QUICKIE -- Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is a 2019 action-adventure game developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. The story is set in the Star Wars universe, five years after Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. It follows Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis, who becomes a target of the Galactic Empire and is hunted throughout the galaxy by the Imperial Inquisitors while attempting to complete his training, reconcile with his troubled past, and rebuild the fallen Jedi Order. The player can use Kestis' lightsaber and Force powers to defeat enemies, including stormtroopers, wild beasts and bounty hunters. The game adopts a Metroidvania style of level design where new areas are accessed as Cal unlocks skills and abilities.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was directed by Stig Asmussen, who joined Respawn in 2014. The game began development as an original title unrelated to Star Wars, but Electronic Arts felt the action would work well as a Star Wars game, convincing Lucasfilm to authorize and consult on the project. The game's visuals were influenced by Rogue One and Star Wars Rebels, while the combat and levels were inspired by Metroid Prime, Dark Souls, and The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. The game's voice cast includes Cameron Monaghan as Cal Kestis and Debra Wilson as his mentor Cere. Ben Burtt provided the voice for Cal's companion droid BD-1, while Forest Whitaker reprised his role from Rogue One as Saw Gerrera. The music, composed by Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab, was recorded at Abbey Road Studios with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Bach Choir of London.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in November 2019, and for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in June 2021. The game received generally favorable reviews from critics, who praised the game's combat, characters, performance, and world design, though it received criticisms for the technical issues at release. It sold over 10 million units by 2020. It was nominated for several end-of-the-year accolades, including Best Action/Adventure Game at The Game Awards 2020. A sequel, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, was released in April 2023.

Gameplay

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is an action-adventure video game played from a third-person perspective. The player can use their lightsaber to strike at enemies, or block incoming attacks. Blocking an attack depletes a character's block meter, opening them up to attack when the meter hits zero. If the player blocks just before an attack, this will parry the attack or deflect a projectile, causing their opponent's block meter to fall more quickly, opening them up for attack. Some enemies will glow red when they attempt to launch an unblockable attack. The player can either sidestep, dodge, or interrupt the attack by using Force abilities. The player has one lightsaber at the beginning of the game, and they can earn the ability to dual-wield a double-bladed lightsaber later in the game.

The player has access to several Force powers, which are used in both combat and puzzle scenarios. The player begins the game with a "force slow" ability that slows down enemies, and slowly earns more force powers such as wall-run, double-jump, force-push, and force-pull, allowing them to reach previously inaccessible areas. The usage of these Force powers is governed by the Force meter, which will replenish when the player damages an enemy using regular attacks. As players progress in the game, they gain skill points which can be used to upgrade their combat skills, which are divided into three major categories: Survival, Lightsaber, and Force. Enemy types include wild beasts native to certain planets, as well as stormtroopers, droids, and Jedi-hunting Purge Troopers. The game's bosses include Inquisitors, bounty hunters, larger wild beasts, and large vehicles such as AT-STs. Some of the bosses are part of the main story, while others are optional. Throughout the game, the player is accompanied by a droid named BD-1. The droid helps the player access chests and terminals, as well as healing them using Stim Canisters.

The game adopts the "Metroidvania" style of exploration and progression. It features five major explorable planets that players can return to regularly; Bogano, Zeffo, Kashyyyk, Dathomir and Ilum. The starship Stinger Mantis serves as the small hub area where the player can talk to non-playable characters, and is used to travel between planets. On each planet, the locations are interconnected, and players can find shortcuts to traverse areas more quickly. Many areas can only be accessed once the player unlocks new abilities or items. When requested, BD-1 projects a holographic map of the planet, including the location of the player's objectives. Doors that can be opened are highlighted in green, and gates that cannot be opened yet are highlighted in red. As the player explores different locations, BD-1 occasionally requests to scan items, granting players a small amount of experience points. Exploration reveals chests, which unlock cosmetic items that change the appearance of the player, their ship, and BD-1. The player can find "essence" items that give a permanent increases to their health or force meter, as well as "echoes" that reveal more of the game's story. BD-1 can be upgraded to help with navigation and combat, though some upgrades can be easily missed. Each level contains "meditation circles" where the player can save the game, spend skill points to update their character, refill Stim Canisters, and rest to recover health, healing items, and force energy. However, resting causes all enemies to respawn. Dying in battle costs players experience points, though lost XP can be regained by damaging the opponent that has previously killed the player.

With the addition of a Star Wars Day update released in 2020, players can access the Meditation Arena through the meditation circles. The arena offers combat challenges where the player fights waves of enemies based on locations from the main game. Completing a challenge awards the player with up to three stars, based on the player's health. These stars can be used to unlock cosmetic changes for BD-1. The Meditation Arena includes a battle grid, where players can select their abilities and opponents for a custom challenge.

Synopsis

Setting and characters

Cameron Monaghan and Debra Wilson did voice work and motion capture as Cal Kestis and Cere Junda respectively.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order takes place five years after the events of Revenge of the Sith, in which the democratic Galactic Republic was replaced by the totalitarian Galactic Empire, which effectively controls the galaxy and oversaw the near-extermination of the Republic's peacekeepers, the Jedi Order. The game follows Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis (Cameron Monaghan), one of the few survivors of the Empire's Great Jedi Purge, who embarks on a mission to try and rebuild the Jedi Order while being hunted by the Second Sister (Elizabeth Grullón) and her partner, the Ninth Sister (Misty Lee), both trained by the Sith Lord Darth Vader (Scott Lawrence) as part of the Imperial Inquisitors program.

During his journey, Cal is joined by several allies, including former Jedi Knight-turned-mercenary Cere Junda (Debra Wilson); her friend Greez Dritus (Daniel Roebuck), owner and pilot of the Stinger Mantis; BD-1 (Ben Burtt), a small droid previously owned by Jedi Master Eno Cordova (Tony Amendola); and Merrin (Tina Ivlev), one of the last surviving members of the Nightsister clan of Dathomir. Other characters include Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), the leader of the Partisan rebel movement against the Empire that was featured in previous Star Wars media; Dark Jedi Taron Malicos (Liam McIntyre), who usurped leadership of Dathomir; and Cal's former Jedi Master, Jaro Tapal (Travis Willingham), who is featured in flashbacks alongside several clone troopers (Dee Bradley Baker).

Plot

*** SPOILERS BELOW ***

Five years after the Republic's conversion into the Empire and the Great Jedi Purge, former Padawan Cal Kestis is hiding from the Empire on the planet Bracca, where he works as a scrapper salvaging ships from the Clone Wars. An Imperial probe catches Cal using the Force to save his friend Prauf, and two Inquisitors—the Second Sister and the Ninth Sister—are sent to capture the Jedi. After the Second Sister kills Prauf for speaking up against the Empire, Cal makes his escape. He is rescued by former Jedi Knight Cere Junda and pilot Greez Dritus, who transport him on their ship, the Stinger Mantis.

Cere takes Cal to the planet Bogano in the hopes that he can access an ancient vault. On the way to the vault, Cal befriends a small droid named BD-1, who shows him a message from Cere's former Jedi Master, Eno Cordova. It reveals that the vault was built by an ancient civilization called the Zeffo and that a Jedi Holocron containing a list of Force-sensitive children has been hidden inside by Cordova. Cere believes the list could help rebuild the Jedi Order, but the only way to access the vault is by following Cordova's path. Cal heads to the Zeffo homeworld and explores an ancient temple, finding a clue pointing to Cordova's friend, the Wookiee chieftain Tarfful. On Kashyyyk, Cal encounters notorious insurgent Saw Gerrera. Cal helps Gerrera free several Wookiees enslaved by the Empire.

Unable to locate Tarfful, Cal revisits Zeffo in search of additional clues but is unexpectedly ambushed by the Second Sister, who unveils herself as Trilla Suduri, Cere's former Padawan. Trilla explains her capture by the Empire after Cere's betrayal under torture and warns Cal of the inevitable betrayal by Cere as well. Cal discovers the necessity of a Zeffo artifact known as an Astrium to access the vault but is captured by a Haxion Brood bounty hunter, forcing him into a gladiatorial arena owned by the Haxion boss, Sorc Tormo. Following a rescue mission by Cere and Greez, Cal returns to Kashyyyk, where Tarfful instructs him to investigate the pinnacle of the Origin Tree. At that location, Cal uncovers another recording by Cordova, revealing the presence of an Astrium within a Zeffo tomb on Dathomir, but his exploration is interrupted by an encounter with the Ninth Sister, whom he manages to defeat.

On Dathomir, Cal's progress is impeded by an army of revenants led by Nightsister Merrin, who blames the Jedi for the massacre of her people during the Clone Wars. Cal has a flashback of his former master Jaro Tapal sacrificing himself to protect him during Order 66, and the kyber crystal of Cal's lightsaber is destroyed. He meets former Jedi Taron Malicos, who crash-landed on Dathomir during the Purge and succumbed to the dark side of the Force, usurping leadership of the planet. Malicos seeks to learn the Nightsisters' magic and tries to tempt Cal to the dark side, but the latter refuses and flees after Merrin attacks them both. Aboard the Stinger Mantis, Cere admits she cut her connection to the Force after briefly falling to the dark side upon learning Trilla became an Inquisitor. After traveling to Ilum to rebuild his lightsaber, Cal returns to Dathomir, where he retrieves the Astrium and overcomes his guilt over Jaro's death. He then defeats Malicos with the unexpected aid of Merrin, who agrees to join the Stinger Mantis crew.

Back on Bogano, Cal unlocks the vault, experiencing a vision where he rebuilds the Jedi Order, but they are defeated and tortured by the Empire, whom he eventually joins. After escaping the vision, Trilla attacks him and steals the Holocron. Cere reassumes her role as a Jedi and knights Cal before the pair infiltrate the Fortress Inquisitorius on Mustafar's oceanic moon Nur to recover the Holocron. After battling their way through almost an entire company of stormtroopers, they reach Trilla, whom Cal defeats, taking back the Holocron. Cere reconciles with Trilla, but before the latter can be fully redeemed, Darth Vader suddenly appears and murders Trilla for her failure. Unable to defeat Vader, Cal and Cere escape from his grasp and are saved from drowning by Merrin. The crew celebrates their success on the Stinger Mantis, until they realize that the children listed on the Holocron will only be in more danger if they become Jedi. Cal destroys the Holocron with his lightsaber and asks his crew where they should go next.

The Verdict:

After having this game installed on my PlayStation 4 HDD for what felt like several years now, I finally started the game less than a month ago and finished it little less than two weeks later, playing it off and on several evenings. For those wondering, I completed the entire narrative campaign, collected 7 out of 10 Stim Cannister upgrades for BD-1, completed the entire skill tree (after some extended EXP farming on Ilum after receiving the Split Saber skill), and left majority of the planets at 80-95% explored. 

This is a game with a Dark Souls vibe and aspects that definitely aren't for everyone. Fortunately, there's multiple difficulty settings for those who wish to just focus on enjoying the story instead, so that's major plus in that regard in terms of accessibility. 

This is an open world, free exploration game without any fast travel points with one of the worst in-game maps/mini-maps that I have ever experienced in my gaming tenure. I have never seen something so convoluted for a game that requires so much backtracking and demanded heavy exploration in terms of getting to point A to point B, whether it was getting to the various objectives to progress through the story or to simply get back to your ship, the Mantis. 

The game encourages a lot of exploration but there's very few incentives to do so as there's very few rewards outside of Force Echoes and Databank Entries (massive EXP boost) in terms of lore and Stim upgrades for BD-1 (granting more health refills). More often than not, players find themselves going out of their way for a reward that's merely cosmetic (something that's in 90% of the chests in this game) and overall useless in terms of making Cal stronger or leveling up his skills/Force powers. There's not a single missable power or skill in this game in that regard either. Even the dual bladed lightsaber is acquired as part of the story if you didn't jump ahead to Dathomir or backtracked to the Bogano's Abandoned Workshop (once BD-1 has the Slice ability) to acquire it before the story gives it to you at the workbench Cal stumbles across on the way shortly before the Ninth Sister boss fight. 

I really wanted to like the Metroidvania aspects of this game but it ultimately left me with the impression of being a poor attempt at being a Metroidvania. Exploration is tied to returning to these assorted planets with new powers that Cal acquires/learns throughout the course of the game's story. With the clunky in-game map, it becomes more of a chore than being enjoyable to explore and backtrack to locations that you previously missed, overlooked, or were unable to access in your first ventures through these planets. A lot of the wrong turns are quick ways to die in this game - i.e. curiosity killed the cat in more ways than one, especially when you run into a very powerful enemy or boss that you're expected to return to fight late into the game instead of the early hours of the game. That infamous frog (Ogdo Bogdo) on Bogano that wrecks EVERYONE who starts this game is a perfect example of that even if you manage to get the drop on him from above first.

In terms of performance and visuals, I have to say that there were a lot of times where this game ran like absolute dogshit on PlayStation 4. It required a full reboot/restart of my console after coming out of standby and/or hibernation mode(s). Otherwise, the game would slowdown or stalled to a crawl when trying to load the environment and/or cutscenes. It was even worse during cutscenes and dialogue in free roaming. Normally, I don't complain about frame rates and the like in my video games but this was a special occasion where I could notice anything slower than the default recommended settings of visuals on PlayStation 4 would make parrying nearly impossible to get the timing window down. 

I thought the Force Push timing on countering projectiles was iffy as fuck, especially when it came to sending missiles and rockets back to their sender (specifically those Stormtroopers armed with rocket launchers). I have lost count from how many times I got killed or hit from trying to push those back in time. It seems like the targeting is tied to centering your field of vision with the camera to about half screen before Cal will react to it properly. 

If this wasn't bad enough, I thought the targeting in terms of getting Cal to reel in one enemy with Force Pull then to target another to throw them with Force Push was just as bad, if not worse. This problem is magnified against the final boss' last phase. When it works, it's amazing to see pulled off but getting it to work is much more trouble than it's worth in my eyes. 

Another thing I customized in terms of making life easier in terms of controls is turning on auto-climb/grip and wall run in the Options since I grew tired of doing those manually.

In terms of the game's story, I thought it was fine for the most part, even though it was very predictable. 

I thought Cal Kestis was an interesting enough of a character, especially with his journey throughout the game to reconnect and come to terms with his traumatic past during the Jedi Purge while finding the courage to overcome the looming threat of the Inquisitors during this time period in the Star Wars lore where Jedi are nearly extinct. I enjoyed the flashbacks that were peppered throughout the story campaign to fill in the gaps of Cal's training and served as mental trials he had to overcome to unlock new Force powers.  

The biggest hook was playing as a Jedi that survived Order 66 AKA the infamous Jedi Purge that we saw at the end of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of Sith, so this game took place in the ripe time period between the prequel trilogy and the original trilogy. I thoroughly enjoyed the cameos from Saw Guerra and Darth Vader as definite highlights in the story, but I thought Nightsister Merrin and the Second Sister stole the show. Going back to gameplay for a moment but I have to admit that the Sith/Inquisitor boss fights were the most fun and challenging out of the entire game. The AT-ST fights weren't bad either, but in comparison, the beast fights weren't fun in the least, especially when thinking about Ogdo Bogdo on Bogano.

Narratively, I thought the story peaked upon Cal's second visit to Dathomir after Trilla's "reveal" to be Cere's lost padawan. I personally thought the game was leaning towards Cere betraying Cal in the end once he obtained the holocron to hand it over to the Inquisitors in some sort of a desperate plea/bargain to get Trilla back, but I was glad that the game didn't go into such a predictable manner and just kept the course with Trilla/Second Sister as the game's primary antagonist. I wish the game had more dialogue between Greez, Cere, and Merrin once they were all on the Mantis together as it just seems like they were merely passengers for the final act of the game until the ending sequence. I found it really disappointing that Merrin didn't have a bigger role in the game's final act, especially when it was a big deal for her to venture away from her homeworld of Dathomir and for a Nightsister to align with a Jedi nonetheless. For the small amount of dialogue that she did have, I thought her dry sense of humor was a highlight, especially when she was toying around with Greez's fear of her kind. After she helped Cal on Dathomir, I thought she would have had a much more prominent role in their later battles, especially invading the Inquisitors' home base outside of her cloaking their ship from detection with one of her spells. Sue me, but I wanted to see a LOT more of this intriguing character. Plus I'm not ashamed to admit my fascination and better yet, attraction to hot goth chicks, so that just fueled the fire even more in terms of interest in Trilla and Merrin. In all seriousness, I wish that they didn't kill Trilla off as I thought they could have done a tad more with her story, much like they left the door open for more with Merrin in an inevitable sequel. 

(Laughs) Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is rumored to be hitting Xbox PC Game Pass soon so I might get to find out sooner more than later in that regard, so I'll hold my breath on that one in terms of seeing what they are going to do with Merrin and possibly bringing back any characters who were seemingly killed off in this game.