The story in Elden Ring is terrible and ruins the game

A reader is frustrated with FromSoftware’s approach to storytelling and explains why he isn’t playing the new release Shadow Of The Erdtree.

Shadow Of The Erdtree came out this week and I’m not sure if I’m going to pick it up. It’s gotten great reviews and I definitely enjoyed parts of Elden Ring, but I also found other parts extremely annoying, namely the storytelling. I have no idea what was going on in the game and from talking to others it’s clear I’m not the only one. It’s so bad that it’s put me off playing other From games and the DLC.

For those who don’t know, there are barely any cutscenes or plot in Elden Ring. There’s an introduction that’s basically a fantasy world word salad and some character dialogue, but none of it has any context and you have to figure out what’s going on by reading item descriptions of all things.

However, these still don’t make it clear and after reading about how dedicated the fanbase is, I started reading wikis and watching YouTube videos. As interesting as all of this was, there is still no real consensus on what is going on and everything is described as “possibly significant this” or “maybe significant that”.

What bothers me is that it’s not even really clear what the Elden Ring is. And not only that, it’s not even presented as a secret or amazing revelation, it’s just this ambiguous magical object that can do… things.

Why you want to be the Elden Lord is never explained, who you are, it’s never even made clear what a “Tarnished” is. I find this frustrating, but what’s worse is that it’s information the character you’re playing would know. It’s not a mystery to them, only to you, the player. Other things in the game are a mystery, of course, but not the basics of what’s going on and what your mission is.

It gets even worse when you try to do some of the side quests. You might as well make up your own story because it wouldn’t make any difference. I’ve read through the supposed explanations but I’m none the wiser and have no idea how they come to some of their conclusions.

Of course, it doesn’t affect the gameplay, and I’m not someone who demands complex stories in all of my games. If it’s a pure action game, I don’t want to have to keep stopping for 10 minute long cutscenes. But Elden Ring isn’t like that. There’s some really complex lore there, but the game doesn’t explain any of it, and it’s all so muddled that I’m not convinced it makes sense even to the developers.

I completed Elden Ring, but just as I expected, the ending explained nothing and the pride I felt after defeating the final boss was quickly tarnished by not knowing what the hell I had just done and why.

The way I see it, the DLC is about a character that barely appears in the first game and is perhaps a prequel? And it seems like it will retroactively change things by adding even more characters? I’m not really sure and to be honest, I’m not sure I really care either.

I don’t want to spend another 60 hours playing through a game only to understand less of what’s going on than when I started. Nobody wants to be spoon fed information like a fool, but if you take it too far in the other direction, the whole thing becomes meaningless nonsense in my opinion.

By reader Gadfly

Reader contributions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of GameCentral or Metro.

You can always submit your own reader contribution of 500-600 words and if you use it it will be published next weekend. Just contact us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk or use our Submit a Contribution page. No need to email.

MORE: Elden Ring hits huge sales milestone ahead of Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC

MORE: The story trailer for Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree explains nothing – just as you would expect

MORE: Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC will be released in June – first trailer now available

This website is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.