I have often likened Fromsoft and Bethesda in the way that while Bethesda outsources their bug fixing to the community, Fromsoft outsources their story to the community. In both cases the community adds more than there really is and acts like the developer earned the credit.
Well I'm currently playing Armored Core 6, and I gotta hand it to em, there's basically no story whatsoever. It's just giant robots. And it's pretty fantastic.
Bro, I cried for AC6's story. What insanity Handler Walter has to go through. And how can forget buddy. What more story do you need than two bros fucking over a tyrannical megacorp?
“FROM’s attention to world building and lore to tell the story is truly unmatched” - YouTuber in six hour long video about a bit of wall an intern level designer forgot to remove.
I like the games in spite of the dumb stuff like this. I fully recognize a lot of it is really bad design.
It is very frustrating though. Setting aside the silly NPC quests, it's so disappointing finding some cool looking item or spell only for it to be practically useless.
FromSoft is just min-maxing their game design build.
They put too many points into combat and level design that now all they can afford for story are some vague NPC ramblings and hints in item descriptions.
I progressed the story too fast in one direction and 3 different npcs died forever with zero warning. Then I played the DLC, went too far exploring, and something important randomly broke before I killed a single boss. I ended up halfway in multiple storylines I didn't know existed. Still a jolly good time but boy am I confused.
IMO ER is most fun when played full monke with a bonk stick, just taking in whatever happens - or full minmax so you get all the story stuff in proper order in one go.
Thank you for helping me understand what it's like to come at these games with weakness in my mind and piss running through my veins. Now excuse me, it's time to play Noita (I cannot sleep until I've been humiliated by weak enemies).
I prefer the Fiddlecrinkle's Glitter Missile spell anyway, it's fair and balanced and I killed all the bosses with it without them getting even close to me
And then you get a game like Brigadore where I actually spent in game money to unlock game lore. Absolutely no in game benefit, it was just that well written (imo) and I realised after a bit was hinting at good equipment combos.
Brigador is a great example of a game that does a whole lot of good world building with just portraits and quality writing. Blowing up civilians is also fun.
I love that a entire genre of the Internet is just shitting on things people like just cuz. How dare you enjoy your little slice of happiness in a world that's on fire lol.