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Destiny

Discuss all things Destiny.
9/11/2014 2:07:51 PM
9

I understand the story (and you can too!)

The narrative, that is. I think I understand why it is the way it is. You (obviously) play from the perspective of your Guardian. That's the perspective and narrative style of the story. Your Guardian has been dead for, y'know, centuries. At least 500 years, wasn't it? More? They're out of the loop. They really know only two things. 1. Jack 2.Shit All they actually know is that magic revived them, there's a city that worships a big floating ball, and they've been forced into some deep shit. So, playing the part of an almost clueless long dead individual from a limited first person narrative stand point, I heavily think you're supposed to be very out of the loop. Though this game is meant to be social (chat NEEDS to be fixed), the narrative design is clearly that of a single player type of game. I think if it were otherwise, cutscenes would feature fireteam members, but it's just you. Even the off-game Grimoire cards are not an unearned exposition dump. They may be a dump if you read them all at once, but if you use a companion app and read a card as you earn it, it's very bite size. While the Grimoire sheds a good deal more light on the lore, it's still from a limited first person perspective for the most part. You have to earn these cards, be it by merely setting foot somewhere, or by a gruesome and painful skin of your teeth victory over a 50 foot tall Vex. Even the cards about the story are mostly quotes to your character. Lastly, as mostly an anecdote though worth to mention; facial expressions. In the few cutscenes we get, our character has a very apprehensive and almost confused face, especially when talking to The Speaker or going to The Reef (My Awoken look scared and I just wanted to hug her but then I realize I'm my own character so I just killed more shit. :D ). So now. It is my firm belief Destiny has a huge world of lore, and we've just only scraped the surface by finishing the base game story modes. There will be more pure story modes, perhaps in expansions, perhaps in free updates. They could even be on disk right now but not visible yet. But. We're going to have to do it ourselves, and no doubt we'll be left with more questions than answers again, because this is a first person limited narrative. It reminds me of Marathon in a way. Marathon was as first person limited as you can get, story only really revealed through terminals. Though truly not as elaborate as later games, for that time period Marathon's story was way better than other FPSs at that time. Doom only had a paragraph after every...chapter? You maybe only get four paragraphs in the game explaining what was happening. Marathon? You could spend half your time in the level reading the terminals if you weren't a terribly quick reader. And classic Bungie fans will see this connection and appreciate it. There was no narrator holding your hand and telling you what to think in Marathon, and there's no narrator doing that in Destiny. YOU are your own narrator. You could even call the Grimoire your own super terminal.

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  • I enjoyed how the game ended with the exo chick and her opinion on the final mission. Made it seem there will be no end but atleast we have some breathing room now.

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    • Well put OP. Biggest problem is, imo, a lot of people these days want everything pre chewed. They lack patience to enjoy a slow build up. It's kind of sad, they'll miss a lot of the finer things in life that way. Oh well, their loss.

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    • The story is really confusing to be honest. At first i thought the Fallen were the "Darkness." But then we find out about the hive and see them on the moon doing their shit and they kinda become a bigger threat. Then they throw the Vex at you who kinda remind me of the Borg from Star Trek and seem to be a bigger threat then The Fallen and Hive. Then we get the Cabal who happen to be the most militarized species ever and leave a path of destroyed planets in their wake. So are they the biggest threat? So who/what is The Darkness? Is it all of them? Is it one of them? No clue whats going on.....But the game is super fun lol

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    • I agree with what your stating but I would like to expound upon it a bit further. I have been fully enjoying the game so far and hope that continues. However I have noticed an issue with the story missions. So far I pick a place on the map and we go there and then get told some information bit by bit as we go through the missions, but I still feel there is a gap in places or in-between missions where information is missing and I will explain it in a bit more detail below. It may be that I wasn't paying full attention when my Ghost was describing the mission so if my mind is creating these gaps someone please let me know. [spoiler] First off I have completed all but the lvl 8 mission on Earth that requires 3 people. Last night I did the first moon mission and then the second one involving "The Worlds Grave" My first loss occurred after the mission in the cosmodrone when you raise up the relay for the super computer. Your ghost says we need to get in touch with the super computer, but does this ever happen? It doesn't seem there are anymore missions after that point continuing on this chain. Secondly during the second moon mission involving "The Worlds Grave" I have SO many questions. #1: What is "The Worlds Grave"? #2: Why are we after it? #3: Why does it feel like I missed some piece between the first moon mission and then this one? [/spoiler] I just find I am feeling lost too many times. I do plan on going back through the missions so hopefully some light will be shed when I do so.

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      • But are we ever going to get answers to things like how the Hive got access to a Traveler shard?

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        • All I wanted this game to answer for me is this: What, exactly, is the Traveler? Everything else can wait. Now, I have not finished the campaign yet, but I have been told that we don't get an answer to this. That disappoints me greatly.

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        • I really like to think of it from this perspective. There isn't a traditional linear story other than the very basic one that we get in the cutscenes. Instead we have worlds to explore and grimoire + gear descriptions to read. We take all that and add the community aspect (i.e. what we are doing now) and it makes it a really cool experience that you can dive as deep as you want to in, or even just ignore it all and shoot stuff. My favorite thing about Bungie's storytelling in the past is all of their cryptic nods and secrets scattered all around, and Destiny seems to have a ton of that.

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        • It's like you took the words right out of my mouth, this was my understanding of it from the beginning and was surprised not many people grasped this.

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        • Edited by ArtixViper: 9/12/2014 9:57:38 AM
          Great topic here, I hope you don't mind I linked yours in mine here http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/69184108/0/0/1 which is essentially a rant that sorta compounds the idea behind this (more just a very detailed ranting explanation of why a lot of people are doing so much wrong by the game) and I wholeheartedly believe that bungie has a LOT planned as far as story and lore goes. :D glad someone else has a good idea of what to expect.

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