Story Structure: What went wrong (Destiny)

by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Saturday, September 27, 2014, 16:48 (3951 days ago) @ Cody Miller

Well, two things:

1. As it stands I am disappointed in Destiny's story. The core narrative (killing the dark heart of the Black Garden) was both short and its relevance was not well explained. In point two below I'm going to argue that having a lot of thread is not bad in itself because it opens the door to lots of great possibilities... except... I can't play any of those now. As of right now I am dissappointed. Surely there is a place on the good-bad range of game storytelling where you can leave your audience wanting more without disappointing them (too much) in the short term! Mass Effect too had many subplots, but it had enough content and cutscenes and endings along the way that it felt satisfying even as several story threads carried from game to game.

2. On the other hand, Destiny's universe is very cool. Bring in the Grimoire and consider all the subplots that are going on and there's just a ton of potential and possibility to be built upon. For instance:

- Rasputin, our most powerful Warmind waged a losing war against The Darkness, but then (maybe) abandoned the war and let Humanity die and The Traveler get badly hurt all so he could save himself. In game we have now seen him take over a powerful communications array and a system in the Clovis Bray tower that was said to connect to the Mars Warmind. It seems likely Mars isn't the only place he will expand to. - Great possibilities there.

- The Hive, we learn in game, were not just content on the Moon, but have actually been launching Seeders toward the Earth for centuries. We can see some of the results in the Grotto section of Old Russia. They might have a significant presence waiting on Earth! Waiting for what? Crota. It's made very obvious in game and in Grimoire that Crota is coming back. He drove us from the Moon with a sword... now he'll have a huge army and underground fortifications on our home turf. - Great possibilities there.

- The two Fallen houses that we have encountered so far have been decimated. I think both the House of Devils and the House of Winter have both lost their Archon Priest and their High Servitor. That's the two top branches of their leaderships. Additionally, the Queen of the Reef killed the House of Wolves Archon and is currently in command of that house. In the past, the various Fallen houses combined their forces and attacked at Twilight Gap. Interestingly, all the Grimoire stuff points to that battle as basically a loss for The City. Yeah, The City was saved, but at far too high a cost. The Fallen have serious problems right now. Might they overcome them by joining forces again? The Speaker mumbles that the Queen of the Reef is a fool to think she can control the House of Wolves. - Great possibilities there.

- The Cabal supposedly have a lot of power in reserve. Perhaps enough to be a threat to the entire system once they get worked up about their losses at Mars. They also seem to be the most reasonable of the races. They have not been offensively hostile towards The City as far as we know. Maybe they can be reasoned with? Maybe they'll blow up Mars? It's said they will go through mountains or even planets that are in their way. - Great possibilities there.

- The Vex span many star systems, can convert planets into giant machines within days, and have just lost the thing they worship. They worshiped it because the darkness at the heart of The Black Garden because it demonstrated great power that they couldn't understand. Now, The City, through us, has demonstrated greater power. What will the Vex do?! - Great possibilities there.

- The Traveler was starting to glow in the final cutscene. The things we did seem to have a positive effect on it. Is it waking up? If so will it help The City? Will it be a major part of our defense? Offense? Or will it flee or disagree with what we are doing? The Traveler no longer being silent is a very big deal. - Great possibilities there.

- The Awoken seem to have moved from isolationism to sending an emissary to The City based on our actions. They seem to know things about the Light/Dark conflict we don't know. They might have a space fleet too, if only cobbled together from all the dead ships in the area. Will they chose a side? Will it be ours? What about their running battles against The Fallen? - Great possibilities there.

- The factions of The City play a very minor role so far, but some of what their people say is interesting. Dead Orbit is building a fleet to leave the solar system. New Monarchy wants to find a king for The City. If Bungie took up those threads and pulled them to the front they might be very interesting. - Great possibilities there.

All of these things are related to the survival of humanity and the war between Light and Dark. If all these lines are extended and eventually cross over each other then Destiny could be very epic indeed. Unfortunately, the disappointing execution so far makes questions about the future of Destiny's story far more legitimate than questions about Halo's story, even if we just look at Destiny 1 vs Halo 1. :(