Of Seven Skyrims and Cloud Saves

I have not traditionally been a fan of the American RPG genre of video games with a few very notable exceptions. Looking back to the '80s when I fell in love with Sega Master System and Nintendo Entertainment System games it is pretty understandable.  I had mad love for two genre of action RPGs: Legend of Zelda and Wizards and Warriors. On the turn based some of the street there was only one series for me: Final Fantasy. 

In the next generation I fully embraced the Super Nintendo. This was the Golden Age of the JPRG. I could list out a line of Roman numerals running through the great entries of Final Fantasy games. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is one of the greatest video games of all time in any genre. I will die defending that hill. Chrono Trigger also ranks pretty high up there for me. Drop in things like Paladin's Quest and Secret of Mana and there is no denying that the JRPG genre had my full attention. 

A notable break in the JRPG domination of my adoration was Diablo. I have been a PC gamer off and on since a few years before the release of the NES. Blizzard was a publisher that had my attention from the original two Warcraft games. I remember going to Electronics Boutique and picking up my copy of Diablo very well. I would wear out at least one mouse on that game. 

Of course I went in for the sequels to Diablo. I built up a new computer just to play Diablo II networked. I would put countless hours into those games. For my money they both still hold up. I do appreciate the updated graphics of Resurrected quite a bit. 

Then there is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. I have some vague memories of selling some early entries in the series back in the brief period where I worked for Babbage's post High School. It is possible that I checked out a copy of Daggerfall. I doubt it though. Looking at the graphics it felt like a fantasy take on the Doom engine. I was so bored of Doom clones by the late 90s that I missed out on a fair few decent storied games. 

Having rejected the series in its youth, when the Elder Scrolls games started finding their way to consoles I wasn't really interested. I was investing my gaming energy in things like Borderlands, Left 4 Dead, and Castle Crashers. I was also really deeply into the Mortal Kombat games. I slept on Skyrim. 

As a matter of fact, my love for Skyrim is linked indelibly to a fateful trip to Walmart while Whitneigh was pregnant with Teagan. We had played and beat Diablo III so many times that we were falling asleep playing the game. No joke. We would both nod off sitting up on the couch playing Diablo III. I am fair certain that I autopiloted through a bunch of boss fights. Sadly, the Staff of Herding never did drop. 

I don't burn out on a game easily. Whitneigh and I were super broke. Buying new games was not in the budget unless they were super cheap. We were big fans of the $1 and $5 movie bin at Walmart for that reason as well. 

While digging through a bin full of PS3 games that were heavily discounted Whitneigh found Skyrim: Game of the Year Edition for the PS3. It was $5. I stuck it in the cart and then argued against the game for most of the rest of the time we were in the store. I explained that Diablo III aside I hadn't enjoyed an American RPG in a while. I laid out the history above in a lot more detail to her. Her point that the game was cheap and if I hated it I could likely flip it at the used bookstore for more than I paid for it won me over. We checked out, came home, and I promptly forgot about the game. 

In fact, Whitneigh was in taking a shower when I found the game on the counter and dropped it in my PS3. Again, my Doom scars made me loathe the third person perspective. Whitneigh told me to change the view (from the bathroom) and I pressed buttons until I got that worked out. Skyrim has always been a nice looking game. The escape from Helgen put me in the mind of good D&D storytelling. I followed the Quest Marker all the way to Riverwood.  My first character was Argonian and he and I both were surprised when I drew back an arrow and killed a chicken in tribute to Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past only to have Alvor come charging at me with his Warhammer. 

I sat my controller down in disgust. It was only a bloody chicken. That is an video game prop in most video games. Occasionally in the JRPG world the innocuous looking fauna is actually a really important part of the story, but that is fairly rare. I have taken many a swipe at innocent animals and never taken the Warhammer exit from my virtual life. 

Post shower, Whitneigh spent a good bit of time laughing at me about Skyrim and the chicken slaying incident. She started to serve as my guide to Tamriel. I got hooked pretty quickly. More characters followed and I started picking up on nuances and important story decisions. 

Here is the really interesting part. I own Skyrim in one form or another on every modern system I own. Let me run through the list: 

1. PS3
2. PS4. It was the second game I purchased for the system. 
3. PC. Purchased when I bought my gaming laptop because I wanted to see how it ran. 
4. Nintendo Switch My first handheld Skyrim. 
5. Steam Deck: Technically the same copy from the PC. I love being able to seamlessly move to a portable game, leave the house, return home and continue playing the same character on the laptop
6. Xbox Series X: It was the first game I installed because why would you not want to see next gen Skyrim?
7. Xbox Game Pass: This is about to be an important distinction. 

Taila and I have been racing in Skyrim as I mentioned in my last post. We ran into a little problem. Taila had been playing Skyrim via Xbox Game Pass on her boyfriend's account. Since they were sharing an account she couldn't play when he was. To remedy this she decided to get her own account to stream on her Surface. This made me happy because I thought through her Christmas gift thoroughly and had not realized she could use it for that. It made Taila happy because unlocking achievements on a fresh Xbox account is pretty satisfying.

It also meant we would have to start our race over. Ugh. I am at 76,000 gold, one house built, and at level 37. I was playing my Steam Deck/ PC copy on my new toon. I was pretty sad when the discussion started about starting over. My kid is persuasive though. "Oh, hey Dad. You could start a new game on the Xbox and unlock achievements too," says Taila. Instantly, I am in. 

This also puts us playing the same version of the game. She is cloud gaming using the Special Edition of Skyrim. (some of these italicizes are arbitrary by intent.) As mentioned, the first game I installed on the Series X was Skyrim. I get excited about having two versions of Skyrim on the gaming laptop too because I enjoy ridiculous and excessive things for the sheer joy of it. 

I installed a PC copy of Skyrim from the Xbox Game Pass. We decided to make Argonians and restrict our magic to Restoration only. We are running the opposite of our Bretons. Limited sneaking (basically only for Pick Pocketing) and Heavy Armor. Since I am of the opinion that Magical Stealth Archer is hands down the best play style this is difficult mode for me. I get to it though. Let's kick some Dragon butt with big hammers. The important part of the race is to complete the College of Winterhold, Thieves' Guild, Dark Brotherhood, Dawnguard, and Companions quests and be at least level 30. First one done with all of that wins. We plan to compare notes on achievements after we are both there for fun as well. 

I bust through ten levels in short order. I get married. I am working on Companion quests when it comes time to join the Dawnguard. I am getting tired of playing in my office so I save my game and head to the bedroom where the Series X is affixed in a security mount to the wall. I boot up. There is no save data. A few seconds of reflection causes a nasty suspicion to turn into a growing horror. 

I messed up. 

I messed up bad. 

See, I didn't load the game from the Cloud on either the PC or the Xbox Series X. I installed them. Both of them. Yeah. That doesn't link up. That is a local save game and each system is separate. 

Now I have a choice to make. I can keep playing my PC copy and not lose progress, or I can start over... again. I gave up for that night. The next day, I started a fresh game on the Cloud Game option. I am not taking the same path as the other character, but I can play on the PC or from the Xbox Series X. This oddly made me wish I could use Xbox Game Pass on my Steam Deck. 

I am betting someone has made it work since my neurons immediately started firing on dropping in the SD card that I boot to Windows with to play Diablo.  At the time I did it just to see if I could make it work well. I can. Now it feels like a pivotal part of what is becoming a bigger picture secret evil plan. 

Now I am lucky to be distracted by Skyrim so that I don't put a bunch of time and effort into working that out. Imagine if Microsoft and Valve actually joined forces though. Ok... NO. I am not going down this rabbit hole.

For now...