Elden Ring’s story can be very difficult to get a grasp on. The game follows the traditional FromSoftware approach to story design with very little about the game's world ever being fully explained to the player. Instead, the lore of the game is found and pieced together through item descriptions, character dialogue, and environmental design. An Elden Ring player could very easily finish the game without ever really having an idea of what the story was.
Like with other FromSoftware games such as Dark Souls, most of what could be considered the game’s main story happens before the game even begins, and the player is left to piece together the timeline of events. But as hard as Elden Ring’s story is to understand in the first place, it can be even harder to explain to someone else. The story is a complex web of similar sounding character names and intersecting relationships in Elden Ring.
It can be difficult to put all the important information about the story into words. Many videos online that try to explain the story go on for 30 minutes or more. It is all the more impressive, then, that an Elden Ring fan on TikTok has managed to compress all the necessary information about the game's plot into an under three-minute video. Uploaded by kittyfdavies on TikTok, the video is not only an excellent explanation of the events only vaguely described in the game’s opening cutscene, but it is also the perfect size to send to a friend as an express explanation of the lore to get them interested in playing the game.
The video does contain what could be seen as spoilers for the game’s side quests along with information the player is only meant to piece together while playing the game. However, the story context holds very little weight while playing through the game, as player experience is more focused on exploring Elden Ring's world and defeating the many difficult bosses found within it. Having an understanding of the game's lore and characters while playing the game may even enhance a player's experience with Elden Ring rather than having to piece the story together retrospectively.
Viewing kittyfdavies’ other TikTok videos reveals additional succinct videos with insights and lore explanations about Elden Ring. These include the story of the game’s infamous Caelid area and a suspicious detail noticed about George R.R. Martin’s naming conventions for Elden Ring characters, though the author has since denied the rumor.
Elden Ring is a game brimming with subtle story details not immediately noticed by players who aren't looking for it. This game lore is also left open to the player interpretation, such as how two distinct Elden Ring characters are actually the same being, for example.
Elden Ring is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.