@@thisisfyne Agreed! That makes so much sense!

@@Ragna_rage Many would beg to differ. I enjoy that aspect of Eldenring and other Soulsborn games. Getting spoonfed narratives in Tv shows, movies, and games, gets boring sometimes. Writing is an artform and therefore some stories should be vastly different than others.

@@Ragna_rage That's the intention though. It's supposed to be ambiguous. It's not supposed to be a story that you can easily compile in a book or story video and answer every question the reader has. It's supposed to leave a lot of room for interpretation, speculation, and theorycrafting. I think the point of attriction is whether or not this makes for a valid narrative mechanism. I personally think it does, the whole point of an adventure is piece things together and try to fill in the blanks, that's basically how humanity's historians are trying to reconstruct human history from archaeological findings, for example. But some can argue that it's only a proper narrative if you can know the entire story clearly and that said story is an unniversally accepted canon.

@@Ragna_rage You're missing the point. When he would read the books that had chunks he couldn't understand he would come up with his own explanations for how it was connected. He enjoyed the opportunity to use his imagination to essentially "co-author" a story based on the one he was reading at the time. The vagueness is a feature that allows room for wonder and creativity. It's very much an experience crafted to resemble his own. It's that experience that is intended. If that doesn't resonate with you I can understand how you wouldn't enjoy it. Nothing wrong with that. For the people it's meant for though, it's amazing and refreshing. It's not really an objective situation.

@@Ragna_rage What makes your opinion more valuable than the many other people who enjoy the style of storytelling?

Not to mention after his fight you can find the petrified bodies of quelana kneeling at the fair ladys feet behind a hidden door. One of the saddest pieces of content, just hidden away where most players wouldn't even notice.

@@bloodyhelice4284 Tell me about it man. I completely stumbled across it by accident and when it clicked in my mind as to what I was looking at I had to just stop and stand there. I couldn't believe it. Was completely speechless.

Demon in pain demon from below and demon prince were still in the dreg heap though he wasnt the last

I was so under lvl on Old Demon King.. And when he finally.. after 3 hours of deaths.. laying there helpless and weak.. that's a feeling I'll never forget. And the environment was really cool to fight in

He's mid at best

@@ninjack11 Well he said himself Souls content and what not isn’t what he really wants to do so if you’re subbed to him for souls content exclusively you’ll be disappointed. He obviously likes the genre but I remember a while back he said he didn’t want to be “stuck” as just a souls KZfaqr because he originally covered other series before

I love that he goes into the metaphors aswell. Really helps understand the story a lot better.

Souls” it’s not dark souls. They didn’t name it dark souls did they ?

One of the most based gigachad KZfaqrs to ever exist

And she has never known defeat. Except for that one dude with a pot on his head

And what is miquella?

Lol

@@doublejesusful why is he so hated

@@Taylor.L. i have no idea either but woth his name being Ratatoskr its pretty funny considering that in the myths all he does is shit talk the eagle and ragon at the top of the world tree and get the pissed off at each other xD Edit: Just saw the end of this video, this guy is hilarious

rata's such a c*nt.

Stop,I cant agree with you anymore

I thought you meant the god, ratatoskr lol

@@poggerz6567 he does :D that's what his channel avatar is

Man what a multitalented rodent

@@poggerz6567 also a smite character kekw

STOP WITH THE STUPID CHIME iykwim

never played the game but what an L video. Can this dude use some elden ring story beats/boss fights to illustrate the point ehh elden ring's story is good? or change the tittle to why bloodborne deserves the nomination

@@Lutasiren This video is about fromsoftware narrative in general so you are that have an L take.

@@Lutasiren he probably didnt want to put many spoilers for elden ring since it's still a relatively recent release. However, since elden ring uses the exact same style of storytelling i think that it's totally fine to use dark souls and blood borne as a reference.

​@@patches_ i dunno man. it's like putting a title "does pokemon gen 9 suck?" and then spend the whole video talking about how game freak changed direction in black/white (thus leading to today) I clicked the video to see why elden ring's narrative is worthy of nominating. not some random-ass boss design ten years ago. yeah, he made a point, but not the one written in the title.

@@Omega77232 the title literally say elden ring not from software your reaching

Ludonarrative harmony.

and serrated damage bonus doesn't apply anymore and the weapon damage multiplier switch from beast to kin

I said the same thing to my brother some days ago. It's like Pokémon Red/Blue narrative. The terrible quest design in the game made the narrative all the more problematic. The game is great and I enjoyed it a lot (had 200+ hours of playtime) but it's nowhere a masterpiece. If there was no internet and people have no way to corroborate their findings in the game, it's highly likely that less than 10% of the players will understand the story of the game.

Did you skip the absolutely insane intro cinematic?

@@bukojoetheslapsoils8273 its a masterpiece narrative and game.

@Krim707 Your best response is “The intro cinematic”? You have just proven their entire argument.

@@tiestofalljays git gud.

I really dont get why people compare em just cause of that scene. Theres like minimal lore on ludwig compared to Malikeths history. Maliketh dips his Cinquedea in the rune of death. Ludwig just has a blade attached to his back and it just so happens to fall by his side.

I really thought you were talking about Ludwig the dreamer lmfao

@@Slurpified no? It has way more more than maliketh clown

There are *'fixated themes'* in all soulsgames which resemble each other and are almost like an obligation tribute and something that always comes back for every game. 😎 For example... ° the positive encouraging NPC who meets a grim fate or is otherwise helpless without your aid ( Siegmeier, & Siegward, Benhard of Jugo, Alexander the Warriorjar ) ° the backstabbing asshole NPC who ironically... always is Patches in one way or the other 😁 ° an area full of Dragons, or other gigantic creatures that are a blend of being worshipped or feared ° Human transcendence in a good or chaotic way ° a great figure whos Humanity is halfway gone into monstrosity ( Ludwig in Bloodborne, Raykard in Eldenring, Arthorias in DS1 ) Many things return in one form or another. Probably because Miyazaki simply likes it or feels it is almost like without it, his signature is missing. 🙃

@@Julian_14 I don't know what you've been smoking but I want some

I want to know is how did the asylum demon become really fat. Does anyone know that?

@@JohnSmith-rr3jt that's a rock hard lie, clearly don't have the mental capacity to understand elden ring

@@epiccthulu realistically most people didn't understand elden rings story & "wait for the vaati video" is a meme for a reason. Sekiro tried to have a typical story & it was very average, not comparable to GoW.

@@JohnSmith-rr3jt Exactly. Elden Ring doesn't have a narrative. It has lore

Yeah I'd agree 100%.. Fromsoftware make brilliant game, but having the narrative being basically hidden to most players.. Should exclude it from this catagory. I've platinumed every Soulsbourne title, and while I picked up on the gist of the world and the story.. I only found out due to youtube videos explaining it.. The Bloodbourne lore is fucking amazing, but I didn't know 90% of it until I looked it up online after beating it a few times.. Which made me play it again.

@@epiccthulu didn't say u need to I said most people do go outside the game probably more than half

I've always felt that Sekiro had the clearest narrative out of all the FromSoft games. It helps that it was loosely inspired by Journey to the West, one of the best narrative stories ever made. Compared to Sekiro, ER is more like the older Souls games, which tend to feel more like survival games than narratives. I think ER is only being nominated because GRRM contributed, so if it wins I won't even be surprised.

You can easily understand the Lord of Frenzy Flame ending. It's even told to you what that path leads to and you see what you did when you became a Lord of Frenzy Flame. I understand what you're trying to imply and mean but this is what makes it not true since look at DS1 for example, you link the fire, and in DS3 you see countless Undead linking the fire over and over that the first flame starts feeding on its own ashes. In short: If you don't get or understand the endings well, it can be by many factor, sometimes game too, but in the end the story is there and the narrative in Elden Ring is "The fallen leaves tell a story of a tarnished who -" that's the narrative.

Even tho u r very much correct, do u really think that its on par with other games which presents u with the story first hand cuz its fits the narrative better. What im trying to say is narrative goes hand in hand with the audience, but elden ring havent been appreciated for it even by most players except lore hunters. Cuz i can literally see the gacha game genshin impact has similar almost same type of narrative as eldel ring where most info we get is from item description, environment, and in game books but genshin also maintains a storytelling aspest for casual players which is very nicely presented, i woukd have considered Genshin better than Elden Ring if elden rings gameolay wast peak and the map and environment is jst out of the world.

​@@doomknight233 I get the narrative, mate. Personally, I'm a fan of the narratives that result in breaking the cycles, something that was beautifully made poignant in DS2 DLC that heavily impacted the interpretation of DS3's Lord of Hollows conclusion - and it's funny that a lot of people don't like discussing DS2's place in the narrative as it literally establishes what precisely is wrong with the Dark Souls setting, it's as if so many people didn't understand that rekindling the fire was such a bad thing that FromSoft tried to beat the message into peoples' heads with a blunt tome in Scholar of the First Sin. As far as narrative goes, we're talking about an ending that requires two games to fully grasp the relevance of the conclusion, and technically 3 if we want to further dive into how beautiful the Soul of Cinder taking on Gwyn's aspect is. I think that's damned potent stuff. I'd still argue my position due to the nature of FromSoft's story presentation. In fact, FromSoft's narrative is so obscure I'd reckon that most people who play DS3 would consider Yuria a villain as she makes light of Yoel's death and eventually requests that the player kills a character who's been a stalwart ally - for many that would be a full stop on the narrative. "...character agency as a vessel of narration." is the important part of my initial comment. That's a gameplay element I enjoy in the FromSoft games as it lends to the personal feeling of being an archaeologist/researcher seeking to understand the nature of the world these games are set in. However, not everybody who plays these games wants to be an archaeologist: lacking scientific data, I'd presume a great many people who play FromSoft games treat them as boss gauntlets or build runs and while there's certainly going to be overlap between lorehounds/build runners as FromSoft games gain in popularity the number of people who pick these tiles up - as we see with sales of each title increasing exponentially - ensure that group disparity between passing interest vs active narrative engagement remains a constant. Your last point also seems like it was made as though I implied there's little narrative to these games, which I think I've made clear is certainly not the case. However it's the amount of work that's reliant on player agency and interpretation that creates the narrative. Ergo, for a game to be awarded best narrative I believe, as far as mass audience appeal goes, there needs to be some deliberate narrative arc that's not open to interpretation. So I'll use another example from two games in the same genre. Amnesia vs Outlast. Both games have incredibly similar gameplay loops ranging between first-person explorative hiding mechanics utilizing a character incapable of fighting back against threats while picking up clues about the world they're in. Between the two Outlast has the far stronger narrative. This is because Amnesia's narrative is told almost strictly through page and book fragments the player must seek out and piece together if they have an active interest in understanding the world, elsewise they're simply aiming for game completion without possibly understanding the overall narrative of mental illness and depravity that is the result of their character. Outlast has a similar loop where one can find out more about the experimental nature of Mount Massive Asylum, but for players aiming merely for completion the game's narrative still acts upon the player so that they can understand and experience the depravity occurring around them. In Amnesia you don't find out that you're the monster unless you seek out the lore fragments for yourself, otherwise you're just somebody trying to get out of a labyrinth; in Outlast the monsters are a tormenting force yet through active seeking you find out that they're the victims themselves. With these examples in mind that's why I'll say that while Dark Souls has a more meaningful story that Dragon Age has a stronger narrative.

@@doomknight233 Side note: Since you bring up the Lord of Frenzied Flame ending could you explain whether you believe that's a good or bad ending?

Yeah, also people PRISE the shit out of DarkSouls and still nobody read books in Elder Scrolls games, so DarkSouls having "narritive" is bullshit. People just want to think they are smart, finaly grouping up to be able to beat the shit out of the opposition.

I think soulsborne games does a lot of good storytelling, but also a lot of bad story telling. It really is a mixed bag imo. The main chunk of lore is always clear to understand, even if the more nitty gritty details might be hidden in item descriptions or some random NPCs dialogue or quest. What I will say about ER though is that the game is VERY dependent that the player finds specific NPCs and items for the narrative to feel satisfying...which is kinda hard to do in an open-world game. It worked really well in their semi-linear previous games, but in ER it starts falling apart. NPC questline in particular are some of the most random and infuriating thing to deal with in ER, where setting foot in certain places can completely lock you out of questlines. Some NPCs can also just be easily missed. It's by far the games weakest implementation of their narrative and by far the sloppiest delivery of NPC questing yet across the soulsborne franchise.

Souls games and Elden Ring usually boil down to a low life becoming something much greater by the end. The parts in between (boss lore, npc, area lore) are what makes it special because you have room to draw your own individual conclusions and imagery alot of the time similar to a book as opposed to being spoon fed every single detail

@@oxsila Some people like to fill in the gaps with their own interpretation, but imo that just makes everyone create their own head canons and fight about the lore. I'm not a fan, it's like the writers weren't decisive or confident enough so they made everything ambiguous

@@paledrake Your point is so easily debunked. This is fromsoft's style. They've done it since demon's souls 2009. Just say you're not educated. Saying they just took a lazy route is just uninformed. Their style of storytelling is simply a different method. You don't like it? Cool.

@@oxsila You either didn't read or understand comment AND you assume everything about me. Cool. Btw most of their lore don't even have much interpretation, outside of the endings (which I like). The most important parts or their stories are easy to understand, the exception being Bloodborne which is MY FAVORITE ENTRY not to mention my favorite game of all time. So shut your mouth, I honestly can't bother with people like you.

me like Sif

It's a shame they did away with the experimental boss design from Demon's Souls. Sure, it had it's hits and misses, but now almost every boss feels the same. Micolash was cool but everybody complained about that fight. This is why we can't have nice things.

Yea I was wondering why he was talking about a different game too. It’s hardly a great argument

Obvious and painfully stupid

They're contesting the nomination, which I think the game undubitably deserves. About winning, it comes down to personal preference.

That's probably because you haven't played that many great games and are like under 25 years old? I love the souls series and finished elden ring. Had an amazing experience with it but it isn't in my top 10 games and for story or lore not even in my top 20.

you might want to explore more games buddy 🤣

@@garuda4361 I could be your daddy, played every souls game to completion, my fav fromsoft game is bloodborne, do you need my autobiography with that too? Piss off nerd.

@@howzhauzan63 you might want to play some better games on your channel nerd. 🤣

@@lovewizrd someone who play only souls game says I'm a nerd, the irony 💀

if only our memory could be wiped of playing it. so we could could see it for the first time again

Elden Ring may have saved my life. I got so lost in that game I forgot to be suicidal for a few weeks.

@@richardsmith5803 frrrrr

@@Dharengo still its very good game and I think it is better than God of War just because God of War story is boring. It have good jokes and characters but they are not a Kratos and his son. Elden ring has better fighting, bosses, music, atmosphere. Yes GoW have graphics and "story" but I beat elden ring 8 times and gonna do that again but I never gonna touch GoW again. Have great day)

But is it one of the five games this year that has better narrative than ALL the other games this year? Is it top 20? sure. Even top 10? yeah, maybe. But no shot it's top 5. Also keep in mind that Game award theoretically takes all games this year into consideration, so no shot it's top 5.

Gow r is boring game tbh… feels like dlc than anything at least to me…

@@svarog8253 the world was almost completely different even though it was in the same location. Def not dlc

@@svarog8253 everyone saying this hasn’t played the game and you can tell because they just call you stupid and block you when you confront him. That David Jaffe video was from 7 months ago. I love Elden Ring too but I’m getting tired of people sucking it off like it was the cure for cancer, aids and got you laid. Souls fanbase overhyped shit to the point you start hating the games

I think that the only category Elden Ring beats God of War in is art style. Every thing else god of war does objectively better at. Better story, better direction, better narrative, and gameplay. God of War Ragnarok has a much more fluid, dynamic gameplay/combat experience, Elden ring has lots of weapons and spells but they don’t have many different attacks each. Its quality over quantity, however there is just so much quantity in elden ring that it almost makes up for It. Both games are fantastic and I love both of them but I think ragnarok has a slight edge in actually winning GOTY. I will be happy if either game wins though, both incredible.

You put it quite well. I've always seen FromSoft's games (Demon Souls and onwards) as an "experience". There is story and lore, but that's not the main draw. The draw is the experience of going through the game's world, overcoming challanges and discovering new stuff. With the new GoW, it's much more of a journey. You are Kratos, you have all these characters you interact with, you progress thorugh the game for the story, to see it unfold. FromSoft's games have impeccable gameplay and it alone makes people play them. GoW has more things going for it aside from the gameplay. Two vastly different games.

People also need to understand that interpretive narratives are still narratives. Trying to discredit them is a disservice to the vast potential of storytelling. GOWR has a great story, but it’s told in the most traditional, safe, and conventional way. Of course it is, because GOWR is a character driven story. It needs lots of cutscenes and dialogue between characters because of that. Elden Ring on the other hand directly ties the narrative into the gameplay (such as exploration and boss fights). That is because Souls games are world driven narratives and many argue that world driven narratives are only truly possible in games.

Yea lore is the background stuff story is what happens and the characters actions etc

Hmm I wonder why they’re so small. Almost like most people don’t care about the narratives of these games

@@xjrei17 You do know the biggest lore channel VaatiVidya has over 2.4M subscribers?

@@xjrei17 i mean, if the only thing you do is stare at a wall, of course you'll think the wall is the only thing to exist in the world. Just because you don't care it doesn't mean there isn't an entire community around it. For example, I couldn't care less about football (or soccer) but that doesn't prevent the World Cup from happening, does it?

No, you mean story vs lore. Narrative isn't necessarily the same as story.

Haven't touched it since I beat it, so carry on speaking for yourself.

400 hours and only on my third playthrough babyyyyyy

Not really, no. There are some parts that are actually pretty cool but: - Copy pasted dungeons - Some of the worst balance in any souls game - Bosses that obscure the entire screen so you can't even see their attacks - Awful pvp (although it's getting better over time) - Narrative is incredibly weak, there's nothing holding the players to the game except for discovering more lore - Late game damage scaling means that everything 1shots you even with 60 Vigor (so I just did a level 1 run)

@@therealzizmon1748 thats so wrong in so many levels , countless NPC's give you the narrative , they literally explain everything thats going on and what they dont you can piece it together really easy. every massive game reuses assets , if not imagine how long the development would've been to have to do 100's of unique bosses. PVP isnt the main way to play , its secondary content , and they are paying attention to it RN. Late game scaling is how it should be , enemies do more damage , should you expect them to do less damage than before? Plus im 50 vigor late game and nothing one shots me , it might take 70% my HP but thats why they made a roll button.

@@andrec1629 I don't think you're understanding me. You can very easily miss the lore in your first playthrough, but even then, there's nothing interesting keeping the player invested in the world except for more exploration. You're not actually responding to what I said. Also, there is literally no excuse for the amount of asset reuses, like having the same boss 9 FUCKING TIMES. There's no reason to have so many reused dungeons and bosses if they are basically the same. There should have been less dungeons, as the main content is mostly fine. Enemies doing more damage is fine, but what isn't fun is being 1shot irregardless of how much vigor you have. Please learn to read with understanding.

Yes, but there is no nuance to it. Passive story telling has its place in storys. But is should never be applauded as THE PINICLE of best story telling. By that case, league of legends has the best, most detailed story trough details like items, characters and stuff. If everytime game comes out with no story telling, but a bunch of lore, soon we will have all top games with no story but books to read about what we could have been playing instead....oh wait, LoL, valorant, Dota, souls games...

The issue is that everything you described is still considered lore and worldbuilding, things that are part of a narrative but are not narratives themselves. Now I'm not saying that Elden Ring - and From games in general - don't have narratives. But learning about all the crazy stuff that happened in the past, "this guy was cursed because x, y, and z happened so he decided to do a, b, and c" is lore. Exposition. The vast majority of the story in From games has already happened before our character even shows up, we're just playing through the final chapters. All this to say I don't think a game in which it's entirely possible to miss the narrative if you don't bother reading anything - something that's simple to do if all you care about in these games is the challenge and the epic boss fights - deserves to be nominated for "best narrative." I'd wager there's a fair number of people that played Elden Ring that couldn't tell you anything about it's story despite having 100%'d the game. That's the major issue that plagues the passive narrative style that you described where rather than seeing all the major events that shaped the world into what it is presently we're told about them. This is where the age old writing adage comes into play: "Show, don't tell." Just to be clear, though: I'm not saying this is a fault against Elden Ring's writing. From's style isn't about a traditional narrative being told, it's about uncovering the mysteries of how and why the world got messed up. In that aspect they're absolutely amazing...but that's not a narrative. And as such, I'd argue it does not deserve to be nominated for Best Narrative. Now, if there was a category for best world building Elden Ring would have that on lock down, no questions asked.

I think you just described Fallout 76 at launch =P

The problem is, lore and worldbuilding is part of narrative, but not all. Narrative NEED consistency and cohesive, go together with transparency and relatable element. YES, Darksoul narrative is like that "unfinished horse drawing" meme. Is it unique and creative way? YES. Is it balance and good? NO.

@@TooGumbica the case of league of legends is lore serving more of a backdrop rather than a narrative tool though. Perhaps a better analogy is comparing films that are very plot focused and films where it feels like nothing happened but the characters and mundane events serve as an exploration of some kind of theme. The former corresponds to narrative focused games (like The Last of Us) and the latter corresponds to more lore focused games (like Outer Wilds). In the latter the story is told indirectly- but the story is still told. It's the difference between having a heavy character focused drama and one where characters tell you context about the world and it is your actions in game that define the story.

Elden Ring, boatfuls of Lore but a very thin narrative throwing you section to section.

Great analysis. As some one who has nerded out on every example in your first paragraph I agree with your analysis. It's what's kept me going on my first playthrough so far without much in the way of guides. The story/narrative of the game is the journey they player makes to becoming the elden lord or whatever else they choose when they earn the top dog position. The lore and characters are there to make you question what to do next and how to feel about what you've already done to that point and provides a bigger picture the more you travel and keep on top of it. The story reflects real life in many ways. You can be as well informed or ignorant as you want but still somehow reach the same end goal.

To begin with the problem with awards it's the same we have with Hollywood. Americans imposing a value of sorts into appreciation and consideration for the rest of the world. Now we have more cinema awards festivals with much more prestige than Hollywood in terms of Art appreciation. But Games don't have that yet since it's a very young artistic medium.

That's a really good take. What I feel it boils down to is 'How do you judge the quality of something (narrative) when the construction of it depends entire on the player?' Depending on how you answer that question, Elden Ring's narrative is either brilliant/above all or mediocre.

@@Sheriff_Bruce_Lee That feeling you get after finally killing that difficult boss, that IS true catharsis. That is what the best of stories can offer humanity. The triumph of the human spirit. Like an entire Rocky movie you've stood toe to toe with what you thought was an unbeatable enemy, adapted to it, learned it's weaknesses, grew stronger and more resilient as a result. The storytelling I've found can actually get pretty meta; I can't tell you how many of my friends have been afflicted by a "belly of the whale" moment where they lose hope of overcoming a boss and so stop playing, sometimes for weeks at a time, only to ultimately return stronger than ever. There's actually several videos you can find of people talking about how a game like Dark Souls helped with their depression. It may not be for everyone, but it is certainly valid.

@@Hooga89 it's actually a combination of the two; those characters provide the skeleton of the story, like a dungeon master. The rest is what I've already elaborated on.

I love Elden Ring but let’s stop pretending the story is told organically or easily followed. It’s a jumbled mess outside of the huge details and even then some of that can be missed. Anyone who tries to say they pieced together the puzzle of the story without tons of lore videos is just huffing copium

@@Hooga89 Oh so since you only needed 5 minutes to get the story, what’s with all the fatty lore? Story must not be as good as you think it is. Checkmate, ratio I bet you summoned for Malenia

@@Hooga89 What's your favorite novel?

@@Hooga89 did you just call GOW a cliche? LMFAO you from software fanboys are wildly wrong.

The most important thing is they don't think that average gamer is dumb af and needs his food to served chewed.

@@cockbender2466 and they thought wrong. because the average gamer is actually dumb and now are on youtube watching lorefinders on the game to understand the narrative. lmfao

@@zigrakudo4092 Nah only those who dont wanna play ng+. First time beating Souls games is a surviving quest. Ng+ is exploring, cuz everything around is so weak.

does he really?

@@trust3474 yes he does, he can use almost every spell and can use every weapon type too in the later new games

@@mizumuncher5809 could you provide an example? I haven't beaten him past NG+1

@@trust3474 he used spells like "soothing sunlight" instead of just "great heal" and you can tell very clearly. he also does the backflip with the curved sword in order to stun you.

Isn’t hitting the nail in the coffin a bad thing?

so invested im sure your time spent playing it should be much greater then

Agreed. If GoW:R didn't come out this year then sure ER is a nice second place but man did GoW go fucking hard on that narrative.

Game of the year: elden ring Best narrative: GOW

While I do very much enjoy GoW's story and characters, I think it plays it a bit safe. It feels a bit "Marvel Movie" like to me, full of quips and sometimes a little needless drama. Still very, very enjoyable, but I personally prefer Elden Ring's subtler, history-like story.

Even if we agreed that Ragnarok had better "story", the lore, gameplay, open world aspect, choosing your own path, free choices. Elden Ring is what makes it GOTY.

But the story of the player character easiest described as "you kill everyone". Sure, you have different endings depending on if you listen to certain npcs and kill certain optional enemies. Knowing who Radagon was and his part in history doesn't change that your only encounter with him is just another mindless zombie you kill on your way to the ending. The same goes for everything else; here's a boss arena, fight the boss, who might say a line at the start and at the end, it is the only interaction you will have with them.

@@Xartah Isn't that kind of the problem on itself? Game takes away the choice from the player, giving you a pre-described role of murder-hobo, with extra steps, often with outside sources, to understand, wtf actually going on? For example, I like to deep dive in things from the point of my character, doing the work of glorified detective, doing 100% dialogue with everyone I can. In elden ring, why even bother, if my character generalyy can't react any other way than killing. In this case, elden ring story feels like a separate entity to the game itself, which exist, but doesn't matter to the player character that much. This disconnection I think is the reason, why most of the people don't enjoy the story.

So far I think everyone agrees in this comment chain we just have a misunderstanding lol 😂 sounds like we all think the game’s story for the average player is not accessible enough for them to feel it is the best story of the year in gaming. Being Intentionally vague and making your story not easily digestible can be fun and lead many to think your story is far more deep than it actually is. This is not a bad approach but usually even as someone who enjoys that A LOT, I also see it as a gimmick to have people think your story is deeper than it is. Be vague, leave holes in the lore intentionally, have the reader/player make their own assumptions and go wow this is complex because whatever they imagine will likely be more satisfying then what the writer had intended. We can sit and discuss this honestly for hours. The only thing I think we can agree on though is the average person who plays a souls game will not pay attention to every piece of lore they receive and not consider the player’s journey a story in of itself because playing a game to the end is not usually considered a story to the average person even if it can be. Tldr : this topic has far more depth and nuances to it than we can reasonably ever come to a definitive conclusion on and it. Surface level we all agree that most players without KZfaq videos explaining everything to them have no idea what is going on in a game like elden ring. I’ll say it one more time “MOST PLAYERS” so the one guy who says “I understood it all perfectly without help lol” can be brought back up here and shown he didn’t even understand this comment.

Exactly, compared to something like Nier: Automata which has one of the most beautifull and interesting stories i have ever expirienced in a videogame, and manages to be both easy to understand when it comes to overall plot but also intricate and nuanced for people who are willing to dig deeper Elden Ring narrative feels just painfully bad.

That's because the categories are stupid this year. There are different types of narrative in games as their are not all the same, and they should compete in their respective fields each. Elden ring should fit in Environmental storytelling, not Classical Narrative.

As journos who type words, they don't understand showing a story, mostly words they can read and hear lmao

Trueeeee

Don't rush greatness, instead patiently wait. It will come.

Or 90% of people didn't understand the narrative, because they didn't read or find all the lore. Most people are confused because the narrative isn't in your face. Narration of a game should kind of be like that. Lore is backstory, and worldbuilding. If there was an award for best worldbuilding, Elden Ring should win, but narrative seems a bit odd.

Hahaha cope harder you’re comment is a far fetched rationalization there isn’t any hidden conspiracy, people don’t like certain games I’ve played 300hrs of elden and I think it’s just ok and not better than other souls or rpg games. Bet you’re shaking rn hearing someone’s rational opinion of the game lmao

@@eugkra33 Exactly… Elden Ring deserves to win GOTY… but best narrative is pretty strange because 99% of the people who finished the game barely understood what was going on. It’s more like reading Nietzsche for the first time.😅

Honestly, I've seen so many bullshit criticisms for Elden Ring. They'll criticize this masterpiece for doing things that literally every single open world game is guilty of. Of course there's reskins and reused assets, ever played BOTW? Not only that but the enemy variety in Elden Ring is amongst the best I've EVER seen. Seriously, give me a fucking break. Or they'll say it's not as replayable due to it's size which isn't a valid criticism because only about 10% of the map is mandatory and you can skip entire areas like Caelid. It also has the most build variety. These two facts alone already put it in the list of most replayable games. The endgame isn't even that bad; Haligtree is one of my favorite locations and Horah Loux, Radagon, Black Blade, Maliketh, and Mohg are amongst the very best bosses in the game. Does the game have flaws? Yes. Is it okay to point them out? Yes. Is it okay to make up lies and make such blatant hyperboles? Hell no.

or it was just a boring story, no amount of lore can really fix that

"The less words you can use the better" you mean like item descriptions. Which game exactly are you writing the story for Bubsy 3d?

From software is the definition of tell don't show. The entirety of the lore is all background.

You can figure it out yourself, you're just not supposed to do so on your first run. My first time playing Bloodborne for instance I had no idea what the hell had transpired when the credits rolled, but on subsequent playthroughs I was able to focus more on the details of the story and how it all fit together. It took about 7 or 8 playthroughs before I had comfortably pieced it together on my my own (not everything mind you, but quite a bit). Part of the magic of these games is that there's always new secret tidbits to be uncovered by the perceptive player. It makes me feel like a detective!

It's ok... It's no Elder Scrolls Morrowind.

I disagree, thought it was really bland and boring.

@@JeFilm94 Personally story was too confusing to me like no other soul like game was, way too many mysteries double personas and hidden motives that I felt like I was doing things without knowing why and I was just watching what happens

so its bad narrative XD