Today I booted up Skyrim after spending last year playing BotW, and Horizon. There were just too many things that I noticed that just felt dated gameplaywise. 

Stealth has little to do with whether or not you are in an NPC's line of sight. You can be standing right in front of an NPC and if your stealth is high enough you are hidden. There's no way to move out of line of sight quickly either. Horizon and Zelda both provided a lot of movement options such as walking tightropes, climbing trees, etc., that just made stealth feel more dynamic. Both games provide high grass to hide in ala MHW. 

The towns, and geography all feel the same. BotW and Horizon both have several different regions that are unique and interesting. Skyrim is either Nordic geography in the spring, or Nordic geography and culture in the winter. 

Being unable to climb with gigantic mountains blocking your every path is frustrating. Even Horizon had certain climbable spots in its mountains. 

Bland unoriginal enemies and dungeons. The dungeons are all just randomly thrown together with little to make them unique or interesting. The enemies all just yell the same threats at you while foolishly walking into the meat-grinder that is the player. On the flip side, BotW's shrines all have something memorable about them. They feel hand made with clever puzzles. Every enemy in BotW has a ton of different animations and expressions that are beatifully done. Horizon doesn't have dungeons per say, but the enemies are these unique robot animals that feel like Monster Hunter encounters. There's multiple ways to go about taking them down. 

The PC in Skyrim holds it's hands at eyeball level, which is weird looking. Who holds their hands like a T-Rex in heat? Not to mention it blocks the screen. Third person view is preferable, but the camera just can't handle that correctly. 

Combat is just casting spells or swinging your weapon. BotW and Horizon both let you do really neat things with their combat system. One good example is the time slow during falling with a bow. Combat in the two latter games just feels smoother, and gives you more options. 

The enemies in Skyrim are all randomly generated to be at your level no matter what. So you can't wander into a high level enemy with the exception of the hilarious giants. The game just sort of holds your hand the entire game only presenting you with the sort of challenge you can handle at the moment. 

Meanwhile Horizon and BotW are like... Oh I see you found a Lynel/T-Rex shortly after leaving the first area. Have fun with that! 

Tbh, playing it in VR still makes it feel like a next level experience...despite the clunky controls.

I still like Skyrim way more than BotW. I can't play BotW beyond the 90h without getting bored (got all costumes, temples and the bigger missions), whereas I'm well over the 100h in Skyrim and I haven't beaten even half of the quests.

With that said, I'd love to get the climbing ability on Skyrim, it would solve so much mountain climbing there...

I played Skyrim after completing BoTW, and I found Skyrim to be thoroughly enjoyable, aside from some clunky movement and melee mechanics.  Despite its age, I think Skyrim holds up really well and is a great experience, even after 200 hours.  The repetition in the quest giving has me declining quests in the end game....but I still find running through an undead infested cave or temple with dawnbreaker extremely satisfying.  =p

I don't totally agree with your assessment of the BoTW shrines all feeling unique or memorable.  I got to a point where I had more than enough hearts to defeat Ganon and did not feel the need to continue finding shrines, as many had similar mechanics or mini bosses to fight yet again.  That said, I really have no major complaint about them either

agree'd doesnt feel like it aged as well as some other rpgs.

Please don't do this to me. I'm about to receive my new 4K HDR TV in the mail and was hoping to get back into Skyrim SE on the PS4. Yes, Skyrim SE was one of the major reasons why I'm transitioning to 4K HDR.

Despite being nearly a decade old, I still find fun in playing Skyrim now and then.

Of course I dislike playing Vanilla Skyrim years later, as it has aged badly, which is why I prefer loading the game with a bunch of mods. Mods that:

• Enhance the textures and weather systems.
• Sweetfx to give a little more vibrancy and tuned contrast to the world.
• Mods that sort NPC's daily routines, making them feel more alive.
• Mods that enhance the game's challenges.
• Mods that change up both the physical and ranged combat system.
• Mods that change the entire spell system.
• Mods that change the perk system.
• Mods that make it so weather actually effects how you play (like avoiding hypothermia)
• Mods that change up the loot system, so I'll actually gain better loot from deadlier foes.

Do you have the opportunity to instead get the PC version? You can still use your 4K TV along with the ability to make the game look pretty. Unfortunately, Skyrim on console isn't the definitive experience.

But if it's your first time playing Skyrim, you should still have an amazing time. It's a great game, just better with mods. And modding has never been something I've been interested in, but yet with Skyrim it is very easy. Most of the mods I use are just visual enhancements. Better textures, higher resolution, better lighting, better water, more trees, more foliage, etcetera. Vanilla Skyrim doesn't even compare.

You're not wrong, but that's because Skyrim itself is almost 7 years old and videogames have come a lot further since it was released. It's so 2011.

Look at the other games that actually released alongside Skyrim in 2011, to see how far ahead of the rest of the field it was at the time and why it's been so fondly remembered by people. For many people who were just jumping in to videogames through the 7th generation, it was the peak RPG experience. Much like Final Fantasy VII on the PlayStation or Knights of the Old Republic on the Xbox.

I think one great comparison to make is to highlight a specific game that also released in 2011; The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. Look at the progress made between that game and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Look at the progress made by CD Projekt Red and hope to the Nine Divines that Bethesda can do something similar in terms of quality.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was also released in 2011, and look how Nintendo upped their game for Breath of the Wild in 2017.

Wait, are you referring to vanilla Skyrim?

No, no, no. That just won't do. Vanilla Skyrim is a decent little game, but Skyrim with all the mods and user generated content? Now that's a game with thousands of playable hours.