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 Cal Kestis, a Jedi Padawan 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 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: The Wind Waker. The game's voice cast includes Cameron Monaghan as Cal Kestis and Debra Wilson as his mentor Cere Junda. 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, as well as won several awards including Adventure Game of the Year at the 23rd Annual D.I.C.E. Awards. 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 lightsabers or use 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
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, 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 and her partner, the Ninth Sister, both trained by the Sith Lord Darth Vader as part of the Imperial Inquisitors program. They were first introduced in Marvel Comics' comic book series Star Wars: Darth Vader - Dark Lord of the Sith.During his journey, Cal is joined by several allies, including former Jedi Knight-turned-mercenary Cere Junda ; her friend Greez Dritus, owner and pilot of the Stinger Mantis; BD-1, a small droid previously owned by Jedi Master Eno Cordova ; and Merrin, one of the last surviving members of the Nightsister clan of Dathomir. Other characters include Saw Gerrera, the leader of the Partisan rebel movement against the Empire that was featured in previous Star Wars media; Dark Jedi Taron Malicos, who usurped leadership of Dathomir; Wookiee chieftain Tarfful, who leads the Wookiee resistance against the Empire and first appeared in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith; and Cal's former Jedi Master, Jaro Tapal, who is featured in flashbacks alongside several clone troopers.
Plot
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 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. Heading to Kashyyyk, Cal encounters notorious insurgent Saw Gerrera, whose Partisans are aiding the local Wookiee resistance. Cal helps Saw liberate an Imperial slave labour camp in exchange for arranging a meeting with Tarfful.
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 bounty hunter working for the Haxion Brood crime syndicate over Greez's debts to them, 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 Cal during Order 66, unconsciously destroying his lightsaber's kyber crystal in the process. 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 they 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.