The debate about whether Elden Ring has a good narrative is once again sweeping social media thanks to its nomination in The Game Awards Best Narrative category. FromSoftware’s method of storytelling has been criticized as too opaque in the past. As such, some argue that Elden Ring has a bad or even no narrative. Of course, this is all subjective. However, after spending 150 hours with the game, I feel like I have a relatively good grip on its storytelling.
Is Elden Ring’s narrative good or bad?
We have to define the term to break down whether Elden Ring has a good or bad narrative.
According to Merriam-Webster, it can mean:
- Something that is narrated.
- The art or practice of narration
- The representation in art of an event or story or an example of such a representation.
So, basically, for our purposes, it’s both the story of the game and the way it tells it.
I’d argue that Elden Ring beats out every other game nominated for the Best Narrative category at The Game Awards 2022. The challenge people seem to have with it is that much of the story is already over by the time you get to The Lands Between.
The events that set Elden Ring into motion happened countless years before your Tarnished ever reached the shores of The Lands Between. Most of those that remain are incredibly hostile to you for various reasons. Unfortunately, there’s no one to spell out what happened because even the people that aren’t trying to kill you on sight are usually incredibly shady.
So, you’re on your own to figure things out. That means the narrative in Elden Ring doesn’t rely on traditional exposition for many of its details. You’ll get the basics through cutscenes, but you need to dive in, complete NPC quests, and read lore to fill in the blanks. Even after that, you’ll just have a bunch of pieces to a puzzle. You then have to put them together. But, as everything comes together, you start to see the stories within stories. All those bosses you kill have their motivation for trying to stop you, many of them tragic. You start to realize that maybe you’re not the knight in shining armor you thought you were.
Some people aren’t a big fan of storytelling that isn’t explicit, and that’s fine. However, I’ve thought more about Elden Ring’s story over the past week than I have God of War Ragnarok’s. The latter game has a wonderful narrative, but it only leaves you with a little to think about.
Again, whether Elden Ring’s narrative is good or not is entirely subjective. However, it’s a game that’s stuck with me, and I still find myself pondering over snippets of lore.
