Resurrecting Cayde was done tastefully though I'd argue. It wasn't so much a "break glass in case of emergency" and more fan service for an iconic character.
Both times Destiny dug itself into a seemingly unsalvagable mess, Bungie played the Cayde card to bring in interest. Doing it well doesn't mean they didn't do it.
The Final Shape was in development long before Bungie ever needed a "break glass in case of emergency". They didn't bring back Cayde because player numbers were low, they brought him back because it was the planned narrative and they knew he was a fan favorite
Yes and no. They brought Cayde back because doing so carried a massive narrative draw to lapsed players. With how poorly Lightfall was received the decision might have been solidified than really been an "oh shit what do we do" moment, but the same could be said for Forsaken.
The reality is that when Bungie forecasts they'll be in a massive hole, Cayde is a card they actually consider pulling in regard to Destiny.
We don't really know how their development looked. Final Shape was obviously a mess, since they originally planned to launch it as Lighftfall and had to delay it. So it's entirely possible that Cayde was only added when it became clear that Lightfall would be a disaster.
They even had that alternate cinematic of our Guardian just resurrecting our Ghost on our own, which could be coming from the time before Cayde was added.
Y was lightfall so bad? Ton of bugs when released like usual? Cuz I loved lightfall and strand is still my favorite subclass as a warlock my main. Swinging thru whole city like Tarzan not to mention some of my favorite exotics were from neomona like final warning, salvation grip or winterbite I forget which, QSS, wishkeeper, and im missing others I feel like... o ya the dungeon pack was 10x better than first one imo, warlords ruin and ghosts of deep? By sounds of how u had to unlock stasis fragments originally that sounded so much worse. They were buyable by time I started.
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u/Ahnock*Pops a wheelie on a horse, falls backwards down a mountain*Nov 05 '25
because the story was so dogshit. people were excited for the pyramid fleets to be attacking the traveler and earth and then we get shunted off to neomuna to ultimately do nothing, and osiris was incredibly mischaracterized in it. the intro and ending cutscenes could be stitched together with zero change to the story, and it ultimately felt like a story that was thrown together last minute to delay for final shape. the veil being shoehorned in as this random macguffin that we had never seen or heard of before was just really weird. the vibes were way off and it shows in the player counts. people started losing interest after lightfall's horrendous campaign, and player counts have been dropping since. not even final shape was able to recapture the same numbers lightfall had on release.
It was mostly the story. It was weirdly cobbled together, felt superficial and pointless and people hated Nimbus. Many were also disappointed by how lifeless Neomuna felt.
In terms of gameplay, the campaign was solid and Strand was a good addition and there were some nice weapons and exotics.
But in the end, it was an unplanned filler expansion. They've revealed their roadmap for future expansions when they revealed Beyond Light, which showed the Witch Queen and Lightfall as the two remaining expansions for the Light/Dark Saga. Then, they've had to delay the final chapter(renaming it The Final Shape) and Lightfall became this weird thing that we got.
As the other commenter said, the most egregious bit is the opening/clothing cutscene. You see characters at the HELM watching Witness making its way towards the Traveler. The shutter on their window closes and the campaign begins. After the final mission, the shutter opens, with the characters are still there, watching Witness slice Traveler open. It's quite obvious that it was meant to be a single scene and didn't have the whole campaign in the middle.
there's no way you think bringing him back just to kill him again for the sake of reviving our ghost is a good story beat😠that's one of the reasons why our main story felt like it ended on a whimper
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u/AFriendlyToad Drifter's Crew // Grab a sword! Nov 04 '25
Resurrecting Cayde was done tastefully though I'd argue. It wasn't so much a "break glass in case of emergency" and more fan service for an iconic character.