Destiny 2: Season of the Witch has come to an end, and it might be the season that somewhat redeems the Lightfall era’s mediocre start. We are just months away from experiencing the Final Shape, and Season 22 was by far one of the strongest seasons Bungie has produced in recent memory. While the season might not be perfect, and there are still plenty of issues that the game needs to address, it was a step in the right direction. We will go over some of the biggest takeaways from Season of the Witch.
SPOILER WARNING: There are SPOILERS for Season of the Witch ahead. If you have not done the final story mission of the season yet, we recommend completing it before continuing.
The Final Story Mission was a Hit and a Miss
The final story mission for this week left me in awe at Eris Morn. The mission was well done, and it built up to a great payoff. But countless players, including me, felt that the story just ended abruptly, and if you have not read the lore tab for the week just yet, you should.
During the final moments of the the seasonal storyline, we see Eris Morn make a move against Xivu Arath where she uses Hive magic to revive Savathun for a few seconds only to kill her seconds later. It was great to see Eris Morn choose to give up a chance at becoming a god just to strike back at Xivu Arath. The narrative was partly presented in the post-mission cutscene, and part of it was presented via a shocking lore entry.
We are in 2023 and there is no reason for Bungie to continue to deliver key pieces of information through lore tabs. Destiny 2 has some fantastic lore and it feels awkward to have part of the story presented to you through gameplay and the rest through lore. While the presentation left something to be desired, the overall lore of Season of the Witch was great, and I hope Bungie continues to deliver the same quality of storytelling in The Final Shape.
The PvE Sandbox is in an Amazing State Right Now
Handcannons used to be my go-to archetype in Destiny 1 PvE, but they have felt lackluster for years in Destiny 2 due to sandbox changes. With the buff to handcannons in PvE, they feel great to use again. In addition to the balance changes, we also got some great catalysts and exotics.
Bungie has stepped up its exotic game for Season 22 and I couldn’t be happier. The new Strand aspect is also fun to use and PvE is in a solid spot right now when it comes to builds, exotics, and sandbox balancing.
In-Game Economy Changes Are a Mixed Bag
In case you missed the memo, Legendary Shards are being removed in Season 23 and will no longer be usable in Monument to Lost Lights and Engram Focusing. When The Final Shape drops, all remaining Legendary Shard sources and costs will be removed from the game which includes vendors like Rahool, Trials Passages, and Collections.
Glimmer and Legendary Shards are two of the most important currencies in the game and one of them will be removed from player inventories forever. While this is in line with Bungie’s decision to simplify the in-game economy, the classic Bungie “monkey paw” tactic has struck again with Weapon focusing becoming more expensive to account for the lack of Legendary Shards.
Bungie has made several changes to the in-game economy since 2022 but things are still too convoluted. This is a problem seen in not just Destiny 2 but a ton of other live service games that feature tons of arbitrary upgrade materials, season currencies, and other resources that could very easily be simplified. Hopefully, Bungie will continue to improve upon its systems and deliver a streamlined economy once we reach The Final Shape.
Crafting Still Needs Serious Work
The Crafting problem ties into the in-game economy changes we talked about earlier. Bungie added the ability to make your own weapons with the launch of the Witch Queen and while the system has seen improvements since its release, things did not get much better. The whole point of the crafting system was to help players target loot that they do not have and obtain that “god roll” for their desired weapons.
Now anyone can get a perfectly rolled weapon easily and I have no complaints about it at all. It is the fact that randomly rolled weapons are rarely ever better than crafted weapons, which is what takes away from the looter shooter experience.
Loot should be appealing and introducing special versions of weapons like the Black Armory’s rare drops we had in the past could be a great start. While I appreciate what crafting has brought to the game, I also want to be excited by random drops that I get during my daily play sessions. It is a tricky thing to balance but I hope that ground loot becomes meaningful in some way again.
Leading Up to Final Shape
We hope that Bungie focuses more on storytelling through the missions instead of lore pages in the future. Lightfall was a disappointment because of the whole Veil ordeal and The Final Shape needs to land on its two feet if it wants to conclude the Light and Dark saga in a meaningful way. It is a given that the campaign of Final Shape will simply be the start of next year’s storyline which will have 12 months of storytelling instead of giving us everything upfront in February.
We are in the endgame now and the current saga is finally coming to an end. Lightfall is far from the best year of Destiny I have ever played but Season of the Witch has reignited my hope in the franchise’s lore direction. We are just four months away from experiencing the end of the Light and Dark saga and I couldn’t be more excited.
