I think it's more that there's no lore category so if ER was going to get an award for the world elements then it has to be in this category. It's like how VNs are put alongside games despite most of them have no gameplay.
General Gaming News.
- Thread starter BrawlMan
- Start date
Zullie the Witch 19 hours ago -
With FromSoftware games, there's very little filler text. People who are used to ignoring item descriptions or small talk with NPCs because it's typically inane chatter in other games may find themselves at a loss when the main storyline is assuming you've been paying attention to everything like that. For instance, you only get a handful of lines from Godrick himself, but the entirety of Stormveil Castle has been introducing you to him and letting you learn what he's like, so by the time you actually meet him, you shouldn't need much more. If you were expecting a villain monologue in a cutscene where he'd lay it all out for you, you might end up feeling like the game didn't give you any story for him at all.
The problem with saying this is "best narrative" is that it relies too much on player interpretation and piecing the puzzle together. Which means the player can put the lore together incorrectly and misunderstand a story entirely. There is some merit to letting the player assume certain events happen their own way, but this usually means your story is so full of holes that the player has to fill in the blanks themselves.
It would be like an adlib book winning a best book award.
Imo ER's lore/narrative/story whatever is poorly told and too disjointed to be considered best anything. Now it is cool in concept, as a lot of fromsoft games. But their stories are not good. A bad story presented in a cool way is still a bad story.
For example, bloodborne's concept is awesome. People discovering aliens and becoming monsters by experimenting with their blood is really cool. Getting turned into a squidbaby and having your sexdoll raise you is really dumb.
This is also not just a problem with games, surprisingly enough. I'm currently struggling a bit with how I want to write my story, with details and information being revealed organically, and writing it in a way, that I consider and have been told is, bad writing, where information is more front loaded so readers aren't confused.
I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that there's no good way to do it. I either risk no one giving it a chance because of confusion or people criticizing it for not letting them figure things out.
There are couple ways you can handle it. Im happy to provide help if you want to dm me your story setting and where you are struggling.
There isn't. The only thing you can do is find the least bad way to do it for your story.
That's not a bug, its a feature. Miyazaki talked about why his story are like this and it's very much intended.
I'm not really struggling right now. It's just me anticipating issues down the line. I know what I want to write, and while I want to write how I want and not compromise, there is still wiggle room for some changes here and there that I'm okay with and so it's more about figuring out the small things... or something. I'll think about it.
Who said I agreed with them? Mobile gaming ain't my thing any way. You tell that to them.
I’d really like to hear how The Game Awards’ defines the category, since “FOR OUTSTANDING STORYTELLING AND NARRATIVE DEVELOPMENT IN A GAME.” doesn’t help explain how or why a game like Elden Ring is included. We are led to assume it must be a catch-all term. Something more specific like “Best Lore” or “Best Presentation” might make more sense for a game. Elden Ring and God of War: Ragnarok respectively pretty much have god tier levels of those aspects.
The funny thing about lore though is like investigative journalism, one could ultimately put together a literal narrative from it that more closely resembles the definition most people expect, or can more readily relate to. That’s kind of what Vaati Vidya’s made a career out of doing.
Wanting to be thorough, this is what he constructed before making that video -
So, when we as players think of anything story-related in games, it’s important to consider that that all of this detail had to first be devised and written into the game in some form. In think the form is where people can have the biggest disconnect, because the fact that it can be deciphered and presented in a more traditional sense can help make the case that it is worthy of consideration.
I would also point out that a rich history and huge amount of lore, doesn't mean it's good either. The Wheel of Time has a ridiculous amount of lore built into the world and Jordan wrote shitloads of stuff that all happens before (and after) the books. And it's all fucking pointless gobbly-gook. It was a commendable amount of work and detail and whatever but it serves no purpose to the story since a lot of that lore is backstory to a random bard singing a song in book 2 or whatever. All that effort could have been just....finishing the series maybe?
Dark Souls lore is much the same way. It's cool and it's neat if you want to go around piecing it together, but it's also completely irrelevant to the game and the player most of the fucking time. And when you are trying to award a game with best anything, then that anything had better been a part of what made the game come together. And Fromsoft ain't got it. To me, Fromsoft is so committed to difficulty that they want it to be hard to understand what the fuck is going on too. "We are making this game so hard, it'll even be hard to read the story because we are going to cut it into a billion pieces and shatter it randomly around the game!"
Whatever floats people’s boats, basically. A lot of the fiction that influenced Dark Souls is delirious in its own right. Miyazaki just put his own spin on it, and it must’ve worked since people are still dissecting and discussing the shit out of everything FROM does.
I was very surprised by this though -
Elden Ring got more YouTube views at launch than GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 combined
60-day comparisons show Elden Ring was one of the biggest launches ever on YouTube
www.gamesradar.com
For whatever reason, the intrigue keeps growing. I’m sure GRRM’s involvement didn’t hurt though either. I think it has to do with a general sense of humans beings’ fascination of the unknown, and wanting answers, searching for meaning, etc. Even if it’s just wild fiction. Apparently the wilder the better in some cases.
Apparently someone got tired of waiting for Advance Wars remake(which STILL doesn't have a release date) and decided to make their own.
www.nintendolife.com
playwarside.com
And while I'm no expert, it looks like they didn't bother to even file the serial numbers off and I'm kinda surprised they aren't getting sued. Also, it's gonna be on STEAM(and Switch) to boot, which already gives it a leg up on the AW remake which is only coming to Switch....someday.
Anyone want to bet if it will be out before the actual AW remake, since Nintendo is apparently still scared of a cartoon war game coming out in the midst of a conflict that's close to a year old at this point?
Advance Wars-Style Kickstarter Project Warside Targeting 2023 Switch Release
Dev feels it can "evolve" the turn-based tactical genre
www.nintendolife.com
Warside
Choose your Commander, assemble your forces, and battle your way to victory.
playwarside.com
And while I'm no expert, it looks like they didn't bother to even file the serial numbers off and I'm kinda surprised they aren't getting sued. Also, it's gonna be on STEAM(and Switch) to boot, which already gives it a leg up on the AW remake which is only coming to Switch....someday.
Anyone want to bet if it will be out before the actual AW remake, since Nintendo is apparently still scared of a cartoon war game coming out in the midst of a conflict that's close to a year old at this point?
Last edited:
Looks at Warside...
Okay, seriously, how the heck isn't this grounds for a lawsuit? The sprites, the aesthetics, it's practically identical.
Yeah, still silly, but there you go.
Okay, seriously, how the heck isn't this grounds for a lawsuit? The sprites, the aesthetics, it's practically identical.
While I agree it's silly, I'll point out that the first Advance Wars game does involve not!Russia launching an unprovoked assault on its neighbor across the border, so...
Yeah, still silly, but there you go.
People gave Capcom shit for announcing Rashid for Street Fighter V on the fourteenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Nintendo has Disney-levels of aversion to controversy.
Which is weird, because Nintendo didn't have a problem releasing these games during the entire "The War on Terror" era. What makes this so special? Nor did Capcom have getting a brief stab at it in RE4.
Last edited:
Is this the thread where we're gabbing about the game awards nominations I guess? Ok here's my reactions:
The GOTY nominations are five sequels and a not-really-a-game. Yes, I'm counting Elden Ring as a sequel to Dark Souls, and Stray just looks like not much of an actual game. I am absolutely loving Ragnarok right now but honestly it is just more of the previous. I defend Horizon but, you know, same. I don't play Xenoblade so I don't know if 3 is different enough from the previous to grant it merit for originality.
I'm not saying sequels shouldn't be "game of the year," I'm just saying it's a little disappointing that it's like ALL sequels, and at least 4 of the sequels are just refinements over previous iterations. Yes they are the 4 games I've played- I don't claim to be an adventurous gamer.
As for the narrative thing with Elden Ring- I think it's a silly category so it's fine with me that a game like ER is a nominee. But I suspect it's nominated just because it's THE THING this year with critics and they have to nominate it for everything, and this is just another category. I do agree with the idea that "narrative" shouldn't just be contained to cinematic linear stories with spoken dialogue.
That said, I do hope Ragnarok wins this one. Sure, it is that splashy cinematic story thing. But I am really impressed in how it's weaving its plot, themes, gameplay and level design to effectively tell both the direct story and surrounding context. Most importantly, I have experienced emotional beats that tie closely with combat moments- this is where the "narrative" is effective, it's not just the good cut scenes it's how it all ties together.
I love Plague Tale but it doesn't quite do that, that narrative is carried pretty much exclusively by the cinematics and voice acting IMO.
The GOTY nominations are five sequels and a not-really-a-game. Yes, I'm counting Elden Ring as a sequel to Dark Souls, and Stray just looks like not much of an actual game. I am absolutely loving Ragnarok right now but honestly it is just more of the previous. I defend Horizon but, you know, same. I don't play Xenoblade so I don't know if 3 is different enough from the previous to grant it merit for originality.
I'm not saying sequels shouldn't be "game of the year," I'm just saying it's a little disappointing that it's like ALL sequels, and at least 4 of the sequels are just refinements over previous iterations. Yes they are the 4 games I've played- I don't claim to be an adventurous gamer.
As for the narrative thing with Elden Ring- I think it's a silly category so it's fine with me that a game like ER is a nominee. But I suspect it's nominated just because it's THE THING this year with critics and they have to nominate it for everything, and this is just another category. I do agree with the idea that "narrative" shouldn't just be contained to cinematic linear stories with spoken dialogue.
That said, I do hope Ragnarok wins this one. Sure, it is that splashy cinematic story thing. But I am really impressed in how it's weaving its plot, themes, gameplay and level design to effectively tell both the direct story and surrounding context. Most importantly, I have experienced emotional beats that tie closely with combat moments- this is where the "narrative" is effective, it's not just the good cut scenes it's how it all ties together.
I love Plague Tale but it doesn't quite do that, that narrative is carried pretty much exclusively by the cinematics and voice acting IMO.