Aye, if there was any drama brewing in the latest season of Diablo 4, players really… well, they definitely chattered about it. The official Diablo account had unveiled the dramatic Wings of the Red Griffin Back Trophy, a cosmetic so loud it pulsates with energy coursing through the characters’ wings every time an enemy drops something. It’s unlockable through the Deluxe Battle Pass for the Season of Infernal Chaos, and, from those promo shots, it looks bonkers.
I’ll explain. The new Diablo 4’s wings of the Red Griffin are meant to slap on a cool vibe on the character while being busy demon-slaying. The wings “illuminate your foes as they fall to your blade,” which to me sounds pretty metal, really. It’s something that really stands out. The kind of cosmetic elegance that would sparkle atop some average player’s head or in a hellish dungeon brimful of monstrosities.
How are players seeing this, then? Man, it’s going all over the place. From here, weirdness begins as the community has rather seriously been split over this one.
Some players are absolutely enamored by the new season and the cosmetics. Kakky outright said, “You guys finally cooked, easily best season since season 2.” I mean, that’s quite a compliment. Storm Taker expressed the excitement about how the wings complement the mount and pet of the season, calling the Battle Pass epic. Several other comments followed along the positive line, with AzzalThe calling the season excellent and elisdad encouraging the developers to “Keep it up!”
Then… Other side of the coin. There was a lot of noise.
Criticism came at them like a barrage. Vertigo_7082 might’ve had the harshest take: “@Diablo transmogs and pets do not make a Diablo.” Ouch. So essentially that means, “Fancy cosmetics don’t replace actual substantive game content.”
Price itself became a big sore-point. SonOfTristram called the shop items and accelerated battlepass prices “a bad joke,” says the wings look nice but “not with the price at all.” Other players plainly advised against buying them, but Wallage’s “Dont waste your money” says everything without really saying much at all.
The complaints about content drought were everywhere. Balla_tldr summed it up with “Big wings small content,” whereas Sinner21123 stated the wings were “beautiful but the content still lacks in seasons.” This seems to be the real issue: players want more to actually DO in the game, not just more things to wear while doing the same stuff.
It’s really cool, what players want INSTEAD of these flashy wings. Paladin class was brought up multiple times, with TinPinPou stating verbatim, “All I want is a paladin class” and Sir Furball stating, “Just make an expansion to d2r so I can go and play my Paladin there.” DaBrownBull asked for “substantial” cosmetics instead of back trophies like “skill effects, minion skins, and druid transformation.”
Some nice quality-of-life requests, too. Barrowulf said they want more traditional and less “gaudy” cosmetics that actually fit the Diablo aesthetic, and WhiteWinterFox2 wanted to be able to change the color of back cosmetics. And, of course, there were the random questions about Switch 2 ports and D2R patches that somehow always pop up in these threads.
Now, what does that mean for us? Diablo 4’s devs seem behind making some really cool-looking cosmetics that players will be chasing through the battle pass system. And some players ARE hyped up for these items-wings look insanely good, and the energy effect with kills sounds really cool.
But here has come the… tension, I guess? Between what a big chunk of the player base really wants and what is in fact being offered monetarily. They’re asking for new classes, substantive content updates, and gameplay additions rather than just more items to make their characters look different.
This is the classic dilemma for live service games: How do you balance flashy monetization items with the core gameplay experience that keeps players engaged for more extended periods? Season of Infernal Chaos seems to be going a step up compared to some previous seasons, so that is something worth noting. But that reaction to these wings proves that the Diablo 4 team still has more work to do if they’re to convince everyone they’re moving down the right road.
Still, one must admit that Wings of the Red Griffin simply look awesome. But then, the main talk right now is whether they are worth the price of a Deluxe Battle Pass and whether they can fill in for the content missing in the eyes of the player base.
And, from the look of these retorts, this discussion isn’t going away anytime soon.
