The Final Shape is a steo into the unknown for fans of Destiny 2, given Bungie are finishing up the Light vs Darkness saga and entering into a new Episodes story model. We’ve been conditioned to the seasonal model for the last few years, so many Destiny 2 fans are slightly aprehensive as we move forward into the new era. Today I want to go onto the story details we know about so far about Episodes coming after The Final Shape’s story in Destiny 2.
Destiny 2 is isn’t ending after the The Final Shape, however, Bungie are going to change how they tell their stories. Instead of 4 seasons which continue the story throughout the year, we’re going to get 3 episodes which are more stand alone and self contained stories. While we don’t know all the details, we do know a few things which we can discuss today, these include story beats we can expect after we dispose of The Witness in Destiny 2’s The Final Shape.
Episode Echoes, Vex
The clearest clue to what to expect in Echoes was recently at the end of Season of the Wish, when we discovered the Ishtar Collective logo among the Vex Structures in the Starcrossed Exotic mission. It’s likely we’re going to meet the copies of the Ishtar Collective who found their way into the Black Garden, which could include Warlock Praedyth. Veil Containment spend much time in Season of the Deep explaining the history of Maya Sundaresh and Chioma Esi, two former Ishtar Collective members who founded Neomuna.
Maya went mad, downloaded her memories into Lakshmi-2, who would go onto found Future War Cult back on Earth. Given Echoes is Vex focused, it feels like a good time for Maya Sundaresh to return as the big bad of the Vex. Plus Asher Mir, our former Io vendor and mad scientist of Destiny 2, he’s been stuck in the Vex network since the arrival of the pyramid fleet, so expect Asher to play a role.
Episode Revenant, Scorn
We’ve had plenty of clues for this one, including finding out more about Fikrul and his power over a faction of the Scorn. Warlord’s Ruin gave us more detail about Fikrul, so if you want a preview go and check that out. The main detail to pick up some of the Scorn are related to the House of Kings, which can be directly related to Uldren Sov and what he was doing in Forsaken. Given that, it’s highly likely Crow and Fikrul are going to be the focal points of the story for Revenant, with Crow going further back into his past life as Uldren Sov.
Episode Heresy, Hive
This is the episode I am looking forward to the most. The Hive often present the best stories, as we’ve seen from The Taken King, Witch Queen and also Season of the Witch. Bungie have been doing a great job of building up Xivu Arath over the years since we took out Savathun in the Witch Queen epxansion, most notably in Season of the Deep through the Exotic Mission. We learnt more about Hive magic in Season of the Witch with Eris morn using her temporary Hive God powers to sever Xivu Arath’s connection to her Throne World, meaning Xivu is now in her most vunerable position she’s been in eons.
Just because Xivu’s not connected to her Throne World, that doesn’t mean she’s going to be a pushover. This is the god of war we’re talking about here, so even without her Throne World she’s going to be a tough opponent. Xivu is the final Hive God for us to take down in the trio of Oryx, Savathun and Xivu Arath. It’s highly likely Savathun has some role to play in The Final Shape and this Heresy Episode, to what extent we know really know yet, but she’s not likely to be happy about being resurrected and then immediately killed again by Eris Morn. Hopefully we’ll get more into the story of the Hive, why the Traveller chose them, plus I’d love to see a battle against Xivu Arath.
The Final Shape
Episodes are just one part of the puzzle with the upcoming year of content in Destiny 2, we also have The Final Shape coming too. This is going to be the end of the Light vs Darkness saga, but it does’t mean its going to be the end of Destiny 2, its just the start of a new story telling model. In the Final Shape campaign it’s likely we’re going to head inside the portal near the Traveller, and into the Pale Heart. This is going to be our new destination, plus we’ll meet Cayde-6 once again. I don’t think this is going to be Cayde-6 as we remember him, it’s going to be a vision of, or a version that can only exist inside the Traveller. That meeting between Crow and Cayde sure will be interesting, I only hope we’re there when they first set eyes on each other. A lot has changed in the last 6 years.
Once inside the Traveller, it looks like we’re going to take a trip down memory lane, through familiar locations from our 10 year journey like the original Tower, then we’re going to face off against The Witness and either take him out in the raid, or we’re going to injure him in the raid and then take him out in a 12 man activity post-The Final Shape raid. Episode Echoes, launches alongside The Final Shape, so expect to dive into that content either after the story with The Witness or perhaps it’ll be woven into the campaign as a nice handover.
Bungie did recently share some of their thinking related to seasons and why they are switching things up with episodes. Senior narrative designer Nikko Stevens spoke to Gamespot and said:
“When you create a framework for how content should be made, it makes it easier to produce that content quickly because everyone’s on the same page, but it can also be predictable because everyone’s on the same page,” he explained. “So injecting more variability into those frameworks is something that we’ve been talking about and learning about.”
“Those frameworks that we’re talking about are a survival skill for us, as developers who are on tight timelines….” Frank said. “We’ve identified that, and across disciplines, that that’s the main danger of them, that they become predictable. And we talk frequently about ‘surprises and delighters,’ it’s something that comes up as terminology and discussions about what we’re planning for surprises and delighters, making sure that we’ve covered that player expectation.”
Let me know in the comments what you think about the upcoming episodes in Destiny 2.