I got the first Star Wars Jedi game, Fallen Order, on sale, or as part of a free monthly PS Plus game, I can’t remember. I knew it was meant to be Star Wars Dark Souls so I was hesitant going in. I ended up knocking it down to Story difficulty pretty early into the game. It still kicked my butt, but I did learn to enjoy some of the challenge, and the story wasn’t terrible. I finally got the sequel, Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, on a deep sale and I was interested to see the continuing adventures of Cal Kestis.
The first thing to talk about is the gameplay. Luckily the game respects the work you did in the first one, so Cal gets to retain several of the force powers and lightsaber types. They don’t pull a “Cal gets knocked out or robbed & has to start at square one again” move. As you go through the game you unlock additional powers at random intervals. These usually lead to either new combat moves or, more often, new traversal methods. Jedi Survivor has the same type of Metroidvania setup that Tomb Raider 2013 used. The traversal puzzles are a nice challenge and add a needed break between all of the combat. The combat is the main star on the gameplay side. This game had a lot more customizability to its difficulty, such as setting parry times, damage dealt, etc. I went in on easy mode, expecting to drop down to story mode pretty quickly, but surprisingly I was able to keep going on easy mode. This game does feel easier than I remember Fallen Order being. I’d like to think it’s because I’ve gotten better at video games, but it’s likely due to the difficulty customization and a steer more towards an action-adventure focus.
There’s a variety of baddies to fight and most are easy to learn how to parry. I do think the game doesn’t allow dodge or parry interrupts. If you commit to an attack, you can’t dodge/parry immediately. So, a lot of the damage I took in fights were from Cal not dodging out of the way in time. There are enemies that hit hard, but none of them felt like they did ridiculous damage. Towards the mid to late game, I really got into the flow and had moments I felt like a powerful Jedi Knight; swinging my saber, jumping around, using my Force powers, all in one fluid motion. You also have a blaster at your disposal, but it’s only used for as part of the special “saber/blaster” fighting style. I would’ve really preferred the blaster be a hotkeyed item to use at any time, like the flintlock pistols in the older Assassin’s Creed games.
The game also balances the combat encounters well. There would be some tough fights where they throw a mob of tough enemies at you, putting melee and ranged enemies together, then after you barely survive that, they’d throw a group of low-level droids or troopers at you to slice through with ease to boost your confidence with. I found human enemies easier to fight compared to the beast enemies. Like Fallen Order, Jedi Survivor sees Cal taking on the local wildlife as he explores planets. The bigger beasts often have more power attacks and can’t be parried as easily. The bosses felt much easier this time around. I remember dying to the 2nd sister time and time again in Fallen Order. I think I beat most bosses here in the first or second try. The only boss that really whipped my butt was the Rancor. I encountered it fairly early in the game to the point I wondered if maybe I stumbled into a late game boss too early. After the sixth or seventh attempt, I finally learned its moves and bested it. The game also showers you with extra healing stims early on as long as you do a little exploring, whereas I remember the first game being very stingy with them. Overall, the combat isn’t trying to constantly push your shit in, but you can’t take it for granted either. You always have to play smart.
I mentioned in my Star Wars Outlaws review that I could get behind the idea of a Star Wars game that has an adventure solely based on one planet. Jedi Survivor kind of does that. You do get to explore a small section of the galaxy, but the main world space is the planet of Koboh. It’s a lush world full of mountainous terrain and swamps filled with tar. There’s a saloon in a little settlement that serves as your base of operations. It leans heavy into the western part of space western. The other planets you visit are smaller in scope as Koboh is the star here. Jedha is a desert planet dotted with ancient ruins, nothing too unique. The prologue takes place in Coruscant’s underworld, and you get to explore an old High Republic base on a moon of Koboh. I admit this game lost a certain vibe the first game had. I can’t quite describe it, but to me Fallen Order had this aura to its worlds. Everything was ancient, still, and mysterious. The planets were on the fringes of the galaxy, but not in a fun scoundrel way, in a “no one goes here” way, especially with Bogano and Zeffo. For the most part, the only other people you came across were your shipmates or Imperials. It was a unique feeling that seems reserved for Fallen Order. On Koboh you quickly discover the small settlement and interact with a whole town and you have some missions where companions will join you in a fight. It makes Jedi Survivor feel more “Star Warsy” for sure. The music is a mix of Star Wars melodies during big set piece moments and a soundtrack of original songs being played in the saloon, including several tracks by the Hu. Fallen Order got me into their music and now they’re one of my favorite metal bands.
This game puts you back in the shoes of Cal Kestis, a jedi that survived Order 66 and is taking the fight to the Empire. Cal has gone from Padawan to Knight and has become a man of action, working with Saw Guerra in between the two games. They never explicitly state how many years have passed between the games, and that made me realize that the Empire wasn’t around for all that long, like you’ve got about 20-24 years to play with in the Galactic Empire era. I always imagine the Empire as this old thing that’s subjugated people for years and built up this vast network of surveillance and oppression over decades, or centuries even. It may be why the game is hard pressed to nail down how much time has passed between games. Cere, Merrin & Greez from the first game have gone their separate ways after Cal became increasingly more fervent in his fight against the Empire. As the game goes on, we see Cal really embody that sort of “wandering samurai” vibe that the Jedi tap into. He wanders into town and makes himself useful to everyone.
Outside of the main story there are little side quests Cal can pursue. These usually involve solving a traversal puzzle or fighting a mini-boss. They are fun distractions that reward you with new upgrades or customization options. The bounty hunter missions were an enjoyable challenge as the bounty hunters’ movesets were unique from any of the standard enemies. Completing them all gets you the 2nd most fanservicy moment in the game. Cal is fighting the final bounty hunter when Boba Fett swoops in to claim the price on the bounty hunter’s head. Cal & Fett have a brief tense exchange and that’s it. I do appreciate that the Jedi series doesn’t try to shoehorn in the big names often, and when they do it’s usually only a brief appearance. You don’t have Cal fighting Boba or going on smuggling runs with Han Solo.
Okay, so the story, which means there will be spoilers, skip to the “All in all” to avoid them. I do regret playing this game so long after playing the first one. It does give you a half-ass recap at the start, but there's a lot of plot points and names dropped that you’re expected to know from the first game. The game starts off proper with Cal and his new team of rebels working for Saw Guerra to capture a crooked senator in Coruscant. The game is introducing a lot of new characters and I thought we were going to get a story about these guys going around the galaxy causing trouble. Unfortunately, the job goes south when the Inquisition shows up, basically everyone on your team except Cal and the new guy Bode get iced. Cal gets into a fight with the Ninth Sister, who survived the first game, and after killing her, escapes Coruscant. Initially I was kinda bummed we didn’t get more time with these characters. They pack a lot of personality into each one for the brief time they’re on screen. Anyways, Cal decides to lie low and travels to Koboh in the Outer Rim to visit Greez.
On Koboh, a band of raiders has repurposed a crashed droid ship from the Clone War and is using the droid army to fill out their ranks. Through happenstance, Cal learns the raider leader, Rayvis, is looking for an ancient piece of High Republic tech. Cal gets it first and comes across a droid that’s been in hibernation for 200+ years. It’s this droid that kicks off the game’s main plot. She worked for a pair of Jedi who discovered a secret hidden planet, Tanalorr, on the other side of a dangerous space anomaly, but the directions on how to get there have been lost to time. Investigating an old laboratory, Cal finds out one of the Jedi, Dagan Gera, was preserved in bacta. Cal releases him and quickly realizes that was a mistake, as Gera has gone mad with anger and turned to the dark side. Gera and the raiders join forces to find the path to Tanalorr. Cal, along with Bode & Greez, race to beat them there. They decide to consult with Cere, who has joined a religious sect of Force users, Anchorites, on the desert planet Jedha. While there, Cal runs into Merrin, who’s been traveling around the galaxy Renegade style. I can’t decide if Merrin’s voice actor is just not really good or if it’s a deliberate choice. if it’s the latter, it feels misguided. Her delivery is very flat, like every line reading is the first time she’s read it in the script. Towards the end, I do think it improves a bit as Merrin opens up and becomes more genial, but among an otherwise stellar voicecast, she stands out like a sore thumb.
A little after the midpoint of the story Cal takes down Rayvis, who is shown to be an honor bound warrior type, then immediately go and fight Gera. Gera serves as an obvious cautionary tale for Cal. He is a Jedi who became obsessed with his goal and will do whatever it takes to see it through. It mirrors Cal’s determination to fight the Empire & if it weren’t for his friends keeping him grounded, he could end up like Gera. I also think to a lesser extent Rayvis serves as a foil to Cal. With his strict warrior’s code, Rayvis is similar to a Jedi of old. Cal still holds onto a lot of the baggage of the Order, but as he goes through the game, he slowly realizes that he doesn’t have to strictly follow their tenants. He uses a blaster and starts a relationship with Merrin, scoring himself a goth girlfriend. With the two main bad guys defeated, I expected the story to be coming to a close pretty quick, but after we beat them the Empire attacks the Anchorite base. Here we play as Cere for a brief moment and get the most fanservicy bit of the game. Leading the Empire is Lord Vader himself. While he was an unstoppable force of nature in the first game, Cere got her mojo back and can put up a fight against him here. It’s an alright fight and still shows that Vader is a mechanical juggernaut.
Okay, major spoilers here, so be warned. It turns out that Bode betrayed your base to the Empire. Throughout the game, Bode made it clear he’s looking to escape the Empire’s reach to ensure his daughter’s safety. Everything he does is for her protection. While not an original plot twist, his betrayal still stung, because he and Cal struck up a friendship & he was voiced by the guy who played Charles in RDR2, so I was inclined to like him. During your fight with Bode, he reveals another plot twist, he is secretly a Jedi. Now, I’ll admit I did go “What!?” when he force pushed me the first time, but the more I thought about it, the more I found it to be a dumb plot twist. Mainly because the game doesn’t foreshadow it at all. Throughout the game, Bode is just your stalwart buddy doing his best to keep up with the plot. With how much he talked about his daughter, I thought he was doomed for the trope of “I’m going to show you my family photo then die”. I get they didn’t want us to be suspicious of Bode during the whole game, but even just dropping little hints, like “Huh, Bode knows an awful lot about Jedi history for just a hired gun” or something. Cal asks how none of the other Force users could sense Bode was a Jedi and a shrug is the only answer we get. A twist requires a sprinkling of hints leading up to it, not just the rug pull for the sake of drama. Maybe on a second playthrough I could pick up on little hints with the benefit of hindsight, but Bode being a Jedi felt less like a narrative decision and more like a “the final boss has to be a Jedi/Sith”. We learn he’s working for the ISB, which with this game & Outlaws that’s two modern Star Wars games that end with levels set in an ISB base. As Cal explores, he learns that Bode isn’t a company man by no means. He joined the Empire to keep his daughter safe, but is only looking out for his family and is ready to ditch the Empire the first chance he gets, which is what Tanalorr provides. You can tell Bode doesn’t want to be Cal’s enemy, but his daughter comes first. After the final battle, Cal begs Bode to stand down so his daughter isn’t orphaned, but Bode fights to the death.
The ending does set up some groundwork for a third entry. After Bode’s betrayal led to the death of Cere, Cal’s anger starts to take over. By the end of the game, it’s clear that he’s reached the point in his journey where he will have to learn to make peace with his dark side before it consumes him. It’s an idea I like that Jedi don’t just solely live in the light side of the Force, but that they have a point where they must contend with dark side as part of their Jedi coming of age. Cal, Merrin, & Greez also end up taking in Bode’s daughter & while she’s not resentful of Cal for killing her father, it will be interesting to see where her character goes. Overall, a bittersweet ending. Much like Empire Strikes Back, Jedi Survivor is the bleak 2nd act in Cal’s journey.
All in all, Star Wars Jedi Survivor is a commendable sequel to Fallen Order. I had a lot more fun with this one since I wasn’t constantly dying. The worlds are fun to explore, and I’m interested in Cal’s journey. The ending fumbles around a bit and I’d prefer Dagan Gera’s character was better utilized. I am curious if we will see a third game, seeing as EA’s Star Wars license is up. If it does get made, it will be interesting to see when it’ll be set, at some point the Rebel Alliance has to come into the picture. Star Wars tales usually either follow a soldier, scoundrel, or Jedi. I’ve never been a big Jedi guy & usually gravitate to the scoundrel stories, but I find myself invested in Cal’s story. It goes on sale for cheap relatively often, so if you are looking for a challenging, but not too challenging, action-adventure game or enjoy the Star Wars universe, pick up Jedi Survivor. I would recommend playing Fallen Order first if you haven’t though.
