Finally, after just over a year, and an entire alpha and beta stage, I finally got around to beating Destiny: Rising. I do have to say, it was pretty much everything I expected.

I originally heard this game was having a closed alpha around early 2024, where I applied to be a part of it, and was somehow let in. Back then, they only had voice lines for first 5-10 minutes of the game, and the rest of the voices were AI generated. I feel like this was one of the reasons I wasn’t roped into it in the beginning, but the beta changed everything.

Miraculously, I was accepted into the closed beta too. This is when I really started to get into the game. I remember grinding for hours, and I realized this was the mobile game I dreamed of (except with a few caveats). When this beta happened, however, I was drowning in school work, leaving me almost no time to play.

Eventually, the game came out into the public. I feel like a lot of people got into it fast, but I did notice the game slowly die off after a couple weeks. Here, I also stopped playing it, until around a couple weeks ago.

(mostly spoiler-free) Plot

Destiny is confusing to explain to someone who has never played before, so instead of making everyone watch a ten hour video, I’ll try to explain the terminology as well and as simply as I can. There is also a very high probability I forget a few things, so take this all with a grain of salt.

Lightbearer: Dead person revived by a ghost, created by the traveler

Ghost: Floating machine created by the traveler to fight for it

Traveler: Giant ball in the sky (literally), associated with the light

Eliksni: Also referred to as “fallen,” an alien species

Cabal: Alien space rhinos (best description I can give)

The game begins with you being resurrected by a Ghost named Zev, where you earn the name Wolf. You wander into a town called Haven, where the leader, Lord Radegast, essentially recruits you into his “army.” He sends you to a neighboring town called Jiangshi Metro, where you help around, fighting off hordes of Eliksni.

Eventually, a neighboring town called the Red Sea Rift requires your help. This town is run by Lord Saladin, who doesn’t like Radegast. Eventually, he realizes he’s stupid, and allows Radegast to help with their Cabal infestation. Eventually, everyone works together to get rid of all the Cabal in the Red Sea Rift, and the game ends.

I do have to say, the game ends not how you think. The ending boss is not mentioned until you get halfway through the Red Sea Rift quests.

Soundtrack

I don’t have much to say, but I do have some things to say. In the ending, you can hear the Guardian motif playing (a prominent part of the soundtrack in the main franchise). I really think this is an amazing callback to the main series. Overall, the soundtrack is amazing, and I REALLY wish we had an actual publication of it (instead of YouTube channels finding them in the game files)

General Thoughts (everything but the story)

The way monetization is added is alright, but I feel like the game becomes EXTREMELY grindy without microtransactions. For example, I spent about 8 hours grinding for the character Tan-2 (who I really liked in the demo/character quests). Earning characters revolves around an almost “gambling” mechanic. You get a virtual currency called “charms” and you can use them to do “draws” to try to get a character. Bon Voyage Charms give me generational trauma now after spending forever trying to get them. Speaking of Tan-2, I really enjoyed how he was presented and written. I would write an entire post about him, but I realized I’m not a nerd, and people already did that on Destinypedia. But I do have to say, the albeit short quests in this game definitely live up to Destiny 1 & 2. I played this game through the MuMu emulator, created by the developers of Destiny: Rising. I really wish we had a native desktop port.

Overall, I would give this an 8/10. This game has a wonderful community, and great social features, and I would definitely recommend trying it. You can probably beat the main story in around 5-10 hours if you really try, and I would totally recommend checking out Tan-2’s character quests as well (because he is the only one I actually did).

After this game, I do have one question,

Will Destiny: Rising join Destiny 1 & 2 and never receive an update again, or will it continue as long as the Destiny games, and become a gaming legend?

(probably the first one because of, you know, money)