Destiny 2's final update, the Monument of Triumph, will send the game off in style with new narrative content.
Narrative director Alison Lührs shared a new trailer for Monument of Triumph on Bluesky earlier today. "The Traveler has returned, the Earth may yet begin to heal, and we take one moment to look where we are, where we’ve been, and what could be," she says.
But I'm most interested in her assurances regarding the shape of the sendoff: "Yes, there's story, yes, we get to say goodbye."
It's become increasingly clear that a lot of the content in Monument of Triumph was not originally planned as part of the last update for Destiny 2, which will end active development as Bungie moves on to new projects. Rather, at some point a decision was made that the game cannot continue, so a whole lot of cool stuff had to be packed into one final blowout or cut.
A concern among the player base, then, is that a hasty end to Destiny 2 would leave a lot of story threads unresolved. And that is inevitable to some degree; the Nine storyline that was just getting off the ground post-Edge of Fate will be cut quite short, for example, and I can think of a Hive god or two still waiting in the wings. But Lührs suggests there's a real goodbye coming, and I don't think I'm ready.
That new trailer is as bittersweet as they come – at once a triumphant celebration and a gutting memorial, not to mention a stylish showcase of the new abilities coming in the update.
"Thank you, Guardian," begins Warlock Vanguard Ikora, whose voice actor Mara Junot said it was "heartbreaking" to see Destiny 2 ending like this. "Because of you, what was unraveling is suddenly stabilizing. Earth may yet heal, and that's something worth celebrating. May this time be a moment of reflection, remembering what came before. Reassessing our present, and readying ourselves for the future. The Traveler has nestled above the Last City once again."
