Episode Heresy Exemplifies the Viability of the Episodic Model

In hindsight Episode Echoes had a solid amount of content: 3 almost strike-like battlegrounds, Breach Executable (no one's fav), Enigma Protocol (I might be the only person who liked this lol), stand alone story missions & a sluggishly time gated exotic mission with an anticlimactic ending to the Episode. So...ups and downs, but compared to most seasons, ESPECIALLY those that release alongside expansions, this one was pretty robust. And if we're being honest, if there had been a boss fight against the Conductor (even if she survives the fight) instead of the cheesy ending we got, I think Echoes would have gone down as a pretty solid offering. It just felt bad for something that was time gated to hell to have such a "fizzle" of an ending.

Episode Revenant just flat out sucked. The narrative of the opening mission was so promising, then it fell off a cliff and took about 3 months before we got that satisfying Wile E. Coyote puff of smoke from it finally hitting the ground. Kell's Vengeance was awesome though, so I can't say the Episode was a complete wash.

Episode Heresy is shaping up to be a complete vindication of the Episodic model. Act I was rock solid. The Nether is extremely well designed and delivered (I have no idea how people struggled with it...). Derealize is the best designed secret/exotic mission in a long time. Its aesthetic manages to look completely alien/foreign which is a real achievement in a game as old as Destiny. And although PVP is no longer for me, they had a Trials update for the ages. Everyone seems to like it. Imo Act I of Heresy > the entirety of Revenant.

Next, Act II will run for exactly three weeks. We get Court of Blades alongside Guardian Games with this new Rushdown mode. Then, there's some type of update to Derealize for the two catalysts. We'll probably all have our fill of it by the time 2-3 weeks pass, but then they go straight into Act III with no off week in between. Act III has Sunless Cell, Rites of the Nine. updates to Nether and Court of Blades encounters & bosses, the conclusion to the Derealize mission & whatever story missions are there to conclude the Episode. Wtf is this perfect pacing?!

All of this is to say, that it's not that the Episodic model was intrinsically bad. Episode Echoes suffered from suboptimal delivery, while Episode Revenant was actually just garbo. Episode Heresy is damned near perfect! Are there different teams working on this stuff or something?!