Popular Souls YouTuber VaatiVidya has just released his official official Elden Ring tutorial video.
The worldbuilding of Elden Ring, as anyone familiar with the work of Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R.R. Martin might expect, is convoluted, sprawling, and layered. The Lands Between is somewhat similar to other FromSoftware worlds like Lordran in that it is long past its prime and descending into madness, but the open-world structure of Elden Ring means that The Lands Between is given much more room to develop and branch in different directions. Elden Ring's lore is also more about familial ties and factions than Dark Souls or Bloodborne, which takes after traditional fantasy structures-- at least when it comes to antagonists and protagonists. The size of the game also means that there are more characters to keep track of, with several Elden Ring NPCs having deep backstories for the player to uncover and dissect.
All this depth can certainly be daunting, which is why VaatiVidya has graced the Elden Ring community with a thirty-minute video that explains and analyzes the game's lore. Throughout the video, VaatiVidya utilizes clips from Elden Ring that help illustrate his points. He also will occasionally reference other FromSoftware games like Bloodborne to explain certain concepts. The video is helpfully broken up into sections, so viewers can skip around if they only want clarification for specific points or areas of Elden Ring's story.
Just like most FromSoftware games, Elden Ring's depth and complexity are matched by its vagueness; it can be difficult for players who aren't willing to read every item description and speak with every NPC to understand the particulars of the story and the history of The Lands Between, so VaatiVidya's dissection is surely a godsend for many fans.
Of course, this vagueness means there are multiple ways to interpret Elden Ring's lore, so while VaatiVidya may have spent more time scouring the game's world than most, there can still be alternative theories and analyses. Even if not everyone will agree on all the points he makes, anyone interested in the world-building of Elden Ring should give VaatiVidya's lore exploration video a watch.
Source: VaatiVidya/YouTube
