You can have dark fantasy with actual characters and plot and world building though. I don’t know how you can ever believe anyone’s motivation or develop any emotional response to any of the characters in elden ring (jar bairn probably gets closest for me). It feels as if no two NPCs ever actually interact. A world where noone can die so they’re willing to eternally throw themselves at anything that moves isn’t very compelling/believable. It’s basically just grimdark skinned super Mario world: level, boss, onto the next one. Which is fine for what it is, but if you prefer story driven/RPG gaming you wouldn’t miss much by skipping it.
You can have dark fantasy with actual characters and plot and world building though. I don’t know how you can ever believe anyone’s motivation or develop any emotional response to any of the characters in elden ring (jar bairn probably gets closest for me). It feels as if no two NPCs ever actually interact. A world where noone can die so they’re willing to eternally throw themselves at anything that moves isn’t very compelling/believable. It’s basically just grimdark skinned super Mario world: level, boss, onto the next one. Which is fine for what it is, but if you prefer story driven/RPG gaming you wouldn’t miss much by skipping it.