Destiny’s Storytelling is “The Final Shape”
Over the past few decades, video games have changed from being simple slugfests between 2 pixelated characters or which insanely designed car is the fastest to become a medium that is easily comparable to even exceeding what film & Television can accomplish regardless of funding. Many titles such as The Last of Us, Bioshock, Horizon Zero Dawn, etc. have kept their focus on not only great gameplay mechanics and stunning visuals but a narrative that is equally engaging, immersive, cinematic, and evolving. This is what leads to the focus at hand, The narrative of Destiny from the beginning to the end in The Final Shape.
Eyes up Guardians.
Bungie is no stranger to creating a narrative-focused franchise of video games. The original Halo series was one of Bungie’s greatest successes when it comes to creating a narrative that evolves with each passing moment, each interaction with other characters, each location visited, and every battle hard-fought. This is what most video game studios aimed to replicate with varying degrees of success. With the inception of Bungie’s new IP, Destiny, the studio decided [publicly] that this would be a story told over the next decade. This was not an overestimation in the slightest.
The Start of a New Light
The original Destiny came out in September of 2013 with moderate ratings, but this was just the beginning. The story was laid out and the players were none the wiser about it. The start of this cosmic journey of Light vs Darkness was foretold to us in one of the opening cutscenes of the game. This line was said to players by the character known as The Speaker. “I could tell of the great battle centuries ago. How The Traveler was crippled. I could tell you of the power of The Darkness, its ancient enemy.” These lines that did not hold much weight or importance to them at the time have drastically changed how gamers view the story of Destiny now and how they view it looking to the future of the franchise.
Destiny has shown that a vast amount of its story is told through the lore that can be found/unlocked through various means in-game such as interacting with objects in the open world, completing quests/missions, flavor texts on weapons, and armor, and by just playing the game. These lore entries come in the form of books that can be unlocked either chapter by chapter each week, unlocked all at once by completing Triumphs [objectives]. These lore entries coupled with the visually stunning cutscenes are what make Destiny the one-of-a-kind story-telling-focused game that exists today. The line from the article Video Games Change the Way We Experience Stories written by Calvin Coffee, “Video games give you the freedom to enjoy immersive and interactive stories and play them in the way that you want. You go from a passive observer to being actively involved at the epicenter of the stories when you experience and interact with them.” To further drive this point, In the 2019 article, How Cinematic Narratives took over Gaming’s Biggest Convention written by Josh Chesler, Josh speaks on the rise of video games with strong narratives that aren’t for every studio. Josh makes mention of how different narrative-driven games such as Uncharted and Bioshock have changed video game history with not only their memorable characters and gameplay but on how the story was delivered and deviates from (at the time) norm for how video games are usually designed.
Destiny has taken this formula on a story from its predecessors such as Halo and has changed it to be its own brand-new entity. Each year, a new expansion is added to Destiny where players get a larger chunk of the story to dive into. This was overhauled in the sequel, Destiny 2 where on top of yearly expansions, players received Seasons every 3 or so months that add more depth to the gameplay and more importantly the story. These seasons tell their seemingly own story separate from the main storyline as they can branch into smaller storylines but always double back to the main story beat and push it further. This complex form of storytelling is akin to how Star Wars has its own anthology with various movies, tv shows, video games, and more.
A Tale of Light & Darkness
As many know, Destiny is a game centered around characters known as Guardians that have been gifted the power of The Light and must fend off alien races that wield The Darkness to save humanity from extinction. This story has branched into something more than just Light vs Dark, Black and White. It has become grayer as time went on, as the story unfolded and has altered gamer’s perception of what is right and wrong, what is true or false. This is like how most novels and even some movies will have the audience question their own morality. This is very different from how some games such as the ad for mentioned Bioshock or Infamous, where your choices/actions altered the outcome of the ending and world of the game.
Literature, mostly novels, has accomplished this feat numerous times throughout history. In the article published in the Wall Street Journal via Venture Beat; Video Games are Literature’s new Frontier written by Michael Zimm, Zimm notes “Literature teases out the grayness of our world by putting their audience in situations that elude our moral intuition’s urge to see black and white contours. Story-driven video games are accomplishing the same feat.” This rings true as Destiny proves this time and time again with its expansive yearly and season story progression. In the latest story expansion, The Witch Queen, we learn more about the background of The Darkness such as key figures in the power hierarchy, the gift of The Light was also meant to be given to the hive (a race of aliens that have been enemies of humanity for centuries) and that humanity must walk the very thin line of Light and Dark as the universe’s much grayer than it was before.
The Destiny community has been baffled and mind-blown about these recent revelations of the story. Such notable members of the community are EvanF1997, Sweaticle, MyelinGames, and Marshix. When asked about the story of Destiny from the start until now, Current story and seasonal story and what they hope the future holds for Destiny’s story, EvanF1997 had this to say:
When asked, Sweaticle replied:
Myelin had this to say:
Here, Marshix gives his thoughts:
Other than big names in the Destiny community, a player by the name of Abel gave his 2 cents on the story:
“I would say the story is pretty good actually. Once you get into the details of the story and the backgrounds of the characters, it's very compelling. There's so much lore that has been added throughout the years that it's become this very rich world with so much to explore. And with each expansion, they've added twists that keep you coming back. If I have one gripe with Destiny's story since the beginning, is that I wish more of it were included in-game. Lore books do a nice enough job filling in the gaps, but it would be great to experience some of the events we've only read about, firsthand, or through cutscenes.”
“I'm hoping to see some expansion (pun not intended) upon certain elements in the story. A little more on the Brays would be nice. We learned in Beyond Light that Clovis Bray, whom we'd heard of all throughout Destiny, was none other than our very own blacksmith Banshee-44. To me, that was an awesome reveal that I'd like to see explored a little bit more. In the "Past is prologue" teaser for future DLCs we heard Elisabeth Bray speak as the LightFall DLC flashes on the screen. That gives me some hope that we'll see more of that story fleshed out. “
A Bright Future Shines in the Dark
With how expansive and deep the narrative for Destiny has become over the past 7 years, it is no stretch of the imagination that it will branch into more cinematic outlets such as Tv and film. Recently, Bungie was acquired by Sony, and this gives the independent stupid the funding to take Destiny and reach for the stars with where the franchise can go. According to Sony CFO Hiroki Toyoki in an article published by IGN written by Joe Skrebels, “Bungie want to nurture the IP they have in a multi-dimensional manner, and that’s their hope. For that, we believe we can help that.” This is huge as not only does this help Bungie get their vision and story of Destiny to reach more than just gamers but can help pioneer video games successfully becoming movies.
In Video Games Will Soon Be Hollywood’s Next Great IP War Brandon Katz speaks about video games becoming more cinematic with their storytelling and this will cause Hollywood to create more material for movie studios to use over books and comics alike. Katz goes on to state “There’s little doubt that on a long enough timeline, it’s simply a matter of trial and error until the first true blockbuster gaming-based adaption hit the big and small screens. The video game IP library is massive and, unlike comic books, keeps reinvigorating itself at an astonishing rate.” That statement holds a great deal regarding Destiny’s story as it keeps being added to each season (every 3 months) and each year in a major way. This is something that Abel touched upon during an interview, he goes on to state: “I think some online games can benefit from that format. If anything, it's improved Destiny so far and it keeps players engaged with the game. Each season brings something new, and it makes for fewer lulls in gameplay when a player has done most of what there is to do in the game. Games like Rare's “Sea of Thieves” have found renewed success by adopting a similar format. By releasing content gradually, the game stays fresh and maintains players' engagement and anticipation for what's to come. So yes, I think the evolving long-term narrative is something that more online games should adopt.” This is a great point as most games are not a live-service type of game and although it shouldn’t be the new standard for gaming, it is safe to say that it should be a niche style of game design to keep it fresh and worth the time and emotional investment for gamers.
Caylen David writer of the article Gaming: The Boundless Future of Storytelling says “While many argue that video games shine when uniting people in virtual multiplayer environments, some of the best gaming experiences are forged by the stories that players immerse themselves in, as well as the visual and sound mechanics that accompany that experience.” Which is a great summary of Destiny. Destiny is not just your typical first-person shooter/looter, it goes beyond that. It is a game that brings together the best of multiplayer action, cooperative play, deep and powerful story elements, and a one-of-a-kind gaming experience to define what it is and where it is heading to. Which is…
The Final Shape…
The Final Shape expansion is set to be the conclusion of the Light vs Dark saga of Destiny, and this has excited players when first hearing that declaration February 8, 2022, vidoc that Bungie released with the road map for Destiny 2. Knowing that there will be more coming for the franchise past The Final Shape expansion, can lead to endless possibilities. Could Bungie make a Destiny 3? Will the next IP be more of a spin-off game that takes place in the same universe as to how Star Wars is their own anthology series? Could they just keep adding more to Destiny 2 to keep it going until a completely brand-new IP unrelated to Destiny is created? No one knows what the future holds but we can all rest assured that the story Bungie has created for us all to enjoy has more to give and will deliver on a unique worthwhile story that is sure to change gaming history forever.
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