I really agree with you on the ending. While yes, having Mephisto return in Akarat's body is a cool idea, the rest of the ending was too... anticlimactic. We didn't have any big victories. We just kept failing. Maybe we're meant to feel that way?
If they really lean into the prophecy fragment that said Sanctuary is doomed, and that's what happens in the series, then okay. Otherwise, this entire DLC only mattered to Neyrelle. If we had done nothing, or if NEYRELLE had done nothing, right from the end of D4 core, it would have ended up exactly here with Mephisto being reborn, with our blood tainted by Hatred, and with the other prime evils on the horizon. We just treaded water for a whole DLC, which if they're trying to make the point (which some of the dialogue expressly states) that fear and hatred are in all of us and therefore Mephisto and Diablo can never really be defeated, only delayed... I doubt Blizzard in its currrent form has anywhere near the balls to really lean in to that and have us lose, lose, lose, expac after expac, until the world ends.
@@justinthejam no, not coping. That could be a intentional part of the story telling. To feel what these characters rea feeling. I don't like it either. I went right to my diablo friends and ranted about how i really didnt like the ending and how it made the rest of the story up to then rather pointless and frustrating.
Mephisto has done a Ted Talk and produced a full DIY UA-cam series on how to escape a soul stone and gain a new vessel at this point. He's in the process of building his Udemy course on it.
Even though the story was not bad, it felt really empty and rushed. Urivar started like incredible new villain, and he basically died in some random dungeon like all those bandits or Tomb Lords. Eru's betrayal was too easy to predict (however I expected him taking the stone and stabbing himself into forehead). I also didn't like the "power of friendship" they forced on us near the end.
Exactly, I felt there was no threat. Urivar was amazing but disappeared like a fart in the wind. Mephisto wasn't interested. The story followed a very classic road and didn't offer something new besides the interesting plot twist at the end. The story breached into a high fantasy side with Akarat who's all rainbows and glitter, the ideology of Nahantu people who are very open to newcomers and helping strangers no matter what. Also the power of friendship idea that was prolonged throughout of the whole game kind of lit it and made the story be not so scary, nor threatening. ALSO, why the ffuck is Prava behaving like she's some sensible pansy? She was the one who put Vigo and many others in that torture iron maiden armor, why is she so scared of Urivar burning alive a sinner? She was pro burning them on a pyre in d4. I hope Belial is playing a trick, that might save the story for me.
Yeah, to me, _Vessel of Hatred_ had a nice story and good ideas, but it felt rushed and devoid of substance. Devoid of feeling. Sure, the characters aren't bad but they felt... superficial. We were meant to related with them, not see them as mere plot points. I mean, just look at Lilith in the base game. Or Tyrael, a freakin' angel. Or Leah. They felt _real._
Rathma's prophecy will come true in the next expansion: The spear of Light piercing the hatred's Heart. Spear of Light = new holy warrior class, hatred's Heart = core of the Hatred, Mephisto.
From what I can tell the prophecy has been completed. It started from the Vessel of Hatred’s beginning with the protagonists getting stabbed (hatred aka Lilith’s blood is inside of him and thus hatred crawling out of their corpse’s mouth) A father burning the children and a mother bringing a new age…. That’s mother prava and the soldier (forgot his name) actions. A spear of light piercing hatred’s heart…. My current speculation is that it refers to the battle against the massive wolf monster near the end And the ending part fits the “and he who was set in chains is freed”
Yes, and you could interpret the prophecy through Vessel of Hatred too. "A spear of light" (Akarat's manifestation) "piercing Hatred's heart" (he goes inside Mephisto during the fight to weaken him) "and he who was bound in chains" (Mephisto) "was set free" (by possessing Akarat's body).
That part of the prophecy already happened. Spear of light (Inarius) will pierce hatred heart (Rathma), and then the one who was çpcled woçç be set free (mephisto) Inarius killing rathma is the catalyst for the story. Lilith may be a a hateful being, but it was clear she loved her son very much.
I'm really enjoying the tone the dlc sets for the story right now nothing we do feels like it matters in the grand scheme of things. Really puts an emphasis on just how small and corruptable humanity is in comparison to the demons and angels
Eru Sounds like that Barb elder boss in D2, making a deal with the devil, and of course at the end, all in vain. Never know demons will ever keep their promises.
Also, Mephisto can 'technically' keep his end of the bargain while still stabbing Eru in the back. If I remember correctly he did say "I will not destroy your land' or to a similar effect. So, all he has to do is have Baal or Diablo bring ruin to his land once he helps revive them. In the end, a demon always has a technical loophole to negate a bargain or honor a deal in its true spirit.
@@crawford4140 Yeah, but to you and me, a 'deal is a deal' usually means that I will honor my word in the truest spirit of the deal. But to a demon like Mephisto, it's just a word game he is playing to trick people. It's not like he hasn't any real love for humanity or will lose any sleep over them dying. To the Demons and even most angels, we are just tools to be used by them for their own ends.
I really wonder if Diablo and/or Baal are going to so willingly go along with whatever Mephisto is planning and aiming for. If they show back up... might it be possible that they somehow interfere with Mephisto's plans, or try to use his plans to achieve their own ends? After all, the Prime Evils are known to have rivalries with one another, and though they do sometimes work together, they don't have any hard sworn allegiances to one another. They just work together when it's convenient for all sides to do so. If I am wrong on this, please correct me, Nyx. Good video. Enjoyed it!
I think diablo might, just let things play out. We know he planned everything... even D3 basically... I am 100% sure he has machinations for this and is prepared... the dude is demonic batman.
I wouldn’t mind being Diablo’s vessel… so long as he at least let’s me live during the process…. And be conscious (I’m an artist so the idea of being inflicted with terror and fear is a masochist way to have Diablo as a muse to draw pieces of art depicting terror)
I think for the most part the brothers are pretty well united except for when they are winning. The only time I can think of when they betrayed each other was when they almost won the Eternal Conflict. Even after that event, they sought to join forces during Diablo 2, with Diablo returning to Hell to rally their forces & Baal going to Arreat to claim the Worldstone while Mephisto stayed behind to stall the heroes. I was reading Rathma's Prophecy & there's one key line here that makes it interesting: "as Hatred’s sun set and that of Terror and Destruction dawned." I get the feeling that we are presently in the Hatred stage of the prophecy, & that once Mephisto is defeated, Diablo & Baal will return.
Well when we was in front of Mephisto at the end of the original campaign, we decided to entrap Mephisto instead of Lilith which would make sense, get rid of the greater evil. So now we’re playing a game of keep away from Lilith cause Mephisto is her prize so why stick around to give her the opportunity to seize Mephisto? We the player stay to finish off Lilith otherwise she would just chase Neyrelle. So we stay to kill her and neyrelle takes off with the soul stone unknowing that Mephisto was already manipulating her. So then she takes off on her own when we were supposed to meet up after the deed was done.
"Decisions the hero made in Hell." I'm pretty sure I wasn't allowed to make ANY decisions in Hell xD Because I 100% would NOT have killed Lilith, I never thought her death was necessary :P
I gave the expansion a 8.5/10. I would improve more character building like vanilla D4 did with Lorath. It was hard to deeply care about some characters introduced. The reoccurring theme of hatred got a bit tacky when some of the clickable were called piles of hatred lol. I thought the expansion was fun but $40 for 12 hours of story content is out of reach for some. I can’t help to think more acts will be introduce this coming year. It’s becoming more episodic than expansion
Of course. That’s why they lowered it to lvl. 60. It will wow. With multiple expansion. Probably like one, where we met Mephisto. Another one for Diablo and another one for Baal….
I think we are building towards a second sin war and I do agree we should have gotten a bit more story wise but killing off Mephisto would take us a step back from redoing the sin wars (which I think will be sick)
I have a different feeling from you about the ending. I thought it was perfect for this expansion called Vessel of Hatred. Basically, Mephisto never wanted to have Neyrelle, he only wanted her to lead him to Akarat's tomb. What more of a perfect vessel of hatred than a wolf disguised as the lamb of light ? We litterally have Dark Jesus being the bringer of hate in the near future. We'll get our "real" ending in the conclusion of Diablo 4, like the expansion of Diablo 2 that brought us "true victory". Even so the spirit of the Diablo series is that there is no true victory against evil, for evil is eternal and we can only repel it for a while, like a candle burning bright in the darkness before it goes out.
I didn't have high anticipations for the campaign of VoH and I was still very disappointed. The expansion campaign is just so horrible, I don't know what the writers were thinking. Neyrelle shouldn't have survived. She is an annoying character, nobody likes her, and all she does is making bad decisions and then whine about them. What really made my blood boil was in the ending when the player character says to Neyrelle "Promise me this; When we get to fight Mephisto, I will deal the killing blow." Like, how could a mere human with one hand even kill a Prime Evil?! If it's so easy, Urivar could kill all Prime Evils and keep Sanctuary save too. I had the same idea in mind as you said in the video, Neyrelle impaling herself with the soul stone to set Mephisto free, basically pulling off a Leah 2.0, would have been a good conclusion to her arc. That brings me to the next point; Mephisto not being the final boss of the expansion. Me and all of my friends were expecting an awesome final fight with Mephisto at the end of the campaign. But all we got are some no-name boss encounters. The dog looked cool but is still very disappointing for a final fight of a content phase. I unironically liked Urivar the most out of all new characters. His fight was cool, the monologue in his dying cutscene was dope. But other than that there was no moment or fight with a memorable moment. Mephisto not being the final boss of the expansion isn't necessarily bad story writing, it's just disappointing from the player's perspective. It's so obvious that they attempt to stretch the story out as much as possible to sell as many expansions as possible. The part of the story where the player character gets stabbed and is bleeding out in the river is stupid. Not to mention that it should not be so easy to be backstab someone as powerful as the character, or that anybody should have died from blood loss in the river. The main reason I think it's stupid is, that they missed a big opportunity there. Imagine if the player actually died in the river and went to the Spirit Realm, being trapped there. We met Eru in the Spirit Realm who guided us out of there. If you need a plot point to where resurrection is possible, use the Lilith is inside the character thing or whatever - which by the way was mentioned multiple times during the story without any impact or effect, the writers just wanted to make us look cool and edgy. Introduction of multiple boring, one-dimensional characters and missing out on existing, established characters. We literally got no demons, no angels, no Horadrim. Like I said I thought Urivar was the most interesting one. Having Neyrelle kill Maka by accident was a bad attempt on creating an emotional scene, which isn't possible when the player character has no emotional connection to that character. Imagine it would have been Lorath instead of Maka. It would have been sad and tragic and would have had an emotional impact on the story. The only point against this would be that Eru wouldn't have hated Neyrelle as much since he didn't know Lorath. The world setting is also off - it's supposed to be gruesome, desperate, depressing. However, many NPCs we need are unfoundedly optimistic and ready to help out without question. One would assume that if you were to live in such a sh!ithole of world, you would be more than sceptical towards strangers. The dynamic between Lorath and the player is an example for a reasonable development between two characters. The writers just created some characters as plot devices without any depth behind it, it's just lazy writing. Most of the dialog in the story was simply superfluous because it brought little new insight or had no significant impact on what was happening. It mainly consists of whining about how bad things are, or one-liners designed to make you look edgy and cool, or that we can do anything as long as we stick together with the power of friendship. This doesn't match at all with the gritty world setting they tried to set up for years now, which was originally pretty good. I also think the zone of Nahantu itself is very well made, which looks absolutely gorgeous and is surprisingly diversified for a jungle area. The art teams at Blizzard have been knowing their craft for decades now. Ultimately, most people don't play an a-rpg for the story, but when I think of how much time, money and work went into creating the story and marketing it with live-action trailers and so on, I just would have expected for so much more. For most gamers the campaign is whatever, do it once and be done with it, but for gamers who care a little about story in a game this is a slap in the face.
Dude I was so mad when my character got jumped and stabbed on the bridge, it felt like a massively contrived way to bring us into the new area, your idea of being fished out of the spirit realm and resurrected is way cooler, you could even make it so that saving us damages Eru and as he becomes weaker it's easier for Mephisto to take advantage at the end. Urivar (hope that's the right spelling) didn't have a big enough presence in the story, the church is supposedly hunting Neyrelle but their hardly in the new region you more or less wipe them out as soon as you encounter them. I don't see why their presence alone would push Neyrelle to flee so far into the unknown. Unless I overlooked something I thought she was only called into Nahantu once she was there ? or is the implication of the story that Akarat had reached out earlier and pulled her there ? Ohh it just made me mad, I get it we're not really playing D4 for the gripping narrative but I like good stories and I feel that they could have cooked up something awesome and seemingly deliver a bit of a flat & dull story.
You highlighted what pissed me off about the story. The cliche story road, the high fantasy feel of it all, that wasted potential, the edgy Nyrelle who is more pestering than a fly during summer. The friendliness of the Nahantu people killed the dark mood the visuals and music created. It felt too d3. The world felt too lovely and warm for a world threatened by hatred. I imagined if Mephisto walked the earth he would make the people hateful, violent, envious, paranoid. But he didn't came close to Lilith, when she was on Sanctuary we could see her influence tainting the people. Your ideas of the spirit realm is really great, I wish we would have seen the spirit real in this way and not the cliche way it was presented. I couldn't take Akarat seriously, I couldn't. He felt like a rip off of a wow character or something. I was left speechless at the 360 degree change of character for Prava who in Voh is a sensible pansy who can't stand the sight of suffering, let alone blood. It's a total clash with the Prava we saw in D4, she was dogmatic, wild, fanatic, iron willed, ambitious and had no remorse or mercy. She put Vigo and many others in that iron maiden armor thing, she dragged an army through hell because Inarius wanted to feel special, she had the cathedral hunt and kill the heretics. But in d4 voh she's like, "don't scream it hurts my feelings. The power of the light shall prevail, we are forever friends." I wish I could have seen more of Urivar and even the schism that was to take place in the church. A power struggle is hinted, but in the end nothing happens in the church. It was the only interesting thing for me in d4 voh, but the story didn't show anything of the power struggle between Prava and Urivar. Hell I wish we could have had the opportunity to be part in coup organized by Prava who wants to take back her power. And it would have been more emotional if maybe Urivar forced us to hunt Neyrelle and bring him the soulstone, because he captured Lorath and threatens to kill him if we don't obey. Also the cocky know it all attitude of our character pissed me off so much. It was the pinnacle of edgy main character syndrome.
It makes sense that we didn't stop Mephisto this time. A Jungle Monk isn't strong enough, only a Paladin of the Light can stop Mephisto, with something like a Hammer, that may be blessed.
A vengeful knight that juggles two resource types: purity and corruption. If spiritborn is monk+witch doctor then the upcoming character is crusader+demon hunter.
Bro our main character in D3 was extremely powerful he solo a full power Diablo. Our main character in D4 with Lilith blood 🩸 bonded to him so gradually over time he will reawaken his nephilim powers specifically if in the future tyreal comes back as arch angel of wisdom and grants him a blessing our main character will Become OP
I mean there is incentive to drip-feed more story through seasons, it keeps players engaged and gives them more reasons to play. Big copium here as well since story felt too short@@Sirawit5555
I feel like people stabbing theirselves with the sole stone is a little over done, also this was the first time that the holder of a stone did not die from corruption
Awesome video! And pretty cool ideas at the end. Regarding destroying Lilith - not sure, but read it somewhere, that she cannot simply be reborn in hell like other demons, because she is connected to the void by now rather then burning hells. Got a question to those who played VoH (I couldnt play it yet myself) - didnt Mephisto teas us to join him against his brothers? Those 3 work together only out of necessity, but generally speaking, non of them want to share glory, right? Meph might want all the spoils for himself
If Blizzard don't finish Mephisto story and add a proper boss fight in a future season I don't see myself getting future expansions. If they draw out the story just to sell more overpriced expansions, I can't get behind that decision.
The ending was quite unexpected but its great for me. If i cwould make a wild guess for the next expansion i would see a part of the forces of heaven also being corrupted by "akkarat" leading to a total chaos where baal is reawakened. That happens because the the gates of heaven had been closed so long that they are unable to see the forces of hell influencing humankind. Fightinng angels and deomons would make sesne there for me.
You're supposed to feel manipulated and betrayed. Wether by purchasing the dlc or the fact Mephisto did what he does best. Long game execution. Vessel of Hatred is exactly what happened.
I agree, that the campaigh should be longer, since it's a 40 euro DLC, but Im ok with not fighting real Meph yet. I believe that blizzard wants to introduce most of the Sanctuary to the game, so they need to postpone main battles as long as they can... or realese DLCs with more than 1 region - which obviously realistically is not gonna happen. Anyways... I want Xiansai :p
I might have missed it, But I think Eru was introduced in the new campaign. And I honestly did not feel anything for Eru in the end. I was kind off disappointed with the way they made Eru trick us. I dont care for Nahantu, we spent as you say, max 8-10 hours in this place. Its not even fully explored and the campaign is done. I mean.... why would I care for a patch of Sanctuary that I have spent least amount of time in, to be saved by a dude that is introduced as a DLC character, and seems to have godly powers as well. It broke the lore for me with this spirit borne and the over powered spirit realm. This is again the Blizzard way of introducing bad ideas, that they twist and turn to try and make sense. They worked hard on Linnith, they made a OK story for D4. With the new patch, I only see confused directions, reusing the Akkarat character as a plot mover, and introducing the spirit realm as some over powered place. What will happen in the new DLC? Will the simply forget about this spirit realm? What about heaven and angels? Its a mess! Nice video anyway. Good to see that someone cares for the Lore more than Blizzard.
It's really cool how mephisto has the shard of hate as his blade which is fitting. Especially if you go back and read the lore on the bottom of the stat card for shard of hate in D3.
Lost his spirit friend, lost his human friend, spirit realm corruption, and corruption of his home. He has or will lost just about everything but you’re right. Unearned
@@chavezm621 But he’s fully cognizant that Mephisto will never keep to any deal made. And if he does keep to the deal, it will be twisted somehow. Logically it makes no sense. In fact everything he loses that you mention above is just the beginning not the end if he makes a deal with Mephisto.
@@chavezm621 I'd not go as far to say it was unearned, but it felt too extreme for his mellow character ? Like I think him locking us in a tomb, trapping us in a location or otherwise sealing us away would have been more in line with his character.
@@WildViiexcept, what do we know of Mephisto? Is he a liar? Is he untrustworthy? Fans assume he's evil and thus can't be trusted. Maybe Mephisto will spare as promised. My great criticism is we don't know the personalities of the Evils, so many people assume.
@@TragoudistrosMPH Ok...lets review a very basic fact that is being glossed over. He's a Prime Evil. Not a Prime Good...nor a Prime Neutral...a Prime Evil. Evil entities do what is in their own selfish interest. The fact that I even have to define that for you is insane.
I want to know more about tyrael, but the issue is some what harkens back when Diablo was resurrected in Diablo 2 out of the dark wanderer. Mephisto speech to his brother, I also think that mephisto is some what the only one to ooze his essence out of the soul stone. Yes taking over Akrat body, imagine the church etc. I do feel like we need another act, I don’t know it’s some what nice to have this deeper darker tone to the cinematic. Maybe to the other act should be hinting about mephisto plane, what tyrael has been doing etc. for tyrael to come back find akrat body I don’t know I do like how the cathedral of light is like disarray and leaderless really feels sanctuary is doom and tyrael comes to save the day or offer wisdom and guidance to combat the prime and lesser evil
At the end of the base campaign, there was a short vision of what looked like Diablo‘s skull. I wonder if that was a foreshadowing of either Diablo coming back or the prime evils in general.
I like your ending idea much more. Your breakdown of the story makes it less bad, but it is still bad to me. Neyrelle is not a likable character, and I was expecting her to meet a grisly end like every other soul stone carrier has. Akarat becoming something of an Antichrist character in Sanctuary is a cool idea if Blizzard doesn't screw it up. He could cause some real chaos without revealing himself to really be Mephisto. There was just to much power of friendship crap in the story, it took me out of the dark foreboding doom that was creeping up. In the Diablo universe there is nothing but darkness and death. It's entire existence has been the eternal conflict. Sanctuary is the final piece of the puzzle so make it as brutal as it should be.
Yeah, I though how M in the form of A could twist the story: “yes, I rose again on this final day to save you all, Mefisto has been slain and now we can look to a better future”. Que the player busting in on a sermon or something “THAT MAN IS NOT YOUR GOD! Eru betrayed you all and this is Mefisto standing before you”. Seeing stunned flock and then “Akatat” says “oh no, don’t tell me Mefisto possessed YOU?!?” Turning the entire world against you, having only a few friends that knows the truth = hunt for killing the most loved and protected “God” in Sanctuary 🤷♀️ just an idea though from my gameplay through.
Tyrael gave up his angelhood, when he died ... he died as a mortal man. We know he is gone as lorath eludes to it in the trailers and campaign. (Base D4) So his aspect would be justice reborn but would lack his personality, memories and everything. Heaven is also sealed off from us. So there will be no help from the high heavens and if they do get involved I doubt we will be allies... I actually think it would've been a huge scare if rather then what we had... Toward the middle or the end we meet a stranger who sides with us. Follows us around and they are just named "Shrouded" or some such? Toward the climax when Eru goes to take the stone and we've been seperated from this individual they suddenly come crashing down behind the old man. this shadow who we've been working with slowly rising, only for it to reveal the nephalem (whomever the cannon one is) This individual then kills eru and takes the stone. For what purpose we dont know, but we could've had lorath there who then would recognize the person and call out to them... maybe shaken by the fact they are still alive. Im a little upset that the creator of the paladin order is now mephisto's meat sack... At this point they are basically telling us that we're never getting paladin. The paladin from D2 died in the core jungle zone in a side quest, showing his fate. The D3 crusader shared a similar fate and is now dead... Now they're proginator is being used as a corrupted jesus....You cant get anymore "No, and fuck you for asking for it" then that lol...
I played through the campaign and laughed-out-loud. Are the writers trying to convince me that: Eru, the revered follower of Akarat; whom throughout His instructions, witnessed Akarat's words, Lion form, and mortal flesh - lost his faith, betrays us all at the moment of victory?! Eru witnessed the triumph over evil, sending the soul stone inside the Chamber of Light where his God, Akarat, resides - killing Mephisto for good. At that point, Eru betrays us?! He opens a portal, carries Akarat's body - the most sacred of relics - to be defiled by a Devil? (NOT TO MENTIOn Akarat's spirit form died as the result of Eru allowing Mephisto in...) Come the hell on Blizzard. I should have known the writing is a lost cause after seeing the Fireside chat
Couldn't agree more. The NPC dialog gave away the ending. The quality of writing was so weak compared to the main campaign. Shouldve been half price or a free expansion.
Yes. reborn akarat will be the anti Christ and most light based followers will flock to him. So a new order/class will be introduced to stop him. Tyrael will likely be back to help with lorath.
I think Mephistopheles is going to do something similar with his brothers. Creating an unholy divine trinity. This will of course give us at least 2 more DLC’s.
Mephisto the Anti-Christ...it felt lame. I liked what you said about Baal rising (they should have ended with a tease for that) and Tyraels return but not Nyrel becoming Mephisto, instead Eru stabbing the stone into his head and being the final boss along with the herald wolf to which Mephisto escaped again and heads towards where Baal is (thus the teaser at the end).
I actually enjoyed the campaign and the expansion as a whole. Was it worth the money? Probably not but I enjoyed playing it!! Ready to face Mephisto in 10+ years!!
I had no issues with the expansion, though this is my first Diablo game, don’t know how other DLC or expansions have played out. I’m used to the ones from “Dragon Age” and “Mass Effect”, that were supplementary to the main games never really revealing too much, but adding to the mystery that made you anticipate the next main game. I felt this expansion did just that. Mephisto seems too much of a major villain for his complete defeat to be relegated to a DLC/expansion. What I do think they should have done was expanded more of Urivar story and made him a greater threat throughout this game.
Agreed that the story here lost steam - and cohesion. Thank you for putting the pieces together in this video because Blizz didn’t do a great job with that themselves.
I felt confused when Mephisto ran away with his soulstone and Neyrell was like "Oh my burden has been lifted, I'm free". Wasn't that the biggest fear the group had in the first place when they decided to imprison him?
@@NyxVellum But Mephisto ran away with the stone and the body?? Doesn’t that completely flip the situation from super safe to unimaginably dangerous? It’s like you tried to drive a truck full of bomb away from your house and you failed and now the truck is self driving away from you, but you feel relieved because you feel tired from 20 hours of driving.
@@RyanMeeks1 I’m talking about how the group acted in the epilogue part. They know they just created a bigger problem in the world and yet they are like “we good. don’t forget to let me kill him next time, haha” vibe. Why imprison Mephisto and run away to finish him once and for all in the first place if he is so manageable? Why risk so much and let so many ppl die in the process??
Personally, I didn't mind that we didn't face Mephisto directly. I mean he's one of the main three lords of hell, I feel it would feel like a let down if the moment he escapes the soulstone and he just, dies. I think they are trying to set up more of a threat and scale rather than having a figure like Anduriel or Duriel who had the briefest of appearances (Duriel even more so). I'm kind of hoping we'll get some story patches between now and the next expansion kind of following the repercussions of his schemes in Akarat's body. But I guess we'll see. As for your suggestion with Neyrelle and the soulstone, I am glad they didn't. I feel like, seeing another companion becoming a vessel to another prime evil would not have as much pay off unless it was the first time it'd happened. And I think, so far at least, they've tried to steer clear of too many callbacks to Diablo 3 and its story; and I feel that would be fairly reminiscent of Leah's whole arc. I think if that were to have happened, I think our second visit to Travincal would have been better. Imagine, after everything that was sacrificed with Ah Bulan, and just before it can save Neyrelle, Mephisto takes over? But either way; I'm curious to see what they will do with the threads, and the cliffhanger and if it will pay off for them. But I do agree to most that, I do wish there was more to it. I felt the same way in the base game, I wish we had more in terms of the story. I would have loved to have seen more of Lilith than what we got; though I have a sinking suspicion that will not be the last time that we see her.
So here’s what I will say about the Tryeal part. The whole thing with D4 is that the Heavens have left us and Hell is taking advantage of that. The reason we never see any angels besides Inarius (who is more like a demon in my eyes) is because the angels have finally lost hope within us and now we fight for ourselves, also Lilith’s soul isn’t immortal. It is mortal, she has just never died, so she is gone for good (correct me if I’m wrong by the way just be a little polite about it please thanks) but yeah that is my opinion of these thoughts and ideas but for the most part I do think they would make an interesting addition to the lore In general
The angels never lost hope tyreal never lost hope he has always been on our side and he now is the big boss in heaven (from d3 ending) I guarantee the angels are letting mephistos plan reach it's endgame before striking hard and fast
You correct how you want to with Tryal at end building Army would be great for next expansion. Do you think see angelous council next expansion and Mathias back to council ? Thank you so much watch next video . Diabolo videos are great
I think that, to me, it was important to realize that, unlike the other Diablo games, this is probably not the ONLY story expansion it is going to get. I'm not counting things that primarily just add some classes, etc. So, yes, it ends on a true cliffhanger, because it will be continued not in the next game, but in another expansion. And I NEVER expect anything resembling feeling like anything truly ended in a Diablo game unless they announce that they are ending the series. They have every reason built into the lore to give a sense of 'we have, at least for this generation, dealt with this problem, but nothing is really over' to any of the games. Angels and demons don't really die. Even Inarius, though angels do their returns differently from demons, less reforming and continuing and more 'recycling', with the new version not necessarily having the same name, memories, or sphere of influence as the previous angel. So, that includes Lilith (and there are hints of HER return in the 'burning of the blood' in our character), probably sooner rather than later. Out of the Prime Evils, I'm finding Mephisto to be the most interesting. Mostly because he, more than any of them, is the hardest to combat. Hatred, his purview, is a natural response to both rage and fear. And it is so easy to rationalize, justify, even to see hatred as 'holy' depending on the reason, and the target. But all hatred, even hatred of evil, of suffering, of the agents of that evil and suffering, can become tools of Mephisto. Which is why he thrives particularly among the most fervent and devout. His most impressive act of corruption wasn't ruffians and bandits, assassins, dealers in flesh or drugs, but paladins.And Urivar and his 'burning knights' fits that pattern perfectly. How do you fight hatred without becoming what you fight? Without strengthening it? Which finally leads to another theory of mine. Humans aren't the weakest or most trivial of beings in the Diablo universe (not talking about individuals, but the species). They are the ones who have the most potential to be the strongest. Otherwise, why would demons bother with humans? Most change has been driven by humans (both in their original form as Nephalem, as well as the current one). While I think the tuning of the World Stone had placed barriers between humans and their original power, I don't think it ever completely closed it. Where does the magic humans use come from? Especially 'divine magic'? Sister Octavia's exorcisms seemed a pretty standard quest, until you do it in VoH, AFTER Inarius is DEAD. I give some respect to this expansion by allowing the character to actually ASK about that, like 'how can you do this when Inarius is dead' as well as being willing to work with an actual declared heretic. I believe that her abilities never came from Inarius in the first place. Why would he tune down the world stone then start dispensing power to any human just for believing in him, when he held that religion mostly in contempt and only saw it as a tool to combat Triune worship? He didn't. Their powers were from their belief that they had power, but that it came from Inarius, and it simply lets them access the power they always had.
I enjoyed the plot twist, I was expecting Nyrelle to be the vessel, similar to what happened to the previous MC and what happened to Leah. but that would be too predictable. The VOH expansion is not grand enough for the price but still a great set up for the battle with Mephisto.
Wish zakarum had more role in this since their story is most related with mephisto. I'm still disapointed they've completely disregarded the paladin class. I don't think the current devs have the same vision the old ones did. they should at least consider a shield bearing class. Heck the warrior would be a big hit right now
With how the D4 story is going, I'm going to assume that Mephisto plans to go on his own journey to find/make soulstones that can be attuned to his brothers and find them worthy vessels. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't kill Mephisto until at least 2 more expansions which means we may be looking at up to 5-6 years before we actually see Diablo himself. On that note though, I do think it would be kind of metal if Diablos vessel ends up being Tyraels mortal form.
With all the plotting, manipulation and trickery this looks more like a great plan set in motion by Belial (Lord of Lies) rather than Mephisto. The concept of tricking people with the second coming of Akarat would fit Belial even more, but I think Mephisto's possessing of Akarat was due to the fact that his body has some stronger spirit/power that would make him a great host for M and that with him taken over the "light" will fade and make Sanctuary more vurnable.
My issue is the implication that Akarat is the strongest vessel a Prime Evil has taken, which is untrue. Leiah, even if the story was hamfisted, was the vessel of ALL Prime Evils, and thus was capable of containing more power, and utilizing more power, than Akarat. I also find the lack of actual conclusion to have been... lackluster, and that it almost feels like they did the expac to add the new class, with the story an afterthought, almost like an extended Season story instead of a true expac story like Reaper of Souls or Lord of Destruction. To fix the story, I would have had it be a proper 3 parter, where the first part was finding Neyrelle, before she gets to Travincal, and that part is where Urivar comes into play, and is why she takes a drastic step during the mid point of the second part, and seals herself away in Travincal. It is during the first "part" of that second arc or part or whatever, that we find out that Akarat is helping her, and we get a more complete picture that the Spirit, the Body, and the Soul of Akarat are separate parts. The second part of the second half, once Travincal is sealed, is figuring out WHY she sealed it away, and that is where Eru's Betrayal happens, and you find out that it is because... Neyrelle had found where Akarat's Body is, and that is under Travincal, deeper within, beyond the reach of Mephisto. But since she is back there, with knowledge, Mephisto knows, and so you are now racing against Mephisto to get back into Travincal. All the while, during the Second Part and Third Part, you get glimpses of the Soul of Akarat, and a mysterious figure, helping guide you, while the Spirit of Akarat gets corrupted slowly. The expac ends with Akarat's Body taken by Mephisto, while you fight Mephisto Spirit of Akarat, and you have the cool cinematic of Mephisto's possession of the body, like this one... but the final cutscene actually happens once you get full Renown in Nahantu.. which is that the Soul of Akarat is in council with Tyrael and Auriel, who looks injured. They talk about the coming War. With a cut to a legion of Angels... and Imperius, with an overlay of Mephisto's face, showing that the Age of Hatred has consequences... for everyone, including Mephisto.
So easy to fix it in so many ways.... My idea: Lorath ,who never showed up even tho he was the narrator in the original, still the narrator even tho he wasnt there (maybe the wanderer facetimed him), tries to contact Tyrael by reaching the high heavens and somehow sends a message about a rampant mephisto that gets to Imperius. Imperius all mad comes looking for Neyrelle instead of Urivar (randomly generated NPC imo, maybe have Urivar too cuz the boss battle was cool. We lack content anyway.) And Mephisto runs free after Neyrelle dies, cuz i dont get how a teen can resist the stone (Akarat my ass) when Aiden couldnt. Let Mephisto be "the stepping stone" for future expansions while we finally fight Imperius which is a great fan service to everyone who played D3 (not me cuz D2>D3). By doing this, we get enough tragedy to feel like a diablo game, the heir of perdition mythic item makes sense, Lorath is part of the story (maybe he dies when Imperius comes from the heavens), the cash grab for the xpac is justified and we get a great unexpected boss fight that has some impact. I just came up with everything while ranting about it.
I agree that I expected more story on this expansion since it leaves u with a lot of questions. But Neyrelle stabbing herself as you mention as a possible scenario, would've been too predictful, too classic, the twist about Akarat and his body it leaves us with a sense of dread, that no matter what we did, it didn't matter in the end and things just got worse. Honestly a good bad ending for now, and we are just about to experience Mephisto's Era of Hatred in the following seasons. Next one I bet we will face Mephisto in Diablo IV: Age of Hatred maybe? And finally come to a Diablo IV: Lords of Hell which would end in an all out battle with all prime evils? Who knows!
The way Inarius was involved in Diablo 4 was really badly done, imho. The story for Diablo after Diablo 2 LOD was simply not of the same quality and took a nosedive with Diablo 4. They introduced and killed him off too fast, the way he died also was really disappointing. I hope that another angel appears or Heaven opens its gates so that some echo of the Light is still seen to remain on Sanctuary. With Akarat’s body now being corrupted by Mephisto, it does open really interesting possibilities about what’s going to happen next, although the expansion did seem pointless given the way it ended…
I can't help but make the connection with Diablo the lord of terror...Akarat kept saying he was afraid, he was filled with fear and with Mephisto ruling and all the chaos that Sanctuary went through I couldn't imagine a better scene for Diablo to come back. I don't know i feel like fear played such a huge role throughout the entire game and after all Diablo is the name of the game
Cliffhangers are good when done and is written right (you feel involve and related to the characters, and you chase / yearn for more) If you start to have thoughts about Blizzard doing this to get more DLC money, then the cliffhanger failed. VoH is poorly written, characters are sanitised and bland. At this point you care more about villain than anything else. The only thing it did right was to continue the gothic, gory and dark setting, which is what is still saving the Diablo franchise.
Always keep in mind the Heir of Perdition helm stating ''+200% Damage to Angels and Demons''... we're not done with the VoH story. There is no way the next chapter is next year (copium?)
All I know is that the main character in D3 was extremely powerful and solo A full power Diablo. Our main character now in D4 has Lilith blood 🩸 bonded to him so he too will eventually reawakening his nephilim powers and become overpowered specifically if Tyreal comes back as arch angel of wisdoms and grants a blessing. Lilith’s original goal was to restore the nephilim, end the eternal war by destroying both angels and demons using the nephilim. I’m not worried about the future holds I know our character is going to become OP
The story for Vessel of Hatred is so badly written and not in line with what we got from previous Diablo games....Vessel of Hatred story is just DEI garbage.
I'm only half way (at severed connection of neyrell to the SS)into the expac story and I already regret buying it. It's the same damn stupid decisions that make zero sense. The player character is treated as a dumb hick who is just there to be used as meat shield and smash. This whole save neyrell thing was annoying to begin with and based on this video we didn't accomplish anything by the end of this expac.
Interesting opinion, I actually dont mind where we ended I would have liked more in the middle and less power of friendship I am with you dialoge. The best would have been going deeper into the origins of the zakarum and how they actually werent doing what akarat wanted. This would also let us spend more time with Urivar as an antagonist as I really liked his character and have more grim darkness in the story. Also I would have liked to learn way more aboutnthe spirit realm, what is its connection to trag oul and the true nature of the light.
Couldn't agree with you more. Despite the weight of the ending, it felt like "act 2" of a story rather than an epilogue. But the same feels true for Mephisto himself. I love Diablo lore, but I can't help but feel like the Primes are so busy playing 4D chess, they forgot the point of the game at all. Mephisto taking sanctuary still just doesn't seem like the end goal considering every failure is just "part of the plan". It's the character of Aizen from Bleach all over again. As much as I love a schemer, sometimes a failure needs to be a failure and set back rather than just another ploy. Else, not only will their defeat feel empty, but also like some sort of uh...diablo ex machina?
I think it felt rushed and anticlimactic atm moment is because it’s leading up to something very epic and we will probably see and need 2-3 more dlcs to really get what’s coming…..it’s obvious Diablo and Baal are coming as well
So my question in all of this which no one seems to talk about is that in part 2. You destroy the soul stones in the hellforge which was said to be the only way that the souls of the prime evils could be killed for good and we destroyed the stones of mephisto and diablo. So how excatly did everyone come back? It was never said or explained at all. Part 3 came and it just was like somehow diablo and his brothers returned and they are in thr black soulstone. Did blizzard just forget the events of diablo 2?
I have several problems with the presentation of the campaign, not the story that unfolded (don't really mind the ending, it was obvious that we will pay for new DLC :D). First of all, for the new players - Akarat is nobody, how would they relate to this character and realize the significance of him, without being presented in better way (with similar video posted in the official diablo channel). Next thing is the voice of our actor and the intonation itself - is just absurd, I feel stupid when hearing lines from my character - sounds like a robot. There was even a line where he admits he is basically the like some "bouncer" and Neyrelle and the others are the "brain" and they just point at some demon and we blast him. Again, like the previous example - unrelatable character, simply because I don't want to be the dumb part of the party. Additional examples from the original D4 campaign - I am playing freaking druid and Yorick is reading runes and opening doors instead of me doing it. Thats one, but what about the difference between our lines and behaviour and Inarious ones when we first met him. So the conclusion here for me is that we had similar problems in original campaign too, but they were overshadowed by really having a bit better storytelling and mystery around Lilith and what she is planning, while now - we just know that Mephisto wants to res his brothers and as you said in the video, nothing epic happened for the player to be satisfied in the end. Which leads me to the last problem - boss fights. For example - Urivar died like a dog, I expected much more from his character too.
you missed the BIGGEST and Last line.... "and now the wolf raises 'Anu' " who was Anu? it was the God that split himself BEFORE Ridding himself of all evil
While I do enjoy the theme of Diablo always being that the villian wins in the end we do need a win, its likely the next expansion will be the moment we defeat Mephisto for good, but it wont be without a cost. I suspect if we had to give it a name and I think this makes the most sense the nest expansion will be "Wrath of Heaven" since A false prophet claiming that heaven is doing all this would piss off a certain archangel of valor and bring him to sanctuary. I suspect we will see Imperius get a moment to be a genuine badass and wipe the floor with Mephisto, but in turn, the darkness in Imperius will be awakened by Diablo, finally bringing the darker side of the angels wrathful side full circle. We basically get to fight an angel at the end of expansion 2, rather than yet another demon.
Anyone else think our character will awaken as a nephilim? We've got the blood of lilith already, and we got the blessing of inarius (i think). So maybe we awaken next expansion and get something like the cube ? 🤔
I think Inarius was erased from the memory bank of Heaven since he was given to Hell as a prisoner since Hell and Heaven makes a truce when the Creation of Sanctuary was discovered, that's why he cannot hear the Lightsong of the Crystal Arch anymore.
Guys it’s a live game. This is uncharted territory for Diablo and let’s be honest, these people are working their butts off. I think all they needed was a really gruesome ending that leads into the chapter and we would have been good. Everything we saw up until this point was dark and this kinda seemed womp, womp in comparison to all the ads
Since demons keep “respawning” back in hell I was thinking instead of just making the soul stones their prison why not make the realm they rule over be their prison? It would be poetic and ironic 😊
The way I want it is Neyrelle stabs us with the soul stone, and we become freaking Mephisto, and the world is fucked. But seriously, I was happy for Neyrelle to be saved and not end up just like what happened to Aidan because it would be redundant. But what I wish too is that they should have never made Akarat end up like that as if killing Rathma offscreen wasn't enought 🤣. They should have instead used the Nephalem of D3 as the new host and made up stories about how it came down to it. Blizzard is good at making up BS non-sensical but entertaining stories anyway.
I think it could of been just a bit longer(Another act). I'm not sure if Neyrelle should of died or not. I think I'm fine with her surviving. Don't need a repeat of D2.
Funny you mention Jesus because Akara look like Jesus. Judging be the ending I think Mephisto would be the new Central Main Antagonist on future Diablo games, so Diabli himself has to sit back on his own series! XD
Neyrelle smashing the soulstone to her head is so cliche that its my first guess. The plot twist that Mephisto opted for Akkarat is better, considering your Jesus analogy. Were all sick and tired of smashing soulstones in our head, smashing soul stones with hammers and having demon love children hidden somewhere. Old plot devices.
I like your ending and had it come out in the early 2000's I believe that's the direction blizzard would have gone. The problem is it's shortsighted in a modern always online money grabbing business. There was never an intention for VoH to resolve the story the way previous diablo expansions did because this is the first of many expansions. We won't get a story resolution ever. They'll keep dragging out the story for annual expansions until the player count drops so low it's no longer profitable to do so. At which point the game switches to maintenance mode before eventually being turned off completely.
I liked this ending more than repeating the events of Diablo 2 and 3 again of the soul stone holder predictably becoming a prime evil. The problem for me was it was less satisfying. Tragic endings can be satisfying, but this didn't do it.
So the ending clearly tells me that we'll be getting not one, but multiple dlcs for D4 if they want to finish the story but keep the currrent, kinda slow pace of it. If that's true then I'm kinda torn. On the one hand, I like the idea that the game will be supported with new content for a couple years to come, on the other hand I dislike the idea of having to pay 40$ every so often to keep playing a full price game. THen again, I'm looking at my total expanses on the F2P games Poe, LoL and Warframe and realize that 40$ every year would be BY FAR the cheapest of them all.
Hey Guys! I need to save my land in the age of hatred, from the prime evil that outright can't care anyhow about humanity as a whole. And I will do that, by creating the age of hatred! Eru's confirmed as an accelerationist.
I really agree with you on the ending. While yes, having Mephisto return in Akarat's body is a cool idea, the rest of the ending was too... anticlimactic. We didn't have any big victories. We just kept failing. Maybe we're meant to feel that way?
it is just bad writing. It's all about players paying for more dlcs.
"Meant too feel that way" = coping
I yelled THATS IT!? when I killed that stupid dog
@@marceelino With the mythic dealing 400% damage to ''Angels and Demons'' I saw something like this coming.
If they really lean into the prophecy fragment that said Sanctuary is doomed, and that's what happens in the series, then okay. Otherwise, this entire DLC only mattered to Neyrelle. If we had done nothing, or if NEYRELLE had done nothing, right from the end of D4 core, it would have ended up exactly here with Mephisto being reborn, with our blood tainted by Hatred, and with the other prime evils on the horizon. We just treaded water for a whole DLC, which if they're trying to make the point (which some of the dialogue expressly states) that fear and hatred are in all of us and therefore Mephisto and Diablo can never really be defeated, only delayed... I doubt Blizzard in its currrent form has anywhere near the balls to really lean in to that and have us lose, lose, lose, expac after expac, until the world ends.
@@justinthejam no, not coping. That could be a intentional part of the story telling. To feel what these characters rea feeling. I don't like it either. I went right to my diablo friends and ranted about how i really didnt like the ending and how it made the rest of the story up to then rather pointless and frustrating.
Mephisto has done a Ted Talk and produced a full DIY UA-cam series on how to escape a soul stone and gain a new vessel at this point. He's in the process of building his Udemy course on it.
The Prime Evils have a YT channel where they explain how to commit the most heinous of crimes would definitely get a lot of views 😂
Sounds good, will check the course when it's available. Could really use a new vessel right now. Current one is too old, weak and lazy.
Hello, my name is Diablo. I'm a Prime Evil, and this is my guide to committing the ultimate terror, TAX EVASION.
Even though the story was not bad, it felt really empty and rushed. Urivar started like incredible new villain, and he basically died in some random dungeon like all those bandits or Tomb Lords. Eru's betrayal was too easy to predict (however I expected him taking the stone and stabbing himself into forehead). I also didn't like the "power of friendship" they forced on us near the end.
Exactly, I felt there was no threat. Urivar was amazing but disappeared like a fart in the wind. Mephisto wasn't interested. The story followed a very classic road and didn't offer something new besides the interesting plot twist at the end.
The story breached into a high fantasy side with Akarat who's all rainbows and glitter, the ideology of Nahantu people who are very open to newcomers and helping strangers no matter what. Also the power of friendship idea that was prolonged throughout of the whole game kind of lit it and made the story be not so scary, nor threatening.
ALSO, why the ffuck is Prava behaving like she's some sensible pansy? She was the one who put Vigo and many others in that torture iron maiden armor, why is she so scared of Urivar burning alive a sinner? She was pro burning them on a pyre in d4. I hope Belial is playing a trick, that might save the story for me.
Yeah, to me, _Vessel of Hatred_ had a nice story and good ideas, but it felt rushed and devoid of substance. Devoid of feeling. Sure, the characters aren't bad but they felt... superficial. We were meant to related with them, not see them as mere plot points.
I mean, just look at Lilith in the base game. Or Tyrael, a freakin' angel. Or Leah. They felt _real._
Rathma's prophecy will come true in the next expansion: The spear of Light piercing the hatred's Heart. Spear of Light = new holy warrior class, hatred's Heart = core of the Hatred, Mephisto.
From what I can tell the prophecy has been completed. It started from the Vessel of Hatred’s beginning with the protagonists getting stabbed (hatred aka Lilith’s blood is inside of him and thus hatred crawling out of their corpse’s mouth)
A father burning the children and a mother bringing a new age…. That’s mother prava and the soldier (forgot his name) actions.
A spear of light piercing hatred’s heart…. My current speculation is that it refers to the battle against the massive wolf monster near the end
And the ending part fits the “and he who was set in chains is freed”
Yes, and you could interpret the prophecy through Vessel of Hatred too.
"A spear of light" (Akarat's manifestation) "piercing Hatred's heart" (he goes inside Mephisto during the fight to weaken him) "and he who was bound in chains" (Mephisto) "was set free" (by possessing Akarat's body).
@@Orikon25 yeah that part of possession is what I meant… but I do find it funny how both of them went inside one another XD
Bring me daddy Crusader
That part of the prophecy already happened.
Spear of light (Inarius) will pierce hatred heart (Rathma), and then the one who was çpcled woçç be set free (mephisto)
Inarius killing rathma is the catalyst for the story. Lilith may be a a hateful being, but it was clear she loved her son very much.
I'm really enjoying the tone the dlc sets for the story right now nothing we do feels like it matters in the grand scheme of things. Really puts an emphasis on just how small and corruptable humanity is in comparison to the demons and angels
Eru Sounds like that Barb elder boss in D2, making a deal with the devil, and of course at the end, all in vain. Never know demons will ever keep their promises.
Because they don’t demons do what demons want if it means reneging on a deal so be it
Also, Mephisto can 'technically' keep his end of the bargain while still stabbing Eru in the back. If I remember correctly he did say "I will not destroy your land' or to a similar effect. So, all he has to do is have Baal or Diablo bring ruin to his land once he helps revive them.
In the end, a demon always has a technical loophole to negate a bargain or honor a deal in its true spirit.
@@ASymbolicSymbol a deal is a deal and if I was the Kevin guy from dorkly I would be going Gordon Ramsey savage about him breaking his end of the deal
@@crawford4140 Yeah, but to you and me, a 'deal is a deal' usually means that I will honor my word in the truest spirit of the deal. But to a demon like Mephisto, it's just a word game he is playing to trick people. It's not like he hasn't any real love for humanity or will lose any sleep over them dying. To the Demons and even most angels, we are just tools to be used by them for their own ends.
@@ASymbolicSymbol that will come back to bite him in the ass one day
Lilith coming back cuz of our blood connection? Maybe?
I miss her in the game
@@vladimirdaudier6253 I miss her original design.🤣
@@rena4050 The different colored eyes are silly. Original trailer they were just steel blue and much more otherwordly.
Demons reform. Angels are replaced by new versions. She'll be back eventually...
Not going to happen because diablo 5 is going to want to have fresh characters that we haven’t seen in a while
I really wonder if Diablo and/or Baal are going to so willingly go along with whatever Mephisto is planning and aiming for. If they show back up... might it be possible that they somehow interfere with Mephisto's plans, or try to use his plans to achieve their own ends? After all, the Prime Evils are known to have rivalries with one another, and though they do sometimes work together, they don't have any hard sworn allegiances to one another. They just work together when it's convenient for all sides to do so. If I am wrong on this, please correct me, Nyx.
Good video. Enjoyed it!
Yes asmodan and belial kinda make it clear.
I think diablo might, just let things play out. We know he planned everything... even D3 basically... I am 100% sure he has machinations for this and is prepared... the dude is demonic batman.
@@d4mephisto evil is its own worst enemy
I wouldn’t mind being Diablo’s vessel… so long as he at least let’s me live during the process…. And be conscious (I’m an artist so the idea of being inflicted with terror and fear is a masochist way to have Diablo as a muse to draw pieces of art depicting terror)
I think for the most part the brothers are pretty well united except for when they are winning. The only time I can think of when they betrayed each other was when they almost won the Eternal Conflict. Even after that event, they sought to join forces during Diablo 2, with Diablo returning to Hell to rally their forces & Baal going to Arreat to claim the Worldstone while Mephisto stayed behind to stall the heroes.
I was reading Rathma's Prophecy & there's one key line here that makes it interesting: "as Hatred’s sun set and that of Terror and Destruction dawned." I get the feeling that we are presently in the Hatred stage of the prophecy, & that once Mephisto is defeated, Diablo & Baal will return.
Was curious to see how they would make the girl running away with the stone make sense. They did not make it make sense.
😂
Well when we was in front of Mephisto at the end of the original campaign, we decided to entrap Mephisto instead of Lilith which would make sense, get rid of the greater evil.
So now we’re playing a game of keep away from Lilith cause Mephisto is her prize so why stick around to give her the opportunity to seize Mephisto? We the player stay to finish off Lilith otherwise she would just chase Neyrelle. So we stay to kill her and neyrelle takes off with the soul stone unknowing that Mephisto was already manipulating her. So then she takes off on her own when we were supposed to meet up after the deed was done.
sadly this. She deserved to die for that alone then blames the wanderer for becoming corrupted nobody told her to runaway.
"Decisions the hero made in Hell."
I'm pretty sure I wasn't allowed to make ANY decisions in Hell xD
Because I 100% would NOT have killed Lilith, I never thought her death was necessary :P
I gave the expansion a 8.5/10. I would improve more character building like vanilla D4 did with Lorath. It was hard to deeply care about some characters introduced. The reoccurring theme of hatred got a bit tacky when some of the clickable were called piles of hatred lol. I thought the expansion was fun but $40 for 12 hours of story content is out of reach for some.
I can’t help to think more acts will be introduce this coming year. It’s becoming more episodic than expansion
Of course. That’s why they lowered it to lvl. 60. It will wow. With multiple expansion. Probably like one, where we met Mephisto. Another one for Diablo and another one for Baal….
@@leedex I think the writing was quite bad - I wish Blizzard would return to it's grimdark roots.
@@lemonjelly They dont know how to write dark fantasy anymore. This story structure is pretty much high fantasy.
@@Peagaporto High fantasy has an air of elegance and gravitas. This is mid fantasy
@@Peagaportohigh fantasy by dictionary definition means a newly created world.
That can be any tone, grim or happy...
What do you mean?
I think we are building towards a second sin war and I do agree we should have gotten a bit more story wise but killing off Mephisto would take us a step back from redoing the sin wars (which I think will be sick)
Remember the dude from D2 who held Baals Soul stone? YOU are that guy now
I have a different feeling from you about the ending. I thought it was perfect for this expansion called Vessel of Hatred.
Basically, Mephisto never wanted to have Neyrelle, he only wanted her to lead him to Akarat's tomb. What more of a perfect vessel of hatred than a wolf disguised as the lamb of light ? We litterally have Dark Jesus being the bringer of hate in the near future.
We'll get our "real" ending in the conclusion of Diablo 4, like the expansion of Diablo 2 that brought us "true victory".
Even so the spirit of the Diablo series is that there is no true victory against evil, for evil is eternal and we can only repel it for a while, like a candle burning bright in the darkness before it goes out.
See someone who understands diablo games everyone else wants to win but don't understand you never truly win haha
Wrapped in the guise of man shall he walk amongst the innocent, and hatred shall consume they that dwell upon the Earth
I didn't have high anticipations for the campaign of VoH and I was still very disappointed. The expansion campaign is just so horrible, I don't know what the writers were thinking.
Neyrelle shouldn't have survived. She is an annoying character, nobody likes her, and all she does is making bad decisions and then whine about them. What really made my blood boil was in the ending when the player character says to Neyrelle "Promise me this; When we get to fight Mephisto, I will deal the killing blow." Like, how could a mere human with one hand even kill a Prime Evil?! If it's so easy, Urivar could kill all Prime Evils and keep Sanctuary save too. I had the same idea in mind as you said in the video, Neyrelle impaling herself with the soul stone to set Mephisto free, basically pulling off a Leah 2.0, would have been a good conclusion to her arc.
That brings me to the next point; Mephisto not being the final boss of the expansion. Me and all of my friends were expecting an awesome final fight with Mephisto at the end of the campaign. But all we got are some no-name boss encounters. The dog looked cool but is still very disappointing for a final fight of a content phase. I unironically liked Urivar the most out of all new characters. His fight was cool, the monologue in his dying cutscene was dope. But other than that there was no moment or fight with a memorable moment. Mephisto not being the final boss of the expansion isn't necessarily bad story writing, it's just disappointing from the player's perspective. It's so obvious that they attempt to stretch the story out as much as possible to sell as many expansions as possible.
The part of the story where the player character gets stabbed and is bleeding out in the river is stupid. Not to mention that it should not be so easy to be backstab someone as powerful as the character, or that anybody should have died from blood loss in the river. The main reason I think it's stupid is, that they missed a big opportunity there. Imagine if the player actually died in the river and went to the Spirit Realm, being trapped there. We met Eru in the Spirit Realm who guided us out of there. If you need a plot point to where resurrection is possible, use the Lilith is inside the character thing or whatever - which by the way was mentioned multiple times during the story without any impact or effect, the writers just wanted to make us look cool and edgy.
Introduction of multiple boring, one-dimensional characters and missing out on existing, established characters. We literally got no demons, no angels, no Horadrim. Like I said I thought Urivar was the most interesting one. Having Neyrelle kill Maka by accident was a bad attempt on creating an emotional scene, which isn't possible when the player character has no emotional connection to that character. Imagine it would have been Lorath instead of Maka. It would have been sad and tragic and would have had an emotional impact on the story. The only point against this would be that Eru wouldn't have hated Neyrelle as much since he didn't know Lorath.
The world setting is also off - it's supposed to be gruesome, desperate, depressing. However, many NPCs we need are unfoundedly optimistic and ready to help out without question. One would assume that if you were to live in such a sh!ithole of world, you would be more than sceptical towards strangers. The dynamic between Lorath and the player is an example for a reasonable development between two characters. The writers just created some characters as plot devices without any depth behind it, it's just lazy writing. Most of the dialog in the story was simply superfluous because it brought little new insight or had no significant impact on what was happening. It mainly consists of whining about how bad things are, or one-liners designed to make you look edgy and cool, or that we can do anything as long as we stick together with the power of friendship. This doesn't match at all with the gritty world setting they tried to set up for years now, which was originally pretty good. I also think the zone of Nahantu itself is very well made, which looks absolutely gorgeous and is surprisingly diversified for a jungle area. The art teams at Blizzard have been knowing their craft for decades now.
Ultimately, most people don't play an a-rpg for the story, but when I think of how much time, money and work went into creating the story and marketing it with live-action trailers and so on, I just would have expected for so much more. For most gamers the campaign is whatever, do it once and be done with it, but for gamers who care a little about story in a game this is a slap in the face.
Dude I was so mad when my character got jumped and stabbed on the bridge, it felt like a massively contrived way to bring us into the new area, your idea of being fished out of the spirit realm and resurrected is way cooler, you could even make it so that saving us damages Eru and as he becomes weaker it's easier for Mephisto to take advantage at the end.
Urivar (hope that's the right spelling) didn't have a big enough presence in the story, the church is supposedly hunting Neyrelle but their hardly in the new region you more or less wipe them out as soon as you encounter them. I don't see why their presence alone would push Neyrelle to flee so far into the unknown. Unless I overlooked something I thought she was only called into Nahantu once she was there ? or is the implication of the story that Akarat had reached out earlier and pulled her there ?
Ohh it just made me mad, I get it we're not really playing D4 for the gripping narrative but I like good stories and I feel that they could have cooked up something awesome and seemingly deliver a bit of a flat & dull story.
Was thinking the same exact thing
You highlighted what pissed me off about the story. The cliche story road, the high fantasy feel of it all, that wasted potential, the edgy Nyrelle who is more pestering than a fly during summer.
The friendliness of the Nahantu people killed the dark mood the visuals and music created. It felt too d3. The world felt too lovely and warm for a world threatened by hatred. I imagined if Mephisto walked the earth he would make the people hateful, violent, envious, paranoid. But he didn't came close to Lilith, when she was on Sanctuary we could see her influence tainting the people.
Your ideas of the spirit realm is really great, I wish we would have seen the spirit real in this way and not the cliche way it was presented.
I couldn't take Akarat seriously, I couldn't. He felt like a rip off of a wow character or something.
I was left speechless at the 360 degree change of character for Prava who in Voh is a sensible pansy who can't stand the sight of suffering, let alone blood. It's a total clash with the Prava we saw in D4, she was dogmatic, wild, fanatic, iron willed, ambitious and had no remorse or mercy. She put Vigo and many others in that iron maiden armor thing, she dragged an army through hell because Inarius wanted to feel special, she had the cathedral hunt and kill the heretics. But in d4 voh she's like, "don't scream it hurts my feelings. The power of the light shall prevail, we are forever friends."
I wish I could have seen more of Urivar and even the schism that was to take place in the church. A power struggle is hinted, but in the end nothing happens in the church. It was the only interesting thing for me in d4 voh, but the story didn't show anything of the power struggle between Prava and Urivar. Hell I wish we could have had the opportunity to be part in coup organized by Prava who wants to take back her power.
And it would have been more emotional if maybe Urivar forced us to hunt Neyrelle and bring him the soulstone, because he captured Lorath and threatens to kill him if we don't obey.
Also the cocky know it all attitude of our character pissed me off so much. It was the pinnacle of edgy main character syndrome.
It makes sense that we didn't stop Mephisto this time. A Jungle Monk isn't strong enough, only a Paladin of the Light can stop Mephisto, with something like a Hammer, that may be blessed.
A vengeful knight that juggles two resource types: purity and corruption. If spiritborn is monk+witch doctor then the upcoming character is crusader+demon hunter.
Bro our main character in D3 was extremely powerful he solo a full power Diablo. Our main character in D4 with Lilith blood 🩸 bonded to him so gradually over time he will reawaken his nephilim powers specifically if in the future tyreal comes back as arch angel of wisdom and grants him a blessing our main character will Become OP
A paladin or faith based class will be the only thing that makes me play this game again I stopped after the first season
i believe we'll get free storycontent update but maybe i am just coping.
Maybe through the seasons
No way they will do that. They cut the story short just to sell us another expansion.
I mean there is incentive to drip-feed more story through seasons, it keeps players engaged and gives them more reasons to play. Big copium here as well since story felt too short@@Sirawit5555
@@Sirawit5555 this
@@Sirawit5555but there’s also no reason why they can’t use the seasons to tease next expansion story
I feel like people stabbing theirselves with the sole stone is a little over done, also this was the first time that the holder of a stone did not die from corruption
100% agree
Awesome video! And pretty cool ideas at the end. Regarding destroying Lilith - not sure, but read it somewhere, that she cannot simply be reborn in hell like other demons, because she is connected to the void by now rather then burning hells. Got a question to those who played VoH (I couldnt play it yet myself) - didnt Mephisto teas us to join him against his brothers? Those 3 work together only out of necessity, but generally speaking, non of them want to share glory, right? Meph might want all the spoils for himself
He did mention his brother's! They'll be back.
Love your breakdown of the VoH campaign! Dark Lore Dash gave up on D4 lore and in tern, lost my interest in his channel. So glad I bumped into yours!
Welcome aboard!
If Blizzard don't finish Mephisto story and add a proper boss fight in a future season I don't see myself getting future expansions. If they draw out the story just to sell more overpriced expansions, I can't get behind that decision.
The ending was quite unexpected but its great for me. If i cwould make a wild guess for the next expansion i would see a part of the forces of heaven also being corrupted by "akkarat" leading to a total chaos where baal is reawakened. That happens because the the gates of heaven had been closed so long that they are unable to see the forces of hell influencing humankind. Fightinng angels and deomons would make sesne there for me.
You're supposed to feel manipulated and betrayed. Wether by purchasing the dlc or the fact Mephisto did what he does best. Long game execution. Vessel of Hatred is exactly what happened.
I agree, that the campaigh should be longer, since it's a 40 euro DLC, but Im ok with not fighting real Meph yet. I believe that blizzard wants to introduce most of the Sanctuary to the game, so they need to postpone main battles as long as they can... or realese DLCs with more than 1 region - which obviously realistically is not gonna happen. Anyways... I want Xiansai :p
I liked it, weaves a cool story and progression on the world. The next addition to the story could be really cool.
Yes. But the next expension need to add the paladin.
I might have missed it, But I think Eru was introduced in the new campaign. And I honestly did not feel anything for Eru in the end. I was kind off disappointed with the way they made Eru trick us. I dont care for Nahantu, we spent as you say, max 8-10 hours in this place. Its not even fully explored and the campaign is done. I mean.... why would I care for a patch of Sanctuary that I have spent least amount of time in, to be saved by a dude that is introduced as a DLC character, and seems to have godly powers as well.
It broke the lore for me with this spirit borne and the over powered spirit realm. This is again the Blizzard way of introducing bad ideas, that they twist and turn to try and make sense. They worked hard on Linnith, they made a OK story for D4. With the new patch, I only see confused directions, reusing the Akkarat character as a plot mover, and introducing the spirit realm as some over powered place. What will happen in the new DLC? Will the simply forget about this spirit realm? What about heaven and angels? Its a mess!
Nice video anyway. Good to see that someone cares for the Lore more than Blizzard.
I prefer the ending we got versus the one you described, but perfectly fine video besides that!
It's really cool how mephisto has the shard of hate as his blade which is fitting. Especially if you go back and read the lore on the bottom of the stat card for shard of hate in D3.
Eru’s betrayal felt very unearned. It felt like a narrative fiat to justify the “hey guys it’s a franchise there will be another game” mentality.
Lost his spirit friend, lost his human friend, spirit realm corruption, and corruption of his home. He has or will lost just about everything but you’re right. Unearned
@@chavezm621 But he’s fully cognizant that Mephisto will never keep to any deal made. And if he does keep to the deal, it will be twisted somehow. Logically it makes no sense. In fact everything he loses that you mention above is just the beginning not the end if he makes a deal with Mephisto.
@@chavezm621 I'd not go as far to say it was unearned, but it felt too extreme for his mellow character ? Like I think him locking us in a tomb, trapping us in a location or otherwise sealing us away would have been more in line with his character.
@@WildViiexcept, what do we know of Mephisto?
Is he a liar? Is he untrustworthy?
Fans assume he's evil and thus can't be trusted.
Maybe Mephisto will spare as promised.
My great criticism is we don't know the personalities of the Evils, so many people assume.
@@TragoudistrosMPH Ok...lets review a very basic fact that is being glossed over. He's a Prime Evil. Not a Prime Good...nor a Prime Neutral...a Prime Evil. Evil entities do what is in their own selfish interest. The fact that I even have to define that for you is insane.
I want to know more about tyrael, but the issue is some what harkens back when Diablo was resurrected in Diablo 2 out of the dark wanderer. Mephisto speech to his brother, I also think that mephisto is some what the only one to ooze his essence out of the soul stone. Yes taking over Akrat body, imagine the church etc. I do feel like we need another act, I don’t know it’s some what nice to have this deeper darker tone to the cinematic. Maybe to the other act should be hinting about mephisto plane, what tyrael has been doing etc. for tyrael to come back find akrat body I don’t know I do like how the cathedral of light is like disarray and leaderless really feels sanctuary is doom and tyrael comes to save the day or offer wisdom and guidance to combat the prime and lesser evil
all this focus on Lilith, Inarius and Mephisto, most important is, Where is the game own title, Diablo?
There is other prime evils you know that right they can't just rename the game Mephisto or baal disblo is just a title
he'll return in D5
At the end of the base campaign, there was a short vision of what looked like Diablo‘s skull. I wonder if that was a foreshadowing of either Diablo coming back or the prime evils in general.
I like your ending idea much more. Your breakdown of the story makes it less bad, but it is still bad to me. Neyrelle is not a likable character, and I was expecting her to meet a grisly end like every other soul stone carrier has. Akarat becoming something of an Antichrist character in Sanctuary is a cool idea if Blizzard doesn't screw it up. He could cause some real chaos without revealing himself to really be Mephisto. There was just to much power of friendship crap in the story, it took me out of the dark foreboding doom that was creeping up. In the Diablo universe there is nothing but darkness and death. It's entire existence has been the eternal conflict. Sanctuary is the final piece of the puzzle so make it as brutal as it should be.
Yeah, I though how M in the form of A could twist the story: “yes, I rose again on this final day to save you all, Mefisto has been slain and now we can look to a better future”.
Que the player busting in on a sermon or something “THAT MAN IS NOT YOUR GOD! Eru betrayed you all and this is Mefisto standing before you”.
Seeing stunned flock and then “Akatat” says “oh no, don’t tell me Mefisto possessed YOU?!?” Turning the entire world against you, having only a few friends that knows the truth = hunt for killing the most loved and protected “God” in Sanctuary 🤷♀️ just an idea though from my gameplay through.
Tyrael gave up his angelhood, when he died ... he died as a mortal man. We know he is gone as lorath eludes to it in the trailers and campaign. (Base D4) So his aspect would be justice reborn but would lack his personality, memories and everything.
Heaven is also sealed off from us. So there will be no help from the high heavens and if they do get involved I doubt we will be allies... I actually think it would've been a huge scare if rather then what we had... Toward the middle or the end we meet a stranger who sides with us. Follows us around and they are just named "Shrouded" or some such? Toward the climax when Eru goes to take the stone and we've been seperated from this individual they suddenly come crashing down behind the old man.
this shadow who we've been working with slowly rising, only for it to reveal the nephalem (whomever the cannon one is) This individual then kills eru and takes the stone. For what purpose we dont know, but we could've had lorath there who then would recognize the person and call out to them... maybe shaken by the fact they are still alive.
Im a little upset that the creator of the paladin order is now mephisto's meat sack... At this point they are basically telling us that we're never getting paladin.
The paladin from D2 died in the core jungle zone in a side quest, showing his fate.
The D3 crusader shared a similar fate and is now dead...
Now they're proginator is being used as a corrupted jesus....You cant get anymore "No, and fuck you for asking for it" then that lol...
Poe2 is right around the corner so don't fret we will get our holy class even if it's in another game I've been done with d4 since season 1
I played through the campaign and laughed-out-loud. Are the writers trying to convince me that: Eru, the revered follower of Akarat; whom throughout His instructions, witnessed Akarat's words, Lion form, and mortal flesh - lost his faith, betrays us all at the moment of victory?!
Eru witnessed the triumph over evil, sending the soul stone inside the Chamber of Light where his God, Akarat, resides - killing Mephisto for good. At that point, Eru betrays us?! He opens a portal, carries Akarat's body - the most sacred of relics - to be defiled by a Devil? (NOT TO MENTIOn Akarat's spirit form died as the result of Eru allowing Mephisto in...)
Come the hell on Blizzard. I should have known the writing is a lost cause after seeing the Fireside chat
Couldn't agree more. The NPC dialog gave away the ending. The quality of writing was so weak compared to the main campaign. Shouldve been half price or a free expansion.
So, does any of this help the probability of a paladin type of class becoming available to us?
This this right here but I feel its too little too late since POE2 is on the horizon.
Yes. reborn akarat will be the anti Christ and most light based followers will flock to him. So a new order/class will be introduced to stop him. Tyrael will likely be back to help with lorath.
@@exodus2ooyeah with poe2 coming out there isn't any need to play Diablo anymore the game is Garbage
I think Mephistopheles is going to do something similar with his brothers. Creating an unholy divine trinity. This will of course give us at least 2 more DLC’s.
Mephisto the Anti-Christ...it felt lame. I liked what you said about Baal rising (they should have ended with a tease for that) and Tyraels return but not Nyrel becoming Mephisto, instead Eru stabbing the stone into his head and being the final boss along with the herald wolf to which Mephisto escaped again and heads towards where Baal is (thus the teaser at the end).
Tyrael might be dead. He did turn into a man and I think D3 is 60 years before D4 at least base game before malthael or 50 years something like that.
I actually enjoyed the campaign and the expansion as a whole. Was it worth the money? Probably not but I enjoyed playing it!! Ready to face Mephisto in 10+ years!!
I'm liking this anti-christ ending storywise anyway eventhough it's just a repeat of D2 Act 3.
I had no issues with the expansion, though this is my first Diablo game, don’t know how other DLC or expansions have played out. I’m used to the ones from “Dragon Age” and “Mass Effect”, that were supplementary to the main games never really revealing too much, but adding to the mystery that made you anticipate the next main game. I felt this expansion did just that. Mephisto seems too much of a major villain for his complete defeat to be relegated to a DLC/expansion. What I do think they should have done was expanded more of Urivar story and made him a greater threat throughout this game.
Agreed that the story here lost steam - and cohesion. Thank you for putting the pieces together in this video because Blizz didn’t do a great job with that themselves.
I felt confused when Mephisto ran away with his soulstone and Neyrell was like "Oh my burden has been lifted, I'm free". Wasn't that the biggest fear the group had in the first place when they decided to imprison him?
She thought the soulstone was safe with Akarat's body.
@@NyxVellum But Mephisto ran away with the stone and the body?? Doesn’t that completely flip the situation from super safe to unimaginably dangerous? It’s like you tried to drive a truck full of bomb away from your house and you failed and now the truck is self driving away from you, but you feel relieved because you feel tired from 20 hours of driving.
@@andrewkim1694 It's more like, they thought they parked the truck in a bomb proof garage, but it turns out, it wasn't bomb proof.
@@RyanMeeks1 I’m talking about how the group acted in the epilogue part. They know they just created a bigger problem in the world and yet they are like “we good. don’t forget to let me kill him next time, haha” vibe. Why imprison Mephisto and run away to finish him once and for all in the first place if he is so manageable? Why risk so much and let so many ppl die in the process??
Mephisto also mentioned his brothers would return and there wasn't no way to stop it , unless he was bluffing we may actually see diablo in d4.
Akarat is like the Jesus of Sanctuary and I can see they modeled him after Jesus too
Personally, I didn't mind that we didn't face Mephisto directly. I mean he's one of the main three lords of hell, I feel it would feel like a let down if the moment he escapes the soulstone and he just, dies. I think they are trying to set up more of a threat and scale rather than having a figure like Anduriel or Duriel who had the briefest of appearances (Duriel even more so). I'm kind of hoping we'll get some story patches between now and the next expansion kind of following the repercussions of his schemes in Akarat's body. But I guess we'll see.
As for your suggestion with Neyrelle and the soulstone, I am glad they didn't. I feel like, seeing another companion becoming a vessel to another prime evil would not have as much pay off unless it was the first time it'd happened. And I think, so far at least, they've tried to steer clear of too many callbacks to Diablo 3 and its story; and I feel that would be fairly reminiscent of Leah's whole arc. I think if that were to have happened, I think our second visit to Travincal would have been better. Imagine, after everything that was sacrificed with Ah Bulan, and just before it can save Neyrelle, Mephisto takes over?
But either way; I'm curious to see what they will do with the threads, and the cliffhanger and if it will pay off for them. But I do agree to most that, I do wish there was more to it. I felt the same way in the base game, I wish we had more in terms of the story. I would have loved to have seen more of Lilith than what we got; though I have a sinking suspicion that will not be the last time that we see her.
So here’s what I will say about the Tryeal part.
The whole thing with D4 is that the Heavens have left us and Hell is taking advantage of that. The reason we never see any angels besides Inarius (who is more like a demon in my eyes) is because the angels have finally lost hope within us and now we fight for ourselves, also Lilith’s soul isn’t immortal. It is mortal, she has just never died, so she is gone for good (correct me if I’m wrong by the way just be a little polite about it please thanks) but yeah that is my opinion of these thoughts and ideas but for the most part I do think they would make an interesting addition to the lore In general
The angels never lost hope tyreal never lost hope he has always been on our side and he now is the big boss in heaven (from d3 ending) I guarantee the angels are letting mephistos plan reach it's endgame before striking hard and fast
You correct how you want to with Tryal at end building Army would be great for next expansion. Do you think see angelous council next expansion and Mathias back to council ? Thank you so much watch next video . Diabolo videos are great
That would be fun!
I think that, to me, it was important to realize that, unlike the other Diablo games, this is probably not the ONLY story expansion it is going to get. I'm not counting things that primarily just add some classes, etc. So, yes, it ends on a true cliffhanger, because it will be continued not in the next game, but in another expansion.
And I NEVER expect anything resembling feeling like anything truly ended in a Diablo game unless they announce that they are ending the series. They have every reason built into the lore to give a sense of 'we have, at least for this generation, dealt with this problem, but nothing is really over' to any of the games. Angels and demons don't really die. Even Inarius, though angels do their returns differently from demons, less reforming and continuing and more 'recycling', with the new version not necessarily having the same name, memories, or sphere of influence as the previous angel.
So, that includes Lilith (and there are hints of HER return in the 'burning of the blood' in our character), probably sooner rather than later.
Out of the Prime Evils, I'm finding Mephisto to be the most interesting. Mostly because he, more than any of them, is the hardest to combat. Hatred, his purview, is a natural response to both rage and fear. And it is so easy to rationalize, justify, even to see hatred as 'holy' depending on the reason, and the target. But all hatred, even hatred of evil, of suffering, of the agents of that evil and suffering, can become tools of Mephisto. Which is why he thrives particularly among the most fervent and devout. His most impressive act of corruption wasn't ruffians and bandits, assassins, dealers in flesh or drugs, but paladins.And Urivar and his 'burning knights' fits that pattern perfectly.
How do you fight hatred without becoming what you fight? Without strengthening it?
Which finally leads to another theory of mine. Humans aren't the weakest or most trivial of beings in the Diablo universe (not talking about individuals, but the species). They are the ones who have the most potential to be the strongest. Otherwise, why would demons bother with humans? Most change has been driven by humans (both in their original form as Nephalem, as well as the current one).
While I think the tuning of the World Stone had placed barriers between humans and their original power, I don't think it ever completely closed it. Where does the magic humans use come from? Especially 'divine magic'? Sister Octavia's exorcisms seemed a pretty standard quest, until you do it in VoH, AFTER Inarius is DEAD. I give some respect to this expansion by allowing the character to actually ASK about that, like 'how can you do this when Inarius is dead' as well as being willing to work with an actual declared heretic.
I believe that her abilities never came from Inarius in the first place. Why would he tune down the world stone then start dispensing power to any human just for believing in him, when he held that religion mostly in contempt and only saw it as a tool to combat Triune worship?
He didn't. Their powers were from their belief that they had power, but that it came from Inarius, and it simply lets them access the power they always had.
I enjoyed the plot twist, I was expecting Nyrelle to be the vessel, similar to what happened to the previous MC and what happened to Leah. but that would be too predictable. The VOH expansion is not grand enough for the price but still a great set up for the battle with Mephisto.
Wish zakarum had more role in this since their story is most related with mephisto. I'm still disapointed they've completely disregarded the paladin class. I don't think the current devs have the same vision the old ones did. they should at least consider a shield bearing class. Heck the warrior would be a big hit right now
With how the D4 story is going, I'm going to assume that Mephisto plans to go on his own journey to find/make soulstones that can be attuned to his brothers and find them worthy vessels. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't kill Mephisto until at least 2 more expansions which means we may be looking at up to 5-6 years before we actually see Diablo himself. On that note though, I do think it would be kind of metal if Diablos vessel ends up being Tyraels mortal form.
With all the plotting, manipulation and trickery this looks more like a great plan set in motion by Belial (Lord of Lies) rather than Mephisto. The concept of tricking people with the second coming of Akarat would fit Belial even more, but I think Mephisto's possessing of Akarat was due to the fact that his body has some stronger spirit/power that would make him a great host for M and that with him taken over the "light" will fade and make Sanctuary more vurnable.
My issue is the implication that Akarat is the strongest vessel a Prime Evil has taken, which is untrue. Leiah, even if the story was hamfisted, was the vessel of ALL Prime Evils, and thus was capable of containing more power, and utilizing more power, than Akarat. I also find the lack of actual conclusion to have been... lackluster, and that it almost feels like they did the expac to add the new class, with the story an afterthought, almost like an extended Season story instead of a true expac story like Reaper of Souls or Lord of Destruction.
To fix the story, I would have had it be a proper 3 parter, where the first part was finding Neyrelle, before she gets to Travincal, and that part is where Urivar comes into play, and is why she takes a drastic step during the mid point of the second part, and seals herself away in Travincal. It is during the first "part" of that second arc or part or whatever, that we find out that Akarat is helping her, and we get a more complete picture that the Spirit, the Body, and the Soul of Akarat are separate parts. The second part of the second half, once Travincal is sealed, is figuring out WHY she sealed it away, and that is where Eru's Betrayal happens, and you find out that it is because... Neyrelle had found where Akarat's Body is, and that is under Travincal, deeper within, beyond the reach of Mephisto. But since she is back there, with knowledge, Mephisto knows, and so you are now racing against Mephisto to get back into Travincal. All the while, during the Second Part and Third Part, you get glimpses of the Soul of Akarat, and a mysterious figure, helping guide you, while the Spirit of Akarat gets corrupted slowly. The expac ends with Akarat's Body taken by Mephisto, while you fight Mephisto Spirit of Akarat, and you have the cool cinematic of Mephisto's possession of the body, like this one... but the final cutscene actually happens once you get full Renown in Nahantu.. which is that the Soul of Akarat is in council with Tyrael and Auriel, who looks injured. They talk about the coming War. With a cut to a legion of Angels... and Imperius, with an overlay of Mephisto's face, showing that the Age of Hatred has consequences... for everyone, including Mephisto.
So easy to fix it in so many ways....
My idea: Lorath ,who never showed up even tho he was the narrator in the original, still the narrator even tho he wasnt there (maybe the wanderer facetimed him), tries to contact Tyrael by reaching the high heavens and somehow sends a message about a rampant mephisto that gets to Imperius. Imperius all mad comes looking for Neyrelle instead of Urivar (randomly generated NPC imo, maybe have Urivar too cuz the boss battle was cool. We lack content anyway.) And Mephisto runs free after Neyrelle dies, cuz i dont get how a teen can resist the stone (Akarat my ass) when Aiden couldnt. Let Mephisto be "the stepping stone" for future expansions while we finally fight Imperius which is a great fan service to everyone who played D3 (not me cuz D2>D3). By doing this, we get enough tragedy to feel like a diablo game, the heir of perdition mythic item makes sense, Lorath is part of the story (maybe he dies when Imperius comes from the heavens), the cash grab for the xpac is justified and we get a great unexpected boss fight that has some impact. I just came up with everything while ranting about it.
Yeah, seriously fudge Imperius, that arrogant dick “Angel”.
I agree that I expected more story on this expansion since it leaves u with a lot of questions. But Neyrelle stabbing herself as you mention as a possible scenario, would've been too predictful, too classic, the twist about Akarat and his body it leaves us with a sense of dread, that no matter what we did, it didn't matter in the end and things just got worse. Honestly a good bad ending for now, and we are just about to experience Mephisto's Era of Hatred in the following seasons. Next one I bet we will face Mephisto in Diablo IV: Age of Hatred maybe? And finally come to a Diablo IV: Lords of Hell which would end in an all out battle with all prime evils? Who knows!
Love your idee.
If we are not having another expansion, the story has became very very meh.
I felt robbed by blizzard the ending should it be more depth like you mentioned!!
The way Inarius was involved in Diablo 4 was really badly done, imho. The story for Diablo after Diablo 2 LOD was simply not of the same quality and took a nosedive with Diablo 4. They introduced and killed him off too fast, the way he died also was really disappointing. I hope that another angel appears or Heaven opens its gates so that some echo of the Light is still seen to remain on Sanctuary. With Akarat’s body now being corrupted by Mephisto, it does open really interesting possibilities about what’s going to happen next, although the expansion did seem pointless given the way it ended…
Your ending is a nice idea, but they need to sell atleast 6 more DLC's for full price first. The sheep will buy it.
I can't help but make the connection with Diablo the lord of terror...Akarat kept saying he was afraid, he was filled with fear and with Mephisto ruling and all the chaos that Sanctuary went through I couldn't imagine a better scene for Diablo to come back. I don't know i feel like fear played such a huge role throughout the entire game and after all Diablo is the name of the game
Who is the final boss? Babyphisto? And most important, where does he come from?
Cliffhangers are good when done and is written right (you feel involve and related to the characters, and you chase / yearn for more)
If you start to have thoughts about Blizzard doing this to get more DLC money, then the cliffhanger failed.
VoH is poorly written, characters are sanitised and bland. At this point you care more about villain than anything else. The only thing it did right was to continue the gothic, gory and dark setting, which is what is still saving the Diablo franchise.
Always keep in mind the Heir of Perdition helm stating ''+200% Damage to Angels and Demons''... we're not done with the VoH story. There is no way the next chapter is next year (copium?)
The lack of a boss fight at the end made this so anticlimactic. I literally didn't even realize I finished the story.
All I know is that the main character in D3 was extremely powerful and solo A full power Diablo. Our main character now in D4 has Lilith blood 🩸 bonded to him so he too will eventually reawakening his nephilim powers and become overpowered specifically if Tyreal comes back as arch angel of wisdoms and grants a blessing.
Lilith’s original goal was to restore the nephilim, end the eternal war by destroying both angels and demons using the nephilim.
I’m not worried about the future holds I know our character is going to become OP
The story for Vessel of Hatred is so badly written and not in line with what we got from previous Diablo games....Vessel of Hatred story is just DEI garbage.
I'm only half way (at severed connection of neyrell to the SS)into the expac story and I already regret buying it. It's the same damn stupid decisions that make zero sense. The player character is treated as a dumb hick who is just there to be used as meat shield and smash. This whole save neyrell thing was annoying to begin with and based on this video we didn't accomplish anything by the end of this expac.
Interesting opinion, I actually dont mind where we ended I would have liked more in the middle and less power of friendship I am with you dialoge.
The best would have been going deeper into the origins of the zakarum and how they actually werent doing what akarat wanted. This would also let us spend more time with Urivar as an antagonist as I really liked his character and have more grim darkness in the story.
Also I would have liked to learn way more aboutnthe spirit realm, what is its connection to trag oul and the true nature of the light.
Couldn't agree with you more. Despite the weight of the ending, it felt like "act 2" of a story rather than an epilogue. But the same feels true for Mephisto himself.
I love Diablo lore, but I can't help but feel like the Primes are so busy playing 4D chess, they forgot the point of the game at all. Mephisto taking sanctuary still just doesn't seem like the end goal considering every failure is just "part of the plan".
It's the character of Aizen from Bleach all over again. As much as I love a schemer, sometimes a failure needs to be a failure and set back rather than just another ploy. Else, not only will their defeat feel empty, but also like some sort of uh...diablo ex machina?
I think it felt rushed and anticlimactic atm moment is because it’s leading up to something very epic and we will probably see and need 2-3 more dlcs to really get what’s coming…..it’s obvious Diablo and Baal are coming as well
Mephisto just became the Diablo Universe' version of the Anti-Christ
I thought the mephisto's soulstone was destroyed in the hellforge in diablo 2? how come it come back again in this series?
this was a different soulstone intended to contain Astaroth, not Mephisto - that's why his influence could leak out and corrupt the holder.
I really want Lilith coming back somehow to kill Mefisto permanently
So my question in all of this which no one seems to talk about is that in part 2. You destroy the soul stones in the hellforge which was said to be the only way that the souls of the prime evils could be killed for good and we destroyed the stones of mephisto and diablo. So how excatly did everyone come back? It was never said or explained at all. Part 3 came and it just was like somehow diablo and his brothers returned and they are in thr black soulstone. Did blizzard just forget the events of diablo 2?
I have several problems with the presentation of the campaign, not the story that unfolded (don't really mind the ending, it was obvious that we will pay for new DLC :D). First of all, for the new players - Akarat is nobody, how would they relate to this character and realize the significance of him, without being presented in better way (with similar video posted in the official diablo channel).
Next thing is the voice of our actor and the intonation itself - is just absurd, I feel stupid when hearing lines from my character - sounds like a robot. There was even a line where he admits he is basically the like some "bouncer" and Neyrelle and the others are the "brain" and they just point at some demon and we blast him. Again, like the previous example - unrelatable character, simply because I don't want to be the dumb part of the party. Additional examples from the original D4 campaign - I am playing freaking druid and Yorick is reading runes and opening doors instead of me doing it. Thats one, but what about the difference between our lines and behaviour and Inarious ones when we first met him.
So the conclusion here for me is that we had similar problems in original campaign too, but they were overshadowed by really having a bit better storytelling and mystery around Lilith and what she is planning, while now - we just know that Mephisto wants to res his brothers and as you said in the video, nothing epic happened for the player to be satisfied in the end. Which leads me to the last problem - boss fights. For example - Urivar died like a dog, I expected much more from his character too.
Curius about where the other expansion will lead us.
Im gonna keep it 100 with you. I am so damn tired of this "past events but different" shit we've been seeing lately.
I think it’s interesting plot making Mephisto the anti-Christ. Deceiving the people of sanctuary
you missed the BIGGEST and Last line.... "and now the wolf raises 'Anu' " who was Anu? it was the God that split himself BEFORE Ridding himself of all evil
While I do enjoy the theme of Diablo always being that the villian wins in the end we do need a win, its likely the next expansion will be the moment we defeat Mephisto for good, but it wont be without a cost.
I suspect if we had to give it a name and I think this makes the most sense the nest expansion will be "Wrath of Heaven" since A false prophet claiming that heaven is doing all this would piss off a certain archangel of valor and bring him to sanctuary.
I suspect we will see Imperius get a moment to be a genuine badass and wipe the floor with Mephisto, but in turn, the darkness in Imperius will be awakened by Diablo, finally bringing the darker side of the angels wrathful side full circle.
We basically get to fight an angel at the end of expansion 2, rather than yet another demon.
Anyone else think our character will awaken as a nephilim? We've got the blood of lilith already, and we got the blessing of inarius (i think). So maybe we awaken next expansion and get something like the cube ? 🤔
Demons restore itself in Hell, but I believe Angels can be killed for good - Inarius case, correct me if I am wrong.
With time a new angel will replace inarius
I think Inarius was erased from the memory bank of Heaven since he was given to Hell as a prisoner since Hell and Heaven makes a truce when the Creation of Sanctuary was discovered, that's why he cannot hear the Lightsong of the Crystal Arch anymore.
@@cfc6214 But it will no longer be Inarius, Lilith after reborn will still be Lilith ;)
Guys it’s a live game. This is uncharted territory for Diablo and let’s be honest, these people are working their butts off. I think all they needed was a really gruesome ending that leads into the chapter and we would have been good. Everything we saw up until this point was dark and this kinda seemed womp, womp in comparison to all the ads
Since demons keep “respawning” back in hell I was thinking instead of just making the soul stones their prison why not make the realm they rule over be their prison? It would be poetic and ironic 😊
I too was hoping neyrelle would stab herself with the soulstone (and die) shes mad annoying
I underestimated them Knight but damn They are strong AF! 😅
The way I want it is Neyrelle stabs us with the soul stone, and we become freaking Mephisto, and the world is fucked. But seriously, I was happy for Neyrelle to be saved and not end up just like what happened to Aidan because it would be redundant. But what I wish too is that they should have never made Akarat end up like that as if killing Rathma offscreen wasn't enought 🤣. They should have instead used the Nephalem of D3 as the new host and made up stories about how it came down to it. Blizzard is good at making up BS non-sensical but entertaining stories anyway.
Your idea is good too. Seems every comment has a better idea than the actual game we played.
Are angels meant to reborn like demons , angels also slowly reform and return like demons?
I want a video on next dlc what’s going to happen
I think it could of been just a bit longer(Another act). I'm not sure if Neyrelle should of died or not. I think I'm fine with her surviving. Don't need a repeat of D2.
Funny you mention Jesus because Akara look like Jesus.
Judging be the ending I think Mephisto would be the new Central Main Antagonist on future Diablo games, so Diabli himself has to sit back on his own series! XD
Neyrelle smashing the soulstone to her head is so cliche that its my first guess. The plot twist that Mephisto opted for Akkarat is better, considering your Jesus analogy.
Were all sick and tired of smashing soulstones in our head, smashing soul stones with hammers and having demon love children hidden somewhere. Old plot devices.
I like your ending and had it come out in the early 2000's I believe that's the direction blizzard would have gone. The problem is it's shortsighted in a modern always online money grabbing business. There was never an intention for VoH to resolve the story the way previous diablo expansions did because this is the first of many expansions. We won't get a story resolution ever. They'll keep dragging out the story for annual expansions until the player count drops so low it's no longer profitable to do so. At which point the game switches to maintenance mode before eventually being turned off completely.
I liked this ending more than repeating the events of Diablo 2 and 3 again of the soul stone holder predictably becoming a prime evil. The problem for me was it was less satisfying. Tragic endings can be satisfying, but this didn't do it.
So the ending clearly tells me that we'll be getting not one, but multiple dlcs for D4 if they want to finish the story but keep the currrent, kinda slow pace of it. If that's true then I'm kinda torn. On the one hand, I like the idea that the game will be supported with new content for a couple years to come, on the other hand I dislike the idea of having to pay 40$ every so often to keep playing a full price game. THen again, I'm looking at my total expanses on the F2P games Poe, LoL and Warframe and realize that 40$ every year would be BY FAR the cheapest of them all.
Movie name please???
The ending also references Diablo's resurrection in D2. So Mephisto is also preparing Diablo's return, not just his own.
Wait? I thought we find out in Diablo 4 that tyriel passed away?
When
@@sergioantoniofloresvargas3009 I thought it was mentioned during the D4 campaign. But I’m likely mistaken
Hey Guys! I need to save my land in the age of hatred, from the prime evil that outright can't care anyhow about humanity as a whole. And I will do that, by creating the age of hatred! Eru's confirmed as an accelerationist.