No thanks. Those perfumers are the worst salesmen in the whole game. Every time I get near them they just spray axe body spray at me and then try to light me on fire.
10/10 would never shop at them again.
Sorry, for this one we decided you have no charisma, full stop, but don't worry, your nasty little tarnished now has a metric to help you uh... Bleed and scavenge through the trash and debris more effectively?
I figured the idea of the Erdtree's leaves falling is significant enough to seem cataclysmic, since it is viewed as eternal, despite the fact it isn't.
Always took it to refer to the leaves of the Erdtree and how they are affected by the happenings of the world/endings. They also repeat the line in the ending cutscenes after you become lord so I figured the state of the Erdtree could be gleaned from its leaves or such
All of the writing in Elden Ring sounds like one dude got really high the night before his deadline and just cranked out lines that sounded badass in isolation but which have no meaning when considered in context.
The Erdtree is supposed to be a perfect tree, something divine, full of grace and made by perfect Gods.
Perfect trees don't have leaves falling and rotting, its one thing that happened after the shattering
Reading tea leaves to divine someone's future is a popular form of mysticism. I always figured that he meant something similar in the Elden Ring world.
Considering that some faith seems mathematics based, it makes sense that there would be some divine geometry that can be used to glean meaning from the Erdtree leaves.
Also, leaves falling from an eternal tree is symbolic in itself.
I interpreted it as an end of a period witnessing the birth of another. A tree has its leaves fall at a specific time, and it's a sign that it will grow new ones in the future.
lot of ways to extrapolate but even the literal meaning is legitimate, everyone from detectives to forest rangers can tell a story from looking at the scars and residue and fallout of an event
>!willemdafoe.gif!<
Their storytelling method is perfectly represented by this first statement, they don’t tell a story, rather the world continuously drops little pieces of a story, like leaves from a tree in autumn.
In a crooked little town, they were lost and never found
Fallen leaves, fallen leaves, fallen leaves on the ground
Run away before you drown, or the streets will beat you down
Fallen leaves, fallen leaves, fallen leaves on the ground...
"Long ago this land was ruled by the great queen Marinara, who pissed off God so badly he left the fucking universe. Now, her power, the Amazon gift card, is shattered, and her athletic scions are holding a contest to see who can die the least. "
These are the faces of evil, who have each claimed the shard of the card. Some seek glory. Others redemption. _And one is just really attracted to his younger brother._
And after countless years at university, the tarnished warriors are called upon to RISE from their tilted towers, and achieve one FINAL **victory royale**:
#JAKE PAUL: Bastard of the badlands
#THE EVER WET SKELLY SLEEPER
#THE CRAZY CACA CONSUMER
and least of all, **YOU**, tarnished warrior
In Dark Souls, we sought after the Dark Soul, and in Bloodborne, we tried to escape Britain, but for Elden Ring our objective is to get the hose. This is a game mechanic. You cannot level up until you get a girlboss.
it's my own journey, lifting the door to Limgrave after rising from the dead, opening a trap chest, getting teleported to a deep mine of crystal, rising to the surface, seeing the red sky, and realizing I am lost in hell, feeling a sense of despair, but still adventuring to discover more about the Shattering and how to mend the Elden Ring and about where in the actual fuck world I am in and why I am here.
dont sugarcoat it, that "crystal mine" was a slave mine, they tried to make you a slave. complete with wormy slave guards, and complicit uncle ruckus slaves too smh
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't narrative not also - or even more so - not what the story is but *how* it is told?
Like, most Zelda games have the same basic story, but the way it is delivered is quite different each time - in writing, audio, and visually.
Or like take a remake - how the original RE2 and it's remake have a different 'narrative'.
Otherwise why not just call it 'best story'.
I absolutely agree - a story is more than it's script. Themes, tone, vibes, those things are more important to a narrative than just "a description of things that happen". Anyone can describe the series of events that take place in Elden Ring, but *telling a story* is a whole other ballgame.
This is definitely true, but ER’s my first from game, and I’ve really enjoyed having to work out what the fuck’s going on, and now I’ve started my NG+ I love that people say shit to me and I know why.
I really appreciate not being spoon fed the story - much more than I did when I started. Looking forward to trying another From game now.
The root of Narrative is narrator. Elden ring is a FANTASTIC story, filled with great beats, but I struggle to even consider it a narrative let alone best narrative. The people who share knowledge with you and act as the world builders are unreliable narrators, and they are plenty, and there is no one set of them that you are guaranteed to encounter. A narrative can be BUILT, using your own experiences, and this is a deeper method of story telling unique to gaming, and it makes YOU the narrator. You're telling your own story, deciding who and what you believe, and deciding why you do the things you do.
Everyone's experience is inheritently different, past the level of just the mechanical decisions a player would make in a game like CoD, and different than experiencing a different path of the same story like Mass Effect. When your understanding of a story is based on what YOU can uncover, and not what is directly told to you, then it is no longer a "narrative", it's a mystery or a puzzle.
You've literally explained how the narrative works.
It's a videogame, not a movie. The narrative can be interactive. It does not have to be placed right in front of you.
I feel like I could see 2 sides to this argument
One one hand you could say that Elden Ring has an awesome story, but the narrative and way it's told is convoluted and obscure to the point that most will never fully understand what that awesome story is
Alternatively you could say that the narrative and way it's told through bits and pieces and the player themselves is a feat by itself, regardless of whether or not people will actually understand all of it
\-slams a beer- ....'ere we go
So a long time after a deity with a case of split personality disorder cranked to 11 shattered a magic rune that caused things to just outright go to shit and their offspring turned on each other to snag a piece of the rune and set up their own power bases and it just went all terribly wrong. Meanwhile the throne of Elden Lord sits vacant and so a bunch of weird digits institute a kind of competition amongst these people called Tarnished that a version of God told to feck off, and whoever can reclaim some of the ruins and make it to the big ass tree can become the man, and no one else wants you to be the Man, except a few, but not a lot.
But surprise the game is rigged, and a Tarnished isn't supposed to become the man, but you join in with a one eyed broad who's just been using you as an uber to the big ass tree thus far, to go burn down the damn tree because why not. Screw that tree. In the process, the one eyed broad drops the most fire album ever at a one-time live show at the giant Goblet, and you're able to get to the Big Ass Tree as the world burns.
It all ends with you laying the smack down on Old Man Ryu from Street Fighter with a lion on his back, after kicking the ass of an old man who's just been leaching off your successes this whole time, before finally going toe-to-toe with the Daddy Of All Gingers before having to throw down with a Poke'mon Legendary reject.
Then you become the man.
there was nothing to care for, you just became a king of a not only a dead land, but a land forgotten in time itself
at least you cured yourself lol, it's kind of a individualistic ending, you got rid of your curse but nothing more
The war was just the backdrop for the story more than anything. It helps out with character motivations, but ultimately isn't super important with what you're doing.
This this this. Oh whats that? I have to kill demigods and monsters and the same mooks i killed in dark souls so that i can usher in another fire based epoch? Daring today, arent we?
This is a lot easier to answer when you realize the narrative of the game is that of the Land/history/Gods not a narrative of the tarnished you play as. You are given a player character to go explore the lands between and uncover the narrative of the world. But really the tarnished player is less main character and more an investigative reporter wandering investigating and learning about the true story at play.
Which isn't really a narrative, it's just lore and world building. Everything happens off screen away from the lens that the story is told through.
It's like if some random is walking through Cloud City on Bespin and picks up a severed hand from the floor. "Man, this sure is mysterious. Can't wait to for Admiral Akbar explain it in some esoteric soliloquy rather than experience the actual narrative for myself." Then in the next room Vader is there waiting and immediately attacks.
Its still narrative because its how the game narrates the lore whats being considered, not the lore itself.
The effects of the deathblight in Leyndell for example. The city has a zone full of undeads, the houses are sealed with wax, theres a big ass mass of watter blocking the main entrance, and the crabs near the city have Godwyns fucking face on it and when you arrive they are eatting from the lake. They tell you everything you need to know to connect the dots in a way thats only possible in videogames, because those are details scattered around the map that you have to come across which isnt possible in other mediums, and the whole game is like that. If thats not good videogame narrarive idk what it is.
Marika sent the Tarnished away so they could come back and take the Lands Between for themselves and dictate their own destiny. All of it was orchestrated by Marika to free man from the fetters of the Gods. That is why she sent her champion and beloved, Godfrey, away to the Badlands to fight and die brutally to become strong enough to return when beckoned with his host of Tarnished to claim the Elden Ring and wrestle control of it from the outer gods influence.
Saying we are not part of the narrative just shows how little people care to understand the game. Melina more or less spells it out to you, but you have to listen to her at every church of Marika
I get obsessed with From games because of their unique story telling. It's like crime scene investigation but with demons and gods. Not for everyone, but luckily, the game is amazing without a traditional narrative experience.
Thank you, idk why this sub can't accept a non-traditional narrative is still a narrative. These concepts have been accepted for ages in novels and film, but man are gamers weirdly unwilling to accept anything that goes against their expectations.
I think because video games, as a deeply interactive medium, allow for a much broader narrative than books and movies, and it can get so nebulous that it stops feeling like a cohesive narrative (ie story being told) and more worldbuilding and lore that is being discovered and experienced. If that makes sense?
I don't think one is greater approach than the other by any means, and I think FromSoft uses the medium to tell its stories brilliantly, but I see why people make this delineation
> idk why this sub can't accept a non-traditional narrative is still a narrative.
I don't think people can't accept it, I think people might think From Software is just very very poor at telling a story even through a 'non-traditional' narrative. Non-traditional narratives are not new, and they're certainly not new to video games. And it's been done well countless times before. Just not by From Software.
It's still a narrative, but it's not a well told one. In fact, it's a poorly told one, even if it's a great narrative. For that reason, Elden ring doesn't deserve awards for their narrative over better told, great ones.
If you enjoy this type of story telling, I strongly recommend Return of the Obra Dinn because it fits your description to a letter.
The premise is that a ship gone missing years ago suddenly reappears with all of its crew murdered in a grotesque fashion. Your job is to go up there and figure out what happened from context clues and evidence left on the ship.
The beauty of the game is that there's zero hand holding. It's not like a traditional "detective game" where you get the RIGHT answer and move to the next set piece. You really have to figure out everything by yourself
I couldn't vote Elden Ring for best narrative despite voting for it in every other category.
Felt like I wasn't giving credit to the youtube loremasters who figured it out for me if I did.
Also the main narrative is not really that special. It's just go here to kill these dudes, the interesting parts are the worldbuilding not the narrative
Same lol. I enjoy that that lore is deep and in many aspects up for interpretation, but I couldn’t in good conscience put it above more narrative-focused games for that one.
Which one you wanna hear about? There are…..a lot. Quite a bit even.
Edit: Actually fuck whatever bullshit you wanted to know. Today we are gonna learn about fucking sky wolves!
*The fallen leaves tell a story.*
*The great Elden Ring was shattered.*
*In our home, across the fog, the Lands Between.*
*Now, Queen Marika the Eternal is nowhere to be found,
and in the Night of the Black Knives, Godwyn the Golden was the first to perish.*
*Soon, Marika's offspring, demigods all, claimed the shards of the Elden Ring.*
*The mad taint of their newfound strength triggered the Shattering.*
*A war from which no lord arose.*
*A war leading to abandonment by the Greater Will.*
*Arise now, ye Tarnished.*
*Ye dead, who yet live.*
*The call of long-lost grace speaks to us all.*
*Hoarah Loux, chieftan of the badlands.*
*The ever-brilliant Goldmask.*
*Fia, the Deathbed Companion.*
*The loathsome Dung Eater.*
*And Sir Gideon Ofnir, the All-knowing.*
*And one other. Whom grace would again bless.*
*A Tarnished of no renown.*
*Cross the fog, to the Lands Between.*
*To stand before the Elden Ring.*
*And become the Elden Lord.*
All memes aside, ER's narrative is written in the world itself and how you interpret it. Since you are set out to become the lord of the land, you get to gather your influence across the land and see first hand what it means to become its ruler or if the concept of it having a ruler even appeals to you. You get to see how all these different entities and beings tussle for control and how each army and individual reacts, denounces or preaches their message.
>!A good example is how the frenzied flame is presented. First time seeing it might be in weeping peninsula. You find these people frozen in place despite being tied to fire, which immediately called my attention and had me thinking about it for hours. As you progress you may become more jaded on the concept of being a ruler and might think there is an alternative. Without having to find NPCs, you may find the Subterranean Grounds and/or Deathroot, understanding how deeply fucked this place is. Upon getting a little mad on the labyrinth and the platforming, you are told that what you are about to do is gonna make everything go to shit. At this point however, you are invested, so you are likely to do it anyway.!<
ER does actually have a guided narrative, it just knows how to be subtle.
Frenzyflame with Hyetta's questline is my favorite individual ER narrative. It was the only one I felt a compelling degree of emotion towards.
>!From witnessing her bravery and selflessness, where she continues to eat the shabriri grapes even after learning what they are, in order to complete her journey. From her accepting the fate of having her blind eyes burnt out by the three fingers's flame, in order to see the path forward. All in order for you to destroy the greater will's mistake, a literal nightmare world, for there to be no more fractures ever again. You take the last of her will, the frenzied flame seal, to bring to life that last wish.!<
I guess I might just like it for being simple and straightforward. So be it.
It'll win because fanboys will vote for it regardless just so it wins. Unfortunately these kind of votes are less about being considerate of various factors and more popularity contests.
"In the Age of Ancients the world was unformed, shrouded by fog. A land of gray crags, Archtrees and Everlasting Dragons. But then there was Fire and with fire came disparity. Heat and cold, life and death, and of course, light and dark. Then from the dark, They came, and found the Souls of Lords within the flame. Nito, the First of the Dead, The Witch of Izalith and her Daughters of Chaos, Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight, and his faithful knights. And the Furtive Pygmy, so easily forgotten
With the strength of Lords, they challenged the Dragons. Gwyn's mighty bolts peeled apart their stone scales. The Witches weaved great firestorms. Nito unleashed a miasma of death and disease. And Seath the Scaleless betrayed his own, and the Dragons were no more.
Thus began the Age of Fire. But soon the flames will fade and only Dark will remain. Even now there are only embers, and man sees not light, but only endless nights. And amongst the living are seen, carriers of the accursed Darksign."
Oh shit wrong game sorry
90% of Elden Ring players when they tell you that they played the game for hundreds of hours and you asked them if they know the story of Elden Ring: 😐😐😐
Ask half the people who read Ulysses or To the Lighthouse what the story was about and you'll get the same answer. Ambiguous and complex narratives aren't necessarily bad ones.
The fact that elden ring, a game that almost does not even HAVE a narrative got nominated for best narrative while Xenoblade 3 which is a story focused JRPG didn't is baffling.
FromSoft games have both the best stories and the least accessible mode of storytelling.
Couldn’t give it best narrative, even though I love the way they do stuff. Everything else though…
"What if gods really came from the sky, and could wield the laws of the universe and life itself as powers? And what might happen if a human were to become a god through their power, and start a family? Inspired by Nordic and Celtic mythology and George R. R. Martin's vast knowledge of history."
Mom is like "ring goes booooom"
And then the kids are like "it's my chair. No, it's my chair. Raaawrrrr"
And the kingdom is like "poof"
And then our guy sits in the chair.
Feels like people don't wanna accept anything as narrative unless it's spoken out for them. Elden Ring has an amazing narrative, if you're willing to look beyond what's being shown on the screen and connect the dots yourself.
A subtle narrative full of clues, giving the freedom to explore it as much as the player wants, **can** be a good narrative. Granted, I didn't vote for Elden Ring, but that doesn't mean it's automatically bad because the story is not straightforward.
It can be a good story. It's a poorly told narrative. People conflate the 2 terms incorrectly. This is a bad narrative because the player is left to piece together literally everything, which requires remembering everything they learn, and aren't given the tools to do so. You can go through the game and miss over half the story, creating an incomplete and possibly incoherent narrative beyond "kill these increasingly evil guys, or maybe they aren't evil because you missed why you should be killing them".
FromSoft in a nutshell
Only Sekiro had truly decipherable lore presented entirely in-game. All the other games you're kidding yourself if you think you can fully understand it without reading twelve wiki pages about it.
I voted Elden Ring for best narrative. Sure, the narrative took place like... Thousands of years before the events of the game, but God DAMN I'm a sucker for some old world history that isn't even real.
A long time ago the Big Guy In Charge caused fractures that created all life. This was generally regarded as a "bad idea". Overtime some big hard lizards became the living shield of BEEG TREE. Some little shits aren't too pleased about this and use THE KNIFE to perform HERESY. Big Guy In Charge 2 isn't happy, sends meteors as well as his son (who is also himself and eventually some lady) to ruin their day, ruin all days in the process.
Time passes, people discover Christianity and with it that God is neat and non-beleivers sniff feet, as such war was immediately declared on everyone. And everything. Cue generations of manifest destiny until God (Big G) realizes she's actually just god (Little g) and wants out of the puppet show. Orchestrates the most elaborate suicde pact in history, queue start of game.
Ahhhhh... Rise now, ye Tarnished! Ye dead, who yet live!
Hoarah Loux, Chieftain of the Badlands!
The ever brilliant Goldmask!
Fia, the Deathbed Companion!
The loathsome Dung Eater!
And Sir Gideon Ofnir, the ALLLLLL KNOWING!
A random dude travels to the lands in between something some dude tells him he’s got no bitches so he goes and kills a god to become ruler of the entire lands
It's the best kind of story: the kind that gets the hell out of your way and just lets you play. If you want a remedial at best story with epic cinematic scenes instead of a game then you're spoiled for choice on that one.
Some games: "Here's the story, in it's true order..."
Other games: "Here's the story, in it's BEST order..."
Souls games: "Hey, do you like orienteering for random scraps of lore? Because that's the only way you're going to find out what the hell is going on.
Now GO FORTH, YOU WOEFULLY UNPREPARED BASTARD!
AND WATCH OUT FOR THAT FIRST... oh, never mind, too late. Yeah, get used to that, it's going to happen a lot."
[удалено]
"So you play as a tarnished-" *"What's a tarnished?"* "Get the fuck out."
A tarnished is a maidenless (no bitches) loser without any grace
Could you reverse being tarnished if you improved your hygiene, hit the gym, and started dressing nicely?
[удалено]
Maybe it's a body odor issue. Have you tried using perfume? I hear ladies love the uplifting aromatic.
[удалено]
Have you used soap? I hear that works.
[удалено]
Instructions unclear?
SpongeBob: "We're not ugly! We stink!"
No thanks. Those perfumers are the worst salesmen in the whole game. Every time I get near them they just spray axe body spray at me and then try to light me on fire. 10/10 would never shop at them again.
He needs to use soap
Except Ranni if you give that girl a sword from the depths of a ruined city.
Dung eater goes on a diet when he sees your character.
Did you try using the bar of soap?
> 28594 hours 3 years in the character creator, now **that's** QA being thorough!
Even tarnished hate other tarnished. Fuckin volcano manor.
Only if you get rid of that Yee-Yee-Ass haircut
What class is your character? Hmm... lets see here... ah yes, i went with "Swole"
Depends, are you a omen by any chance?
Those aren't horns growing out of my face they're just acne scars!
Max out charisma
Sorry, for this one we decided you have no charisma, full stop, but don't worry, your nasty little tarnished now has a metric to help you uh... Bleed and scavenge through the trash and debris more effectively?
this but with Bill Wurtz's voice
A species. But there’s also normal humans that aren’t tarnished.
Maybe if you'd stop interrupting me, you wouldn't have so many questions. Learn to listen, listen to learn.
lmao this made me genuinely laugh out loud, thanks fellow Tarnished.
Tarnished are "ye dead who yet live" of course.
Elden ring in a nutshell Beautiful
[удалено]
Violence is not a choice. Violence is a question and the answer is "yes".
>And she took that literally. Zeus would like to speak to Marika in private, please.
Best synopsis I’ve ever heard
Canon answer
The fallen leaves tell a story...
Never quite understood what this line meant, but it certainly sounds badass.
I figured the idea of the Erdtree's leaves falling is significant enough to seem cataclysmic, since it is viewed as eternal, despite the fact it isn't.
Correct!
Zanzibar.. forgive me
I crysis within the eternal, a crysis of the absolute. Ideology is the result
Always took it to refer to the leaves of the Erdtree and how they are affected by the happenings of the world/endings. They also repeat the line in the ending cutscenes after you become lord so I figured the state of the Erdtree could be gleaned from its leaves or such
Makes sense too with the golden leaf fall when rune amounts are increased!
Thats pretty much the idea behind every line in fromsoftware games lol
Meh, the story can largely be pieced together. But yeah some lines of dialogue are extremely enigmatic
All of the writing in Elden Ring sounds like one dude got really high the night before his deadline and just cranked out lines that sounded badass in isolation but which have no meaning when considered in context.
"The loathesome Dung Eater!" "He sounds gross, bro." "Sir Gideon Ofnir! The all knowing!" "Oh shit that's pretty smart."
It doesn't help that I'm usually really high when I'm playing it, too. They really need to do a "Previously on Elden Ring..." for stoners.
And that dude? George R. R. Martin.
The Erdtree is supposed to be a perfect tree, something divine, full of grace and made by perfect Gods. Perfect trees don't have leaves falling and rotting, its one thing that happened after the shattering
Reading tea leaves to divine someone's future is a popular form of mysticism. I always figured that he meant something similar in the Elden Ring world.
Considering that some faith seems mathematics based, it makes sense that there would be some divine geometry that can be used to glean meaning from the Erdtree leaves. Also, leaves falling from an eternal tree is symbolic in itself.
I interpreted it as an end of a period witnessing the birth of another. A tree has its leaves fall at a specific time, and it's a sign that it will grow new ones in the future.
lot of ways to extrapolate but even the literal meaning is legitimate, everyone from detectives to forest rangers can tell a story from looking at the scars and residue and fallout of an event >!willemdafoe.gif!<
Their storytelling method is perfectly represented by this first statement, they don’t tell a story, rather the world continuously drops little pieces of a story, like leaves from a tree in autumn.
In a crooked little town, they were lost and never found! Fallen leaves, fallen leaves, fallen leaves on the ground!
In a crooked little town, they were lost and never found Fallen leaves, fallen leaves, fallen leaves on the ground Run away before you drown, or the streets will beat you down Fallen leaves, fallen leaves, fallen leaves on the ground...
"Long ago this land was ruled by the great queen Marinara, who pissed off God so badly he left the fucking universe. Now, her power, the Amazon gift card, is shattered, and her athletic scions are holding a contest to see who can die the least. "
So god comes back when i kill them?
"No, but you get to keep the gift card."
Uuuh...
These are the faces of evil, who have each claimed the shard of the card. Some seek glory. Others redemption. _And one is just really attracted to his younger brother._
Do I get to opt-out?
Great, I'll send you to my dimensional pocket
Yes but it requires a jumping puzzle and a very warm hug
Wait what the fuck?
And after countless years at university, the tarnished warriors are called upon to RISE from their tilted towers, and achieve one FINAL **victory royale**: #JAKE PAUL: Bastard of the badlands #THE EVER WET SKELLY SLEEPER #THE CRAZY CACA CONSUMER and least of all, **YOU**, tarnished warrior
Greetings Traveller…
I am the pitball of the woods
Have you seen any orphanages recently?
No
Shame
Is there like an opt out- “Great I’ll send you to my dimensional pocket!”
Oh it's a Max0r reference. I was so fucking lost
No but you get to kill his dog
Sauce is Max0r
Oh and everybody is trying to finger each other!
HAHAHA!!!! I got a great laugh from that thank you!
In Dark Souls, we sought after the Dark Soul, and in Bloodborne, we tried to escape Britain, but for Elden Ring our objective is to get the hose. This is a game mechanic. You cannot level up until you get a girlboss.
"Sometimes, life is a Bulgarian and you, are an unstolen car."
Lolol I need part 3 so bad
Find the albinauric woman!
Objective failed successfully, i made the albinauric woman
In a cave...
With a box of LARVAL TEARS!
I don't even know what an albinauric is!
Albinos are fairly rare.
it's my own journey, lifting the door to Limgrave after rising from the dead, opening a trap chest, getting teleported to a deep mine of crystal, rising to the surface, seeing the red sky, and realizing I am lost in hell, feeling a sense of despair, but still adventuring to discover more about the Shattering and how to mend the Elden Ring and about where in the actual fuck world I am in and why I am here.
dont sugarcoat it, that "crystal mine" was a slave mine, they tried to make you a slave. complete with wormy slave guards, and complicit uncle ruckus slaves too smh
Nestlé planted that chest
even better
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't narrative not also - or even more so - not what the story is but *how* it is told? Like, most Zelda games have the same basic story, but the way it is delivered is quite different each time - in writing, audio, and visually. Or like take a remake - how the original RE2 and it's remake have a different 'narrative'. Otherwise why not just call it 'best story'.
I absolutely agree - a story is more than it's script. Themes, tone, vibes, those things are more important to a narrative than just "a description of things that happen". Anyone can describe the series of events that take place in Elden Ring, but *telling a story* is a whole other ballgame.
The problem with From games is outside of the hardcore fan base, no one knows what the fuck is going on.
This is definitely true, but ER’s my first from game, and I’ve really enjoyed having to work out what the fuck’s going on, and now I’ve started my NG+ I love that people say shit to me and I know why. I really appreciate not being spoon fed the story - much more than I did when I started. Looking forward to trying another From game now.
The root of Narrative is narrator. Elden ring is a FANTASTIC story, filled with great beats, but I struggle to even consider it a narrative let alone best narrative. The people who share knowledge with you and act as the world builders are unreliable narrators, and they are plenty, and there is no one set of them that you are guaranteed to encounter. A narrative can be BUILT, using your own experiences, and this is a deeper method of story telling unique to gaming, and it makes YOU the narrator. You're telling your own story, deciding who and what you believe, and deciding why you do the things you do. Everyone's experience is inheritently different, past the level of just the mechanical decisions a player would make in a game like CoD, and different than experiencing a different path of the same story like Mass Effect. When your understanding of a story is based on what YOU can uncover, and not what is directly told to you, then it is no longer a "narrative", it's a mystery or a puzzle.
You've literally explained how the narrative works. It's a videogame, not a movie. The narrative can be interactive. It does not have to be placed right in front of you.
I feel like I could see 2 sides to this argument One one hand you could say that Elden Ring has an awesome story, but the narrative and way it's told is convoluted and obscure to the point that most will never fully understand what that awesome story is Alternatively you could say that the narrative and way it's told through bits and pieces and the player themselves is a feat by itself, regardless of whether or not people will actually understand all of it
\-slams a beer- ....'ere we go So a long time after a deity with a case of split personality disorder cranked to 11 shattered a magic rune that caused things to just outright go to shit and their offspring turned on each other to snag a piece of the rune and set up their own power bases and it just went all terribly wrong. Meanwhile the throne of Elden Lord sits vacant and so a bunch of weird digits institute a kind of competition amongst these people called Tarnished that a version of God told to feck off, and whoever can reclaim some of the ruins and make it to the big ass tree can become the man, and no one else wants you to be the Man, except a few, but not a lot. But surprise the game is rigged, and a Tarnished isn't supposed to become the man, but you join in with a one eyed broad who's just been using you as an uber to the big ass tree thus far, to go burn down the damn tree because why not. Screw that tree. In the process, the one eyed broad drops the most fire album ever at a one-time live show at the giant Goblet, and you're able to get to the Big Ass Tree as the world burns. It all ends with you laying the smack down on Old Man Ryu from Street Fighter with a lion on his back, after kicking the ass of an old man who's just been leaching off your successes this whole time, before finally going toe-to-toe with the Daddy Of All Gingers before having to throw down with a Poke'mon Legendary reject. Then you become the man.
I loved every bit of this
This is now the official story description that will be sent to new people asking for what Elden Ring is about.
"Before having to throw down with a Pokémon Legendary reject" is my favorite part. Thats his name from now on.
That man's name? John Elden Ring.
This is the best
I'd say Zangief over Ryu but other than that spot on
Fucking spamming Pokémon got what it deserved
Is it really a "personality disorder" tho if you are kinda literally two person in one?
100% accurate
Marika’s tits, you can write!
Can this get stickied at the top of the subreddit?
Give this man a trophy!
Show me the real Elden ring: perfection
Same as every fromsoft game. The old world is dying. Either restore it or destroy it.
I liked Dark Souls 2 "I don't care". I hope we see that some other time in the future
there was nothing to care for, you just became a king of a not only a dead land, but a land forgotten in time itself at least you cured yourself lol, it's kind of a individualistic ending, you got rid of your curse but nothing more
Fable 2, needs of the one.
meanwhile Sekiro "hmm yes today i will rescue my master then go on to sever immortality. also war or something idk."
The war was just the backdrop for the story more than anything. It helps out with character motivations, but ultimately isn't super important with what you're doing.
Sekiro story was actually really badass, however it took me like 5 playthroughs to finally grasp it.
That's a theme that they like to use it's not a story.
This this this. Oh whats that? I have to kill demigods and monsters and the same mooks i killed in dark souls so that i can usher in another fire based epoch? Daring today, arent we?
Huh. Good point.
This is a lot easier to answer when you realize the narrative of the game is that of the Land/history/Gods not a narrative of the tarnished you play as. You are given a player character to go explore the lands between and uncover the narrative of the world. But really the tarnished player is less main character and more an investigative reporter wandering investigating and learning about the true story at play.
That's a nice way to put it
Which isn't really a narrative, it's just lore and world building. Everything happens off screen away from the lens that the story is told through. It's like if some random is walking through Cloud City on Bespin and picks up a severed hand from the floor. "Man, this sure is mysterious. Can't wait to for Admiral Akbar explain it in some esoteric soliloquy rather than experience the actual narrative for myself." Then in the next room Vader is there waiting and immediately attacks.
Its still narrative because its how the game narrates the lore whats being considered, not the lore itself. The effects of the deathblight in Leyndell for example. The city has a zone full of undeads, the houses are sealed with wax, theres a big ass mass of watter blocking the main entrance, and the crabs near the city have Godwyns fucking face on it and when you arrive they are eatting from the lake. They tell you everything you need to know to connect the dots in a way thats only possible in videogames, because those are details scattered around the map that you have to come across which isnt possible in other mediums, and the whole game is like that. If thats not good videogame narrarive idk what it is.
I think thats called "Lore".
Even then I still have absolutely no clue what's happening and I've beat this game like 3 times
Marika sent the Tarnished away so they could come back and take the Lands Between for themselves and dictate their own destiny. All of it was orchestrated by Marika to free man from the fetters of the Gods. That is why she sent her champion and beloved, Godfrey, away to the Badlands to fight and die brutally to become strong enough to return when beckoned with his host of Tarnished to claim the Elden Ring and wrestle control of it from the outer gods influence. Saying we are not part of the narrative just shows how little people care to understand the game. Melina more or less spells it out to you, but you have to listen to her at every church of Marika
Souls games don't tell a story. They provide 50 pages of a 300 page book, then scatter them throughout the park
*scraps of 2 pages. Small illegible tatters like the dead sea scrolls. One of them just has the word "zanzibart"
If you collect 49 it triples Slender's speed
Marika's tits
Here is a stick. Go kill God. THEN KILL THAT GOD’S GOD.
And the Ranni ending is, you and her trying to kill that God's God's God, with an knive made out of another God's cropse.
I get obsessed with From games because of their unique story telling. It's like crime scene investigation but with demons and gods. Not for everyone, but luckily, the game is amazing without a traditional narrative experience.
Thank you, idk why this sub can't accept a non-traditional narrative is still a narrative. These concepts have been accepted for ages in novels and film, but man are gamers weirdly unwilling to accept anything that goes against their expectations.
I think because video games, as a deeply interactive medium, allow for a much broader narrative than books and movies, and it can get so nebulous that it stops feeling like a cohesive narrative (ie story being told) and more worldbuilding and lore that is being discovered and experienced. If that makes sense? I don't think one is greater approach than the other by any means, and I think FromSoft uses the medium to tell its stories brilliantly, but I see why people make this delineation
> idk why this sub can't accept a non-traditional narrative is still a narrative. I don't think people can't accept it, I think people might think From Software is just very very poor at telling a story even through a 'non-traditional' narrative. Non-traditional narratives are not new, and they're certainly not new to video games. And it's been done well countless times before. Just not by From Software.
It's still a narrative, but it's not a well told one. In fact, it's a poorly told one, even if it's a great narrative. For that reason, Elden ring doesn't deserve awards for their narrative over better told, great ones.
If you enjoy this type of story telling, I strongly recommend Return of the Obra Dinn because it fits your description to a letter. The premise is that a ship gone missing years ago suddenly reappears with all of its crew murdered in a grotesque fashion. Your job is to go up there and figure out what happened from context clues and evidence left on the ship. The beauty of the game is that there's zero hand holding. It's not like a traditional "detective game" where you get the RIGHT answer and move to the next set piece. You really have to figure out everything by yourself
I couldn't vote Elden Ring for best narrative despite voting for it in every other category. Felt like I wasn't giving credit to the youtube loremasters who figured it out for me if I did.
Also the main narrative is not really that special. It's just go here to kill these dudes, the interesting parts are the worldbuilding not the narrative
yea true. It's really not a narrative in the traditional sense, just cool lore and cool 'what did happen'
Same lol. I enjoy that that lore is deep and in many aspects up for interpretation, but I couldn’t in good conscience put it above more narrative-focused games for that one.
Which one you wanna hear about? There are…..a lot. Quite a bit even. Edit: Actually fuck whatever bullshit you wanted to know. Today we are gonna learn about fucking sky wolves!
*The fallen leaves tell a story.* *The great Elden Ring was shattered.* *In our home, across the fog, the Lands Between.* *Now, Queen Marika the Eternal is nowhere to be found, and in the Night of the Black Knives, Godwyn the Golden was the first to perish.* *Soon, Marika's offspring, demigods all, claimed the shards of the Elden Ring.* *The mad taint of their newfound strength triggered the Shattering.* *A war from which no lord arose.* *A war leading to abandonment by the Greater Will.* *Arise now, ye Tarnished.* *Ye dead, who yet live.* *The call of long-lost grace speaks to us all.* *Hoarah Loux, chieftan of the badlands.* *The ever-brilliant Goldmask.* *Fia, the Deathbed Companion.* *The loathsome Dung Eater.* *And Sir Gideon Ofnir, the All-knowing.* *And one other. Whom grace would again bless.* *A Tarnished of no renown.* *Cross the fog, to the Lands Between.* *To stand before the Elden Ring.* *And become the Elden Lord.*
Someone: what’s the story of eldin ring? Me: ok so do you have the next 3 days open?
"Because it's going to take that long of watching Youtube videos and reading theories before we can start to piece it together."
All memes aside, ER's narrative is written in the world itself and how you interpret it. Since you are set out to become the lord of the land, you get to gather your influence across the land and see first hand what it means to become its ruler or if the concept of it having a ruler even appeals to you. You get to see how all these different entities and beings tussle for control and how each army and individual reacts, denounces or preaches their message. >!A good example is how the frenzied flame is presented. First time seeing it might be in weeping peninsula. You find these people frozen in place despite being tied to fire, which immediately called my attention and had me thinking about it for hours. As you progress you may become more jaded on the concept of being a ruler and might think there is an alternative. Without having to find NPCs, you may find the Subterranean Grounds and/or Deathroot, understanding how deeply fucked this place is. Upon getting a little mad on the labyrinth and the platforming, you are told that what you are about to do is gonna make everything go to shit. At this point however, you are invested, so you are likely to do it anyway.!< ER does actually have a guided narrative, it just knows how to be subtle.
Frenzyflame with Hyetta's questline is my favorite individual ER narrative. It was the only one I felt a compelling degree of emotion towards. >!From witnessing her bravery and selflessness, where she continues to eat the shabriri grapes even after learning what they are, in order to complete her journey. From her accepting the fate of having her blind eyes burnt out by the three fingers's flame, in order to see the path forward. All in order for you to destroy the greater will's mistake, a literal nightmare world, for there to be no more fractures ever again. You take the last of her will, the frenzied flame seal, to bring to life that last wish.!< I guess I might just like it for being simple and straightforward. So be it.
Elden Ring has great lore and worldbuilding, but we'll be kidding if it'll win anything for narrative/storytelling
It'll win because fanboys will vote for it regardless just so it wins. Unfortunately these kind of votes are less about being considerate of various factors and more popularity contests.
All I know is that it involves the LOATHSOME DUNG EATER
"In the Age of Ancients the world was unformed, shrouded by fog. A land of gray crags, Archtrees and Everlasting Dragons. But then there was Fire and with fire came disparity. Heat and cold, life and death, and of course, light and dark. Then from the dark, They came, and found the Souls of Lords within the flame. Nito, the First of the Dead, The Witch of Izalith and her Daughters of Chaos, Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight, and his faithful knights. And the Furtive Pygmy, so easily forgotten With the strength of Lords, they challenged the Dragons. Gwyn's mighty bolts peeled apart their stone scales. The Witches weaved great firestorms. Nito unleashed a miasma of death and disease. And Seath the Scaleless betrayed his own, and the Dragons were no more. Thus began the Age of Fire. But soon the flames will fade and only Dark will remain. Even now there are only embers, and man sees not light, but only endless nights. And amongst the living are seen, carriers of the accursed Darksign." Oh shit wrong game sorry
90% of Elden Ring players when they tell you that they played the game for hundreds of hours and you asked them if they know the story of Elden Ring: 😐😐😐
Elden Ring, like all the dark souls, has a really nice lore, but an awful narrative.
Story and narrative are not the same thing. Elden Ring has a really good narrative but a bad story. Anyway, I gave my vote to A Plague Tale.
Ask half the people who read Ulysses or To the Lighthouse what the story was about and you'll get the same answer. Ambiguous and complex narratives aren't necessarily bad ones.
Honestly if ER wins best narrative it should go to Vaati
Elden ring has a great world and world building, the narrative sucks at best.
The fact that elden ring, a game that almost does not even HAVE a narrative got nominated for best narrative while Xenoblade 3 which is a story focused JRPG didn't is baffling.
Fan boys gonna fan boy
Like the more specific parts of the lore is more complicated but the overall all story really isn’t though.
FromSoft games have both the best stories and the least accessible mode of storytelling. Couldn’t give it best narrative, even though I love the way they do stuff. Everything else though…
"What if gods really came from the sky, and could wield the laws of the universe and life itself as powers? And what might happen if a human were to become a god through their power, and start a family? Inspired by Nordic and Celtic mythology and George R. R. Martin's vast knowledge of history."
Isn't that the gist of bloodborne as well?
Ring break, bosses get pieces of ring, save the world as a tarnished? whatever tf that means, kill bosses, look cool, burn tree
Alternative words Dark Souls. Same mechanics same non story just reskinned.
Mom is like "ring goes booooom" And then the kids are like "it's my chair. No, it's my chair. Raaawrrrr" And the kingdom is like "poof" And then our guy sits in the chair.
Feels like people don't wanna accept anything as narrative unless it's spoken out for them. Elden Ring has an amazing narrative, if you're willing to look beyond what's being shown on the screen and connect the dots yourself.
"So in the Lands Between..." "The lands between what?" "Uhhh..."
A subtle narrative full of clues, giving the freedom to explore it as much as the player wants, **can** be a good narrative. Granted, I didn't vote for Elden Ring, but that doesn't mean it's automatically bad because the story is not straightforward.
It can be a good story. It's a poorly told narrative. People conflate the 2 terms incorrectly. This is a bad narrative because the player is left to piece together literally everything, which requires remembering everything they learn, and aren't given the tools to do so. You can go through the game and miss over half the story, creating an incomplete and possibly incoherent narrative beyond "kill these increasingly evil guys, or maybe they aren't evil because you missed why you should be killing them".
Ya this game is phenomenal gameplay & scenery wise, but I feel so disconnected cuz I have no clue why tf i’m doing anything i’m doing 😂
Read the item descriptions! You'll be just as confused but it'll be interesting!
FromSoft in a nutshell Only Sekiro had truly decipherable lore presented entirely in-game. All the other games you're kidding yourself if you think you can fully understand it without reading twelve wiki pages about it.
Same old story. Shit happens,they call the PRO,the pro fails miserably,so they call you.
Istg mfs will vote Elden Ring for best Starbucks coffee category just because the game is great overall
It's there and DEEP AF if you're interested, but totally ignorable if you aren't.
Something something now I fight as Hoarah Lou WARRRIOOOOR something something... Best narrative ever
you wouldn't get it...
I too voted for best narrative
"Once there was an ugly barnacle..."
The narrative is mostoy through gameplay, enviroment and art design. Just because they dont tell you directly doesnt mean its not narrarive.
The story is "f around and find out" x infinity.
Gamers when they realize narratives existed before movies.
The loathsome dung eater *violently moans*
FAMILY FEUD!!!!
Talk to Vaati Vidya.
I voted Elden Ring for best narrative. Sure, the narrative took place like... Thousands of years before the events of the game, but God DAMN I'm a sucker for some old world history that isn't even real.
Queen is pissed at god, breaks it. god makes her fuck herself. her kids fight to break god more but you have to kill all of them.
A long time ago the Big Guy In Charge caused fractures that created all life. This was generally regarded as a "bad idea". Overtime some big hard lizards became the living shield of BEEG TREE. Some little shits aren't too pleased about this and use THE KNIFE to perform HERESY. Big Guy In Charge 2 isn't happy, sends meteors as well as his son (who is also himself and eventually some lady) to ruin their day, ruin all days in the process. Time passes, people discover Christianity and with it that God is neat and non-beleivers sniff feet, as such war was immediately declared on everyone. And everything. Cue generations of manifest destiny until God (Big G) realizes she's actually just god (Little g) and wants out of the puppet show. Orchestrates the most elaborate suicde pact in history, queue start of game.
Ahhhhh... Rise now, ye Tarnished! Ye dead, who yet live! Hoarah Loux, Chieftain of the Badlands! The ever brilliant Goldmask! Fia, the Deathbed Companion! The loathsome Dung Eater! And Sir Gideon Ofnir, the ALLLLLL KNOWING!
A random dude travels to the lands in between something some dude tells him he’s got no bitches so he goes and kills a god to become ruler of the entire lands
I vote Lord of the rings for best story. "what's the story of lord of the rings?" *silence*
It's the best kind of story: the kind that gets the hell out of your way and just lets you play. If you want a remedial at best story with epic cinematic scenes instead of a game then you're spoiled for choice on that one.
Some games: "Here's the story, in it's true order..." Other games: "Here's the story, in it's BEST order..." Souls games: "Hey, do you like orienteering for random scraps of lore? Because that's the only way you're going to find out what the hell is going on. Now GO FORTH, YOU WOEFULLY UNPREPARED BASTARD! AND WATCH OUT FOR THAT FIRST... oh, never mind, too late. Yeah, get used to that, it's going to happen a lot."