I never understood the appeal of the Star Wars franchise, but I always wish that I could. As a kid, the lightsabers, spaceships and the Force weren’t attractive, novel ideas to me. There was enough time for the culture to ingrain these elements in my 2000’s creative conscience, so I’ve never recognised Star Wars as the genre pioneer phenomenon it was when it released.
So, here I stand today, absolutely enamoured with Jedi: Fallen Order. This EA game (of all things) shined the light just right for me to understand the core themes of Star Wars: friendship, honour, betrayal, trust, curiosity and much more.
The One
This trope is hideous in almost any story it is introduced to. It allows writers to skip character development and avoid any meaningful depth with the simple excuse of “He/she is the one”. Maybe the mysterious backgrounds intrigue a whole bunch of people, but that doesn’t mean I condone this type of practice.
As in life, you’ll always feel more attached to a person the more you know about him/her. Not necessarily attracted to, but attached. This breeds connection, empathy, it builds a bridge for real human emotion instead of leaving audiences guessing and theorizing.
And that’s exactly how I feel about my favourite Jedi yet, Cal Kestis. He is the protagonist of Fallen Order and, like Luke in “A New Hope”, comes from a hopeless place. He didn’t strike me as a likeable guy in the first instance, but seeing and experiencing what he went through made my teeth clench at various points of his journey. I misjudged him, but, to be fair, that only lasted for the first 10–15 minutes.
The opening hour or so of the game presents Cal’s tragedy in a blockbuster fashion, taking a lot of inspiration from the Uncharted series. Our hero is ripped by the wicked forces of the Empire from his simple, modest life of scrapping ships in a junkyard. After a superb fight with the main villain, an inquisitor named The Second Sister, Cal escapes with his new partners, Cere and Greez.
From here on out, is Star Wars at its finest, and I couldn’t get enough of it. The main mission for Cal is to follow in Endo Cordova’s steps, Cere’s master, and to find a map of Force-sensitive children from an ancient civilization called the Zeffo. You know, to rebuild the Jedi Order and actually have a chance to fight back the Galactic Empire. Although, you can’t achieve this noble goal without everyone’s favourite robot-partner, BD-1.
Along the way, Cal gets tangled in various “side missions”, like saving a bunch of imprisoned wookies, finding the truth about Dathomir’s downfall and, most importantly, going through Zeffo tombs. The last part was veryreminiscent of Assassin’s Creed, so that was a sweet callback.
I really don’t want to ruin an experience like Fallen Order’s story. The sidestepping nature of the Star Wars formula is here, every character has a history, motivations and real stakes for their demeanour, not once there was a moment when I would’ve wished the game was shorter.
Throughout the game, there are sprinkled little homages to other stories of the same universe. For example:
- Dathomir is Darth Maul’s homeworld,
- Cal searches for a Kyber Crystal on Ilum and he remembers when Yoda took him there in the padawanhood (like in the Clone Wars TV Series)
- He meets Chieftain Tarfu, a friend of Yoda, who makes an appearance in Episode III
I won’t spoil some of the best scenes in the game, but I just want to state that some well-known characters make a STELLAR appearance.
To immerse the player even more, in between changing locations, the Mantis (Greez’s spaceship) crew shares stories with one another, setting the foundation of the aforementioned relationships. These are really cute and cosy moments in which you start to grow fond of these characters.
And I’m not even gonna discuss the possibility of dialoguing with Cere and Greez after EVERY landing. I admit, these became a little tedious, but it was really my fault for yearning to find out every detail of Cere’s life as a former Jedi Master or Greez’s troubled gambling addiction. That’s the root of any gripping story, the human characters. No matter the fact that some come from an alien race with 6 limbs.
But the real reason for my impatience during these dialogues was the ubiquitous call of exploration on every planet that the Mantis set its metal feet on.
The light […] will guide you
In Star Wars, The Force “binds the galaxy together”. It’s a metaphysical power that can be found everywhere, it connects all living and non-living things. I almost sensed it through my urge for discovery.
Each of the 4 planets Cal visits is divided into many smaller sections which hold secret chests or several upgrades. But these weren’t the driving force for my searchings. The pure satisfaction of finding how to open a door from the other side or jumping on every platform just to spot a secret behind a grass veil was the only motivation I needed.
I don’t think I would’ve enjoyed Fallen Order as much if it weren’t for the interconnected areas and the extent to which the Force Powers interact with the environment. It’s plain fun to experiment or to test theories and being rewarded at the end for your smart solutions.
The one thing that bugged me off at first was that I was missing many powers (acquired by progressing the story) which are required for opening blocked pathways. I fully understand the reasoning behind this Metroidvanian design choice, to encourage revisiting old places rather than always coming up with new ones.
But I really don’t like going through the same space twice, I never did. It chips away at the original charm. You know more or less what to expect and the sense of past wonder fades gradually.
Not in Fallen Order though. I was so glad to revisit obstructed corridors and unreachable platforms. That’s because the levels aren’t too big, you can easily get to the suspended rope that’s been hanging in the back of your mind for the past 1–2 hours. You don’t have to stay along the beaten path, because every Force Power unlocks new routes and, to ease up exploration even more, you can always take shortcuts.
The whole system reminded me of God of War and Dark Souls, and that’s definitely a plus in my book. Speaking of Dark Souls…
The Force is strong with this one
I don’t consider Fallen Order by any means a hard game, but it takes a lot of inspiration from the Soulsborne model.
- Bonfires are replaced by Meditation Points, where you can invest skill points and regain all your health and force at the price of all the enemies respawning;
- After you die, all the experience gathered in the previous run is lost, so you have to attack (just once) the foe who bested you to regain it;
- Instead of Estus Flasks or Blood Vials, you got Stim Canisters, which work in the exact same way, although Cal and BD-1 can upgrade their capacity through exploration;
- The parry plays a big role in combat.
So, it’s a successful formula, but Fallen Order makes it more accessible to gamers. First of all, the game has difficulty options (Jedi Master seems like the “intended way” to play) which lower the entry bar for people who just want a classic Star Wars story and don’t have the time nor the energy to master the combat system. Secondly, the build diversity from Souls is gone and Fallen Order focuses on a classic skill tree.
The combat flourishes through the animations and finishers. The classic light and heavy attack, dodge and block formula is the basis for the whole system. But, the Star Wars magic doesn’t shine through these simple moves, but through The Force.
The skill tree offers so many options that, to my shame, I gravitated towards just a few tactics. But I got time to perfect my own style, and when the difficulty dropped because of my relentless exploration, I got the chance to experiment with new powers. Like throwing the lightsaber, pushing groups of enemies with The Force, teleporting to drop a heavy hit or delivering an infinite pack of slashes with my double-bladed lightsaber.
Oh, and it’s soooo cool to unsheathe the lightsaber. It always reminded me of the low-lighted scene where Darth Vader activates his red blade and hell unleashed for the resistance fighters. The combat, from start to finish, is badass. Like Jedi level badassery!
See you, Space Cowboy
Cowboy Bebop and Fallen Order are not that different. I get this feeling through the cast of characters always looking forward to new adventures.
Previously, I wanted to emphasize that exploration is key in the game. At a macro level, this is also true for the whole universe Cal, BD-1, Cere and Greez are set into.
Fallen Order is about a fight for hope, a coming of age story, and not just for Cal. A lesson to be responsible for all of our actions, good or bad, and to take our destiny into our hands and mould it however we like.
I already miss the great times in the Mantis and the curiosity felt while landing on each new planet. When the credits rolled, I got the feeling that Cal Kestis and his friends really exist somewhere out there and I just experienced a glimpse of their life story…in a galaxy far, far away.
