Summary
Diablo 4’s first season added a slew of new mechanics for players to deal with, but their inclusion feels kind of strange. The Season of the Malignant is focused on a brand-new form of corruption aptly named Malignant that seems to be infecting much of the world. Players must once again take up arms against evil to try and save Sanctuary, but the ending ofDiablo 4’s main campaign hinted at a far greater danger that players should be focused on instead.
The Season of the Malignantapparently picks up after players defeat Lilith, but it has almost nothing to do with that plot line. While players should have been pursuing Neyrelle across the world, they seem to be taking a pit stop to help stop something that has never been hinted at before. It feels like an odd way to continue the story after a very intriguing finale, and hopefully future seasons refocus the plot on what truly matters.
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Diablo 4 Has Bigger Fish to Fry
Before players defeat Lilith, they witness one of their closest allies plunge a soulstone into Mephisto. SinceLilith is after Mephisto’s power, Neyrelle and the player feel like this is the best course of action. This locks him away from her and lets the characters get him to safety a lot quicker.
Diablo 4’s epilogueshows players that Neyrelle is off on a brand-new journey with Mephisto’s soulstone at her side. She does not tell the player where she is going, nor is it obvious what her plan could be. Some players believe she has been corrupted while others believe that they may not have known her as well as they think. Whatever the case, she may be one of the most dangerous beings in Sanctuary right now.
Diablo 4’s Season of the Malignant is set after the events of the main game, but it seems like Neyrelle’s disappearance never crosses the protagonist’s mind. Instead, the player is focused on whatever this new corruption is. Neyrelle is out there forging her own path withthe literal Lord of Hatredlocked away in a soulstone, but players are more concerned with gross infected pods and Malignant monsters.
Forces from both the heavens and hell are likely after Neyrelle as she has one of the Prime Evils locked in a little stone alongside her. Anyone that can get a hold of the soulstone can release Mephisto, strike a deal with him, or utilize his power for their own gains. The player should want to track her down and save her from whatever may be after her. While the Malignant may be corrupting Sanctuary, this soulstone presents a much larger danger to the world.
Blizzard may be saving this story fora futureDiablo 4DLC, but future seasons need to at least reference the events of the main story. Players cannot complete seasonal content until they have completed the campaign, but that background knowledge is not really needed for Season of the Malignant. It feels like a strange choice to force players to play through the story, end it on a major cliffhanger, and then refuse to elaborate on it in the game’s first major content update. The studio does not need to give players the resolution of this arc right away, but it should at least be peppering in that story throughout the game’s seasonal content.
Diablo 4is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
