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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 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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