Elden Ring storytelling style sucks

[kestar]

Why would you hire George RR Martin of all people to create such a beautiful world with such rich lore and story only to hide it all in item descriptions, cryptic NPC dialogue and only a handful of cutscenes?

FromSoft style of storytelling is un-compelling, un-immersive and does not create a feeling of purpose for this open world. I would have hoped for way richer NPC dialogue and cutscenes to carry the story.

Why didn’t they continue in the line of Sekiro? That would have worked way better.

[bnnuy]

pretty sure people play fromsoftware games for the gameplay not the cutscenes

[Fineous🔥]

Originally posted by kestar:

Why didn’t they continue in the line of Sekiro? That would have worked way better.

Please tell me you are just trolling and admit you dont know what Sekiro is.
I seriously need that....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbuX_9MxJp8

[kestar]

Originally posted by Fineous:

Originally posted by kestar:

Why didn’t they continue in the line of Sekiro? That would have worked way better.

Please tell me you are just trolling and admit you dont know what Sekiro is.
I seriously need that....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbuX_9MxJp8

I am not trolling. I admit I have only played Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring and I have not played Sekiro. However, from the gameplay footage that I have seen on Sekiro it seems to be more story-driven and focused compared to Dark Souls. I do not see how your statement makes my point any less valid.

[Senki]

You know what else sucks? People that feel the need to push their opinions as facts all the time.

[purpl3 h4z3]

Originally posted by kestar:

...and I have not played Sekiro.

End of history.

[vamirez]

Lol ofc you are trolling, OP. You seem to have been away for a while, but your username is familiar. Haven't you posted similar threads here in the past? Also funny try to push Sekiro (which has become a bit of a trope) without having played it ;)

[Fineous🔥]

Originally posted by kestar:

Originally posted by Fineous:

Please tell me you are just trolling and admit you dont know what Sekiro is.
I seriously need that....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbuX_9MxJp8

I am not trolling. I admit I have only played Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring and I have not played Sekiro. However, from the gameplay footage that I have seen on Sekiro it seems to be more story-driven and focused compared to Dark Souls. I do not see how your statement makes my point any less valid.

Game footage....thats ok you are not infected then.
I dont know what you are doing but Elden Ring together with Bloodborne have (from my point of view...) the best narratives.
Dont skip any cutscene and make sure you talk with every NPC until you exhaust their dialogues.

[Amygdala]

The lore has some interesting elements, like the Outer Gods, but has the same flaws of the usual FROM style (basically just a wikipedia article split into 800 pieces, no strong sense of narrative or character, it was unique for DeS/DS1 but I think games like Prey or 90s Ultima do a similar style better) with not much of the benefits considering it just feels like another rehash of Dark Souls, and the focus on characters fails compared to Sekiro, and I was disappointed that you can barely feel GRRM's presence except for some vague strokes. Melina was touted to be a character with much more agency than the usual level up lady, but you feel even less connection to her because she shows up like 6 times in the whole game (+ the optional church encounters where she recants Marika's dialogue) and isn't even a constant presence like the MiB or Shanalotte, where due to constantly talking to them and hanging around them you're at least more likely to somewhat care about them

Thanks for the free points

[Caramel_Clown]

Un-immersive is just straight up wrong. It's way more immersive when the world doesn't revolve around your character. I hate all the exposition dialogue in big AAA games, it's bad writing. In an interactive medium not allowing the player to experience and explore is criminal.

[bigbiggaboo]

I'm not the biggest fan of the story in these games either. You have have to do a lot of leg work reading every item description and paying very close attention to any bit of story the game gives you to get an idea of whats happening. I would be fine with that but I don't find it rewarding to do so since everything is left so vague and there is a lack of emotional depth since most characters have like what 5 or 6 lines of dialogue. I have trouble getting invested because of this.

[chrstnmonks]

They could have done better. I agree

[An Irate Walrus]

You don't like minimalist narrative design.

That is okay.

But not everything is going to be--or should be, I'd argue--spoon-fed to you with purple-prose-choked exposition to provide a sense of purpose you're unwilling to seek for yourself.

If having the entirety of a character's inner monologue about ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ everything is what you're after, Final Fantasy VII: Mommy Issues and Swords of Overcompensation is thattaway.

[Fineous🔥]

Originally posted by geralt:

wait is there any story? i think its "a tarnished with no renown killed many monsters to gain exp and become edge lord of the realm"..

You can copy/paste your own history from Reddit or Fextra.

And from where you copy/pasted this comment....?

[Rama]

I actually like that aspect of souls games, it conveys a sense of mystery that enriches the lore and spark the player's curiosity.

Nevertheless, I also think this game would benefit greatly from a more fleshed out narrative with some character development and a proper quest system (which I think is garbage).

[kestar]

Originally posted by An Irate Walrus:

You don't like minimalist narrative design.

That is okay.

But not everything is going to be--or should be, I'd argue--spoon-fed to you with purple-prose-choked exposition to provide a sense of purpose you're unwilling to seek for yourself.

If having the entirety of a character's inner monologue about ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ everything is what you're after, Final Fantasy VII: Mommy Issues and Swords of Overcompensation is thattaway.

No I don’t want the entirety of the character’s internal. That would be the exact opposite extreme which would suck just as much.

For me the perfect balance was struck by old school RPGs like Gothic or Morrowind. You get rich NPC dialogues to understand the story and a minimalist journal to keep track of which quests are active with a barebones summary of each quests’ status. No map markers no GPS arrows.

I think everyone who praises the story in Elden Ring or Dark Souls has had to go on YouTube and watch VaatiVydia videos to understand what is going on. The fact that most people have to do that is proof that the games doesn’t do a very good job at telling its story.