Combo Breaker: Skyrim the First Western Game to Earn Flawless Score in Famitsu

Famitsu, the renowned Japanese gaming magazine, has been doing reviews for 25 years. That’s not something many other gaming magazines can boast, and this publication has really seen it all. From the worst to the best, few have earned a flawless 40/40 score in the magazine. To date, only sixteen titles have done it, and they have all originated in Japan.

That is, until Skyrim happened.

With over 300 hours of play time jammed into the game, attention to the smallest detail, and an intriguing story, Skyrim has everything that any RPG or open-world gaming fan could ever wish for. With this flawless victory, Skyrim joins the likes of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Metal Gear Solid 4, and the original Soul Calibur.

Why did Skyrim garner top honors? Well, wrote assistant editor Norihiro Fujiwara, it was thanks to the details, selection of things to do, and an overall immersive experience that sealed the deal. “The overwhelming detail packed into the game really pulls you in,” he wrote. “From the music to the story and setting, everything is excellently done — the main story isn’t all that long, but there’s an extremely large selection of sub-quests. Even the area around the first village you visit is packed with just a shocking amount of detail and volume.

“It’s just pure fun to adventure around the vast world while pondering over which skills to acquire. It may be tough for light users to get hands-on with some aspects of it, but the gameplay system — a mix of Oblivion and Fallout — is overall easy to get to grips with.”

Congratulations, Bethesda.

Via Game Pro.