If the game was the exact same, yet George R. R. Martin was not involved...

[steamgame.sermon469]

(Spoilers, so don't read unless you beat the game)

Would it have gotten the same reviews? Or, does the seeming lack of major literary figures in gaming literature blind reviewers to actual flaws?

Would Shadow of the Erdtree be the highest rated DLC of all time?

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I liked the base game, and between steam and console I have about 400 hours in total. So the game is, overall, pretty good. I like the fact that Elden Ring focuses on BEING A GAME, rather than having endless cutscenes taking one out of the action.


But at the same time, people vary. Lots of people are drawn to RPGs for their intense stories. But I was disappointed at the end of SOTE. "Was that it? None of my questions were answered, and the world makes even less sense than before" was my impression. But it sure looks pretty...

I'm not surprised that FromSoft is making a rogue-like game, because SOTE is so lacking in dialogue and plot that it already feels like one. It feels like a boss-rush game with an artsy overworld.

As far as I can tell, i'm just a murder-hobo going to random towns and cities trying to kill everyone to eat their souls to become more powerful. I guess I am Cell from Dragon Ball Z. Does our protagonist have any motive other than that? Why the hell did I go to the city of the Dancing Lion and kill everyone and their towns protector? Why does Messmer want to kill me so much when I have the guidance of grace which is what he is obsessed about (Thus have already been blessed by Marika in a sense).

Why is General Radahn the promised consort, when there is literally nothing in the base game suggesting that? In fact, why is the DLC seemingly totally disconnected from the base game?

Can't talk to Gideon about anything that happened. Can't talk to muh waifu Ranni about anything. Can't talk to Melina about anything. Nor Jerren, nor Sellen, nor anyone. ♥♥♥♥, I can basically be holding Miquellas soul, and if you fight Malenia there is no mention of anything. No pause of recognition if you are wearing St. Trinas drop.



It is VERY easy for the first major enemy you see in the game to kill two of the (few) lore heavy NPCs. Didn't happen to me thankfully, but it has happened to several people. When the game is already lacking in dialogue...why put two of the more important characters in harms way? Unless this game was just viewed as a warm-up for a rogue-like with no plot.


It feels like FromSoft didn't put in even the bare minimum when it comes to linking this DLC with the base game, to the point where I more or less head canon this as "You're in Miquellas half-dead dream world, hence why nobody references it"

I can go on and on for several pages, but I would break Steams word count.

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But, lots of game reviewers normally critique DLCs for not having any relevance to the rest of the game. Having a cohesive story and plot usually matter.

Kindof like critiquing a work of art from Vincent van Gogh. Or perhaps the late
Roger Eberts essay on "Video games can never be art" got reviewers desperate for legitimacy.

Plot hole after plot hole in both the base game and the DLC which would tank a normal games score.

Perhaps the lesson here is: Get a big name who can't be critiqued to be even slightly involved in the process, and flaws that would normally tank a games reviews are just seen as artistic brilliance.

[Sirius]

Originally posted by steamgame.sermon469:

Perhaps the lesson here is: Get a big name who can't be critiqued to be even slightly involved in the process, and flaws that would normally tank a games reviews are just seen as artistic brilliance.

GRM is critiqued plenty, and for a lot of valid reasons. Your premise is already wrong.

I personally think the man is one of the worst hacks in fantasy literature, and that's saying something. I almost didn't buy ER for his involvement but did anyway after I dug into it and noticed his influence is not that big of a deal, "story" wise.

Souls games have always had fuzzy plots with holes you can fly a death star through and have always been intentionally vague about things, the actual lore has never been a selling point, at least for me.

Fine to get a general direction, fine that it's not a clear-cut Mary Sue "Hero saves the day from the bad guys" plot line, vagueness giving a surreal feel overall, everything else you understand or are presented clearly is gravy and that's literally how souls lore feels to me, GRM or no and I know I'm not alone in this.

In my opinion, ER was successful despite the icky fat man having his grubby fingers in the lore.

Kinda like the movie "Postal" based on the completely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ video game series?

The source material was so bad and bonkers and bad and dumb and bad that not even a total hack like Uwe Boll was able to butcher it in the film adaptation, resulting in a pretty good movie as long as your definition of "pretty good" in this case means "nailed the source material and made you smile a lot with the offensive comedy even though you felt slightly guilty for doing so".

[Modus]

GRRM's name might have helped the hype while people were waiting for the release, sure, but once the game actually dropped... I haven't really seen his involvement being used to inflate the reviews in any way. In fact, I think I've noticed the exact opposite, where any mention of him is usually in a negative light. So yeah, I think it wouldn't have changed the reviews much had he not been involved at all.

Also.... he has said in an interview that he wasn't actually involved in the storyline, only the general world-building and background lore. Any sort of storytelling, including that of NPC's and the protaganist, or questline is FromSoft's work. The SOTE ending being somewhat underwhelming wouldn't be his fault either.