Diablo 4 lead Rod Fergusson is keen to build the game into one continuous narrative rather than have each content update being a self-contained story.
While discussing Season 7 and the new story that introduces witches to Diablo 4, general manager Rod Fergusson told Easy Allies that he’s keen to avoid “isolated independent stories” in future updates. Instead, Fergusson wants future expansions and seasons to contribute to the wider narrative.
In the interview with the YouTube channel, Fergusson said, “It became this full circle moment. We knew as we went in, it was really more about what’s the next thing as we lead into expansions. And, sometimes, expansions can go into isolated independent stories and we thought it would be really cool if we could just continue that main story.”
You can check out the full interview below:
Seasonal stories
While Diablo 4’s first main expansion, Vessel of Hatred, continued the main story after the defeat of Lilith, seasonal content has generally told smaller, more self-contained stories. For example, Season 1 saw the player take on a new demon lord, relying on the power of the Malignant Heart abilities to overcome this threat.
Season 2 was a fan-favorite and saw Sanctuary invaded by vampires, led by the fearsome Lord Zir who even infected the player with his curse. By Season 3, our hero was teaming up with a robot companion while exploring the vaults of Zoltun Kulle, a frenemy from Diablo 3.
When Blizzard revamped the game with its Loot Reborn update in Season 4, we mostly got a seasonal journey that used a side story as a backdrop. This time, our protagonist reconnected with the Iron Wolves mercenaries, a group who served as key allies back in Diablo 2.
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However, Blizzard changed its approach in Season 5 which saw that seasonal story lay the foundation for the Vessel of Hatred expansion. It was revealed that Lilith’s cult still existed and many of them were frantically trying to stop the return of Mephisto.
This was arguably the first seasonal story to be part of the wider Diablo 4 narrative and Season 6 would continue that trend, being set concurrently with the expansion.
While the upcoming Season 7 looks to be telling a new story about a coven of witches in the service of the Tree of Whispers, Fergusson’s comments imply that this narrative is connected to the wider Diablo 4 story – one where the hunt for the returned Mephisto has begun.
Season 7’s new story quests have not been announced for the Eternal Realm. This poses a barrier to seasons being able to “continue the main story”, as Fergusson puts it.
This is because it would mean players will need to start a new seasonal character to play them, rather than continuing the adventure with their existing ones.
If Diablo 4 truly does want to use seasonal content to further the ongoing narrative, then this is something the developers may need to consider and stop ignoring the Eternal Realm.