Fishing in video games is difficult to nail. Many games offer this type of mechanic, but few actually make it. Personally, I can’t remember a single fishing mini-game that I’ve enjoyed in recent years. Pokémon? Difficult, annoying. Fire Emblem: Three houses? Zzzzz. Hades? The only thing that resembles a bug in an otherwise perfect roguelike.
Ubisoft card games are especially egregious when it comes to the inclusion of fishing, often because they try to approach the real-life frustrations such as patience that come with fishing. Last years Assassin’s Creed Valhalla included the condition to try the annoying mini-game before the story continues. More recently one Far Cry 6 Side quest asked me to catch some fish “to relax” as if someone was playing Far away to the. Like clockwork, every 15 minutes or so, I received calls from the Quest Giver, an alternative medicine guru, urging me to return. I ended up looking up several video tutorials to learn what to do to get the quack to shut it down.
And for the five year anniversary of Skyrimthe five year anniversary edition, Bethesda decided to add a trivial mini-game where you toss a thin string into a pool of water and sometimes get a salty cooking ingredient in return if you are patient. Although it’s been some time since I’ve played Skyrim, I was curious. Hey, maybe this one would be the one who changed my longtime mind for good.
How to fish Skyrim
To remove some confusion, although fish have always existed in Skyrim, the fishing mini-game is fresh with announced first during one Stream broadcast at this year’s Quakecon. You don’t need the brand new one this week either Anniversary edition fishing Skyrim. It is included, yes – as one of the most important new features besides a survival mode—but also in 2016 Special edition via a free update (around two dozen GB, at least on the Xbox). It is part of the game as one of four free mods from the “Creation Club”- basically a showcase for microtransactions. At least on the Xbox where I play, if your game is up to date it will automatically be installed in your game.
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Of course, you have to find a fishing rod before you can catch a fish. There is one (Damage: 4, Weight: 3, Value: 10) on a beach just down the hill from the Guardian Stones, a stone’s throw downriver from Riverwood. You’ll see it leaned against a boulder next to a makeshift camp.
Can’t you find it You can also make one yourself. Go to any forge. (There’s one right at the entrance to Riverwood, which is also relatively close to a fishing spot.) For an iron bar and firewood – a seemingly mundane resource that I found shockingly hard to find today – you can make yourself a shiny new fishing rod.
The catch when fishing in Skyrim is you can’t just do it on every body of water you find. You have to find predetermined items with “fishing accessories”, more or less boxes with bait lying around. Interacting with these kickstarts starts the fishing mini-game. (There’s one right next to the fishing rod that you can find on the beach.)
So is fishing in Skyrim fun?
Fishing in Skyrim offers little role interaction and plays mostly similar to the simplest fishing mini-games in the game. You start with your already poured line. If your rod wobbles, tap A to rewind whatever you’re hooked. That’s it. You have no freedom to move the bar. You cannot choose between different types of bait. You can’t adjust your line or handle, although there seem to be fishing rods of fancier manufacture that will improve your chances of a catch. It’s all very rudimentary, certainly not on the level you would expect from something Skyrim.
You cannot activate the third-person perspective either. You just have to use your imagination to see what my Khajiit Catman looks like.
It’s not difficult to say Skyrim is one of the most influential role-playing games of all time. In fact, just hop in for an hour to check that out fus ro stupid Feature has flooded me with comfortable nostalgia for how damn good this game is. This was quickly followed by the bulbous feeling that I will probably burn another 100 hours playing through.Skyrim is a real tour de force, a masterpiece at filling a game with Things without it becoming bloated or evading a credible sense of place. That one of the highlights this year is a mini-game where you press a key at the right time is a disappointment. I mean, fishing is thinner than horse armor.
But I gave it a good shake anyway. I caught a spade fish and was promptly told to go all the way to Riften for a quest called “Angler Acquaintances”. (I didn’t achieve Riften with this backup file, and probably won’t for some time either.) I caught a river bedy and several other named fish. I caught something called Pogfish. I’m pretty sure it’s an internet joke that got over my head.
Then I caught up with a pair of leather boots. This is fishing for you.
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