Personally I’m really obsessed with the lore in Fire Emblem: Three Houses
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Kipo and the World of Wonderbeasts is entirely underrated in so many ways. Worldbuilding is one. Music is another.
I consider lore and worldbuilding to be related but different concepts. Lore is the details of your world, worldbuilding is the way you deliver those details.
My favorite example of worldbuilding is The Dark Crystal, both the film and series. The lore is standard fantasy stuff, but the intricacies of the world are so rich and they unfold so naturally. It felt like a real world, and I felt like very little of what I learned about that world was simply narrated to me. The world was built through tiny details, interactions and observations, throwaway lines of dialogue, and effectively so.
Dark Souls
I’ve never played any of the games, but the wikis have so much reading material I can stay engaged for hours.
It’s a universe populated by unfathomably evil undead beings. They farm humans for their flesh and their souls, and there is no chance humanity will ever free themselves.
It’s an incredibly dark setting, but it’s hauntingly beautiful. What kind of society would these creatures develop? Architecture, art, religion. Their civilization is an anathema to us but that’s why it’s so alien and captivating
Most recently, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, had great world building and character development.
You know, I’ve always liked the Avatar:TLA’s worldbuilding
Hell yeah. Just watched the series for the first time ever this year and absolutely loved it.
Delicious in Dungeon/Dungeon Meshi by Ryouko Kui.
It has wonderful world building introducing it slowly over time without info dumping, or better said, there is a nerd in the world info dumping on his friends, who don’t always appreciate it =D
Disco Elysium.
At first, I thought it was nothing more than a parody of Europe. But then I started talking to the corporation rep on the boat about the world you’re in and holy shit. It’s nuts how they give you all this insane exposition about how the world works, how physics are different, how there are literal swaths of VOID called The Pale that separate the isuldas and is described almost the same as how crossing space in Warhammer works. Like you need special tech and special protective suits to not lose your mind or be erased, and even then you want to limit your time in the pale. There are fantastical creatures that exist (you may even see one depending on how you play), incredible technologies, and even differences in real tech that become fantastical in the way they are different (like how they have something like the internet, but is dependant on using an actual phone to talk to an actual operator).
I am so dismayed at the fact there are like 3 or 4 Disco Elysium spiritual successors in development right now, but NONE OF THEM are actually going to be set in Elysium, because the world of Elysium would be amazing to continue to explore. 😮💨
The Expanse or First Law
I’ve never heard of First Law, but it being mentioned alongside the Expanse is reason enough for me to check it out
10/10 recommend. I’m 6/9 through the expanse and on 7/10 with Joe Abercrombie. (these are number of books, not ratings)
Joe’s books are great. After the first trilogy, it’s 3 stand-alone and a compilation of short stories. So if you don’t love his stuff (if you liked the expanse you will) you can be done after the First Law Trilogy
My lemmy username is directly related to the First Law Trilogy
He’s possibly my favorite character of any series. I’ve gone through all of the books 3 times.
Is probably say coal shivers. I kind feel like he’s ambercrombies favorite as well since he’s actually in all of them
I’d say the same. And he’s got so many good quotes, most (killin’ aside) relatable.
Logan Ninefingers (First Law) Amos Burton (Expanse) Wayne & Steris (Mistborn, Era 2)
I don’t think there’s another character I like more than these folks. Logan probably sits at the top though.
LotR - it’s really fucking hard to top especially when Tolkien was pioneering the field.
Dune is incredibly unique. Scifi without computers and genetic magic. All politics. The books are outstanding.
Caves of Qud was my first contact with post post-apocalypse. Can’t even begin to convey how strange and magical everything feels in that universe.
Caves of Qud is amazing.
The latter books are just weird with all the sexual imprinting and other weirdness which sounds more like written by a horny teenager than an adult.
His Dark Materials is worldbuilt very well, I also like ATLA for its worldbuilding, even if it’s a bit simplistic at times.
HDM for sure.
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is really solid, if limited. Not sure how similar it is to the non-advance version.
Call me boring but Randland (The Wheel of Time).
I read those books over and over again just to spend more time there. I still remember more details about the cultures, cities, and fashion in those books better than I could ever remember the plot. The magic and higher moral themes were very simplistic in comparison to other books but RJ really excelled at fleshing out a continent with diverse and unique peoples that made sense in that world.
The Elder Scrolls is probably the one I’ve had the most fun theory-crafting about, but I will admit that you have to pick and choose what to care about.
Also the old Wipeout racing games had a remarkable amount of background plot going on that was really pretty fun. The self-awareness to poke fun at Fusion’s poorly-received changes as being the in-universe result of megacorp meddling for mass market appeal gave me a good laugh, but you can piece together a surprising amount of the world from random references in team flavour text
What’s lovely about Elder Scrolls lore is it very much feels like you have to investigate or draw your own conclusions about things. Things can rarely be taken at face value since people and things in the world will contradict each other. At a surface level it sounds like there is no cohesion but even the bias itself can be revealing.
serious answer: Discworld. every storyline starts out completely separate but through the years they wove together into a world rushing headlong into a new age.
shitpost answer: ace attorney. eat your hamburgers, Apollo.
Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars series.
Just a breathtaking setting that begins with the first hundred settlers and traces the intrigue, terraforming, conflicts, and dreams of the colonists. It’s a sweeping epic written on a human scale.
