If someone were to take a census of Destiny 2 players to find out which year of the game has been the best so far, many would likely point to Year 4. Year 4 of Destiny 2 kicked off with the Beyond Light expansion and retained a lot of its momentum throughout the year. A large part of this comes from the way its different seasons played out, with many fans deeply enjoying the time they spent playing Destiny 2 during Season of the Chosen and Season of the Splicer, in particular. While each season brought something with it, Season of the Lost stands out from the others for a multitude of different reasons.

Season of the Lost is the final season leading into the next expansion, The Witch Queen, and did a lot to contribute to that story. Season of the Lost sets up The Witch Queen in key ways, and the way the season started was enticing. The in-fighting of the Darkness’ juggernauts reached humanity’s doorstep, and to save a beloved friend and comrade, difficult decisions had to be made. While it was one of the most dramatic seasons of Destiny 2, it was also one of the longest seasons of Destiny 2, in more ways than one.

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Changing the Release of Season of the Lost

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Time-wise, Season of the Lost took far longer than most seasons. This stems from the delay of The Witch Queen, an expansion that was originally slated to release at the end of 2021. The delay of The Witch Queen into 2022 was probably inevitable given the global pandemic, and was probably the better option. Developers need time to develop, and the world came to a screeching halt for several months. There was no great way to proceed, but the delay of The Witch Queen was probably the best way for Destiny 2 to move forward.

As a result of this, Season of the Lost had a larger gap of plot to fill than anticipated. This was lessened some by the Bungie 30th Anniversary event in Destiny 2, but not enough. In the end, Season of the Lost came down to a story that was largely wrapped up in the initial expected amount of time, but the final mission of Season of the Lost was then separated and pushed to just before the release of The Witch Queen. This makes sense, as the final mission of Season of the Lost is critical to how The Witch Queen will kick off. Keeping the knowledge and emotions that players have in the last moments of the season fresh for the expansion also has benefits for storytelling.

The rest of Season of the Lost, however, could have benefited from being spread out differently. Rather than have a large swath of time between the last mission in Season of the Lost and the rest of the season, every quest could have been moved around accordingly. Not every player would have been a fan of this method, as it would have increased the amount of time between each chapter that Season of the Lost had, but it also would have helped the season as a whole. Much of the time players spent in Destiny 2 leading up to the end of this season was essentially waiting for the inevitable.

There were only a couple of significant outcomes that players could think of involving Season of the Lost. While Osiris’ fate in Destiny 2 is uncertain throughout the season, what would happen to him, Savathun, Crow, and the others involved in Season of the Lost wasn’t likely to be a huge twist of fate. As a result, even though many fans couldn’t wait to experience the finale, the mission itself suffered because Season of the Lost wasn’t able to maintain its momentum as time passed.

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Destiny 2 Season 15 Events

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There’s no denying that reorganizing how Season of the Lost was released provides its own set of obstacles. Getting Ager’s Scepter in Destiny 2 helped to flesh out some lore in Season of the Lost, and its arrival to Destiny 2 would likely have been delayed, had Season 15 been spread out differently. As difficult of a decision as this would have been, it isn’t the best reason to have Season of the Lost’s story primarily unfold over one stretch of time and then have players wait for the last mission for so long.

Another contributing factor besides Ager’s Scepter could have played into this. The Bungie 30th Anniversary Event and Anniversary Pack brought with them a lot of new content. The Dares of Eternity game mode was added, along with the Grasp of Avarice dungeon, which made it possible to get Gjallarhorn in Destiny 2. This provided a buffer in December for the game to fall back on, but the lack of major story content associated with them meant that Destiny 2 players were quickly refocused on when they would be able to experience more of Season of the Lost’s story.

This time also saw the return of Destiny 2’s The Dawning holiday event, but it suffers from the same problems that the Bungie Anniversary Event had. Despite there being returning weapons, as well as new rolls, there was still no solid story content. While the loot aspect of Destiny 2 is a major part of its appeal to many players, the story that the game tells is equally important. Without the continuation of Season of the Lost’s story and better pacing over the weeks and months, it was easy to feel like there was a lack of content.

This is all largely behind Destiny 2 now, as Season 16 will kick off soon and The Witch Queen expansion releases next week, but it should be considered if similar situations arise in the future. The large content gap at the end of Season of the Lost was noticeable and feels like something that could have been avoided. If content drops had been scheduled in a manner that was more gradual or consistent with their spacing the big finale to Season of the Lost could have felt even grander.

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

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