Respawn Entertainment had done a fantastic job with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. This Star Wars adventure delivers on the promise of making you a master Jedi by combining popular platforming mechanics, Soulslike combat, and an enchanting narrative into one cohesive package. But for all its merits, Jedi: Fallen Order has no shortage of both minor and major criticisms with regards to the gameplay, technical performance, and many other issues. With Star Wars Jedi: Survivor quickly approaching its release date, we thought that it was the perfect opportunity to list down 10 of the biggest criticisms the sequel needs to fix this time around.
A More Polished Experience
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was rife with all sorts of bugs and glitches at launch. While a couple of minor bugs and glitches are to be expected from a AAA game these days, Jedi: Fallen Order had bugs and glitches that could even break the game and leave players with no option than to restart the game from scratch. Furthermore, those playing on consoles also had to put up with subpar performance and frequent stuttering in certain areas. Sure, post launch updates have made the game a lot more technically stable across all aspects but it’s something that Respawn should not take lightly once again. All in all, we really wish that Jedi: Survivor comes out the gates as a markedly more polished experience than the original.
Better Difficulty Curve
This is a problem that most Soulslikes exhibit to some degree, and Jedi: Fallen Order also falls prey to the same issue. The difficulty curve for the combat challenges isn’t one smooth line. Instead, it’s punctuated with rough spikes that can catch you off guard and leave you frustrated before you get your bearings. Using difficulty spikes to spice up the player experience isn’t a bad thing per se, but Jedi: Fallen Order does it in such a way that it ends up feeling more superficial than natural. Furthermore, changing the difficulty doesn’t completely eliminate this problem which calls for Jedi: Survivor to be much better in this regard and feature a smooth and fair difficulty curve.
Post Game Content
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order image used for representation purposes.
By the time you roll the credits on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Cal would have transformed into a Master Jedi with plenty of skills and stat upgrades. As such, it’s only natural that you would want to use those skills and tackle even tougher foes to get more mileage out of that experience. While Jedi: Fallen Order isn’t completely devoid of such challenges, they certainly feel lacking in terms of the density and variety of content that’s on offer. Apart from the bounty hunters and the four Legendary Beasts, most of the endgame content is just collectathons and filler stuff which as you can imagine, isn’t all that fun to engage with.
Jedi: Survivor seems to be improving upon the combat of the original in significant ways, so it certainly calls for a better endgame component this time around that pushes players to the absolute limit. A good place to look for inspiration would be God of War: Ragnarok, where Berserker boss fights provided a satisfying challenge to work through once the narrative reached its conclusion.
A Better New Game Plus Mode
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order image used for representation purposes.
On the topic of adding more mileage to the experience, we have to mention new game plus mode. While Jedi: Fallen Order featured a New Journey Plus option, it was a lackluster implementation because the only things that you could carry over to the second journey were cosmetics and limited character skills. All Force powers would be reset back to normal, and you had to work for weapon upgrades and skills associated with your Force abilities from scratch. While we understand that allowing Cal to use all of his skills and abilities in the starting hours would break the game, the current implementation certainly leaves a lot to be desired. Hopefully, Jedi Survivor features a better New Game Plus option where you are duly rewarded for the efforts that you put in and the repeat journey challenges you in new and interesting ways.
Better Map Design
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is also a metroidvania at its core, and much like most games of this ilk – it’s chock full of hidden passages that lead to optional content and important collectibles. Between this and frequent backtracking, a good map viewing function is essential to enjoy a game. Suffice to say, the map in Fallen Order feels a hotchpotch of intertwining routes and confusing paths which can make navigation an exercise in pain. It’s one of the major criticisms of this otherwise fantastic game, and we hope the sequel pays due effort to fixing this problem with a better map viewing experience.
Improved Cosmetic Customization
Players have the option to customize their Cal Kestis to their liking through the use of different shades for your poncho and BD-1. The lightsaber modifications are pretty detailed,but on the whole – character customization does feel lacking in terms of variety when comparing it to other action adventure games. Hopefully, Survivor gives players a much more diverse pool of options when it comes to selecting outfits for Cal and customizing them to your needs.
Better Boss Fights
Boss fights are one of the most important aspects of an action adventure games and it should have been no different for Jedi: Fallen Order, and while there is no shortage of memorable boss fights in this experience – they are sandwiched between forgettable fights that don’t really test your fighting skills in new and interesting ways. We’d like to see a better roster of bosses with Jedi: Survivor that stay with us long after the credits roll.
Non Violent Combat Features
Those familiar with the Star Wars lore might know that a Jedi should ideally avoid combat altogether wherever possible, but Jedi: Fallen Order doesn’t seem to pay much heed to that philosophy. In addition to stormtroopers and robotic enemies, Cal also needs to kill wild animals on each planet in order to progress through the game, and there are no real non-violent options to go about these encounters. Survivor doesn’t seem to be adding stealth options to the mix, but Respawn should put some effort into adding some pacifist options when it comes to dealing with the wildlife on the planet. While this particular point doesn’t really impact gameplay in any tangible sense, it would certainly result in a much closer and more authentic representation of being a Jedi warrior.
Better Platforming
Respawn Entertainment did a good job of adding parkour to exploration in Jedi Fallen Order, but that needs to be taken to the next level in Survivor. As it stands, platforming challenges seem to serve a singular purpose of providing a breather between combat sequences. Platforming simply isn’t engaging on its own, and that needs to change with Jedi: Survivor. Respawn has already confirmed the addition of a grapple hook, and we are hoping to see more changes and alterations to this aspect of the experience to make it more engaging and fun.
Puzzle design
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order image used for representation purposes.
Like most AAA games of this ilk, puzzles in Jedi: Fallen Order exist just to break up the monotony of combat and don’t require any genuine problem solving skills to overcome those obstacles. While it would be foolish to ask for puzzles with the same level of complexity as Portal, we do hope that Survivor’s puzzles end up being engaging and brain tickling on some level.