I don't agree with the criticism about the game's world not being a believable world. I mean, that's the point. The game's world is not a realistic one. It's an oniric, dark and twisted realm where creatures called "demigods" live (And they all lost their sanity to some extent). The game is never supposed to be a coherent representation of a dark age realm or similar with "reasonable" people doing "reasonable" things, with complete recognizable behaviors and life styles.
Crazy, exotic fictional worlds can (and should) present internal logic and causality. See Planescape Torment and Disco Elysium.
There is an internal logic and causality, it just requires relatively high suspension of disbelief and some familiarity with weird thingies like alchemy and hermetics to enjoy. Which I don't blame most people who bounce off FromSoft' narratives for lacking, nor am I trying to make the storyfag equivalent of a "git gud" argument by suggesting that everyone should skim the wiki page on Rebis or Christian mystical traditions before playing the game. Nor is the game a comprehensive primer on the very concepts it uses, which inevitably will leave most people confused. For the record, I do not claim to be well informed of these topics, but I've played a Bungie game once and like read some manga I guess or whatever I don't know.
I also see a high degree of artificiality and contrivance in the game world, but I think the game has actually grounded and justified the aforementioned in a way I for the most part found very convincing. I don't believe there is an objectively good or bad way to tell a story, mind you, but I also think you might be a little nostalgic in forgiving the artificiality and its justifications in previous FS games when those have largely been as in Elden Ring going back to at least DS1.
In DS1, why do all of Anor Londo's defenders continue to attack you even after you gain an audience with Gwynevere or join Gwyndolin's covenant when most of the above were just 'dolin's illusions in the first place?
In DS2 Drangleic makes no sense as a kingdom whatsoever, there is no major population center, and the world does not make sense geographically.
DS3 is a space/time mindfuck from beginning to the end.
In Sekiro, ostensibly the most historically inspired game of the bunch, how does Ashina castle even get invaded by an army when the surrounding landscape is a fantastical stretch of broken roads and cliffs that only a superhuman ninja with a grappling hook would be able to navigate?
The reason to all of the above: because FromSoft doesn't care about realistic world building and specializes in gamey design.
Another reason: because FromSoft is self-aware of the above fact and wisely sets most of its games in fantastical settings where the
(meta)physical laws of the world are explicitly broken - an intelligent contrivance
. Time/fire/status quo is convoluted/fading/shattered and thus everyone is crazy and nothing quite makes sense without ever becoming complete context-free chaos. And in regards to this theme, I think ER has done my favorite job fleshing it out by developing its own shattered metaphysical status quo (elden ring) as a series of rules (great runes) and the player's journey is not simply limited to restoring it but also undergoing the right steps for its and their own alchemical purification, possibly by adding a crucial ingredient - or subverting the process altogether.
So the smegma-scholars among us find it neat how Marika is a rebis not too dissimilar from some mystical interpretations of the Abrahamic God, or that the four colors/stages of the alchemical magnum opus reoccur meaningfully throughout the game, or even simply that FromSoft's extremely unapproachable method of storytelling sort of fulfills the hermetic principle of secrecy of knowledge. But yeah, if you are looking for the game to give you good answers to the more pedestrian concerns of "where are all the caravans going" and "what do all the crazy immortal zombie ghosts eat," your disappointment is understandable. I would just argue that you have unfortunate expectations towards a FromSoft game. Like reading the Old Testament out of interest in ancient battles and being disappointed that the logistics of warfare are glossed over.
And yes by the way, I DO have a Miyazaki tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It's for the ladies' eyes only- And even they have to demonstrate that they're within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand.
