The end is nigh for Destiny 2 Season 22, as Season of The Witch brings the latest story installment to an end. Many Destiny 2 players are preparing for the arrival of The Final Shape, but before then, Season 22’s seasonal story concludes on a strange note – leaving key developments out of gameplay for the Season of the Witch ending.
As The Final Shape release date draws closer, Destiny 2 Season 22’s seasonal story ends with a whimper for players, as they can’t actually play through Season 22’s climatic moments. Despite its reputation as one of the best multiplayer games around, the action takes place within a cutscene and – the most important detail – even occurs off-screen.
In these final moments, Savathun is revived and killed by Eris Morn, who then absorbs her essence to become arguably the most powerful Hive. Destiny 2 lore fanatics will note how there doesn’t appear to be anything about Xivu Arath – Season 22’s main antagonist – in this final cutscene. Instead, players are given a recap by Eris shortly after the cutscene, where she reveals some major story details that seemingly occur between the final cutscene and the interaction with Eris. Here, she’ll reveal that she, somehow, severed Xivu Arath’s connection to her throne world, rendering her vulnerable.
Not only that, but Savathun is revived again, only to flee and leave her Ghost, Immaru, behind. In effect, the key story moment we’ve all been waiting for happened in the background, with players only being filled in on the events afterward. The absence of this villain in the playable narrative is likely to raise some eyebrows. Even though Bungie does dress some story revelations up in cinematic cutscene and dialogue interactions, other information, crucial details are rolled out through the game’s lore book. Furthermore, the reception to this approach is catching the attention of fans, with Destiny enthusiast ‘Lorcan0c’ explaining that it is “genuinely bizarre that the cutscene ends abruptly and then there’s an entire missing scene that you have to go read about in a lore book.”
Furthermore, they focus their criticism on Destiny 2’s storytelling methodology: “Literally the oldest criticism of Destiny storytelling is ‘I shouldn’t have to read these text entries to get the whole story’, and we’re STILL doing this?”
Alongside their complaints, Forbes journalist Paul Tassi is among those showing mixed thoughts on Season 22’s ending. “[It was a] fun fight, but that was not quite the seasonal ending I expected really, really important things happening offscreen? why?” Tassi says. You can check out the ending below for yourself, courtesy of ‘Esoterickk’.
“What’s the lore reason for the guardian having to read a lore book to figure out what they said two minutes ago?” adds Redditor ‘guy153840‘. It is a strange decision to absorb important story beats outside dedicated cutscenes, but the strive from Bungie toward episodic content could be the salvation Destiny 2 players are after regarding this issue.
In a Destiny 2 showcase recap earlier this year, Bungie clarifies that “episodes are a big shake-up to the actual content delivery for Destiny 2. Instead of four Seasons, next year you will get three larger, content-packed Episodes named Echoes, Revenant, and Heresy.”
These episodes will bring attention to “the consequences and the aftermath of The Final Shape.” Will these episodes tackle the matter of Xivu Arath? Or will she feature in a dungeon next season? Perhaps she is a villain after The Final Shape, but that remains to be seen. Regardless, Destiny 2 still manages to join the ranks of the best FPS games out there when its storytelling and action soar, we just hope The Final Shape delivers the goods.
Until then, you can get stuck into PvP battles with this excellent Destiny 2 Warlock build or Destiny 2 Titan build, ensuring you’ll come out victorious. Or if those aren’t your style, you can’t go wrong with this superb Destiny 2 Hunter build.