Destiny 2's Lightfall campaign has been mostly praised for its gameplay aspects, while its story has been disappointing, especially compared to last year's Witch Queen story campaign. The marketing for Lightfall hyped the story not only as the penultimate chapter in Destiny 2's Light and Darkness saga but as a darker war story ready to answer questions before its narrative conclusion in the Final Shape. Instead, these answers are now advertised to be shown during the forthcoming seasons as a "year-long campaign," which is a poor choice for significant story beats.

Destiny 2's seasonal model began during Year Two with the Forsaken story expansion, launching with Season Four, Season of the Outlaw, which also started the Annual Pass for access to all seasons under the current expansion. However, Year One content has retroactively been titled Seasons 1-3 (Red War, Curse of Osiris, and Warmind). Starting with Shadowkeep, the seasonal content continued the narrative threads of the central expansion's story, enhancing the plot and setting up aspects for the following Year's expansion.

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Lightfall's Seasons Shouldn't be the Place to Answer Major Story Beats

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While specific story beats have been explored through the seasonal model, such as Savathun disguising as Osiris and the exorcising of her Worm, the primary campaigns have typically provided a beginning, middle, and end to their respective story, using the seasonal model to enhance, flavor, and set up new content to come in further story expansions. Some questions may have been withheld, but the primary ones were answered in the campaign.

With the release of Lightfall, many fans and critics are underwhelmed with how little is answered in the main story, as many feel that the story of Destiny 2's Neomuna and the Veil is one giant MacGuffin that never gets a satisfactory explanation or resolution. Instead, Bungie released its TWAB a few days after Lightfall, claiming that it knows not much was answered in the story campaign. However, Bungie claims that the subsequent Seasons will be exciting for answering all players' questions about the Veil, the Witness, and its origins and goals.

This idea of a "year-long campaign" isn't a great design because it leaves the main Lightfall story lacking any significant answers and is confusing for players who don't or aren't able to participate in the seasonal content. This is especially true since the seasonal content is vaulted once the new Year and story expansion releases. Once Destiny 2's The Final Shape is released, new players or those who haven't played the corresponding Seasons will have no answers or context for these major revelations promised for Lightfall since the Seasons containing those answers will be gone.

Comparing The Witch Queen's Seasons to Bungie's Plan for Lightfall

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One can easily look at how The Witch Queen handled Year Five. The main story focused on the return of Mars and Savathun and her Throne World as a location to explore. Players learn that the Hive have Ghosts, which makes them believe the Witch Queen has stolen the Light. By the end of the story, it's revealed that Savathun was granted the Light by the Traveler and had been deceived by The Witness eons ago to serve the Darkness. The Witness, tired of the Traveler, decides it's time to bring salvation to the Sol System. This is a beginning, a middle, and an end.

The Witch Queen's Season of the Risen, launched simultaneously with the campaign, enhanced the main narrative by having players team with Destiny 2's Cabal Empress Caiatl and others to battle the Lucent Brood. The Season fleshed out the players' alliance with the Cabal, explores the Lucent Brood, and provides an arc for Crow. The remaining seasonal content fleshes out Calus becoming the Disciple of the Witness and Eramis seeking powerful relics while paving the way for the Witness to return and launch its attack.

This content is certainly engaging, and while it adds to the story and sets up story beats explored in Lightfall, they aren't necessary to figure out what is going on in Lightfall; the end of the Witch Queen campaign provided enough. However, with this not being the case throughout the main narrative of Lightfall, there will likely be a significant disconnect between Lightfall and the Final Shape for those who play Lightfall and move right to the final story in this saga.

Destiny 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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