It is a fascinating criticism because Wilson was surprisingly positive about Diablo V. His problem is not simply that modern Blizzard is incapable of making Diablo correctly. He appears to think Blizzard is moving the next game in a promising direction while simultaneously being far too casual with the mythology of the game players are currently playing.
Wilson Thinks the Prime Evils Should Have Meant More
The central problem for Wilson is how Season 15 handles Diablo, Baal and Mephisto. Diablo IV spent years keeping the Prime Evils largely outside direct confrontation. Mephisto gradually became more important through the campaign and Lord of Hatred, while Diablo himself remained conspicuously absent. That created the expectation that finally facing the Prime Evils would be a major narrative event.
Then Season of Hell's Legacy arrived and put all three on the anniversary menu at once.
“Diablo 4 was slowly building up to you eventually getting to fight the Prime Evils,” Wilson says in comments reported by GamesRadar, before criticizing Blizzard for introducing all three together in an event that is not really part of the main storyline.
That criticism becomes particularly understandable when looking at Season 15's Prime Evil system. Players fight Echoes of Diablo beneath Tristram Cathedral, Baal at Arreat Summit and Mephisto inside the Durance of Hate. Their defeated essence becomes Splinters that players can then carry around as seasonal powers.
Mechanically, it is fun.
Narratively, Wilson thinks these characters deserved something heavier.
Deckard Cain’s Return Bothers Him Even More
The same argument applies to Deckard Cain. Cain was killed during Diablo III, an event that remains one of the most controversial moments in the series. Season 15 brings his lost soul back as the player's guide through Diablo history.
Wilson thinks doing that too casually weakens the meaning of death in the story. If major characters can simply return for an anniversary event, he argues, players have less reason to take future consequences seriously.
There is an obvious counterargument, however, and Blizzard has actually built it directly into Season 15.
The company does not describe the season as Cain simply walking back into Sanctuary and announcing that his death has been reversed. Blizzard calls Season of Hell's Legacy a “living history of Diablo's past games”, filled with memories, Echoes and recreated moments from the franchise's history. Cain is specifically described as a lost soul, and Blizzard warns that “memories are fickle.”
That matters.
Season 15 is less Deckard Cain Returns From the Dead and more Diablo IV Lets You Walk Through Thirty Years of Haunted Memories With Deckard Cain as Your Tour Guide.
Whether that distinction solves Wilson's objection depends on how seriously you expect seasonal content to obey the main campaign's narrative rules.
Then Blizzard Called Diablo “The Birthday Boy”
This is the detail that appears to have pushed Wilson from disagreement into genuine irritation.
During Blizzard's anniversary presentation, Diablo was referred to as “the birthday boy.”
Wilson argues that this is exactly the wrong tone for the central villain of a franchise built around the fear and anticipation of eventually confronting the Lord of Terror. If your entire series is called Diablo, he says, Diablo himself should be treated with maximum respect.
There is something wonderfully strange about the argument because both sides are understandable.
Blizzard is celebrating a videogame's 30th birthday. Somebody making a joke on stage is hardly unprecedented.
Wilson is looking at it from inside the fiction.
Diablo is not supposed to be your slightly difficult uncle arriving late with a cake.
He is the Lord of Terror.
Season 15’s Greatest Strength May Be the Thing Wilson Dislikes
The ironic part is that players appear to be enjoying Season 15 precisely because Blizzard has been so willing to raid its own museum.
We have spent the last two weeks covering hidden Diablo II Runewords, Uber Tristram and the Hellfire Torch, Ogden's Sign, Whimsyshire, Mefishto, cow secrets and the continuing Annihilus hunt. Yesterday we covered the growing community call to keep large parts of Season 15 permanently.
Players are not reacting as though Blizzard has accidentally ruined Diablo history.
A significant portion of the community appears delighted that thirty years of it has suddenly become playable again.
That does not make Wilson wrong. It simply exposes two very different ways of treating videogame history.
One says important fictional events should remain important. Death should matter. Villains should retain mystique. Narrative buildup should not be bypassed because an anniversary needs familiar faces.
The other says it is Diablo's 30th birthday. Let us fight everything.
Diablo V May Be Where Wilson Gets the Serious Diablo He Wants
This is where his reaction becomes especially interesting. Wilson dislikes Season 15's treatment of Diablo mythology, but he is cautiously optimistic about the sequel where Blizzard is apparently taking Diablo extremely seriously indeed.
Diablo V begins after the Lord of Terror has already won.
Sanctuary has fallen. Civilization survives in fragments. The landscape itself is being twisted by Diablo's servants. Blizzard has said the entire game is built around Diablo as the central threat, which is one reason he never simply became another Diablo IV expansion villain.
That sounds much closer to Wilson's preferred treatment of the character.
No birthday cake required.
Maybe Diablo Can Be Both Things
There is a larger question underneath Wilson's criticism. How seriously does Diablo need to take itself at all times?
This is a franchise where kings go mad, civilizations collapse and humanity repeatedly discovers that Heaven is not especially interested in customer service.
It is also a franchise where players have spent decades opening cow portals, arguing about Wirt's Leg and wearing ridiculous equipment because one particular numerical interaction is 4.7% better.
Diablo has always contained both darkness and absurdity.
Season 15 pushes unusually hard toward the anniversary theme park version of that history. Wilson clearly thinks Blizzard has crossed a line and turned important characters into attractions.
Plenty of players seem to think Blizzard has finally built the sort of anniversary season they actually wanted.
Perhaps both reactions reveal the same thing.
Thirty years later, people still care enough about Diablo to argue over whether the Lord of Terror is allowed to have a birthday.
