We’ve finally seen Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order revealed at Star Wars Celebration in Chicago, and there’s more details to cover than a long-forgotten expanded universe novel.
We’ve got an official release date, story details, some indication of what gameplay is going to look like, and most importantly, an appropriately epic story trailer. We’ll keep updating this section as we learn more about Respawn’s first Star Wars game, so make sure to check back.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order’s trailer reveals the game’s story
We’ve gotten sprinkles of the story thanks to prior leaks, but EA has officially dropped a Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order trailer showing us the world we’ll be exploring and who we’ll be playing as. Plus, Respawn says it’s all in-engine footage, so that’s nice. We’ve broken down everything in the story trailer below.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order’s release date is confirmed
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is releasing on November 15, 2019 on PC and consoles, as confirmed by the Star Wars Celebration panel. You can pre-order it on Origin already, and there are two editions: a standard edition and a deluxe edition, the latter of which includes some extra cosmetic DLC, and behind-the-scenes features and content.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order’s story is set after Revenge of the Sith
Cal Kestis, played by Gotham’s Cameron Monaghan, is a young force user and a budding Jedi, and he’s the hero of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. He’s survived the initial onslaught of the infamous Order 66, but now he’ll be on the run in plain sight, until some incident forces him to expose his force powers. He’s now hunted by the Second Sister. No, not the Seventh Sister from Clone Wars, but definitely another Imperial Inquisitor who lives to hunt Jedi. According to Respawn’s Vince Zampella, she’s powerful enough to control the flight stick of Cal’s escape ship remotely, so she’ll definitely present a challenge.
“Many Star Wars fans, ourselves included, are really interested in the dark times, so we wanted to explore that mysterious, dangerous period,” says Stig Asmussen, game director on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, who previously worked on the God of War series. “The team at Lucasfilm have been amazing collaborators, helping us explore and further develop this part of the timeline where the Empire is at the height of its power and any remaining Jedi are in hiding. Within this narrative, we’ve crafted a game with intense, yet thoughtful and fun melee combat using the lightsaber and Force powers, allowing anyone to fulfill their Jedi fantasy.”
From a press release, we’ve learned we’ll meet Cal on Bracca, one of several new worlds Respawn is bringing to the Star Wars universe. He’s going to meet a fairly wide cast of characters as he runs from the Empire, such as a “mysterious companion” named Cere, but Cal will also have a little droid friend named BD-1.
It’s confirmed Cere is a former Jedi Knight, but we’re not sure if that means she left the Jedi Order before or after Order 66.
Purge Troopers will also be a force hunting for Cal. These guys are an early version of the Dark Troopers we see in the film Rogue One, but they’ll evidently be fighting enemies with the same shock sticks we see in Clone Wars. They also take great selfies, apparently.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order’s gameplay will be heavy on the melee
Respawn wants you to know that they love lightsaber battles as much as you do. From a press release, Respawn has given us a little taste of what that means for Jedi: Fallen Order’s gameplay, calling it “thoughtful combat,” and saying its an easy-to-learn, lifetime-to-master affair.
“Players will use their Jedi training to create different melee combinations with an innovative lightsaber combat system and Force abilities. Players will also use traversal and other platforming abilities to strategically overcome opponents and solve puzzles in their path across this galaxy-spanning adventure. ”
According to Respawn, it’s not just Cal who will be growing. Your lightsaber will be evolving in its own right over the course of the game, although details are sparse on what that means. Perhaps it’ll be something similar to the Force Unleashed games where you can transfer kyber crystals and customize your own look and powers. In the story trailer at least, we see Cal stopping a giant rotating fan before a Purge Trooper shoves him into it, plus earlier in the trailer it looks like he may be trying to save his friend from falling into what has to be a sarlacc pit.
We’ve previously heard via a blog from Respawn’s Stig Asmussen that the game is in third-person.
Unfortunately, Respawn didn’t show any proper gameplay from Jedi: Fallen Order, just that story trailer, so there’s just not much else to go on. We’re likely to see more of the game at EA Play during the E3 period.
We already knew it was a singleplayer-only game, but producer Blair Brown laid it out in full on Twitter, which was then confirmed in the reveal panel: there are no microtransactions in this game at all, which will no doubt come as a relief to many players. Could this finally be the modern Star Wars game that’s actually great? There’s no multiplayer either. It’s all about story in Jedi: Fallen Order, which suits us just fine.
Writer Chris Avellone worked on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order’s story, which can only be a good thing
Chris Avellone, who worked on KOTOR 2 among many other PC classics, confirmed back in early March that he worked on Jedi Fallen Order with Respawn. He’s apparently one of six narrative designers who have worked on the game.