The Story Telling, World Building and Lore of Elden Ring is Significantly better than it was in Dark Souls.

Before I get into the meat of this topic, I must confess something. A grave confession that could get me into some serious hot water. I don’t think the story telling and lore of the Souls games has been particularly great. Before you get mad at me, I’m not saying it’s bad per say. I just don’t think it’s nearly as good as a lot of people say. I’ve always felt that it leaves a lot to be desired and could use a lot of improvement. It has it’s stand out moments, for example the dynamic between the player, Sif and Artorias is great. Especially with how the cutscene with Sif has two different versions depending on your progression. But more often than not, a lot of characters are pretty flat. Or don’t really have much connection to the game's narrative or the player's journey. 

I loved that in Sekiro characters had more meaningful motivations and were a lot more tied into the ongoing story of the game. You can understand where Genichiro is coming from, even if he is a total dick about it. Owl betrays everyone for power, but he has to go about it deceptively and you can follow his journey throughout the game. I love this stuff. But Sekiro isn’t a Souls game. It’s not an RPG. It has a more linear narrative so they could approach the story in a more structured way. But then Elden Ring said screw that, we’ll make it work. In recent interviews Miyazaki has said that there weren't any direct references from Sekiro in Elden Ring, except the story telling. Here’s what Miyazaki said about the subject, sourced from frontlinejp.net

“The interviewer comments on how they felt that Elden Ring was influenced by Sekiro to some degree, and Miyazaki says that he actually feels that there is not a lot of direct feedback from Sekiro, as the two titles were being worked on at the same time. As he was director on both games, though, there is of course some influence on each other.”

“That being said, Miyazaki thinks that dialogue from NPCs is more straightforward than before, and he says that this is because they are there to give the player meaning, directions, and clues in exploring the vast world. He thinks this could be an example of influence from Sekiro.”

And it shows. I couldn’t tell you how happy I was in my first playthrough of Elden Ring when I realized it was commonplace to have the option to actually ask NPCs questions. Imagine it, an RPG where you can actually talk to people to learn about the world! When Gideon let me ask him about all the main bosses, telling me what he knows about them and who they are I nearly climaxed. You might be thinking “But in the Souls games we could still learn about the bosses through item descriptions.” and while that’s true, let me explain why this is way better. By having this information conveyed through characters, it makes a more cohesive world, and much more interesting characters to boot. This is why the Round Table is so great in Elden Ring, more on that later. Also, the problem with item descriptions, you often don’t get the information until after you’ve already encountered and defeated the boss. Or you get the information in a very disconnected manner. In Elden Ring I was often able to predict what bosses I was about to fight before I even encountered them, simply by thinking about what I knew of the characters. It’s so much more rewarding to follow a story like that as it happens. Item descriptions have their place, and can be great to fill out information that wouldn’t naturally fit in a character's mouth. But it’s not a substitute for good characterization and narrative. 

So about that Round Table. To me the Round Table represents a big shift in how Elden Ring builds its world compared to Dark Souls. In Souls games characters have often given up before you’ve even met them. The themes often revolve around hopelessness and despair. Many Souls characters are already broken. And there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, it's a good way to marry the tone and game play together. A bleak and hopeless world fits a challenging game pretty well. But after so many games doing it for so many years, it can start to get a little played out. It also can be kind of a trap when trying to build a narrative. It’s hard to make a story where most of the characters have already given up on whatever they’re trying to do. So in Elden Ring, not only have the Tarnished not given up, they have a secret base where they plan their mission. And they know exactly what they’re supposed to accomplish and actively make strides towards achieving it. This got me so much more immersed in the world than I ever was in the Souls games. I suddenly felt such a stronger bond to these characters because I could more understand where they were coming from. (And it makes it all the more heartbreaking when something goes awry)

I could give more examples, but Elden Ring is still pretty fresh and I don’t want to put too many spoilers in this article. The best way to summarize my thoughts on this is that to me, this is just another example of FromSoftware continuing to improve and refine their craft. Now I just hope more NPCs tell me where they are going before they disappear forever.

-MajinSweet