{"id":1995303,"date":"2026-06-17T15:00:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T12:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1995303"},"modified":"2026-06-17T15:00:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T12:00:46","slug":"how-warframe-is-building-upon-its-most-heartbreaking-quest-in-a-continuation-no-one-saw-coming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1995303","title":{"rendered":"How Warframe is building upon its most heartbreaking quest in a continuation &#8220;no one saw coming&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article \" data-ads=\"true\" data-article-type=\"features\" data-article-group=\"feature\" data-paywalled=\"false\" data-premium=\"false\" data-sponsored=\"false\" data-type=\"article\">\n<header class=\"article_header\" data-component=\"article-header\">\n<div class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<nav class=\"nav_breadcrumbs\" data-component=\"nav-breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\">\n<ul class=\"nav-links\">\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Home<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/features\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Features<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/warframe\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Warframe<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_details\" id=\"main-content\">\n<h1 class=\"title\">How Warframe is building upon its most heartbreaking quest in a continuation &#8220;no one saw coming&#8221;<\/h1>\n<p class=\"strapline\">Sibling rivalries.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_asset\">\n<figure class=\"headline_image_wrapper\">\n<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"headline_image\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/WF_Jade-Shadows-Constellations-Complete-Collection_MinorKeyart_3840x2160_no-logo.png?width=690&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;dpr=3&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"Warframe: Jade Shadows Constellations key art featuring Orion and Sirrius.\" loading=\"eager\" data-uri=\"WF_Jade-Shadows-Constellations-Complete-Collection_MinorKeyart_3840x2160_no-logo.png\" data-lightbox width=\"690\" height=\"388\"><figcaption>\n          <span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Digital Extremes<\/cite><\/span><br \/>\n        <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"metadata\">\n<div class=\"avatar\">\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Connor Makar avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/tAtwiaBo_400x400.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"374\" height=\"374\"><\/p>\n<p>  <img alt=\"Connor Makar avatar\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-uri=\"tAtwiaBo_400x400.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"374\" height=\"374\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n                  <span class=\"article_type\" data-slug=\"features\"><br \/>\n                    Feature<br \/>\n                  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/authors\/connor-makar\">Connor Makar<\/a><\/span>                    <span class=\"job_title\"><br \/>\n                      Staff Writer<br \/>\n                    <\/span>\n            <\/div>\n<div class=\"published_at\">\nPublished on <time datetime=\"2026-06-17T15:00:46+00:00\">June 17, 2026<\/time>              <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mypop-header-wrapper\">\n<p><button class=\"mypop-button button wide\" data-state=\"follow\" data-type=\"tag\" data-uuid=\"ee6c5e9d-0816-4b04-a36b-197ee8e654a7\" data-name=\"Warframe\" data-follow-text=\"Follow Warframe\" data-unfollow-text=\"Following Warframe\" data-aria-follow-text=\"Follow Warframe\" data-aria-unfollow-text=\"Following Warframe\" data-popup=\"true\" data-force-login=\"true\" aria-label=\"Follow Warframe\" title=\"Follow Warframe\"><br \/>\n  Follow Warframe<br \/>\n<\/button>          <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>Roughly two years ago, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/warframe\">Warframe<\/a> received a delightful dose of heartbreak in the form of Jade Shadows. Digital Extremes&#8217; free-to-play sci-fi shooter has a history of &#8216;intermission&#8217; quests &#8211; smaller stories that helped fill the space between larger narrative beats; smaller portions of intrigue, and fresh gameplay loops to indulge in.<\/p>\n<p>Jade Shadows stood out. Not only did it bring a fan-favourite (and largely antagonistic) character to the forefront, it did so through the lens of fatherhood of all things. A tragic death, a bold departure from expectations, and an ending inspired by Children of Men.<\/p>\n<p>So how do you follow-up that sort of poignant moment? And what could this mean for future intermission quests like it? The answer to the first question is Warframe&#8217;s upcoming Jade Shadows: Constellations. As for the second, I recently sat down with community director and live ops lead Megan Everett, to find out more.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"Warframe | SIRIUS: Jade Shadows: Constellations - Official Animated Short\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MR5JrEGtL50?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/MR5JrEGtL50\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">Warframe | SIRIUS: Jade Shadows: Constellations &#8211; Official Animated Short<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div><figcaption>Here&#8217;s an animated short for Jade Shadows: Constellations.<a class=\"video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MR5JrEGtL50\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Everett describes Constellations as a &#8221; continuation of a story no one saw coming&#8221;, saying the team was actually quite nervous when it released its predecessor two years ago.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was so out there and opposite from what players had been used to from Warframe&#8217;s storyline,&#8221; she continues. &#8220;When we saw the reception was positive, we saw a place this year that could fit it, where we could do our first proper sequel to a story in Warframe. A true part two to Jade Shadows.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>With this direct follow-up, Digital Extremes is trying to achieve something tricky: retaining the emotional core that made the first quest so popular, while injecting an intense dose of action. The quest features two brothers &#8211; either Orion or Sirius from the end of the first Jade Shadows quest  &#8211; battling it out in a timeline-blending brawl. This warrants a less sombre tone, at least for a while.<\/p>\n<p>The decision on what child to pick at the end of this initial quest is honoured in Constellations, with Everett saying: &#8220;You&#8217;re going to have an experience based on who you&#8217;ve picked&#8221;, though they wouldn&#8217;t reveal which brother proved the most popular back in the original Jade Shadows quest.<\/p>\n<p>In terms of tone, Everett says this update &#8220;scratches that itch&#8221; for action that wasn&#8217;t present in the original Jade Shadows quest, while keeping the emotional core intact. &#8220;Constellations bring some violence that we didn&#8217;t do in Shadows&#8221; she explains. &#8220;The narrative is still very focused on Stalker as a father, but you have this eternalism battle between two realities where each child was chosen. So the epic dueling violence happens between these brothers battling for the spotlight.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a level of the classic Warframe experience, of battles and action, but there are still emotional moments in there. You can&#8217;t tell this story without it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The original Jade Shadows opened the door for exploring themes and ideas disconnected from Warframe&#8217;s main narrative, and to years of characters, and that&#8217;s something Constellation continues.As an MMO, there are plenty of fan-favourites lying around, and none of them are up to much, as far as we know. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know how many times I hear about The Sergeant, and people want to see The Sergeant,&#8221; Everett says. &#8220;It&#8217;s like, no offense, but he&#8217;s a D character. He doesn&#8217;t really mean anything, but he <em>could<\/em> mean something. That&#8217;s the mentality when we do these side updates.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"2\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have these opportunities to do these occasional, interim updates that are a little weird and crazy. We can play around a lot with stories that don&#8217;t have anything to do with The Old Peace or whatever, or maybe they do in subtle ways.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Leaving characters and potential characters in the dust would be a failure, we need to do things with them to keep things interesting.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"poll_wrapper\" data-fixed=\"true\" data-hashid data-init=\"false\" data-poll-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>Roughly two years ago, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/warframe\">Warframe<\/a> received a delightful dose of heartbreak in the form of Jade Shadows. Digital Extremes&#8217; free-to-play sci-fi shooter has a history of &#8216;intermission&#8217; quests &#8211; smaller stories that helped fill the space between larger narrative beats; smaller portions of intrigue, and fresh gameplay loops to indulge in.<\/p>\n<p>Jade Shadows stood out. Not only did it bring a fan-favourite (and largely antagonistic) character to the forefront, it did so through the lens of fatherhood of all things. A tragic death, a bold departure from expectations, and an ending inspired by Children of Men.<\/p>\n<p>So how do you follow-up that sort of poignant moment? And what could this mean for future intermission quests like it? The answer to the first question is Warframe&#8217;s upcoming Jade Shadows: Constellations. As for the second, I recently sat down with community director and live ops lead Megan Everett, to find out more.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"Warframe | SIRIUS: Jade Shadows: Constellations - Official Animated Short\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MR5JrEGtL50?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/MR5JrEGtL50\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">Warframe | SIRIUS: Jade Shadows: Constellations &#8211; Official Animated Short<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div><figcaption>Here&#8217;s an animated short for Jade Shadows: Constellations.<a class=\"video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MR5JrEGtL50\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Everett describes Constellations as a &#8221; continuation of a story no one saw coming&#8221;, saying the team was actually quite nervous when it released its predecessor two years ago.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was so out there and opposite from what players had been used to from Warframe&#8217;s storyline,&#8221; she continues. &#8220;When we saw the reception was positive, we saw a place this year that could fit it, where we could do our first proper sequel to a story in Warframe. A true part two to Jade Shadows.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>With this direct follow-up, Digital Extremes is trying to achieve something tricky: retaining the emotional core that made the first quest so popular, while injecting an intense dose of action. The quest features two brothers &#8211; either Orion or Sirius from the end of the first Jade Shadows quest  &#8211; battling it out in a timeline-blending brawl. This warrants a less sombre tone, at least for a while.<\/p>\n<p>The decision on what child to pick at the end of this initial quest is honoured in Constellations, with Everett saying: &#8220;You&#8217;re going to have an experience based on who you&#8217;ve picked&#8221;, though they wouldn&#8217;t reveal which brother proved the most popular back in the original Jade Shadows quest.<\/p>\n<p>In terms of tone, Everett says this update &#8220;scratches that itch&#8221; for action that wasn&#8217;t present in the original Jade Shadows quest, while keeping the emotional core intact. &#8220;Constellations bring some violence that we didn&#8217;t do in Shadows&#8221; she explains. &#8220;The narrative is still very focused on Stalker as a father, but you have this eternalism battle between two realities where each child was chosen. So the epic dueling violence happens between these brothers battling for the spotlight.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a level of the classic Warframe experience, of battles and action, but there are still emotional moments in there. You can&#8217;t tell this story without it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The original Jade Shadows opened the door for exploring themes and ideas disconnected from Warframe&#8217;s main narrative, and to years of characters, and that&#8217;s something Constellation continues.As an MMO, there are plenty of fan-favourites lying around, and none of them are up to much, as far as we know. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know how many times I hear about The Sergeant, and people want to see The Sergeant,&#8221; Everett says. &#8220;It&#8217;s like, no offense, but he&#8217;s a D character. He doesn&#8217;t really mean anything, but he <em>could<\/em> mean something. That&#8217;s the mentality when we do these side updates.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"2\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have these opportunities to do these occasional, interim updates that are a little weird and crazy. We can play around a lot with stories that don&#8217;t have anything to do with The Old Peace or whatever, or maybe they do in subtle ways.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Leaving characters and potential characters in the dust would be a failure, we need to do things with them to keep things interesting.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"poll_wrapper\" data-fixed=\"true\" data-hashid data-init=\"false\" data-poll-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home Features Warframe How Warframe is building upon its most heartbreaking quest in a continuation &#8220;no one saw coming&#8221; Sibling rivalries. Image credit: Digital Extremes Feature by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on June 17, 2026 Follow Warframe Roughly two years ago, Warframe received a delightful dose of heartbreak in the form of Jade Shadows. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,253],"class_list":["post-1995303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-eurogamer-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1995303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1995303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1995303\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1995303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1995303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1995303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}