Bungie Opens Up on Why Cayde-6's Death Was Vital to Destiny 2's Story

Cayde-6, hilariously voiced by none of than Nathan Fillion, provides much needed comedic relief to Bungie's Destiny 2. His attitude, his humorous one-liners, and his helpful advice to hunters makes him a staple to the shooter. At least until Bungie decided to kill him. Though many have seen the value of this decision from a narrative perspective, others are having a hard time saying goodbye to the lovable hunter. The team behind the MMO have sat down once more to explain and to share how they didn't take this decision lightly.

Bungie sat down with Game Informer once more to talk about the much "darker" narrative coming with the next expansion for Destiny 2. The interview, which can be seen here, puts Bungie's Eric Osborne front and center to talk about the decision and how it makes the "world feel rich." He told the site, "It feels like it's just done for shock value at the start, but it's not. It makes the world feel rich. You start to see the way characters are reacting to that death and the vacuum that leaves in the universe."

This is but one aspect of the new expansion that makes the overall feel infinitely darker than anything we've seen thus far. With players hunting down the Barons of the Scorn once all hell breaks loose from the prison where everyone that wants you dead resides, the next adventure that awaits will be the one that is expected to win over hardcore skeptics.

Osborne's statement echoes that of Project Lead's Scott Taylor from last month when he told the PlayStation Blog:

"There wasn't a single lightning moment where someone unveiled a grand design about killing Cayde. It was much more organic than that and developed from a series of ideas we were trying to explore. We wanted to tell a story with huge stakes, but have those stakes be really personal to the player. We've done aliens trying to destroy the universe with the consequences of failure resulting in catastrophe. What if we could get that feeling with something closer to home, and more relatable? That was appealing."

He added, "We started discussing what we cared about as Guardians, and it became clear that the Vanguard had really come alive as characters for our fans. So each of the expansions over the last year have focused on them: Ikora in Curse of Osirsis, Zavala in Warmind and now Cayde in Forsaken. We haven't taken a player off the board like this before, and we realized that the loss of Cayde would mean more to the Player than any other possible external threat we could think of. All the ideas came together and formed what became Forsaken."

According to Bungie, Cayde's death was absolutely paramount to the story, "it's what sets everything into motion." This shocking story development is meant to drive the player into a sense of revenge, make them want to make the enemies pay. For Cayde, for the puppies!

To learn more about Forsaken and Uldren, you can check out the full scoop right here.