Elden Ring has been released for the past two years on various gaming platforms and quickly won the hearts of the gaming community. Director Hidetaka Miyazaki and his team worked tirelessly to get this Soulslike project up and running and those years of hard work and sacrifices have paid off immensely. However, in classic Miyazaki fashion, some fans still wonder about certain aspects like the history behind certain characters.
Certain characters like Melina remain a mystery and after releasing a massive story expansion called the Shadow of the Erdtree, fans hoped it would have had answers for them. Nevertheless, the franchise is still a huge success and some might argue that the mysterious nature of characters like Melina is a major factor.
The Game Developers Behind Elden Ring Is Still Playing Coy About the History of Melina
The developers of FromSoftware are experts in crafting great stories about things larger than life like demigods and gods. However, some fans have noticed a pattern in how the writers work on the plot of each Soulslike project. It always ends up with the main character defeating a powerful foe or ascending to a higher form of existence like becoming a god.
Director Hidetaka Miyazaki must have realized that if the formula wasn’t broken, it didn’t need fixing and continued to do his great work in Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree. However, the director decided to spice up the game development process by enlisting the help of renowned author Goerge R. R. Martin, the man behind A Song of Ice and Fire which was adapted into the Game of Thrones, the famous HBO series, to pen the story and build the world. Rather than focusing on the intense gameplay and combat first like Miyazaki traditionally would do, the story of Elden Ring takes a major step forward thanks to Martin’s contributions.
In the game, the Tarnished will encounter a mysterious character named Melina and to this day, even after the massive Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, her origins remain a mystery. While she is considered one of the most useful NPCs in the game that can help a player from a gameplay perspective, it would be nice to know where she came from and what drives her. Melina allies with the Tarnished in Elden Ring and acts as a guide hoping to discover her true purpose while the players continue their journey.
The gaming community searched every crevice in the game to find a potential link to Melina’s origins but all their efforts were rendered useless since no one could find anything. Melina couldn’t recall the purpose imbued to her at birth and thought it would be best to make herself useful to guide those who know what they are and what they are striving for like the Tarnished becoming the Elden Lord. While the character has no malicious intent in Elden Ring, it would have made a much smoother experience to know what she truly is and what she wanted.
Melina’s Unanswered Background and Origins Became a Massive Headscratcher for Elden Ring Fans
The Tarnished could never be pushed off the main path because of the Guiding Grace and it often directs him to fight other beings it is being guided like Godfrey. The player base realized that the Guiding Grace was pitting them against one another which is cold and clever at the same time. Unlike the Guiding Grace who wouldn’t mind seeing which character reigns victorious, Melina is there to assist and aid the Tarnished in any way she can.
Director Hidetaka Miyazaki is not a fan of sequels but made a massive expansion par with the base game stocked with new content. Unfortunately, Miyazaki explained that Shadow of the Erdtree is the only expansion for Elden Ring because he doesn’t want the gaming community to wait years for new story content and to make the transition much smoother and offer a seamless gaming experience. Perhaps the roots of Melina will forever remain a mystery which can be good and bad for hardcore gamers.
Melina is a helpful spirit with her uses to the Tarnished and while it might be good to know her origins, the game developers must have done this intentionally. It is not a bad idea to leave some questions unanswered, especially since it will likely cause chatter amongst the gaming community as they try to unravel her origins by digging through information and lore. Director Hidetaka Miyazaki is an expert in game development and knows well how the player base will react to the lack of information.
FromSoftware has introduced plenty of great and mysterious characters in previous Soulslike installments in the past; however, Melina is a cut above the rest. The gaming community should learn to accept the possibility of the developers failing to address their roots in Elden Ring and learn to move on and keep her a mystery, especially since there are no plans to do more content after the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion.
What are your thoughts about Melina and the lack of exposition on her end in Elden Ring? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
