The best part about Skyrim is the number and diversity of quests available to the player from the very onset of the game— although getting oneself totally lost doing the smaller missions is one of the most common side-effects of a world this massive. All quests have at least some amount of backstory validating their existence, whether it's a farmer complaining about wild animals or Jarls about Dragons.
There are many quests in Skyrim that go on for considerably long periods of in-game time, but this doesn't necessarily mean that they are tedious or uninteresting. On the other hand, there are several others that aren't half as protracted, but they could have possibly made the narrative that much more interesting if extended.
Not Long Enough: Forbidden Legend
As one of the most rewarded missions in the game, "Forbidden Legend" requires the player to obtain the three broken pieces of The Gauldur Amulet, and later weld them back together to obtain a great boost in the early stages.
Although the Dragonborn traverses across the whole region and pores through multiple tombs, the precision of the gameplay, the fantastic blend of puzzles and combat, as well as the fascinating plot make this quest far too short for how great it is. Aside from the namesake jewelry piece, there are various weapons, treasures, and magic staves available to collect during the course of this expedition.
Too Long: A Return To Your Roots
Deep within the bowels of Skyrim lies the underworld that's known as Blackreach, an ancient Dwemer city that seems to expand infinitely outwards. Not only is the Dragonborn unable to see their surroundings clearly, but there are also strange little critters lurking around every corner.
In "A Return to Your Roots", the player is expected to acquire an obscure subtype of the common Nirnroot (the Crimson variant, to be specific.) If that's not hard enough, the quest is only marked complete when 30 of them have been gathered — a feat that takes hours in realtime.
Not Long Enough: The House Of Horrors
The promise of meeting Molag Bal is not as terrifying as the process itself (but in a good way, like watching a thriller movie.) The Dragonborn is forced to make immoral choices — always great fun — by killing random NPCs like the Vigilant of Stendarr, Tyranus, and the Boethiahn priest, Logrolf.
However, after a rather easy battle against a small group of Forsworn, the player simply has to obey Molag Bal in order to obtain the Daedric Lord's mace: a unique weapon that allows the to vacuum both strength and Magicka from any opponent.
Too Long: The Thieves Guild Series
The Thieves Guild itself is one of the most controversial institutions in Skyrim (to speak only of player criticisms.) It has elaborate "jobs" that don't provide too much in of returns, and most importantly, the quests can seem dull and neverending.
Most of the missions given to the Dragonborn are too small to be of any use in longterm gameplay, for instance, Vex's tasks like stealing something from a specific location (both home and business), placing stolen goods to entrap someone, taking a fixed number of objects, and so on.
Not Long Enough: The Mind Of Madness
This quest is one of the rare ones in Skyrim that depends very little on actual fighting, and a lot more on using the unpredictable Wabbajack.)
First, there are paranoid tendencies to be resolved, immediately followed by recurring nightmares, and finally, the Dragonborn must interact with abstract emotions in order to aid Pelagius in getting past his rage issues. The whole thing is quite simple, if one figures out the pattern, and would have been a lot more interesting if more aspects of the consciousness were explored.
Too Long: Grimsever's Return
There are already way too many options to gain Followers in the game, from the sweet-natured Faendal to whatever Cicero is, and Mjoll the Lioness is not one of the better ones.
In order to convince her to the Dragonborn, one must sojourn all the way to the dilapidated remnants of Mzinchaleft (yet another one of those serpentine Dwemer locations.) Going through all this effort, while tackling Dwarven enemies, so as to discover and retrieve the useless sword of Grimsever is pointless, indeed.
Not Long Enough: No One Escapes Cidhna Mine
This quest has a rather interesting take — the Dragonborn is forced into prison, losing all their inventory and has to restart (sort of) from scratch, at least until completion. Cidhna Mine is a paradoxically small area, so there isn't much roaming around to do, but the interactions with other prisoners and the guards are especially compelling.
Madanach demands that the player murder Grisvar as a way of proving allegiance to the cause, but the alternative is to choose the Silver-Blood fork: assassinating Madanach and fleeing the mine with the directions obtained from the corpse. Of course, it's also possible to play the storyline in both ways.
Too Long: No Stone Unturned
This is honestly not meant to be a full-on quest, as it would take forever to finish it if the player actually tries to pinpoint where every single Unusual Gem is kept. "No Stone Unturned" works better ively, as the Dragonborn does come into with the quest items every so often.
The problem, however, is that it's ridiculously hard, even statistically, to accidentally locate all the 24 Unusual Gems required to reforge the Crown of Barenziah. Not when time can be better spent hunting dragons.
Not Long Enough: Under Saarthal
"Under Saarthal" is one of the most crucial missions the Dragonborn will go during the Winterhold College series, in which Tolfdir's class takes a trip to the ancient site in order to explore the place.
The player follows the teacher through a secret ageway, fighting off various tiers of Draugr, solving pillar-themed riddles, before coming upon the last boss, Jyrik Gauldurson. With Tolfdir's help, the Dragonborn will be able to defeat the enemy, and spark a related quest, "Forbidden Legend".
Too Long: Blood On The Ice
The Dragonborn becomes a hardboiled detective (very film noir) when they have to identify a serial killer terrorizing Windhelm. The plot is certainly gripping and surprisingly goes into a lot of forensic details, such as analyzing blood spatter patterns, patrolling the alleys, and so on.
However, there are just too many NPCs involved in this quest, not to mention multiple murder suspects. In fact, the Dragonborn gets the court wizard, Wuunferth, falsely imprisoned until much later, when the real criminal is found to be Calixto Corrium. Just too many twists.
