Warning: This article contains story spoilers for Diablo 4. Proceed at your own risk.In the eyes of many fans, Diablo 4 drastically improves upon the story of Diablo 3 in both tone and writing, bringing the series back to the level it was at with Diablo 2. The open-world nature of Diablo 4 helps facilitate this style of storytelling as it allows all the pieces to fall into place organically without leading the player down a linear narrative. However, despite some unexpected twists and surprise foes, the final boss fight against Lilith is ultimately underwhelming given the game's prior set-up to the climactic clash.
As the game's main antagonist, Lilith has been the face of Diablo 4 throughout its marketing cycle leading up to release, with Blizzard capitalizing on every opportunity they could to promote the game using her as the central focus. Given how heavily she had been featured in promotional materials prior to launch, it seemed obvious that players would eventually have to face her in battle. Rather than subverting expectations and throwing a twist on Diablo 4's final boss, the game plays it safe and has players face a tough battle with Lilith, but its predictability holds the fight back from being as interesting as it could have been.
Diablo 4 Could Have Made the Final Boss Fight Against Lilith Less Predictable
Lilith's presence throughout Diablo 4 is characterized by her ability to stay one step ahead of the player and their rag-tag band of Horadrim as they follow her path of destruction around Sanctuary. While the player can see visions of Lilith and echoes of what she had done at various locations around Sanctuary after ingesting some of her blood petals early in the game, they never come face to face with the villain until the final encounter at the Cathedral of Hatred. This is not an unexpected encounter given that Lilith has been the driving force of the game's plot, but it falls short of being the epic battle it could have been due to being entirely too predictable.
The events that precede this encounter are far more shocking and worthy of the game's climax than the inevitable fight against Lilith. As players descend into Hell in pursuit of Lilith, they will witness the clash between her demonic army and the Cathedral of Light that results in Lilith killing Inarius. If that twist isn't shocking enough, the deaths of characters like Reverend Mother Prava and Donan, along with the last second decision to seal Mephisto within the Soulstone instead of Lilith keep the pace of the story at a high until the final confrontation with Lilith.
However, it's this fight with Lilith that leaves something to be desired because, while it's not necessarily a bad fight, it lacks the same level of intrigue that the events leading up to it had. Lilith's fight is split into two phases: Lilith, Creator of Sanctuary and Lilith, Daughter of Hatred, with an increase in difficulty between the two. Lilith throws everything she has at the player, including destroying parts of the arena as the fight goes on, making her one of the most difficult bosses in Diablo 4.
While the difficult nature of this fight is fitting for a final boss, Diablo 4 could have thrown a better twist in there to really make it memorable. Perhaps, instead of successfully sealing Mephisto within the Soulstone, Lilith completes her mission and kills him, forcing the player to battle her in her far more powerful form as the successor to Mephisto. This final battle also would have been more impactful if the player had fought Lilith much earlier in the game and barely survived so that finally defeating her after a lengthy chase across Diablo 4's Sanctuary would have been all the more satisfying.
Diablo 4 is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
