Star Wars Jedi: Survivor’s Colossal Improvements Make Up For A Restricted Coruscant

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order came as a surprise to many, as a faithful single-player adventure in the immense Star Wars verse, and no one expected the game to be as good as it was. This is precisely why the sequel announcement had us all overjoyed, and the reveal trailer of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor during The Game Awards crushed many other strong contenders in popularity.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order – A Surprise Hit

Star Wars Battlefront 2, the previous Star Wars game was full of controversy, as EA’s addition and then the defence of microtransaction elements left the fans enraged. The severe backlash is evident by EA’s comment on Reddit defending the mechanism becoming the most downvoted comment on the platform. This opposition helped in somewhat alleviating the situation.

However, the damage had been done and fans were skeptical when a new Star Wars game was announced. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order came to blow away all doubts, as Respawn developed a pure single-player adventure, filled with creative mechanics and a beloved story, and the game served as a redemption for EA. The game ended up defying all expectations and was immensely successful, becoming one of the best Star Wars games.

One more thing:

As of today, more than 20 million players worldwide have played Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order across all consoles, platforms and subscription services.

Thank you, Jedi!

— Respawn (@Respawn) June 11, 2021

The game introduced a new protagonist, Cal Kestis. Set 5 years after the events of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Cal is a Jedi apprentice seeking to complete his training while avoiding the deadly Inquisitors bent on wiping out all trace of the Jedi. The story revolves around Cal’s development, as he meets allies during these treacherous times and resolves to restore the Jedi Order, in a journey filled with surprising twists.

An engaging story is indeed desirable, but a Star Wars game is incomplete without intense lightsaber action and effective demonstration of The Force. And thus, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order provided excellent gameplay mechanics, utilizing the above two aspects in Sekiro-esque combat, and a Metroidvania-style world. The ingenious application of Force abilities and the thrilling combat requiring parries was a true Star Wars experience.

To sweeten the deal, Respawn added a beloved robot companion BD-1 to accompany you on this venture, as you visited iconic locations of the Star Wars verse and maneuvered around platforms with The Force at your command. The game was a really exciting experience, as it contained many elements we always wanted in a Star Wars game. Based on this, expectations were considerably high for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.

My thoughts and expectations for Jedi: Survivor.
by u/Dragonic_Overlord_ in StarWars

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Is A Massive Improvement

As the sequel to the critically acclaimed Fallen Order, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor had big shoes to fill. It needed to retain the excitement of the prequel and bring enough novelty to the table to keep the audience satisfied, considering the anticipation for a sequel was immense. And it seems like the game is ready to deliver all those expectations, as the final gameplay trailer blew everyone away as the hype went through the roof.

In terms of story, the game picks up 5 years after the events of the prequel, as Cal continues to survive the onslaught of the Empire. Not much is known, but from the trailers, we can see that the sense of impossible odds seems even more reinforced, as the game takes a more mature tone fitting the now-experienced Cal Kestis, facing stark opposition from both old and new foes.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor’s gameplay sees major improvements, as the game quickly establishes it is on a much bigger scale than its predecessor. The now Jedi Knight Cal Kestis uses The Force with a lot more expertise and has many new abilities to learn. The game keeps certain abilities that were learned over the course of the first game – an excellent way to demonstrate Cal’s growth and mastery, opening up room for refreshed upgrades.

And what better way to show Force mastery than with improved abilities that are straight-up fun to execute? Cal can now force-throw and lift multiple enemies at once, pull and slam them down, and just grab them to use them as shields and weapons against their own allies. Who doesn’t like force-throwing Stormtroopers into TIE Fighters, it looks insanely fun.

If that wasn’t enough, you could now use the Force on enemies’ minds to disorient them and unleash the iconic time-slowing ability with a larger field and duration. This is accompanied by more intensive lightsaber combat, as you can access five different stances. You can now properly dual-wield two separate sabers, use a crossguard (Kylo Ren style) saber to punish with heavy attacks, and a blaster combo stance for extended range.

This opens up a myriad of possibilities for unique combinations and extended combos to make sure the enemies get no room to breathe. The combat also has more authenticity now, as your weapon truly feels like a lightsaber when it dismembers the foes foolish enough to cross your path. We thought the gameplay loop was satisfying before, but it seems things are about to become a lot more intense.

You’re not the only one getting all the boosts, as the game vastly improves enemy variety to challenge any misplaced sense of superiority. The entire droid army is after you, including battle droids (B1, B2, BX), Droidekas, MagnaGuards, and BT Sentry Droids. To make things worse, a Gen’dai named Rayvis is a major adversary – always fun to go against near impossible to kill enemies.

The monster lineup in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor also sees an improvement, as we encounter a Rancor among many new additions. Other than a lot more content to discover, the game doubles down on the incentive to explore by providing improved parkour mechanics. The platforming was an important part of what made the prequel great, and now with strengthened force powers allowing jump dashes and fluidity, it is going miles ahead.

An Explorable Coruscant Will Surely Be Missed

What breathes life into a sci-fi world is the existence of versatile alien planets with unique creatures and civilizations, and Star Wars was among the first to fulfill that fantasy. Precisely why when a game of the franchise comes out, we look forward to how it explores the galaxy and its many inhabitants on their home worlds. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order included 5 different planets to explore, and each felt pretty unique.

Among the many things we wanted to be done in a sequel was the addition of more planets and worlds to explore, filled with unique secrets and easter eggs for fans to enjoy discovering. And a top priority in that list of planets was the highly iconic Coruscant, former HQ of the Galactic Republic and currently the base of The Empire after purging the Jedi.

We’re aware that Star Wars Jedi: Survivor’s semi-open worlds are now of a much larger scale, as is evident by the presence of mounts and fast travel in the game. Cal is shown to be riding both ground walking and flying creatures to get across areas, which is a sign of a lot more ground to cover now. And when hints of Coruscant were spotted and then later confirmed, fans were overjoyed expecting a huge Coruscant to make an appearance.

We were slightly let down when the EA communications team basically confirmed Coruscant will be a location in the game but not a freely explorable one. I’d be lying if I say I was ok with not being able to roam around on a planet that has played host to two stark opposite organizations and discover the many possible details that the developers could put on this playground, signifying how times changed.

To be clear, Stig never claimed Coruscant was a “freely explorable open world.” He only confirmed it as one of the destinations in the game. Survivor has amazing planets to explore and our biggest environments to date but wanted to be clear on what was said. Thx! https://t.co/fCjGhIZjt0

— Andy McNamara (@TheRealAndyMc) April 9, 2023

I do agree it was the right move not to put Coruscant as freely visitable, considering it would go against the overall plot setting. Barging in and roaming around unchecked in the stronghold of an organization strong enough to basically wipe out the Jedi would have been difficult to explain. Still, I believe many of the fans would agree it would have been awesome being able to do that.

At least we know Coruscant is a location in the game, and from the trailer and the intense battles, it seems a very important one at that. If they utilize this iconic location as the site of a dramatic confrontation serving to reinforce the plot, I believe that would be an epic moment. We can’t complain since Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is bringing plenty to the table when it releases on April 28, 2023, for the PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.