7 Confusing Video Game Plots That Make More Sense Than You Think

Where Half-Life introduced environmental storytelling to video gaming, 2011's Dark Souls perfected it. Not only is the game known for its punishing difficulty, it's also commonly referred to as a game that “has no story”, or at the very least, has one which is totally optional.

Often people mistake this opaque form of storytelling for something extremely complex and obscure. This is likely due to the game's difficulty factor; if the game is hard, surely the story must be hard to understand, too. In reality, the narrative is pretty simple, and ties together a huge amount of the enemies, NPCS, bosses, and yes, even your endless deaths.

At the beginning of time there was nothing but huge, immortal dragons and massive 'Arch-trees'. This was the Age of Ancients. Then, from nowhere, fire appeared, creating disparity, like heat and cold and light and dark. A race of beings distinct of the dragons appeared, and found within the fire souls of great power. These people were Nito, the Witch of Izalith, Gwyn and the Furtive Pygmy. They harnessed the power of these souls (alongside some tips from dragon Seath, who betrayed his kind in exchange for knowledge) to overthrow the dragons, and the Age of Fire was begun.

Humanity developed and prospered, but when the First Flame began to dwindle it brought about the undead curse (hence all of the dying). Seeing the fire was fading, Gwyn sacrificed himself to keep the flame burning longer. By the time the player comes in, the fire is going out again, and the player can choose to succeed Gwyn by sacrificing themselves or snuffing out the flame to usher in a world of darkness. That's the vast majority of the plot right there, and rest is just a simple case of listening to NPCS and reading item descriptions.

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Are there any other supposedly complex game plots that can be easily explained? Let us know in the comments!