George Lucas had a hard time finding a production company for Star Wars . He was in many conversations with greats in the industry, but that concept of “galactic adventure” did not convince anyone, until FOX arrived. In that meeting and in a very humble way, Lucas proposed to lower his director’s salary in exchange for two conditions: to keep the exclusive rights to merchandising and the right to be able to make sequels . The now newly absorbed company by Disney very willingly accepted the creative’s terms, as they only saw a great deal for them.
What they did not know is that months later the film would make a total of just over two and a half billion dollars and the current toy section is estimated at about twelve billion today. If we add to that comics, mugs, keychains and other merchandising , it gives us an estimated idea of the great business that Lucas did when establishing those terms.
Later, in 2012, Disney bought Lucasfilm and with it the rights to the galactic franchise . Which resulted in that mammoth project of establishing a new canon, a new trilogy and a few spinoffs that would expand, even more if possible, the expanded universe. A year later the house of the mouse reached an agreement with Electronic Arts by which it would take over the exclusivity of publishing video games on the franchise.
We witnessed the resounding cancellation of Visceral Games’ Star Wars with Amy Hennig (director of the Uncharted trilogy) and that promised a lot at the narrative level, but we did have the Battlefront reboot at the hands of DICE and the spectacular Frostbite engine that gave us a of the most hyper-realistic recreations of Star Wars . However, its sequel was surrounded by controversy due to its tendency to P2W (pay to win) and the strange system of power-ups and unlocking of characters, which resulted in a failure in sales and criticism by users. Bob Iger himself (CEO of The Walt Disney Company ) contacted EA executives to give them a wake-up call.
It seemed like the folks at EA had few cartridges left to burn and they put all their faith in Respawn Entertainment, the creators of the battered Titanfall and the Apex Legends phenomenon.
The history of ‘Jedi Fallen Order’ and where it is located
The story places us a few years later than the famous Order 66 perpetrated by the evil senator Palpatine, aka Darth Sidious , and which aims to kill all the Jedi in order to establish the Galactic Empire, which would position this story between episodes III and IV.
Clearly, our protagonist seems one of those remnants that hide and have abandoned their link with the Force, but the shadow of the empire is very long and soon Cal Kestis – the protagonist of the story – will be forced to return to the Force. .
In our escape we will meet our fellow travelers Cere Junda and Greez Dritus and our goal: to find a holocron. This is a Jedi device that contains a database of children scattered throughout the galaxy and who are sensitive to the force, they will be the bases to be able to rebuild the Jedi order and reestablish the balance in the galaxy.
To meet us will come, how could it be otherwise, the Empire, specifically a special division, the Inquisition. Without Santa.
This is a cutting of the empire, an organization commanded by Darth Vader himself and whose purpose was to destroy the renegade and surviving Jedi of Order 66 and sometimes subdue them until they became part of their ranks. In Fallen Order, its main representative will be the Second Sister whose past will be key to understanding the plot and will be the main antagonist.
How ‘From Software’ has created a school
Before entering the gameplay part, we must remove this slab from above : to talk about Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order it is inevitable to do it about Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Dark Souls in general. And it is that, among other influences, the title of Respawn drinks directly from the last game released by From Software in March 2019. And it is surprising how in just eight months of difference it has been possible to develop a system so similar to Sekiro’s .
In the first place, and what is apparent during our first steps as a Padawan, is a very parallel combat system. As in the From Software titles, on many occasions we will be surrounded by enemies and we can fix our attention on one in particular in order to dodge, roll and evade their attacks. Another option will be to use the parry or counterattack : if we press the defend button at the exact moment we will leave our enemy exposed and we will be able to make a critical attack, this ability will also allow us to return enemy shots. If we are not so skilled at executing it, we will always have the option of blocking with our lightsaber, but being careful not to waste our stamina bar since we could be the ones who become an easy target.
Some of our enemies will carry a saber like ours -the so-called inquisitors- or an electric baton, so the clash of swords will be very important, which will reduce the resistance bar of our enemy until leaving him unprotected.
Finally, and how could it be otherwise, we will have at our disposal the powers of the Force that will allow us to slow down, launch or attract any enemy . The feeling that is transmitted to the command with the progress in the knowledge of the Force and its different abilities feels tremendously satisfying and is what manages to distance us to a great extent from the reminiscences of other games.
All these skills and some more will be improved through a skill tree very similar to the RPG approach of Assassin’s Creed Origins that was a reboot of the bases of the franchise.
In addition, our Force powers will be essential to be able to overcome obstacles and move on any type of terrain, although we will have another tool that will help us move and will act as a Swiss army knife. Here comes our faithful friend BD-1, a miniature bipedal droid who will help us open doors, jump down zip lines and who will study the environment and the hidden lore of each planet.
And to be able to travel to any of these planets we will have the Mantis, a ship that will act as a nexus and where we can always rest, change the design of our lightsaber and even collect the plants that we have collected in our interplanetary visits.
It will not be few times that we have to revisit a planet since the mapping has a strong metroidvania component. In short: on our first visit to a planet we will not be able to access all the areas since many will require powers and abilities that we will acquire throughout our adventure. Both for the design of the mapping and the possibility of finding hidden bosses or new aspects for our sword and other gadgets , it makes backtracking something tremendously satisfactory.
At various points we will find a kind of mandalas or Jedi meditation points where Cal can rest, recover vials of life or acquire new skills . Every time we rest, the vials will be restored and all the enemies in the area will revive.
Which side of the force wins in this game?
Jedi Fallen Order , has a lot of room for improvement and this time I mean it in the best of senses.
First of all, he has to make his own everything he absorbs from other games. It is not enough to turn bonfires into mandalas scattered on the map and introduce a whole brotherhood with anodyne scripted excuses. And this especially hurts me since they are really interesting enemies but, as happens with the knights of the order of Ren in the Disney trilogy, we are hardly given a few brushstrokes about their origin and many questions are left in the inkwell.
A Souls- style narrative, with a lore or internal story spread throughout the game and in everything that surrounds it, would have been appreciated -viewing the influences. There is a slight attempt at this with the BD-1 database, but even if we collect all the information, it is very scarce .
It should be said that some planets such as Bogano or Ilum feel very empty, flat, lacking in the environment , or directly with constant frame drops, as in the planet Kashyyyk, which is probably the one with the most elements on the screen, this would explain the overexertion it has made to make the console.
Secondly, it is surreal that games with this type of manufacture come to the market with such problems of popping, clipping and AIs that -although showers in combat- have their areas of action visibly delimited and this weighs down the sensation of the game.
Although undoubtedly the most frustrating on a technical level are its infinite loading screens , which only increase the feeling of failure every time they finish with us and we must load from the last save point, sometimes inviting us to stop playing.
Starting from mere speculation, it is more than likely that his departure has been greatly influenced by The Rise of Skywalker and has led to an acceleration in the pace of production that has ended up spoiling the aforementioned aspects.
Of course, the people of Respawn know how to make a fun and exciting campaign as they already demonstrated in the Titanfall 2 campaign mode. And they demonstrate that with a very enjoyable wallrun, control and combat system , we are probably at the height of feeling like a real Jedi, with all due respect to KOTOR ( Knights of the Old Republic ).
In the artistic section, the EA studio will not leave anyone indifferent, least of all the fans of Lucas’s world: the jungle recreation of Kashyyyk is really surprising and even more so how we are introduced to it for the first time, worthy of a scene from the original saga . The imperial zones and their aseptic design are powerful evocations of those well-known designs of the Empire and more specifically, of the Death Star.
In short, this is a title that treats the material on which it is based with respect, and that wants to broaden the horizons of an already vast expanded universe . And it is something that half achieves since it introduces us to new characters and locations, but the same thing happens to both: we are hardly given information about them and it seems that any dialogue or secondary mission – nonexistent – that can minimally expand the history of the game are subject to the accelerated pace of the script.
Although he does not manage to show a resounding personality, he does know which tree to lean on and chooses wisely what he wants from both titles . However, it manages to perfectly convey the feeling of being a Jedi, thus giving us a tremendously fun and addictive game that will allow us to ignore its shortcomings and love its gameplay above all else.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is a jumble of pieces of the highest quality and the glue that holds it all together is, as Master Obi-Wan would say, the Force .
