I’ve got a long week behind me, so I’m really looking forward to some gaming. I’ve recently picked up TUNIC, which I will likely be continuing - having lots of fun with it. The mix between a Zelda-like with some Dark Souls sprinkled in makes for a really interesting combination. The lore being told through the instruction manual makes for a really interesting approach to storytelling, seeing it all unravel in real-time and all the mental puzzle pieces falling into place.
Speaking of lore, should FromSoft make their lore more approachable? It’s been memed on to death that FS’s lore is notoriously hard to parse if you don’t have a PhD in Soulsology or are super attentive to every minute detail the game presents to you.
To me, it sometimes feels a little too cryptic. Don’t get me wrong - I love FS games for their environmental storytelling and the mystery surrounding most happenings. But sometimes I just prefer to have it laid out before me and not be that difficult to understand. I feel like having a Wiki or a YouTube video open to even understand the basics of the story can feel a little silly sometimes. But I’d be lying if I said I don’t enjoy all the different interpretations to the lore that leaves us with.
Take the story of Bloodborne, for example. There are so many video essays discussing all the numerous theories surrounding the game (Visceral Femininity by Honey Bat is fucking amazing) that recontextualise the story in such an enriching way that any game with more direct storytelling just can’t ever achieve.
However, a mix of direct and indirect storytelling is still awesome too. Sekiro is one of the few FromSoft games that, more or less, tells you exactly what is happening and why - it’s easy to follow along. Nevertheless, since it’s rooted in Japanese folklore and culture, a lot of bits are unspoken and left to the player to make sense of, so video essayists and lore enjoyers have something to chew on to.
What’s your take on this? Do you ever get frustrated with the “read a random item description” approach to lore?
I actually like how FS did quests in Elden Ring. I think, they did quests way better than in Dark Souls. They have so many redundancy and quests can easily progress if you missed apart - most people don’t encounter Alexander at every location and many still complete his quest. Most NPC are also near the path you would usually take through the area and are not (very) out of the way. Also many quests are interconnected - Ranni’s quest is connected to like half the questlines, but you don’t have to do the other questlines to do Ranni’s quest - you just get pointed in the direction; you get given a reason to go somewhere, to care about something and this I find more satisfying than a quest marker. I like that in Elden Ring there is only Grace and the markers that you set yourself.
In Lies of P the markers are quite nice, since LoP is super linear and you really don’t have a reason to go back other than to the hub. I would have liked it, if they only added the marker after the chapter if I had missed it and not during the current chapter, but that’s just personal preference.
You are correct with the redundancy observation and I don’t even know how my suggestion could be implemented in ER without doing like a quest log or something of the like, as that would feel super out of place.
Personally, I can live with fucking up of losing track of a quest, I think: I’ll get to it next time and eventually figure it out if I care enough. But there are a lot of missable tidbits and the world is really big; for someone that won’t replay the game (or us forgetful folk) an optional hint could be nice. But I guess a guide is also search away as well XD… Ok, I yield :P (I just dislike using guides)