Alex Garland's Elden Ring movie reportedly carries a hefty budget of almost $200 million, making it A24's most expensive movie ever – and it's not close.
The game’s story is in media res and you don’t just get spoon fed major themes. I’d say the most salient emergent theme is the foils of ambition. We see various characters struggle with the consequences of extreme ambition and power grabs, resulting in both the physical corruption of themselves and the world around them. Cyclical stagnation is also a major theme. We see that the world is stuck in a repeating loop of power struggles. Our player character witnesses this through fragmented interactions with other characters, the environment, and found items. Ultimately, we are asked to make choices that would involve the player character in the same corruption and cyclical fate that we witness throughout the game, or to choose alternative futures (all fairly bleak).
I could barely stand all the pretentious boring “mysterious” lore to play it all the way through one time.
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Oh yes? What is the theme or message of the work?
The game’s story is in media res and you don’t just get spoon fed major themes. I’d say the most salient emergent theme is the foils of ambition. We see various characters struggle with the consequences of extreme ambition and power grabs, resulting in both the physical corruption of themselves and the world around them. Cyclical stagnation is also a major theme. We see that the world is stuck in a repeating loop of power struggles. Our player character witnesses this through fragmented interactions with other characters, the environment, and found items. Ultimately, we are asked to make choices that would involve the player character in the same corruption and cyclical fate that we witness throughout the game, or to choose alternative futures (all fairly bleak).