More integrated into the world. (Destiny)

by narcogen , Andover, Massachusetts, Friday, July 22, 2016, 02:09 (2834 days ago) @ kidtsunami

I want to play Dark Souls and see if it also doesn't have a story and is just obscure lore that people have been squinting at long enough to find satisfaction in sharing with other people who have been squinting long enough.

I'm no expert, but I have played a bit of DS1.

The primary difference between the way Destiny and Dark Souls integrate their stories, is that in Dark Souls, the NPCs you interact with start out in the world, and then depending on your actions, they can end up returning to the safe hub area which functions like Destiny's Tower.

In the first game and the latest, that's Firelink Shrine.

Destiny puts all its NPCs and merchants in the safe areas-- there's nobody to interact with out in the world except enemies.

NPCs in Dark Souls give you lore-- think Grimoire cards edited down to their bare minimum, delivered one line at a time by player prompts. You can hear them all (until the last start looping) or stop anytime. Many of them you can choose to kill, save, or ignore. Some will become friendlies you can summon in boss battles.

Those might seem like minor changes, but they have a huge impact.

I'd have bought into the idea that the player truly is responsible for the resurgence of the Vanguard if, at the end of the first level, you had shown up to an empty Tower? What if isolated pockets of Guardians out in the wild had to be rescued or rejuvenated to be brought back? What if the Guardian in the cryo pod high above the cosmodrome had been the Speaker instead of just some random guy we might never meet?

What if the reason you don't get any explanation isn't because people don't want to tell you, or don't have time, but because the one who has to do the explaining... is you? What if no one really knows more about the current state of the world than you do?

Of all Destiny's current NPCs, the one I find most believable and relatable is Eris. She's the only one with a real arc, and she acts crazy enough to be given latitude for cryptic or partial explanations.