Summary
Destiny 2’s Lightfall era was likely the most anticipated an expansion and its accompanying seasons have ever been for Bungie’s looter-shooter, and a good part of that hype was coming from the incredible success of the stories told with The Witch Queen as well as its gameplay. The Final Shape and its seasons were a big question mark, however, asLightfall was received poorlyas an expansion due to narrative hiccups that the seasonal loop for Season of Defiance couldn’t really help fix. As such, the general consensus was that being cautiously optimistic about The Final Shape was the best play, but things might have changed for the better with Bungie’s confirmed plans - although some burning questions remain.
The main issue with Lightfall was that its story was divided into a whole year, so instead of delivering answers straight away, Bungie’s approach was to have Year 6 seasons do that.Season of the Deep’s cutscene about The Witness, the many lore drops via Veil Containment, and the general storyline helped Lightfall’s reputation a whole lot, and they fixed many wrongs. However, the main concern was thatDestiny 2’s The Final Shape would go on to repeat the same mistakes as Lightfall, but today’s TWID confirms it won’t.
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Destiny 2’s Final Shape Could Face Issues With Cayde-6, New Location, and Seasons
Bungie’s statement answered player concerns by stating that The Final Shape will concludeDestiny 2’s Light and Darkness sagaalongside its Raid, which is a massive piece of news. As it stands, The Final Shape will not rely on its seasons at all to end the story that started 10 years ago, and that seemingly includes Season 24, which will likely be dealing with the aftermath of the final confrontation with The Witness. This is a first for the game, and while it is good news, it also poses some questions.
Typically,Destiny 2expansions include new characters and locations that play a major role in the release itself, and then still offer more content throughout the seasons - sometimes even years later.Cayde-6 is coming back in The Final Shapeas per the reveal trailer, and his return will likely have a major impact on the storyline for quite some time given the implications of it. However, with Cayde-6 likely being a vendor for the upcoming expansion, there’s a chance that his appearance will remain grounded within the confines of the new locations, whatever it may be.
This is often the case for other NPCs, such as Fynch from The Witch Queen, but those same locations also get post-launch content tied to the overarching story and the expansion as a whole. This time around, The Final Shape’s story will be a self-contained environment where players can witness the end of the Light and Darkness saga all within the campaign and the Raid launching just a few days later. As such, Bungie is in the unique position of having to introduce a newDestiny 2location that will be especially meaningful for a very short span of time, and Cayde-6 could pay the price in collateral damage.
Similarly, for the first time ever, theseasons forDestiny 2’s The Final Shapewill be disjointed from the main story - or at least, they won’t be strictly connected given the nature of the saga coming to an end. This will make a lot of room for more self-contained stories that could prove to be a double-edged sword for Bungie given that the drive of experiencing them is no longer tied to the main events in the series, or just partly. It’s still likely that seasons will offer new content that is enticing narrative-wise, possibly foreshadowing future expansions and directions for the franchise, but this and other questions remain.
Destiny 2is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
