Diablo 4 needs to make this legendary boss scary again in Season 8

The Butcher needs to be terrifying again in Season 8 of Diablo 4, and the threat of him has to be felt more keenly by more players.

In the original Diablo, The Butcher was pure nightmare fuel and I still remember walking into his abattoir, hearing him rasp “Fresh..meat..”, turning tail and running for the hills. I eventually plucked up the courage to face him but was repeatedly cut down by his mighty blood-soaked cleaver.

Of course, with some more grinding, better gear, and an indomitable spirit, I eventually overcame the monster, but even to this day, his catchphrase still sends chills down my spine. Even his return as a boss in Diablo 3 couldn’t match the terror of that first encounter.

However, when he reappeared as a random encounter in Diablo 4, once again uttering his menacing catchphrase, twenty years of repressed fear came flooding back – and it was spectacular. Blizzard understood that having the character appear from nowhere and relentlessly hunt you in a random dungeon was far more frightening than a scripted boss fight.

Blizzard

The Burning Butcher was terrifying, we need more of him.

Non-existent threat

The issue now is that the character has stopped being scary, but there are ways to spice him up again. Season 8’s entire theme is bosses, with it bringing back villains like Belial and streamlining the summoning process for Ubers. However, as far as I can tell from the PTR, The Butcher remains out in the cold from these changes.

Players have noticed that the enemy has lost some of his luster, with various Reddit threads popping up questioning his whereabouts, asking questions like, “Is The Butcher on vacation somewhere?” Blizzard has opted for a less-is-more approach with The Butcher, using him sparingly, but this has made him an almost non-existent threat in the past few seasons.

I’d argue that Blizzard should use the opposite strategy and increase the frequency of Butcher attacks, make them more deadly, and even apply them to all World Tiers. Not only would this mean that more players would bump into the monstrous enemy, it would create an ever-present threat, ramping up the tension and fear that he could be around any corner.

As The Butcher is rare, players feel secure in the knowledge that encountering him is unlikely as they go on their merry way, I say we change this and put players in a constant state of dread. I also make no apologies to players using Hardcore characters – this is the path you choose.

After all, there were elements of survival horror sprinkled into the first two Diablo games, and D3, Immortal, and 4 have utterly lost all semblance of this as the series has descended into just another live-service grindfest. Revamping The Butcher will put some character back into Diablo 4, something it sorely needs.

Therefore, a season geared around boss fights is the perfect time to do this. The Butcher is the original Diablo boss and arguably even stole the show from the Lord of Terror himself in the original game. Until the Darkening of Tristram events (hopefully) come to Diablo 4 one day, The Butcher needs to stalk the dungeons of Sanctuary always on the hunt for “Fresh…meat…”