Ever since Respawn teased a sequel to Jedi Fallen Order back in 2021, people have been anxious to hear more news. Then the teaser trailer for Jedi Survivor dropped at the Star Wars Celebration 2022, and the crowd went nuts (me included).
But we wouldn’t hear any more substantial news until the Game Awards when none other than Cameron Monaghan himself, the actor who plays Cal Kestis, made a special appearance to present the long-awaited gameplay trailer.
It was a real treat!
The trailer revealed many exciting aspects of the game we can look forward to and raised a lot of questions. Questions that we have the answers to right here.
When Does The Game Come Out and What Platforms Will It Be Available On?
The game was originally slated to come out on March 17th, 2023. Unfortunately, it has been announced that the game is being delayed until April 28th, 2023. Game director; Stig Asmussen said that these extra weeks will allow the team to focus on the final stage of development. This is to put some more focus on “bug fixes to enhance performance, stability, polish, and more importantly, the player experience.”
Jedi Survivor will only be released on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. Stig Asmussen has given a reason for this: “I think the biggest thing is ray tracing or lightning. That’s allowing us to do real-time lighting, all the time, at a fidelity that’s well beyond anything that we’ve ever produced before.” EA also confirms that Jedi Survivor will be current gen only “to create a deeper and more expansive Star Wars experience.”
What New Gameplay Does Jedi Survivor Offer?
The trailer shows us quite a bit of new gameplay features that weren’t in the first game. Stig Asmussen said that “Jedi Survivor will expand on the series’ dynamic combat in new and innovative ways.” As we’ve seen in the gameplay trailer, Cal will learn new force abilities as well as new stances. Asmussen confirmed that there will be five stances that the player must tactfully utilize when combating different enemies. These are single-blade, dual-blades, double-blade, cross guard (the Kylo Ren blade), and finally, blade and blaster (Obi-Wan would be displeased). Regarding the last stances, Asmussen claims it “Speaks to where we find Cal in this part of the story.”
As seen in the trailer, Jedi Survivor will also put an emphasis on exploration with multiple traversal mechanics. Cal is seen taming and riding a mount while also fighting troopers leading to the exciting conclusion that there would be a selection of alien mounts for Cal to meet and befriend. This would be a helpful feature for players as the last game had pretty large areas to traverse and there was a bit of backtracking.
Asmussen reveals that Cal would be exploring much bigger areas and using a variety of methods to travel such as the grappling gun seen in the trailer. He goes on to say, “It’s much of a wider Metroid Vania approach. Cal can cross huge gaps by chaining several types of skills together.”
How Does Jedi Survivor Continue the Story?
At the end of Jedi Fallen Order, Cal successfully defeats the Second Sister, Trilla. By doing so, he was able to retrieve the Holocron that contains a list of locations of force-sensitive children in the galaxy. And after surviving an encounter with the infamous Darth Vader, Cal decides to destroy the Holocron in order to protect the children from being caught and used by the Empire. The game then ends with Cal asking his crew, “So, where to now?”
Jedi Survivor takes place five years after the events of Jedi Fallen Order. Now that they have landed in the sights of Vader and the rest of the Empire, Cal and the rest of the Mantis crew are on the run while also exploring different parts of the galaxy.
Does Cal Kestis Return in Jedi Survivor?
Cameron Monaghan returns to play the titular character, Cal Kestis. As we’ve seen in the trailer, he’s grown up quite a bit since the events of the first game. “He’s rugged and weathered by time and situation,” Monaghan comments. “He’s still a young man but I think that he’d look a bit older than he actually is because he’s been through a lot. And that was something I wanted to be reflected in performance as well…You have to be a little bit of a scoundrel sometimes to get by in the world, you know? You have to be a bit roguish.”
From Monaghan’s interview and from what we’ve seen in the trailer, we can clearly see that Cal is not the same person he was in the first game. The tone in the sequel is darker as living in a galaxy controlled by the ruthless empire and seemingly being the only Jedi left would naturally take a toll on anyone. Cal has had to adapt to these circumstances.
We also see a familiar face, Cere Junda who also had major appearance changes. Greez and Merrin are absent in the trailer, but if IMDB is anything to go by, then we can expect to see them in the sequel as well. As for new characters, we are introduced to the mercenary Bode Akuna, who becomes almost like a brother to Cal. The trailer also shows Bode serving as a buddy AI, possibly alluding to the fact that maybe Cal will pair up with different characters as well.
Where is Jedi Survivor Set?
Jedi Survivor takes place after Revenge of the Sith. It’s also important to note that it takes place around the same time as the events of Kenobi, which would be around 9 BBY and four years before Andor, which takes place in 5 BBY.
Conclusion:
Now that you know more about Jedi Survivor, are you excited for the game? Out of everything we know, what are you the most excited about? What do you expect to see?
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor releases April 28th, 2023, on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.
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