From Software Elden Ring - From Software's new game with writing by GRRM

[Zed Duke of Banville]

It's considered minimalist compared to what your usual RPG does. It's obviously no Ico or Limbo, but they're also games in a completely different genre. Would you say that a 1-page sacred text isn't "minimalist" compared to the Bible because haikus exist?

Also worth considering the extreme difference in game length, where Elden Ring is perhaps 110 hours (for a completionist), whereas Ico and Shadow of the Colossus are perhaps 10 hours. The amount of story per time unit might be comparable.

 

[gabel]

And Elden Ring has actual gameplay on top.
Wow!

 

[gabel]

Ico and Shadow of the Colossus are utter shit.
Hope that clears up your confusion, Zed Duke of Banville.

 

[Ezekiel]

It's considered minimalist compared to what your usual RPG does. It's obviously no Ico or Limbo, but they're also games in a completely different genre. Would you say that a 1-page sacred text isn't "minimalist" compared to the Bible because haikus exist?

Also worth considering the extreme difference in game length, where Elden Ring is perhaps 110 hours (for a completionist), whereas Ico and Shadow of the Colossus are perhaps 10 hours. The amount of story per time unit might be comparable.

110 hours? Are you for real? That sounds wrong based on my experiences with the Souls games. Are you factoring in just quests (story) or also including collectibles that can barely be counted as story? Because Shadow of the Colossus takes way longer than ten hours for a completionist. Getting to the secret garden requires two or three playthroughs plus eating white lizard tails where you can find them, and completion also means getting all the items by doing all the boss time attacks in both Normal and Hard mode, which only unlock after you've done a playthrough in each mode.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

110 hours? Are you for real?

I took about 120 hours on first playthrough, not completing every mini dungeon. I like to take my time tho.

 

[9ted6]

I think this kind of thing worked in their older games better because there was something more innocent about them. His early games had a bit of youthful naivety about them i think Miyazaki just got jaded over the years, which was inevitable as getting old does that to a person.

If I remember he's said repeatedly how much he hates sequels and how the only reason Souls 2 and 3 got made were because Bandai controlled the license. I think Demon and Dark Souls feel a lot better than what came later because the team was more engaged with them.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I think this kind of thing worked in their older games better because there was something more innocent about them. His early games had a bit of youthful naivety about them i think Miyazaki just got jaded over the years, which was inevitable as getting old does that to a person.

If I remember he's said repeatedly how much he hates sequels and how the only reason Souls 2 and 3 got made were because Bandai controlled the license. I think Demon and Dark Souls feel a lot better than what came later because the team gave a shit.

I said as such and DS2 and DS3 have all the markings of something he was roped into doing against his will.

People give Miyazaki too much shit here. He has been trying his hardest to remain fresh. If he had his way Dark Souls 1 would have been the last one and the fact he focused on something different like Bloodborne and handed Dark Souls 2 to some hastely cobbled togheter team of new hirees proves it.

 

[Child of Malkav]

Tomoe DLC looks good

 

[Sunri]

is the dlc coming out or what?

 

[Child of Malkav]

It's a mod.

 

[Child of Malkav]

Bruh...

 

[Skinwalker]

It's funny to me that people call the storytelling minimalist. No, minimalist is something like Ico, Limbo, Lara Croft GO or Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Souls is actually pretty heavy because of all the text exposition.

It's not minimalist, it's just half-assed. Sticking 90% of the lore into item descriptions, even though it's needed to understand wtf is going on in the game you're playing, is extremely silly, but they keep doing it, because they can't be bothered to write NPC dialogue that actually makes sense. Uusually NPCs are just blithering insane nonsense or extremely vaguely alluding to things you can't possibly figure out unless you studiously explore every single item in your inventory. They waste their voice acting budget on vague nonsense, and then put bits of important backstory into item description text, and spread those bits around tons of individual items, even generic craft materials or potions.

Elden Ring is actually one of the best games in terms of story/plot/lore clarity, there's not nearly as many raving lunatics as in DS1, DS3, or especially Bloodporn, and they even put a character whose entire role is to provide exposition on major story bosses. Still, they clearly stop giving a shit about clarity half-way through the game, and we're back to needlessly vague allusions and item descriptions. And the amount of items is staggeringly high, since this is an open-world game.

Myazaki is a master at taking refuge in obscurantism.

 

[9ted6]

It's funny to me that people call the storytelling minimalist. No, minimalist is something like Ico, Limbo, Lara Croft GO or Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Souls is actually pretty heavy because of all the text exposition.

It's not minimalist, it's just half-assed. Sticking 90% of the lore into item descriptions, even though it's needed to understand wtf is going on in the game you're playing, is extremely silly, but they keep doing it, because they can't be bothered to write NPC dialogue that actually makes sense. Uusually NPCs are just blithering insane nonsense or extremely vaguely alluding to things you can't possibly figure out unless you studiously explore every single item in your inventory. They waste their voice acting budget on vague nonsense, and then put bits of important backstory into item description text, and spread those bits around tons of individual items, even generic craft materials or potions.

Elden Ring is actually one of the best games in terms of story/plot/lore clarity, there's not nearly as many raving lunatics as in DS1, DS3, or especially Bloodporn, and they even put a character whose entire role is to provide exposition on major story bosses. Still, they clearly stop giving a shit about clarity half-way through the game, and we're back to needlessly vague allusions and item descriptions. And the amount of items is staggeringly high, since this is an open-world game.

Myazaki is a master at taking refuge in obscurantism.

Could never understand how anyone could say Bloodborne has a great story. It's just nonsense. DS1 and ER are the only ones with somewhat followable plots but even then a lot of the writers not caring or knowing what to do with the story's hidden behind the excuse of it being obtuse on purpose.

It still kind of works in those games but it's still flawed, with ER being dragged down by George RR Martin's terrible writing and kink insertions and some DS1 NPCs being needlessly cryptic even though they're supposed to be normal people, though not near as cryptic as 3 where everyone can only speak in riddles.

 

[Silverfish]

Could never understand how anyone could say Bloodborne has a great story. It's just nonsense.

In Bloodborne's defense (which isn't something I ever thought I'd say), I don't think you're meant to take the plot, such as it is, completely literally. They're pretty upfront that events are at least partially a dream.

 

[Turn_BASED]

New DLC screenshots leaked let’s goooo

 

[Skinwalker]

Could never understand how anyone could say Bloodborne has a great story.

I don't think Bloodborne has a story, as such. The entire story happened before the protagonist awoke in Yosefka's clinic, now he's just mopping up the mess left by transhumanist cultists.

 

[Ezekiel]

Could never understand how anyone could say Bloodborne has a great story. It's just nonsense.

In Bloodborne's defense (which isn't something I ever thought I'd say), I don't think you're meant to take the plot, such as it is, completely literally. They're pretty upfront that events are at least partially a dream.

It's too visceral to be a dream. If you wanna make a dream game, don't pick action. That's like Christopher Nolan being so unimaginative that he just put guns in his dream movie, Inception.

 

[Silverfish]

It's too visceral to be a dream. If you wanna make a dream game, don't pick action.

Fair point, but parts of the game definitely run on dream logic. Especially some of the stuff surrounding Rom, like jumping into a river only to land on solid ground beneath or, after the fight, when the moon suddenly turns red and Yharnam is just standing there. Cainhurst has a bit as well, where once you arrive, the carriage you travelled in is knocked over, the horses that pulled it are dead and both are covered with enough snow that it looks like they've been that way for weeks. Depending on what ending you go for, the game can even bookend with imagery that fits the idea. You start on a bed and, in the wuss ending (where you don't fight Gherman or the Moon Presence), your character is seen waking up, albeit in a different location. The Moon Presence ending could be argued to fit as well, but more metaphorically than literally. Granted, this could be a simple case of reading too much into things, but without speculation the Souls stories don't have much to fall back on.

 

[Child of Malkav]

The only dream location in that game is the Hunter's dream, literally in the name.
The rest of the game takes place in a nightmare.
Until the end where you can choose to wake up. Or ascend.
Which means that the Great Ones use sleep and dreams/nightmares to select candidates, run experiments etc. If you wake up you can see a peaceful, normal looking city, probably asleep, trapped in the same nightmare.
People were probably put to sleep after getting blood transfusion that's supposedly some kind of cure or something, I don't remember.
But this is what I got after watching a playthrough back when the game came out.

 

[9ted6]

It's derivative Lovecraft shit either way.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Since some guys were saying they were looking for an ER sale, it's got a good discount on fanatical atm.

https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/elden-ring

 

[Anthedon]

Is there any DLC planned for this?

 

[Child of Malkav]

Is there any DLC planned for this?

Yeah, it's call Shadow of the Erdtree.

 

[Anthedon]

Alright, then my wait for the eventual Complete Edition™ resumes.

 

[Caim]

Is there any DLC planned for this?

It was announced last february. Here is all we know:

And that's it. As you can see, it is one large image which displays ambiguous things, so it's typical FromSoft stuff.