>>534964609
Definitively? It technically started in Chapter 3 Season 4 but that season had momentum from previous seasons so it doesn't come off as that until you learn about the development behind the scenes and look at its terrible ending (it has the worst live event in the game's history, where the interesting part was a cutscene and the boring bit was a 30-minute-long interactive fetch quest with Creative assets). It really became apparent with Chapter 4, when they had to set up a new island but couldn't make anything they were doing coherent with what came before or after on a season-to-season basis.

Tim Sweeney was one of the lead developers on the game and the lore was his baby. He left the team in the middle of Chapter 3 due to disagreements with management about where the game was headed (backseating BR to chase Roblox's audience via Creative and turning the game into a multi-genre game hub to better sell brands). C3S3 was the final season he had any influence on, and the story arcs he set up really properly ended in C3S2, S3 being more like a victory lap. When it came time to set up the start of the next mega-arc nobody cared, and it's been lazy and disjointed ever since.


I have a great fondness for the subtle, dialogue-free storytelling of Chapter 1, but even I will admit Chapter 2 was probably where the storytelling for the game peaked (if you can excuse the giant roadbump that was the first Marvel-themed season, C2S4). The first two seasons of Chapter 3 were the resolution to all the things set up in Chapter 2.

Last tidbit, there was also a TERRIBLE Fortnite comic made by Marvel in C3S2 which did some real damage to the lore, but while that sucks it didn't have a long-term impact because the game completely stopped focusing on any character who appeared in that comic besides Jonesy.