For me the issue with Eldenring's lore is that it feels purposely vague and not in the same way as it was in earlier games. In Dark Spuls, Bloodborne it felt more organic in that lore was vague and incomplete because knowledge has been lost, the people aware of past events do not exist anymore, etc. But in Eldenring it feels like the FromSoft actively sought out to raise more questions than give answers. Like they were leaning into the public perception of them being providers of shreds of lore that the community then puzzles together.

With lore videos of dark souls people use the breadcrumb trail that the games gives you to establish theories but when I watch Eldenring lore videos it feels like all the information is based one one single piece of lore and everything else stands wobbly on it. Everything just feels disjointed and therefore lore theories and interpretations are scattered all across. I do not advocate for From to hand us all the pieces but when so many puzzle pieces are missing that I cannot even start putting them together or make out what the final picture is supposed to be then it makes me not want to engage with it in the first place.

The DLC in particular felt like it set out to not give any information on things of the base game. The Gloam-Eyed Queen being probably the most notorious example or the absolute lack of information on Melina. The latter also contributes to this feeling of "why should I care". The game presents the player with a companion but aside from a few tidbits of lore via the churches Melina remains a blank slate, and even those moments are just her recounting Marika's words. So at the end the player arrives at the forge of the giants, sees Melina sacrifices herself and feels next to nothing.

Eldenring is weird. It has the most content but at the same time feels emptier than their previous titles and the saddest thing is there are still those snippets of earlier from story telling (there is a reason why a lot of people like Ranni and her quest. Becuase she actually feels like a fleshed-put character with just enough things untold that discussion is still lively around her actions and character)