Destiny 2's Seasonal Storytelling Is Getting Good. Is That A Bad Thing?

mar 21 2022 (edited oct 1 2022)

Destiny 2, Bungie's looter shooter action MMO, has always been a game that relies heavily on FOMO— the fear of missing out. With weekly rotating items in the microtransaction store, vendors having daily or weekly rotating stock, and the very nature of leveling being tied to weekly drops, the game heavily incentivizes playing weekly or even daily to get the most out of it. The introduction of seasonal content only worsened this FOMO, with players being even more incentivized to unlock all 100 levels on the season pass before the season is over.

The game has also had a rocky history with storytelling. Destiny 2 is an oddball when it comes to writing; historically, it has had amazing and intricate lore, but a poor to average in-game story. It used to be that the seasonal content was no different— interesting lore, but an in-game story that amounted to nothing more than "do activity and talk to a certain person every week." Interesting things would happen, like the pyramid ships arriving on certain planets, or live events like the Traveler becoming whole again and the Almighty crashing into the Earth, but very rarely would there be a compelling linear seasonal storyline. You weren't logging in at the weekly reset to see what was going to happen this week, but because you had to, to grind power levels.

Season of the Hunt (Season 12) started to change this, with the introduction of Destiny's most hated character, Uldren, being rezzed as a guardian and finally showing up in-game. For the first time, people were slightly interested in what was going on in the story, in seeing what the Crow (formerly Uldren) would do. However, Bungie didn't really do enough with this; Crow was present, but there was still not really an overarching story that was actively moving forward. You did busywork every week until suddenly at the end the story moved forward because it had to.

Season of the Chosen (Season 13) kind of had the same feeling; it was an interesting concept, with poor execution. The issue with this season, in my opinion, was that the story was getting there (it did feel like we were getting closer to an alliance with the Cabal every week) but the story didn't feel meaningful or impactful because it didn't have an impact on characters and their viewpoints. Some people like Crow were always sympathetic towards the Cabal, and some people like Saladin were always antagonistic towards them. Some people felt like they never changed mindsets at all, even when it made sense for them to, and some people like Amanda Holliday abruptly changed their minds about the Cabal when it felt like there was still no reason for them to.

Season of the Splicer (Season 14) was Bungie's first foray into truly good seasonal storytelling. There was a concrete, easy to follow plot that still had nuance. Fan favorite characters like Saint-14 and Mithrax were developed and rounded out, and players didn't have to go to third party lore logging sites to see it; they got to see it in-game with their own eyes. The introduction of allied Eliksni was something new and exciting, and the continued subtle implications that something was wrong with Osiris kept the season intriguing. Splicer was a season where it really felt like afterwards you could explain the plot and the impact it had on the characters, something you couldn't really do for other seasons without diving into lore.

Season of the Lost (Season 15) could've easily been a failure, but the strong storyline kept it holding strong. Witch Queen being delayed meant that this was a five-month long season (when most Destiny seasons are around three). Don't get me wrong, the delay definitely impacted the quality of the story negatively— the middle of the season really dragged, and the final mission ended up feeling anticlimactic to a lot of players because of how long and drawn out the season was. However, most feedback seems to state that Bungie continued the streak of having good, nuanced, in-game story connected to the seasonal activity.

It was a season that had a story that was developed visually in-game every week, and felt meaningful because of the impact it had on the characters. Mara Sov was a character that was written with surprising nuance; Mara is not a very good or pleasant person, and the game doesn't shy away from that while also showing how she really does regret how she treated Uldren and wants to make amends with Crow.

I also like how they wrote Savathun this season; she's the big bad of Witch Queen, but a shadowy and mysterious figure for most Destiny players. The only thing most people knew about Savathun was that when things go wrong, it's probably her fault. This season did a great job of establishing her as a powerful villain and letting us learn more about her while still building suspense. Despite being trapped in a crystal for the whole season, she still had an impact on the seasonal plot in a negative way. The season had a concrete and describable plot that also had a tangible impact on the characters who were involved with it; that's good storytelling.

As I write this, Season of the Risen (Season 16) isn't quite over yet, but it looks like the story is mostly wrapped up. They knocked it out of the park again, with some people calling the seasonal story the best one ever. Normally, seasons that launch alongside expansions tend to be weaker, since the developers put most of their time and energy into developing the main expansion (see Season of the Undying with Shadowkeep), but Risen didn't feel like an afterthought. This season did for the Cabal what Splicer did for the Eliskni. For the first time, the Cabal are being developed and treated as worthwhile allies, and it really did make sense for certain characters to change their opinions as the plot went on. Like Splicer and Lost, it was a simple plot with a lot of nuance. It wasn't just that X Character is bad and X Characters are good, but that many characters did both good and bad things. Crow, Caiatl, and Saladin all really grew as characters this season, and it was right in front of players' eyes.

So, alongside Witch Queen, I feel confident in saying that Bungie has finally figured out how to actually tell a good story in-game. Each season and campaign gets better and better, and when I think of what seasons were like back during Season of Arrivals (Season 11) in 2020, I can tell that Bungie has done some serious work behind the scenes in codifying what they think a season should really be. I think they've made serious strides, and I applaud them for finding a storytelling method that works.

But it's bittersweet. It makes me a little sad just because of the nature of seasonal content— it's just that, seasonal, and it will go away. Sure, Bungie keeps up seasonal challenges and activities and the weekly story mission for a season or two before removing them from the game, but they still get removed. A player who is just now beginning to play with Witch Queen can't experience some of the best storytelling the game has to offer. They can't experience Saint-14 and Mithrax becoming friends and growing as characters. They can't experience Crow's intense mental anguish at learning his mentor is an imposter and everything he knows is a lie. And players six months or a year from now won't be able to experience Crow's continued mental health struggles, Saladin's character development, or Caiatl's growing respect for guardians.

Sure, players can go to YouTube and watch the cutscenes, but it's not really the same as personally experiencing it, and that's sad. Bungie has done a good job crafting interesting and meaningful stories that will then just be removed from the game later, which kind of feels like a microcosm of what the full game is like. While I understand that content vaulting is necessary so that they can keep adding to the game, that doesn't mean I have to really like it. It was one thing when mediocre campaigns like Red War were being vaulted, but there's some good storytelling in the game now that I don't want to go away.

I think that FOMO will always be part of Destiny 2 as a live service video game, but there are some serious drawbacks to how bad it is now. It's already a daunting game to get into because of how big it is, and how are people ever going to be able to get into it when the best parts of the game are constantly being taken away from them? I don't have a solution and I know it's probably way more complicated than I'm making it seem, and I really do have a lot of respect for the developers for doing what they can to keep the game going. At the same time, I feel for the seasonal designers and narrative team who keep seeing their work vanish into the ether.

If they're going to be continuing to produce high quality seasonal content, they need a robust archival system of removed content that can be accessed in-game. This need has only become more and more apparent with the recent wave of copyright strikes on Destiny archival YouTube channels. I know this was a mistake that Bungie themselves didn't do, and that they're going to be fixing it, but there's a reason why there was so much outcry over this in the first place; these are necessary channels for new and returning players.

Overall, I don't think we should go back to having disappointingly meaningless storytelling; just that Bungie needs to be doing a better job at preserving the meaningful story they do put in the game and not letting it be lost to the corridors of time.

Edit 9/29: As of Lightfall, Bungie have announced that they will no longer be vaulting expansions, only seasonal content. This is good, but only makes the problem I'm talking about even worse. The expansions are there, but the in-betweens of how we got to that expansion are not. Witch Queen is a great expansion and worth playing, and new or returning players might be interested in playing it. But a lot of people will become daunted by how much has been removed from the game and how much context they no longer have access to.