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George R. R. Martin wrote Elden Ring. Remember?

Did you remember George R. R. Martin was behind Elden Ring's story?

  • I've totally forgot. The story is nothing special. Same old tricks.

    Votes: 105 56.8%

  • Yes, I can see his hand writing all over the game. Story stands out from all other Soulsborne games.

    Votes: 21 11.4%

  • THE LORE

    Votes: 59 31.9%
  • Total voters
    185
.Pennywise

.Pennywise

Banned
So... Does anybody remember this? When first announced, all the fuzz around and whatnot. A FromSoft game with the gameplay of the Souls franchise, but this time with an actual story from one of the most recognized and beloved writers in these contemporary times! Yay!

Because, I've totally forgot. Elden Ring is just a little (LITTLEEE) notch above Souls no-story-but-THE-LORE franchise.

So... What was the point in stapling Martin's name in the game?
 
I wonder how much of the lore he had a hand in, really.


[this game's lore ain't got shit on Bloodborne though]
 
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He said he helped them build the world and write some of the history of the land. The story and probably all the characters are written by From Software.

https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2021/12/18/long-long-ago/

what they wanted from me was just a bit of worldbuilding: a deep, dark, resonant world to serve as a foundation for the game they planned to create. And as it happens, I love creating worlds and writing imaginary history.
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Edit: source
 
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.Pennywise said:
So... What was the point in stapling Martin's name in the game?
Click to expand...
Hype? Yep. Definitely hype.

hype train GIF


This very thread is the confirmation that good old trick of celeb promotion works despite what we might think about such tactics.
 
GRRM is responsible for the stuttering I bet. They brought him into the studio and he kept saying how we was "something of an amateur game developer himself" and he kept exaggerating his prowess and they were like "okay we're putting you in charge of performance and optimization" and then just left him in a room with three other guys, his new subordinates. So he just flew by the seat of his pants, it was basically like this:

 
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I don't think people understand. I put this in the other thread, but as Miyazaki said, Martin wrote all of the history/mythology of the world of Elden Ring. The Golden Order in their prime, the ages, etc. Then FROM took that and weaved the current story and twisted the setting for the present time.

"When Martin wrote these characters, and when he provided that origin story, that mythos for the world of Elden Ring, these demigods were much closer to their original form, and maybe closer to human form back then, before the Shattering, before it all started," explains Miyazaki in the interview.

The Shattering is an event in Elden Ring's pre-game history. The game's location, The Lands Between, was once a kingdom blessed by the titular ring, and the Erdtree at its centre. However, a war known as The Shattering saw the ring broken, and the land's inhabitants transformed.

"So it was more up to us to interpret this and say, 'how did they become such inhuman monsters," continued Miyazaki. "And how did the mad taint of the shattered shards of the Elden Ring and its power affect them?' So that was our job to take these grand heroes and sort of misshape them and distort them into something they were not."

"And I think if we get a chance to show Martin and if he gets a chance to see the game and see these characters, I think he might be a bit shocked. When he wrote them, he was really envisioning something a little bit more human, a little bit more traditional human drama and fantasy characters. So I hope he gets a kick out of that."

www.ign.com

Elden Ring Director Thinks George R.R. Martin Might Be 'Shocked' By What He's Done to His Characters - IGN

Elden Ring Hidetaka Miyazaki says that George R.R. Martin may be shocked with what he has done with a number of the characters that the Game of Thrones writer created for the game.
www.ign.com www.ign.com
 
i keep asking well hows the story in a 10/10 game and people tell me story doesnt matter in a souls game yet they go out of their way to get George Martin. So tell me shouldnt it matter?
 
Seems like a bit of a copy of the silmarillion honestly but I'm still near the beginning. Its not a great story so far and the vagueness of it isn't really that fun. Not seeing a lot of item lore or memorable early npcs. Weakest intro in any FS game.
 
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Same theme/dialogue of every From game to date, I don't think GRRM had anything to do other than find ANOTHER FUCKING EXCUSE FOR NOT FINISHING HIS BOOKS.

At this point my feeling on GRRM is a ending worse than one of his characters, he's a sellout has been who failed his biggest project.
 
I think the issue is -- despite how great Elden Ring is -- that From Software keeps jumping from IP to IP just to tell the same paper thin, obscure, riddly-rhymey story.

So, at some point, why turn to George RR Martin to help build a world for Elden Ring if they're just going to default to the same narratively bland and unmotivating storytelling?

Is it a deal-breaker? No. But, it IS disappointing.
 
Ribi said:
i keep asking well hows the story in a 10/10 game and people tell me story doesnt matter in a souls game yet they go out of their way to get George Martin. So tell me shouldnt it matter?
Click to expand...
story doesn't matter in general in videogames, it's a little bit of seasoning and that's about it
 
.Pennywise said:
So... Does anybody remember this? When first announced, all the fuzz around and whatnot. A FromSoft game with the gameplay of the Souls franchise, but this time with an actual story from one of the most recognized and beloved writers in these contemporary times! Yay!

Because, I've totally forgot. Elden Ring is just a little (LITTLEEE) notch above Souls no-story-but-THE-LORE franchise.

So... What was the point in stapling Martin's name in the game?
Click to expand...

GRRM wrote the world-book of the game (likely just a few notes, at most a couple of days worth of his time), a world that this story is taken from. Who knows what kind of notes he prepped that served as the basis for the game.

. . .also his name is nowhere to be found in game so far.
 
I'm not reading any dialogue, as I don't really care. The story these games tell me are always uninteresting. The lore is boring. I'm here for gameplay as always. I was asked what was the point of these games and I replied it was to explore and kill strong enemies. That's all I care.
 
Reznor said:
I think the issue is -- despite how great Elden Ring is -- that From Software keeps jumping from IP to IP just to tell the same paper thin, obscure, riddly-rhymey story.

So, at some point, why turn to George RR Martin to help build a world for Elden Ring if they're just going to default to the same narratively bland and unmotivating storytelling?

Is it a deal-breaker? No. But, it IS disappointing.
Click to expand...

I love it. People are ok with Zelda or Castlevania being the same thing different day for their own reasons. I love Miyazaki's style and will be here for all versions of this story. I hope he keeps it going.
 
All they did was change blood/ash/demons/flame/kindling to tarnished, ringed, gold, fingers

And no, it's' not disappointing because who cares about stories in these games?
 
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Swift_Star said:
I'm not reading any dialogue, as I don't really care. The story these games tell me are always uninteresting. The lore is boring. I'm here for gameplay as always. I was asked what was the point of these games and I replied it was to explore and kill strong enemies. That's all I care.
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Don't think too hard about all of this. Just go out and kill a few beasts.
 
He just sat around on his ass for a year or so simply avoiding making any progress on the the novels. It's been 11 years since the last one and something like 16 since the cliffhangers from the one before that.
 
Denton said:
He met with Myiazaki for lunch and gave him one page treatment, if that. Pure marketing.
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False. In an interview (youtube, look it up) he confirmed it was a real project of doing the world building for the game. I believe he described his work as "fairly detailed".
 
The story for Souls has a weird cult following and sorting through tons of stupid shit just to get a basic idea of whats happening. People so adamantly defend it's shitty form of story telling, fuck that tell me a story like any other game, I don't want to sift through wikis just to get a story.

People that play Dark Souls games for story are the same that read playboy for the articles.
 
You could create a soulsborne story generator and this would be one of the stories it created

Another one would probably be about dragons. Scaled one, Wings of Fate, Dragonsborne, collect fangs
 
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SJRB said:
I wonder how much of the lore he had a hand in, really.


[this game's lore ain't got shit on Bloodborne though]
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Probably a majority. Miyazaki lore building is average to mediocre. Outside of Bloodborne. The lore was still pretty basic.
 
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Look and feel has GRRM all over the place to me. You can tell there's a hand outside of From guiding the art and story.
 
I never really give a fuck about the "stories" in these games because they are non existent.

You'll get an opening cutscene, and closing cutscene, and the rest is "read the item descriptions".

Story could have been written by Jesus for all its worth.
 
bitbydeath said:
It's From's first foray into designing an open world, George probably helped lay out the design to keep it tight.
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Second foray actually. The previous attempt was to be an open world King's Field, as Sony wanted an Oblivion Killer for the PS3, but From couldn't get anything to work, the project got handed to Miyazaki, and the scope of the project changed, this became Demon's Souls.

But yeah, Miyazaki was very clear in his 2019 interview with IGN that Martin did the worldbuilding.
 
It's nothing out of line for From Software imo. I guess I can see some of him in the world building but it doesn't seem like anything From wouldn't have made themselves so I wonder how much was marketing.
 
His work doesn't show at all and he was used specifically for marketing & some vague notion of worldbuilding. Souls stories are literally cookie cutter at this point. Bonfires, an excuse to come back to life after death, a level-up bitch, and runes i mean uh echoes i mean uh souls.

Game itself is really darn good. I'm just lolling at the environmental storytelling meme. The best parts of the story will be told to me by some random youtuber a couple years (weeks?) down the road who makes a lore video that gives context to the random bullshit I do in the game.
 
To be honest i don't see any part of Elden Ring that Martin made like it all FromSoft to me what did Martin even do i see nothing of his work in Elden Ring.
 
don't think he wrote the story but helped them come up with what the story was about and maybe some lore.

from software games have rarely been about the story. you're dropped in and given a goal (become elden lord, link the flame, find pale blood, etc). the story isn't in your face. you might get the odd cutscene of someone talking and saying shit that doesn't make sense. most of the story is told through talking to NPCs or reading descriptions of items. it's all over the place and the game leaves it to you to piece it all together.

were people really expecting a story heavy game?
 
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