:16:24] would have made the journey more meaningful tack on combat and crafting wasn't fun and I eventually just had to walk away I know people love the freedom of the game though so maybe it just

[01:16:35] wasn't for me yeah I'm gonna pause there I agree with you Davie Mac I think that it's people would be upset if you couldn't if it did lock you out of things I think that that would

[01:16:47] piss off the Bethesda main community me it would uh it was a problem that I had with Fallout New Vegas is it forced you into like choosing sides in a way that denies like it it makes you do

[01:17:00] secondary runs of the game which you know I love to do so I don't know why it's like a an issue but but yeah like uh I think locking stuff out would have been fine but if you want this all-encompassing

[01:17:15] run with one character um it's it's it's hard to know what the right answer to do is as far as like game design but I I can't disagree that um forcing you to choose would make the game much more

[01:17:28] impactful I think yeah I I think that this is just going to be a matter of preference you know yeah for sure yeah but I I hope you have a better experience Davie yeah and I don't know like how

[01:17:40] like if you literally just now for the first time started playing Skyrim I don't know what that would be like I obviously can't you know I can't say because I played it when it first came

[01:17:51] out but starting Skyrim for the first time in 2023 like what does that even feel like it must feel like like a mess our next person writing in is doing that so um okay we'll hear from Dove in a

[01:18:04] second uh just to finish off Davie Mac's email the modding scene looks super fun though and I highly recommend the monster factory episodes like Griffin and Justin McElroy did on Skyrim they were hilarious episodes in any case looking forward to your discussion on it Davie Mac on

[01:18:20] the discord thanks Davie Mac always a pleasure to hear from you I'm sorry you didn't like Skyrim and hopefully we can cover something you like next month or next time we record the modding

[01:18:30] scene is fun um I made one of my more recent playthroughs I made Jon Snow in the game I used a Nord uh body and then I took the character and reduced him in size to be about chest height on

[01:18:48] every other character in the game so I made a tiny little Jon Snow that's really people have modded in a bunch of the Game of Thrones armor and weapons and stuff so I was using long claw

[01:18:59] um like it's really neat like that you can there's so much stuff you can do you can make the game look prettier run smoother like the modding scene is absolutely insane also my

[01:19:10] favorite mod which is a pretty common one that kind of went viral is the Macho Man Randy dragon where it replaces the all of the uh dragon models with like weird awful stretched out

[01:19:23] Macho Man Randy savages so like like it's just big long like weird looking arms and the dragon shots are all like oh yeah that's funny like it is so good that's fun I haven't modded too much

[01:19:37] in Skyrim I think I've like enabled a couple like built-in ones on the anniversary edition but that's about it I was not very because I wasn't really a PC gamer until very recently until a

[01:19:46] couple years ago so it's uh I kind of missed the Skyrim mod scene right but maybe that's my next journey maybe I'll do a mod later soon yeah uh Doove71 writes in and Doove heard that we were

[01:20:00] covering Skyrim I was recommending it to him on on Twitter and Doove was influenced to begin playing Skyrim for the first time ever in 2023. Doove wrote in and said about 50 hours into Skyrim I love how

[01:20:15] this game is stubbornly intent on making me a vampire had to kill myself three times already for a game of his age it has some ticks that wrinkle a bit but its ambition and execution is

[01:20:26] stunning I can remember years ago hearing how players just went completely off script and became farmers raising kids looking forward to hearing the pod when it drops Doove I'm so glad

[01:20:37] you're having a fun time with Skyrim I know Doove was tweeting at me the whole time I could have collected a couple more tweets um but Doove was tweeting at the lorehounds account the whole time

[01:20:45] saying how much of a blast he was having so it's I'm really glad that uh it's still hidden in 2023 that yeah that is that that does make me feel good because like there is so much there um

[01:20:55] by the way we didn't even get into the music but god like yeah the music in in Skyrim and just in Elder Scrolls in general like some of the moments that I think about when I think about Skyrim are

[01:21:07] just like looking out at icy wastelands up in the north and just hearing the beautiful music that plays um yeah super relaxing yeah and that is something that will hit like the music does such

[01:21:21] a good job of making the game feel timeless I think because it's such a ambient wonder like like a wonder that the music has um and you know I think it does extend the life of a game

[01:21:38] through vibes alone yeah yep I'll shut up no I think you're right I think it's it's one of the most relaxing and beautiful soundtracks in a game um I think the only thing that

[01:21:49] relaxed me more is the everyday music from Persona 5 I don't know but I'm sure you're right I gotta it's so it's so chill yeah just I don't even remember what the song is called

[01:22:01] but it's just the one that plays when you're just sitting in your room and doing nothing hell yeah yeah anyway dude thanks for writing in Alicia contributor to the network and affiliate

[01:22:12] on the bullshit dust feed writes in Skyrim they tricked me into buying that game three times and it was worth it every time the VR version is my go-to now though I had low expectations for it

[01:22:24] since it was something added after the fact but it's one of the best VR games I own I often use the opening sequence coming in on the cart the dragon showing up to give people a PSVR demo when

[01:22:36] it looks like they're about to chop off your head then there's a giant lizard hovering over you it's intense I and I love the way the teleport motion style works in that version I feel like I'm

[01:22:48] hopscotching through the landscape have you played the VR version Brandon I've never played anything with VR okay I played like 10 minutes of the VR version that's about it you have like a like a VR

[01:23:02] setup not really I have I have an oculus quest from a while ago and it it kind of connects to the PC but it doesn't it's not it's not like full resolution so it's not I don't think it was the

[01:23:15] optimal experience for it to be honest with you I think at least you probably had a much better experience doing it natively with PSVR I think it makes sense especially because of just like how

[01:23:24] robust the the world is for Skyrim like it seems like it is it would be like really good for uh for VR yeah that and like it being familiar probably would also help like orient you a little

[01:23:36] bit um yes you know playing having played the game so many times I think like being like huh maybe if I go check out Falkreath like this will be like a pretty cool experience and I can like look all

[01:23:45] around and stuff yeah like yeah I'm into it I'm into it I want to try this if I ever get a better VR setup uh yeah I'm sort of inspired to do so now maybe for the first time thanks Alicia there

[01:23:57] you go yeah thanks Kim M writes in says hi lorehounds this message is all about Skyrim I have always been a console player but I just recently bought my first gaming PC congratulations I have a PS5 Xbox one Oculus and PC I have Skyrim on all five platforms

[01:24:14] lol I haven't had a chance to play it on my new PC yet but I plan to mod the crap out of it the VR version is fun but the graphics are a little crunchy I have quite a few mods on my

[01:24:24] Xbox version and one of them is the cat mod cats live in all major cities when I turned into a werewolf for the first time with the cats they all started chasing me and I ran away because of

[01:24:34] I didn't want to hurt them it was funny she says uh also one of one time one of the cats died and the shoulder and the soldiers lined up behind the cat to pay homage

[01:24:49] uh it was really touching whoever wrote that mod is my hero you can also get one of them to follow you on your quest but that stressed me out too much I was afraid it would get hurt I'm excited

[01:24:59] for your Skyrim podcast love the last of us pod you did best Kim M. Thank you Kim yeah what a lovely idea the cat mod now that's on my list of mods to try

[01:25:09] also thank you for loving our last of us pod I don't know if she's talking about the game one but probably I'm gonna say yes yeah yeah I think so I think so I think uh yeah if you're writing

[01:25:19] into the lore hens play you probably know yeah there's a uh a bone cat that you can get it's maybe it's a bone it's actually a bone wolf uh that I got as a pet that would stay in one of my

[01:25:29] houses and my daughter couldn't look at the screen whenever it was on there because I have like a Halloween decoration bone cat that I keep in I kept in my closet that and she wouldn't enter

[01:25:39] my room with it oh yikes yes it was uh she eventually made friends with the bone cat but if bone wolf was on the tv she was not a fan that's fair but yeah like the the pets are a pretty fun

[01:25:50] little addition like there's like a skeever pet that you can get I'd never played the cat mod but um as a as a person who likes the idea of pets who will probably never have one because I

[01:26:02] don't like any more responsibilities um uh video game is a perfect place to experience that there you go yeah thank you for the feedback Kim absolutely all right that's it for listener

[01:26:15] feedback again write in lhp at the lorehounds.com if you want to get in touch with us for the next episode we will be in touch on what we're covering next because I don't know and you don't know

[01:26:25] Brandon nope but for now time to do some programming notes we've got a lot of stuff coming out soon um we've got a new Silmarillion stories we've got a new Earthsea cycle on uh Tehanu part one we're

[01:26:39] doing the first six chapters and it was already like a two-hour podcast because that's how we roll with Marilyn and um Loki season two is happening and David John and Alicia are covering it I've

[01:26:51] been keeping up on the episodes mostly and it's a really good show so far and that's coming from someone who's not an MCU person so I would check that out if you are not in on all that or you can

[01:27:03] go to patreon.com slash the lorehounds where you can get everything ad free and early access want to talk quickly about our affiliates properly Howard movie review they just finished their uh remake season which is where they talk all about remade movies and and whether they're good

[01:27:21] or bad honestly I didn't watch most of the movies and I listened to most of their episodes and it's really funny even if you haven't watched the movie so I would check that out

[01:27:31] um they their whole thing is they want to know they want to determine if the movie is better worse or on par with the average Ron Howard movie is it properly Howard hell yeah and uh that's really

[01:27:45] fun we're going to be covering severance with them so they are already in the midst of severance season one and you can find that feed in the show notes um that'll that'll have all our severance

[01:27:54] coverage as it goes through severance season two is where David and I will hop in and you can get um that that'll be on the patreon as well but uh it'll also be for public it'll only be on that

[01:28:06] severance feed just because we need to split ad revenue with Anthony and Steve so make sure you subscribe to that feed if you want more of that uh make sure you subscribe to properly Howard for

[01:28:14] more fun with remakes Alicia is back on the grind I know she's about to start beacon 23 the new Hugh Howie show on MGM plus she also just put out some coverage on the fall of the house of usher the new

[01:28:28] Mike Flanagan horror series on Netflix and uh you can hear on this on this feed there will be might it's probably out already um but there's some coverage of Alicia and I talking for about an

[01:28:39] hour about that series and you can get more of her thoughts specifically on the Poe inspiration and whatnot on that on on her own feed will shift us again go to the show notes for that

[01:28:51] real quick I want to shout our patreon lore masters these are our top tier patrons who really help us do all these projects that we're doing do the extra stuff uh with our contributors and whatnot uh they are Submartian, Cyrus, Mark H, Michael G, Michelle E, David W,

[01:29:09] Brian P, Nick W, S C, Peter O H, Bettina W, Adam S, Nancy M, Lavinia T, Doob71, Brian8063, Frederick H, Sarah L, Gareth C, Eric F, Matthew M, Sarah M, DJ Mewa, Andra B, Kuang Yu, Laura G,

[01:29:25] DeadEyeJedi, Bob, Nathan T, Alex V, Aaron T, Subzero and Adrian thank you all so much the list gets longer every time and we love seeing new names on it so thank you all and thank you to

[01:29:38] all our patrons for your support on um you know keeping the podcast network going. Brandon it's been a pleasure it's been a been a real fun time with you I'm glad we were finally able to do this

[01:29:49] I know we had a lot of rescheduling but we got around to it we got to uh we got to hang out with the Nords for a while I'm excited to talk to you about whatever we talk about next I still

[01:30:00] don't know but uh I'm sure we'll be in touch soon about it. We certainly will thank you for having me it's always a is always a pleasure to be uh to be a part of the Lorehounds family and uh

[01:30:10] plans plan or thinking about playing those games we used to play. Sounds good all right we'll see you on the next one. The Lorehounds podcast is produced and published by the Lorehounds you can send questions and feedback and voicemails at thelorehounds.com contact get early

[01:30:28] and ad-free access to all Lorehounds podcasts at patreon.com slash the lorehounds any opinions stated are ours personally and do not reflect the opinion of or belong to any employers or other entities thanks for listening