Difficulty Following Action RPG Stories

I have been playing Last Epoch lately, and in all honesty I am enjoying it very much - it just feels great to have an army of skellies roaming with you causing mayhem to everything that has a red life bar. I plan to write about it in more detail once I complete the main storyline, which is taking a bit longer than expected as I have to juggle with taking care of the little ones too.

Now, I am not sure if I am alone in this, but I do find myself getting lost regularly in the storylines in most hack-and-slash action RPGs (ARPGs). Not just Last Epoch, but even other titles like Diablo (and its subsequent versions), Grim Dawn, Titan Quest etc.

It is like most of the time at the beginning I learn a bit about what is happening, get to know a few characters, and as the story progresses I know I need to whack the big bad guy, but suddenly I cannot seem to recall why is a certain NPC helping me or why a certain quest is required to reach the said big bad guy - I end up having to search online for a synopsis every now and then to read up again on who’s who, who’s whose friend, and why I am doing certain things.

It is really strange that this only happens to me for hack-and-slash ARPGs, whereas in other RPGs like Disgaea series or Shining Force series (back on the Sega MD when I was a kid), or even Yakuza Like a Dragon, I tend to remember what is going on pretty well and have a deeper impression of the characters.

I wonder is it because the nature of hack-and-slash ARPGs they make you more focused on skills and items that you tend to click through the conversations?

Or perhaps the design of the dialog boxes with just a static portrait just does not leave a deep impression in the brain?

Or perhaps I just have a really short attention span and am clicking through dialog boxes really fast?

Just really intriguing.

That said, Last Epoch does have a pretty interesting and entertaining story so far, and although I had to refer to summaries online a couple of times now, I am certainly impressed with the attention to small details the developers gave in the storyline.