Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Orderachieved what every good original entry should strive toward: creating a solid foundation for a franchise to be built upon. This was done through an interesting narrative concentrating on a character who has room to grow, and it seems as though the ceiling is still thankfully far out ofprotagonist Cal Kestis’ reach.Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Orderdoes marry a plethora of genre inspirations, but this givesStar Wars Jedi: Survivorthe opportunity to hone them in further or decide which genre paths are most sustainable for the franchise as a whole.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivoris opening up its level designs to accommodate mounts, for example, but is maintainingFallen Order’s crucial Metroidvania exploration. Likewise, it seems as ifSurvivorwill be leaning intoFallen Order’s Soulslike inspirations again, which is incredibly favorable. However, like any game,Fallen Orderhas also probably taught Respawn some lessons about development that should help it to produce a phenomenal sequel. InSurvivor, it would be fantastic to see more planet diversity, and if platforming is reprised to the same extent it should be improved greatly.
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Jedi: Survivor Needs to Prioritize Diverse Planet Exploration
Planets do not even need to necessarily be environmentally diverse inStar Wars Jedi: Survivor, but there is an important choice to be made with regard to planets featured in the sequel: having few planets likeFallen Orderthat all have comprehensive level designs and exploration, or having many planets that may not all be fully explorable but give the player more locations to travel to.
There are merits to each approach, and the ideal scenario would probably be a mixture of both, but it is unclear what Respawn’s approach to planet diversity will be inSurvivor. The gameplay trailer revealed at least a few planets players will travel to, with the reddish desert-like planet seemingly offering the most open exploration of any locations shown thus far. It would be exceptional if different planets offered different mechanics and gameplay approaches, similar to howGod of War Ragnarok’s nine realmsare all fairly distinguishable from one another.
In this way,Survivorcould have its own Muspelheim-esque planet that is reserved for particular challenges and a deservedly difficult boss fight. Otherwise, fans may simply be happy to seemore planets fromStar Warslore that are iconic and familiar.
Jedi: Survivor Needs to Prioritize Platforming
Ofall the featuresStar Wars Jedi: Fallen Orderhas, its platforming seemed the most backburned. Many platforming sequences consisted of wall-running between surfaces or sliding down curved slopes, with double-jumping and vine-swinging introduced later into the game. These are all serviceable ways to get around each planet, but rarely felt satisfying from a platforming perspective.
Bogano featured some interesting traversal options when players could return with more Force abilities attuned, for example, but Kashyyyk’s bounce pods were sort of silly in their functionality. Likewise, climbing across plant-strewn walls was fine, and crawling along porous surfaces was only a minor upgrade upon that once Dathomir’s climbing equipment was found.Survivorhas kept any platforming shown to a minimum thus far, but it has been revealed that Cal will have some sort of grappling hook and can now descend along surfaces by carving his way down it with his lightsaber.
It will be interesting to see how useful these two new mechanics become when navigating different areas, and if other platforming options have been considered that could make platforming stand out strongly inStar Wars Jedi: Survivor. The only thing thatSurvivorshould stay true to with regard to its storytelling is thatFallen Order’s narrative felt wholly original without pandering to iconography, andSurvivor’s should too.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivoris scheduled to release on April 28 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
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