Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is an action-adventure game developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on November 15, 2019. A Stadia version is due in 2020. The game is set in the Star Wars universe, five years after the fall of the Galactic Republic and rise of the Galactic Empire, and follows Cal Kestis, a Jedi Padawan, as he is hunted through the galaxy by the Empire, attempting to complete his Jedi training and restore the Jedi Order.
The game was announced during E3 2018, with a more detailed reveal during the Star Wars Celebration in April 2019. The game received generally favorable reviews from critics and sold more than eight million copies by the end of January 2020.
Gameplay
Fallen Order was inspired heavily by with regards to the combat system and the "Metroidvania" style of exploration and progression.The player controls player character Cal Kestis from a third-person perspective. Fights are fought with a customizable lightsaber and the Force. Enemies range from different types of Imperial soldiers to other animals and creatures. On a few occasions, Inquisitors are fought, who like Cal fight with lightsabers and Force abilities. The options menu documents the story as well as characters the player meets, along with a guide of how to defeat enemies.
The player acquires abilities at points in the story, and each ability allows access to previously inaccessible areas. Once these abilities are unlocked, the player can upgrade them through a skill tree.
The game can only be saved at checkpoints, which appear as "meditation circles". At these meditation circles, the player can "rest", which replenishes his health, Force energy, and healing items, but causes all enemies to respawn.
In a May 2020 update, the player can access the Meditation Arena at the circle. These include combat challenges, where the player must face off against different enemies in waves, set in arenas based off certain locations, where the player can unlock stars which are used to unlock more skins for their droid companion BD-1. Included is a battle grid, allowing players to face off against their own custom enemy wave, while being able to grant themselves invincibility, unlimited Force and other cheats.
Synopsis
Setting and characters
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order takes place five years after the events of . The game follows Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis as he is 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. Supporting characters include: Cal's friend and scrapping partner Prauf ; former Jedi Knight-turned-mercenary Cere Junda ; Greez Dritus, owner and pilot of the Stinger Mantis and Cere's friend; BD-1, a small droid which befriends and accompanies Cal; Jedi Master Eno Cordova, who appears in hologram messages; Partisan leader Saw Gerrera ; Merrin, one of the last surviving members of the Nightsister clan of Dathomir; and Dark Jedi Taron Malicos. Cal's former Jedi Master, Jaro Tapal, and numerous clone troopers appear in flashbacks.Plot
Five years after the Great Jedi Purge and the rise of the Galactic Empire, former Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis is hiding on the planet Bracca, where he works as a scrapper salvaging ships from the Clone Wars, and is hiding his Force abilities. After Cal is recorded by an Imperial Probe droid while using the Force to save his friend Prauf, two Inquisitors known as the Second Sister and the Ninth Sister are sent to investigate. After the Second Sister kills Prauf for speaking up against the Empire, Cal makes his escape, briefly engaging in a duel with the Second Sister before he is rescued by former Jedi Knight Cere Junda and her partner pilot Greez Dritus in their ship, the Stinger Mantis.Cere takes Cal to the planet Bogano in the hopes he can access an ancient vault. En route to the vault, Cal befriends a small droid named BD-1, who shows him a message from former Jedi Master Eno Cordova, revealing 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. On the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk, Cal encounters notorious insurgent Saw Gerrera, whom he helps free several Wookiees enslaved by the Empire.
Unable to find Tarfful, Cal returns to Zeffo to find more clues regarding the vault but is ambushed by the Second Sister, who reveals herself as Trilla Suduri, Cere's former Padawan. She explains that she was captured by the Empire after Cere betrayed her hidden location under torture, and warns Cal that Cere will inevitably betray him once they find the Holocron. Eventually, Cal learns he requires a Zeffo artifact called Astrium to unlock the vault, before being captured by a Haxion Brood bounty hunter and forced to fight in a gladiatorial arena owned by Haxion boss Sorc Tormo. After Cere and Greez rescue him, Cal returns to Kashyyyk to meet with Tarfful, who instructs him to investigate the top of the Origin Tree. At the top of the tree, he finds another recording of Cordova saying that an Astrium can be found in a Zeffo tomb on Dathomir before being attacked by the Ninth Sister, whom he defeats.
On Dathomir, Cal's progress is impeded by Nightsister Merrin, who blames the Jedi for during the Clone Wars, and attempts to keep him away using an army of revenants. After experiencing a flashback of his former master, Jaro Tapal, sacrificing himself to protect him during Order 66, the kyber crystal of Cal's lightsaber is destroyed. He meets former Jedi Taron Malicos, who crash-landed on Dathomir during the Purge and has been seeking to learn the magick of the Nightsisters, over time growing insane and succumbing to the dark side of the Force. Cal refuses Malicos's offer to teach him this dark power 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 for his part in Jaro's death. He defeats Malicos with the unexpected aid of Merrin, who agrees to join the Stinger Mantis crew.
Back on Bogano, Cal unlocks the vault, but Trilla attacks him and steals the Holocron. After Cere reassumes her status as a Jedi and grants Cal the rank of Jedi Knight, the pair infiltrate the Fortress Inquisitorius on Mustafar's oceanic moon Nur. After battling his way through the fortress, Cal defeats Trilla and retrieves the Holocron. Cere attempts to make amends with her, but Darth Vader appears and kills Trilla for her failure. Unable to defeat Vader, Cal and Cere barely escape with BD-1 and Merrin's aid. Back on the Stinger Mantis, Cal, having realized that gathering the children would make it easier for the Empire to target them, destroys the Holocron, believing it to be better for those children to discover their own destinies. Their mission complete, Cal asks his crew where they should head next.
Development
Following his exit from SIE Santa Monica Studio, Stig Asmussen joined Respawn Entertainment in 2014 as the studio's game director, leading the studio's second development team. The project was later revealed to be a third-person action-adventure game set in the Star Wars universe in May 2016. Aaron Contreras, a narrative designer on Mafia III, led the game's narrative team, which included Chris Avellone and four other writers. The studio collaborated with Lucasfilm to create new characters and locations.The game was created with Unreal Engine 4. Drawing inspiration from ' and the Dark Souls series, Asmussen has said the team's goals for the game design include creating a deep combat system and incorporating aspects of Metroidvania map design. Lightsaber combat does not feature dismemberment of human enemies; this was attributed to guidelines imposed by Disney/Lucasfilm.
On June 8, 2019, it was announced that Gordy Haab and Stephen Barton would be composing the score for the game. The former had previously composed the scores to ' and while the latter had collaborated with the studio on the Titanfall series and Apex Legends. The score was recorded at Abbey Road Studios with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Bach Choir of London. Mongolian folk metal band The Hu wrote and recorded a song, "Sugaan Essena", which featured prominently in the game. The song lyrics were written in Mongolian, then translated into a fictional Star Wars language.
Marketing and release
Publisher Electronic Arts announced the game at E3 2018. It was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on November 15, 2019, a month before the theatrical release of . At E3 2019, Electronic Arts showcased a 15-minute demo of the game. Around two weeks after this on June 25, 2019, the studio showed an extended 25-minute version of the original demo. A Stadia version is planned for release in 2020.A tie-in comic series, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order – Dark Temple, was announced on June 11, 2019 for release in September 2019. A free update was released on May 4, 2020, to coincide with Star Wars Day. It introduces combat challenges named "meditation training", New Game Plus, and new cosmetics for BD-1 and Cal.
Reception
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order received "generally favorable reviews", according to review aggregator Metacritic. IGN Dan Stapleton gave the game 9/10, saying "Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order makes up for a lot of lost time with a fantastic single-player action-adventure that marks the return of the playable Jedi."Sales
The PlayStation 4 version of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order sold 26,761 copies within its first week on sale in Japan, which made it the fifth bestselling retail game of the week. In the UK, it was the second bestselling retail game during its first week on sale, with 66% of sales being for the PlayStation 4 version and the remaining 34% for the Xbox One version. It was also the fourth biggest physical release of 2019.Publisher Electronic Arts confirmed that Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order had the fastest-selling digital launch for any Star Wars game within its first two weeks on sale. The game sold more than 8 million copies by the end of January 2020, exceeding EA's expectations. More than 10 million units were sold by March 31, 2020.