It’s been over ten years since we saw Diablo in-game. Banished back to the Burning Hells at the close of Diablo 3, Diablo 4’s story has shifted in the direction of his brother Mephisto, Lord of Hatred and my personal favorite of the Prime Evils. Vessel of Hatred’s ending points towards a Mephisto-centric storyline, with the potential reappearance of his daughter. Diablo, however, is nowhere to be seen, even if his essence lingers in modern-day Sanctuary. Set five years after the events of Diablo 2 but before Diablo 3, Diablo Immortal‘s overarching narrative has pointed towards the return of the Lord of Terror for years, and patch 3.2 finally lets us get up close and personal with him. We spoke to lead content designer Scott Burgess and senior game designer Nan Jiang to discuss the face-off.
If you’ve been fighting Mephisto’s legions in Diablo 4 for a while and haven’t had time to check out its sister RPG, here’s where we’re at. The Worldstone shards have been destroyed, but their corruption is slowly but surely tearing your soul asunder. While Tyrael’s sword, El’druin, has been found, your demonic nature means that you cannot wield it, forcing you to venture out to the Cold Isles to “cleanse your impurity” so that you can face down Diablo himself.
Two and a half years of storytelling have led to Diablo Immortal patch 3.2 and the final battle against the Lord of Terror himself. Given his absence from Sanctuary for the last ten years, I ask Burgess and Jiang about the pressure of bringing back the series’ titular nemesis.
Beware: this article contains minor spoilers.
“We’ve been working towards this moment for two years; it really is an awesome fight,” Burgess tells me. “I was getting worried because I was like ‘oh man, this is such a big deal, this is the climax,’ then I saw [the fight] and I was like ‘this is so over the top and so awesome.’ I’m just riding the hype train.”
That battle, then, is really at the core of 3.2, but we’re still missing the weapon that’s key to defeating Diablo. Jiang tells me this is part of a concerted effort to keep “iconic weapons out of players’ hands” until the time is right to use them. “If you put them in peoples’ hands [they then think] ‘it’s not that strong,’ – the weapons lose their charm and we want to keep the sacred feeling [of using them]. I would prefer to keep them as part of a boss fight, where you can swing them during the fight and really feel the specialness of that weapon.”
The weapon in question (which features prominently throughout this article) plays a huge part in 3.2’s Diablo fight, with Jiang noting that there’s a “very, very strong moment in the Diablo fight” where you’ll get to use it. It reminds me a little of Diablo 4’s Mephisto’s Herald boss encounter, where you join forces with Akarat to bring down the bloodied wolf. “We had to make this a special moment for players because this is the strongest weapon in our world and the strongest enemy in the game’s history. You will feel that reward.”
But the return of Diablo needs to be perfect, and a lot of players see Diablo Immortal as more of a fringe title than the unique experience it is. Given it’s largely aimed at smartphones, Jiang tells me that some question whether or not Blizzard can make an exciting fight. “With smartphone games, people don’t always think we can deliver a really awesome product because it’s a very small screen and things. But we can use that to our advantage.
“People aren’t setting high expectations for our fight, but I believe that we deliver a console or triple-A level experience. We have so many phases, which we’ve never made before – usually in Helliquary bosses there are three phases per fight; with Diablo, it’s much more – we almost doubled that.”
Burgess also informs me that “ray tracing is something we’ll be using in our new hardware update, and this fight definitely makes use of that. This is the best fight in the game; it’s just a really cool experience.”
Diablo Immortal patch 3.2 is now live across all platforms.
Before you hop in, you can battle the infamous Lich King in Diablo Immortal’s World of Warcraft collab event, for which we have all the gory details in our earlier interview. Or, if you’re happily tearing Mephisto’s legions asunder, here’s our list of the best Diablo 4 classes.
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