The speaker shares an in-depth review and first impressions of Destiny Rising, comparing it to Destiny 2, highlighting features, gameplay, and concerns—particularly around the gacha system—while providing personal reflections and suggestions for Destiny 2’s improvement.

Initial Impressions & Access

• Found Destiny Rising overwhelming in size and content compared to Destiny 2’s Tower.

• Used a PC emulator (Moomoo) to play, enabling controller support and better experience than on mobile.

• Graphics were acceptable even on PC, and not a hindrance to gameplay.

Gameplay Features & Activities

• Tutorial is integrated with story progression, introducing game modes step by step.

• Surprised by familiar elements (e.g., Xur, Gambit-like mode, solo and replayable Xur activities).

• Extensive variety: Shifting Gates, Haven Ops (strikes), Calamity Ops, Realm of the Nine, Gauntlet Ops, Morgath’s Prey, Legacy Ops, etc.

• Many modes and events are time-gated or unlock as the player progresses.

• Regular rewards include daily sign-in bonuses, cross-over events, and various in-game activities.

• Enjoyed side activities like fishing and the Shadow Shaper card game.

• Noted the inclusion of Sparrow Racing and competitive PvP leagues, which are lacking or time-limited in Destiny 2.

Progression & Character Systems

• Characters termed “Lightbearers” with no traditional Vanguard classes (Hunter, Warlock, Titan).

• Character upgrade systems involve weapon types, abilities, artifacts, and a talent tree.

• Gacha system for acquiring high-tier (mythic) characters and duplicates for upgrades.

• Acknowledged less build freedom compared to Destiny 2.

Comparisons & Reflections on Destiny 2

• Destiny Rising offers more content and variety than Destiny 2 currently.

• Destiny 2 feels “bare” and in need of more engaging content post-Edge of Fate release.

• Suggested Destiny 2 could benefit from adopting fun mini-games, new leagues, or other morale-boosting events.

• Advocated for Destiny 2 to deliver more frequent or innovative updates.

Monetization & Gacha Concerns

• Game includes gacha/lootbox mechanics requiring currency to unlock characters and rewards.

• Warned about potential for overspending; urges caution when engaging with gacha.

• Some premium currencies can be earned in-game, but significant progress may require monetary investment.

Recommendations & Advice

• Recommends trying Destiny Rising, especially if looking for fresh Destiny content.

• Suggests using a PC emulator for a better gameplay experience if not comfortable with mobile.

• Advises players to be wary of gacha spending and to monitor self-control with microtransactions.

Upcoming Channel Content & Community Engagement

• Plans upcoming video on tips for beginners in Destiny Rising.

• Will cover Destiny 2 weekly resets and new content.

• Livestreaming Indiana Jones DLC and Ash and Iron event next week.

• Encourages subscriptions and feedback from viewers.

Questions / Follow-Ups

• Invites feedback on whether Destiny Rising will positively impact Destiny 2 and how it fits within the Destiny universe.

• Wonders if Destiny Rising’s model could inspire future Destiny 2 updates.

Destiny Rising Review & Insights

Hello my marvellous sausages! Right, I've got to get this off my chest. I've been playing Destiny Rising since it launched on... I can't remember, was it Thursday? Anyway, I've had a good four days in it now.

I've played it every day and I want to talk about what it does right, what it does wrong, or not necessarily what it does wrong, but what the genre does wrong, and how I feel as a Destiny 2 player about it, and what I wish Bungie would... learn from this, or not just learn from it, but pull into the main Destiny 2 game. So when I first booted up Destiny Rising, I am not a mobile game player at all.

I can't bear it. I can't bear the tiny little screen thing. I'm too old for that.

My stupid fingers smear all over where I'm looking at. Tablets, I haven't got a tablet that was any much cop. So I was umming and ahhing as to whether I was going to play the game or not. And I did have, and hear, that you could use the emulator, the Moomoo emulators. On the PC!

So I've used that and it was so easy to put it on. So first of all, I was delighted about that. I could play the game on my PC and I could use controller as well, which was great.

Now then, once I'd loaded the game up, I was completely overwhelmed at the amount of stuff to do. It was incredible. Haven feels bigger than the tower, to be honest.

That might be something to do with the fact that I know the tower inside out. You've got to remember, I've been playing this game since it launched, and I've played it a hell of a lot. So I don't know whether or not what we've got going on here is the fact that it's a new hotness.

Do you know what I mean? So that's the first thing. I was amazed at the size of it physically in the game world.

but then I was also just totally gobsmacked by the amount of stuff that there is to do. And the first thing Destiny Rising does right is its tutorial, because basically the tutorial for the game is interlocked with the game story, and you learn all the things about the game as you go, except, and I do want to make this clear, the... the understanding the colossal, colossal amount of materials in it, resources, but I'll get onto that in a little bit. But yes, so what's clever about it is that the story goes on and then it shows you one particular game mode. Then it continues on and then it'll show you another particular game mode.

I was totally amazed to find that there's like a version of Gambit in it. There's a shift in Gates version. The Xur was in it. I was stunned to find that Xur is in it. In fact, we're out here now where Xur is.

We can come down here into the bad... I can't remember what it's called. The bad old time. Look. And there's Xur!

It's crazy, look. And you can go and speak to old Xur with, or you can jump through the thing and go to it. There you go.

And that takes you to Xur's realm. And he's got an entire set of activities here that are replayable. And they're solo.

And my god, there's so much fun! You know Xur at the moment in Destiny 2 is tantamount to being completely useless. Which is a right pain for me as I love doing Xur videos and updating because he's got loads of great weapons but they haven't brought any of them into the new system.

So, in essence, he's useless. So people are going to go, what's the point? And they're not going to see him. And that's one less thing in Destiny 2 that people are excited about. Xur should bring a bit of mystery every week.

Well, this guy, this Xur here, not only has loads of stuff, he's got so many different things you can do, so many weapons that you can earn. It just blew my mind, and I felt I had a really weird, conflicting feeling of, Oh no, it's better than the game. I didn't want it to be better, but it is. Or better is maybe the wrong word.

It's because, let's face it, Destiny 2 is a console game and it's finessed so much better. The graphics are better, all that kind of thing. You've got the freedom of all the build crafting.

I'm not taking anything away from Destiny 2. But I feel like what we've got at the moment for Destiny 2 is just a bedrock and it's It's bare. It's practically blank. And Destiny Rising, it's a mobile game, so it's got the restrictions that come with all mobile games, you know, graphically and so on.

I'm sure I wouldn't notice it as much if I was playing on a smaller screen. Do you know what I mean? But I'm playing on PC.

But even on PC, I'm playing it, and it's absolutely fine. Look, I've heard some stupid mean affairs. It's absolutely fine.

So the graphics aren't a hindrance. That's the first thing I was worried about. So that's not a problem. But the scale of the amount of things to do just utterly staggered me. You come in here to events look and then, well, first of all, you've got all these special events.

You've got new challenges. All these things constantly going on for you to grab materials, glimmer, etc. That's the gacha element, that little Jolly Roger ship. I will talk about that in a little bit. But there is a constant stream of sources for you to get rewards.

There's even a crossover event for you to get a little emblem in Destiny 2, which was nice. Purchase bonuses there. Look at it all.

There's loads of all this kind of stuff. 14-day sign-in. You sign in once every day for 14 days and you're going to end up getting an exotic, basically, which is a choice between, what's that one?

You've got Crimson, we've got Borealis, and that looks like the Huckleberry. So, you know, that is just signing in and all the little frivolous stuff that goes on around it. That's not to mention all the different kinds of events that we've got to play.

Not events, sorry, activities. Look, I've got activities there. Right, so first of all, we've got this, Shifting Gates. This is basically like Gambit, 3v3v3, and I was staggered by it. There's it's got so many rewards for it.

The rewards cross over and tie in to other activities as well. For example, there's fishing in this. Some people hate fishing.

Some people love it. I really quite enjoy it. Look, I can win bait and stuff in this here.

It's just so much. And this is just one games mode. Look, then I go into adventures.

Look, we've got the Haven Ops here, which is strike. Calamity Ops which I haven't even unlocked yet. Let's have a look go back into adventures again.

Sorry. We've got Realm of the Nine. This is what's going on with Xur. These are all single-player missions and they're really enjoyable. And there just seems to be so much stuff there.

Do you know what I mean? I mean, so much stuff that you can actually earn. Let's come back out here.

Let's go back into adventure again. Sorry. Gauntlet Ops. I've just unlocked with Gauntlet Blitz. It's like five different levels of a mission to do.

And this was integrated into the story so you know exactly how to do it. I don't even know what that is. Oh no, Morgan's Prey.

Yes, that's even something else. One of the characters has got like an Ahamkara on his shoulder. And these are missions relating to that. What else do we have here in the adventures? Oh no, there we are.

We've got the Gauntlet Ops. We've got... What's that?

Morgath's Prey. We've got the Legacy Ops in here. Look, which are various different activities. Absorption, Avoid...

Arc, Solar... It's just... I mean, I don't even know what half of these things are yet. And I've been playing it constantly for five days. I mean, when you play Destiny 2...

You kind of know everything that there is to do. And at the moment... It's such a shame because you feel like you're just either doing solo ops, and I've gotten up to a level now. I'm only 360, 370, but I'm finding it...

I don't want to do it anymore. I don't want to grind the number up anymore now. I'm waiting for Ash and Iron to come so I can get that artificial boost about it being early on in that particular event, or whatever you want to call it, update or whatever.

So I'm not really playing Destiny 2 at the moment, and my Destiny... fixation for new stuff is being sated by Destiny Rising. I haven't even looked at this casual one.

I mean, I don't even know what it is. Right, this is all the cool events. You've got Iron Bar.

Let's have a little look at that. I don't even know what this is, Iron Bar. It must be some sort of PvP. Oh, there we are.

Available on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I'd imagine. There we are. That looks like PvP to me.

Control. There we go. It was Control.

Sparrow Racing. Now, these are all locked in, okay, until they actually, they're time gated. But I'm sure once they unlock, they unlock for good.

All right, so we've got Sparrow Racing, which is due in eight hours, one minute. Sparrow Racing is in it. wouldn't it be wonderful if they dropped a sparrow racing league into destiny i think right if you're talking from a purely narrative perspective we've destroyed the witness now what that's done i think in a narrative sense is taken away the incredibly serious weight that everybody had on them within the destiny universe because we couldn't do anything because we knew this great end was coming not a bell end but the end of everything and we fought off the witness And now we're all free. So why doesn't the system, narratively speaking, start doing stuff for morale? For guardians, for everybody in the last city.

Start up a sparrow racing league, for instance, would be one amazing thing. Start having leagues in PvP, having champion matches. Look, we've got this. They've got the shadow shape of duels. I always wanted to wander around the last city through lots of shops and vendors, go and buy a meal or something like that that you could do Like in Star Wars Outlaws you can go and buy the meals.

That was great. That was a little mini game and get rewards from it. The Shadow Shaper Duels that we've got here. This is a card game and it's great. I really enjoy it.

If you don't like card games you won't enjoy it. But I'm having great fun with it. And one of the most amazing things about the Shadow Shaper Duel is that it's the Drifter.

So you know we've got familiar characters in it too. Fishing is great fun. You just go and do a bit of fishing in the pond and there are fishing spots all throughout the... Throughout the patrol areas. There is so much to do.

I'm... I'm staggered by it. I am absolutely staggered by it and I really, really like all of it. Now they're moving on to the... well they're not even Guardians really at this point.

I suppose that they call them Lightbearers because the Vanguard hasn't kicked in so there's no formal leagues or order. There's no Hunter, there's no Warlock, there's no Titan. It's just characters with their own sets of weapons and skills.

Now this might be a little bit of a bugbear for people because what Destiny does, Destiny 2 has... a complete freedom to build the character you want within the confines of the subclass or the class of the character. Do you know what I mean?

So you don't have that here. So for example I've just had Ningfei here right. I was very lucky it was a mythic character.

Basically a tier 5 character. Something which Destiny 2 seems to be or has adopted the tier system. We've got tier fives in regards to weapons and armor and all that kind of thing.

Well, in Destiny Rising, you've got to have tier five mythic characters. And what he's got, look, basically, is he's got a submachine that he uses. He's got an auto crossbow, which is brand new and brilliant fun.

It's an automatic crossbow that goes do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do, which is great. You've got relic abilities then. So he's... Arc.

You kind of look up the arc stuff of Hunters. You can upgrade the two separate abilities that they've got, which are, when I'm playing on controller, they're just hooked into the right button and the left button, and then you've got your main attack, and you can just upgrade them that way. You've got an artifact here, which basically gives you two different kinds of...

Artifact upgrades. You've got defensive kinds here. So you can see I've got inverted guard there, which is a healing bonus and ranged damage resistance.

And I've got one in there. I can't even... Pranayama!

It's got a defense boost, natural healing recovery, interval is shortened by 24%. Then on this side, we've got offensive. Okay, so this... is another way that you can actually build the character but it's not as free as Destiny 2 but then you've got the talent tree there as well now this apparently is something that uh where the gacha really comes into it you've got to get duplicates of your particular guardian or light bearer in order to activate these bonuses and these bonuses are pretty significant but in order to get uh duplicate characters you've got to rely on the gacha element of the game which in effect is gambling you can see though i've got different characters you create your own character that's the one to start with called wolf i've got a core array here i've got who's this fellow i can't even remember his name why didn't it tell me his name hang on they are a schwan way yes and uh what else have i got down here i've got a caber and i've also got a tal i think her name is as well yes so you know i've got a good few characters here and it it It's going to take a long time and a lot of effort earning stuff in order to upgrade them, particularly if you don't want to do it by investing money. Now, the story itself is great.

It's not as grand as Destiny 2 was, but I don't think Destiny 2 will ever be that grand again with a light and dark saga. It's kind of like, you know, it's a story against a fallen house, a house of devils. I won't give you any story spoilers at all, but it's really enjoyable with some really cool missions in there, you know?

And the way the progression works, I'm not that far along. Look, where am I? I'm on, it does tell you, 4-3 or something. I can't remember. I'm chapter 4. look there so when i go and see what i've got to do to move the chapter on for example i've got to complete all these different bits and bobs here and then that will unlock the next chapter so as far i've got to complete a primary quest which was brilliant as well avenging arrow i've reached team level 46 i've got to complete the training ground rapid fire shinker spread shinker and impact shinker i've got a clear realm of the nine singularity Order 5. I'm really enjoying those.

They're great. And I've got to raise my character's power. 3 character's power to 24,000. And then you can just link from here. To go to whichever bit that you want.

So I click on go there. And then we're in to pick one of these things to do. I mean... It's great.

It's easy to follow. However, it is very menu driven. But it is so much to do. And you can kind of follow your way through it, you know. So I'm not going to give that as a mark against it at all.

I think they've done a great job on where to go and what to do. Although it does take a little bit of getting used to. Another thing it's got is a bounty system.

We no longer have bounties really, do we, as a main part of the game. We don't even have a reward track or anything like that anymore for something to... play for do you know what i mean we don't have that in destiny 2 but the bounties they're all automatically there and then if you complete them you can just claim them there do you know what i mean it's uh it's a it's a very easy system all you've got to do is know where to go to to pick them up it's great there is a battle pass of course i haven't purchased it myself yet i'm just doing the base track here but that's entirely up to you but destiny's got a battle pass you know it's uh nothing new nothing unexpected uh here it doesn't feel particularly predatory to be perfectly honest uh at this point so then let's talk about the uh elephant in the room uh it's it's that it's gacha How do I feel about it? Well, I'm probably not going to partake in much gatchering, to be perfectly honest. But it does seem to be a system that you can work towards.

I don't know. It's up to you how you feel about it. Just be really wary, right?

You can spend a shed load of money on here if you're not... Well, good at keeping yourself in check, shall we say. And everybody's got their foibles, and that might be yours.

So you do have to be careful about that. So if I'll just show you how it all works. If I go into a wrong bit straight there.

See, I'm already getting used to the buttons. I go into the, here we've got the draw thing. So you've got two of these tabs here. So these are called banners, apparently. I've only just recently found that out.

So this banner here at the top is a temporary one to get this character called Gwyn that everybody's absolutely raging about. But it's the name of one of my uncles, so I just find it a bit strange. But anyway...

Yeah, so everybody wants this character. So what you've got to do is get this currency here that looks like a sailing ship. It's called an LE. What is it called again? Bon Voyage Charm LE, right?

So you spend those to draw out a version of Gwyn. Sorry, to pull a draw. And when you pull the draw, then you might get a chance of getting Gwyn.

At the moment, my current draw chance is 1%. So not very good odds. But she's guaranteed in 56 draws. Okay. So if I get this currency.

Then and I do 56 more of them. I'm going to get Gwyn. There we are. Lovely. But of course you have a random chance of getting her anyway.

Now this is limited. Look there's 23 days and 20 hours left on Memento Mori. That must be what this is called. So there we go.

There's that. Then you've got the permanent banner here, which is a different currency again. It's the normal Jolly Roger thing, the Bon Voyage charm, not the LE version.

And then these are the ones you can acquire quite a bit within the game. Not quite a bit, but they're much more easily acquirable. And then you can just use them to draw things.

I'll just do one quick draw here to show you because I've got three there. And what I'm going to pull, probably a bag of ass as normal. Yes, there we are.

I've got some Destiny Rising... random decal bundles. There we are.

Great. I don't even know what that is, to be perfectly honest. But there we go.

There's those there. So this is where the money spending comes in because you can use silver. Look, here's silver.

So you can buy a silver amount. This is in great British pounds. You can use silver and then you can convert that silver into... into, ah it's come back out here, into this lark here.

I'd imagine they are. So you can get it from the store in the silver shop, you can get it from the Lumia shop, you can get it from the premium battle pass, you can get it from the Fortuna crystal shop, the Fortuna dust shop. So you can actually convert other materials into the Bon Voyage charm in order to use here.

But the basis of it all is, you kind of think of it as a basis and the basis is silver and then it goes up, but you do have ways in game to earn it Even if you haven't played mobile games, rather. That's all going to be brand new to you. But, you know, you might have. And most mobile games are like this. You know?

And it's time-locked as well in regard to the story. You saw there with the Sparrow Racing. We had to wait eight hours for that to open up.

But I think that's just because the game has started. So... This is where you would spend your money if you were going to.

I may, I may not. I don't know because I don't know how much I'm going to be playing it. But I can tell you that I am really enjoying it at the moment. When I get to the end of the story, we just have to see what happens. What new stuff they introduce.

What legs they give it, to be perfectly honest. But at the moment... It's got so much more to do in it than Destiny 2, which kind of breaks my heart, really. And the way I'm framing this in this video is that you can sort of forget the gacha and just carry on playing the game. But there's going to become a point where you're going to hit a wall.

So can you ever truly separate them both off? I'm not so sure. I think that where interest may wane with people, particularly people who've come over from Destiny 2 and just want to get on with it.

Do you know what I mean? But I don't know. Let me know what you think.

First of all, I really recommend that you give it a go. Whether you want to do it on mobile or on tablet, give it a go. It's free to try out. Well, it's just free, actually, unless you want to start spending stuff. Or if you want to use it on your PC, I've got a guide here on how to install it and how to use it.

It's great. You can use controller. You can use mouse.

It's just been fantastic for me. If I didn't have this emulator on here, I don't know whether I would have played it or not. If we're actually ever going to see a native version on consoles or on PC, I doubt that very much.

I would imagine that when they first did the deal to use the Destiny IP, folded into that contract, perhaps would have been you can't put it on console or whatever. I have no idea. I am just guessing.

But, yes. So, like I said, let me know what you think. Let me know if you've played it. Let me know if you think... Do you think it's going to be good for Destiny 2 in the long run?

I think, actually, it might be. Because at the end of the day, it's... keeping interest within the destiny universe and the destiny characters even though this particular story is set in its own little bubble and doesn't affect destiny 2 in any which way i think that's the best way to do it because otherwise there's so much law in destiny 2 that they would bugger the whole thing up do you know what i mean so yeah so i think uh that it's going to be good for destiny 2 but i think destiny 2 has got to start giving us more stuff and And quite frankly, as my dad would say, pull its socks up a little bit. Because at the moment, it really does feel in the doldrums. And we've only just had the big Edge of Fate release, you know?

We just want more stuff in it. That's basically all we need. There we go, folks. That is my getting me off the chest speakings for today.

Keep an eye out. I'm going to be doing a video about... what the things I wish I knew about Destiny Rising before I was level one or whatever I want to bloody call it that'll be probably coming out on Wednesday I'm going to be covering of course my standard Destiny 2 resets we've got uh heavy metal this week as well and I'm going to be playing Indiana Jones the DLC this week on live stream I'm probably going to be doing that every day from Thursday so the channel is super busy uh and then we're going to be going into Ash and Iron next week So I'd really love it if you could watch some of the vids.

If you want to see more of my stuff, don't forget to give me a subscribe. And don't forget to like the video as well. That really does help its reach.

Anyway, folks, thank you so much for listening to my ramblings. And I shall speak to you all again very soon. Sausage hurt.

Hello Folks! I've been playing Destiny Rising since launch and it has led me to constanyly draw comparisons between Bungie are doing and what Netease have done with Destiny Rising - and it make me rather frustrated! The sheer amount of stuff to do, the variety - just amazed me.

So come and have a listen to what I've got to say and then speak your mind in the comments!