New players can be quickly overwhelmed by Elden Ring. However, this is often not due to the freedom of choice in the open world or the difficulty. Instead, the game’s lore leads to confusion. A player on Reddit believes that she is too stupid for Elden Ring.
What is the problem? Anyone who has ever played a Soulsborne game by FromSoftware knows: Narratively, the games are very vague. The story is told partly through cryptic monologues from various NPCs and partly through item descriptions.
Those who really want to understand everything must either delve deep into the subject and formulate their own theories about the storyline and the history of the world. Or a look (or two) at the respective wiki is enough. There, fans have compiled the community’s vast knowledge. To this day, players continually discover new details.
However, new players are not always aware of this problem, especially if Elden Ring is their first Souls game. In such a case, the lore can leave one feeling quite lost and can result in feeling really stupid. This is what happened to a player who turned to the Reddit community with her concerns.
A major DLC for Elden Ring is coming soon. Here you can see the trailer, which reveals more about the (likely still) confusing story:
Even the names of the characters are confusing
What does the player say? On Reddit, the user medli20 summarizes her experience with Elden Ring as follows:
“I am playing Elden Ring for the first time with my friend and I think I am too stupid for the game.”
To this, she posted a self-drawn cartoon. It shows two comic characters talking to an NPC from Elden Ring. The cryptic monologue leaves only confusion, and the main cause is the various names that players encounter in Elden Ring.
Godrick, Godfrey, Godwyn, Morgott, Mogh, Margit, Marika, Miquella, Malenia, Radagon, Radahn, Rykard, Ranni… are you already feeling dizzy?
In the game, initial letters often indicate belonging. Remembering all the names can become tricky, especially during the first playthrough.
What does the community say? What is frequently read in the comments can be summarized as follows: It is completely normal to be confused by the lore of the game. Most players also mean that during their first playthroughs, they understood very little content.
The user zaqqui writes: “During my first playthrough of the game, I literally paid no attention to the story. The world-building without a fixed narrative captivated me so much that I played for 400 hours.”
“In the first playthrough of any FromSoft game, everything that attacks me dies. After that, when I am interested enough, I learn the story and check how to complete the quests for the second playthrough. Don’t worry, the games are intentionally vague,” writes the user Thespac3c0w.
Many others feel the same way. One does not need to understand the story of Elden Ring to have fun with the game.
However, those who have the patience to read up will be rewarded with an extensive lore. YouTube channels like VaatiVidya can also help with this. For years, he has provided fans of FromSoftware with detailed explanatory videos about the lore of the games. On MeinMMO, you will also find a summary of Elden Ring’s story.
