Respawn Entertainment is adding a lot to Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, expanding on it in every way possible. Protagonist Cal Kestis has new Lightsaber Stances while aspects like Dual Wield are fully fleshed out. Exploration is more convenient thanks to Fast Travel and mounts. There are also new Force abilities like Force Confusion which can turn hostile creatures against enemies.
However, with all the new stuff, it’s important to note that Cal isn’t starting from zero. You won’t have to worry about losing any powers from Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and having to relearn them. Speaking to GamesRadar, design director Jason de Heras said, “We knew we wanted his skills to continue in Survivor, and that was one of the challenges.”
Tweaking enemies to “handle his new powers” from the beginning was crucial. “We don’t want to take away those moves because they feel good. You can’t go backwards and feel like a Padawan. It has to feel that the power level is the same, but also, you have to reach another level.”
Senior director of production Kasumi Shishido added, “It’s been five years since Fallen Order, and we want the player to feel like Cal has been through a lot. He’s no longer a Padawan. So when you come back and pick up the controller, we want to make sure that it’s accessible for people who haven’t played Fallen Order – that’s kind of tied into the tutorial.
“But at the same time, you would have those powers from the very beginning. And you can still develop. [Cal’s] not a Jedi Knight. He’s not Yoda. He hasn’t mastered everything yet. So there are still a lot of things that he can learn. And so it’s a balance of not making him too powerful from the get-go, but there’s still a lot of progression from beginning to end.”
Iteration is important, says de Heras. “A lot of tweaks to the enemy design. New enemies that complement some of your powers, or whatever powers you get in the future. It’s not like you’re just gonna push every enemy, and they always die.” Stormtroopers serve as a baseline of sorts. “We make sure the stormtroopers are always gonna get wrecked, so we have a base, we know where to start from, even on a sequel.”
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is out on April 28th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC. Check out the latest details from previews here and stay tuned for more.
