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Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

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　　It’s been four years removed since Cal Kestis’ first journey across the galaxy as a young Jedi Padawan in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was released and five years of time separating the stories. In that time, gamers have seen the rise of two new consoles and a new generation. Since foregoing the last-gen versions, has Respawn Entertainment captured the excitement for another entry in Cal Kestis’ tale in a post-Rise of the Skywalker world in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor?

　　Star Wars Jedi: Survivor opens in the year 9 BBY amid a raid on Coruscant to retrieve crucial information about the strength of the Empire. Players pick up amid a semi-failed raid at Saw Gerrera’s behest, a notable veteran of the Clone Wars that’s since bridged a number of Star Wars shows together with the game mythos that Respawn Entertainment has crafted. As many of the best-laid plans by the Resistance go, things quickly turn dour, with only a small number of the task force surviving a counterattack by the Empire. It’s after this brief trip to Coruscant that Cal Kestis and BD-1 travel aboard the Mantis and head for Koboh, a distant planet offering some guidance on how to potentially restore balance to the order and perhaps even see a return to the Jedi once extinguished under Order 66. A Jedi sanctuary located on Tanalorr soon becomes Cal’s ultimate goal once he learns of the possibility of restoring the Jedi Order and remains the primary driving force and story motivation from that point on.

　　In those five years, Cal Kestis has pushed away those he called companions from Fallen Order and instead travels alone with his droid companion BD-1. As Cal travels across the galaxy, he slowly reunites with past and present crewmates to build up a worthy resistance to taking the Empire on. In those years passed, Cal’s companions haven’t been simply waiting for the next call to action. Greez Dritus has settled down to run a saloon on Koboh, Merrin has been on a pilgrimage across the galaxy and honing her skills before reuniting on Jedha, and Cere Junda has been MIA for quite some time. While Cal Kestis’ reluctance to back down or listen to reason has pushed his former companions away, the journey to discover a lost Jedi sanctuary and safeguard the next generation of Force-sensitives slowly brings the band back together, so to speak.

　　While telling a story that’s all of Respawn Entertainment’s own design, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor props the narrative through a galaxy familiar to fans of any trilogy of the movie series. The witty banter between Cal and any number of his Resistance compatriots, the budding romance that pays off after building up in Jedi: Fallen Order, and even the sarcastic battle chatter of the B1-series battle Droids that constantly chirp out “Roger, Roger” to one another all feel right at home in the grander Star Wars mythos. Cal’s journey to perhaps find a new home for the Jedi on Tanalorr and fight back after the aftermath of Order 66 drives the character more than anything else. He’s more rugged (mullet or not) and not so cocky as he was as an adolescent in Jedi: Fallen Order, but there’s no Jedi better suited for taking on the Empire in my eyes.

　　Much of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor takes place on the distant planet of Koboh. Not laid out as your traditional hub world, players can expect to spend as much as sixty percent of their journey in one locale. Each new ability that Cal picks up for movement and exploration opens up new map regions. Once inaccessible doors might later lead to miniature dungeons or locations for a hidden bounty hunt. Even the other regions and planets that Cal explores are but a fraction of Koboh’s traversable space and as such, seem small or often linear by comparison.

　　To traverse these new regions, Cal has to build upon his Jedi training and pick up new tools and tricks along the way. He is already intimately familiar with the Jedi Flip, granting a double jump from the beginning of the game. To truly get around the harsh landscape, Cal needs help from both droid and beast alike. BD-1 remains the closest ally to Cal, offering up health stims upon request or helping slide down conspicuously placed cables to cross wide stretches of land. Cal can also use his Force persuasion skills to tame a variety of beasts to help him get around Koboh, including flying beasts that can offer Cal a glide across chasms in select areas. Merrin’s reunion on Jedha later provides Cal with a special trinket to dash forward in midair or through select forcefields, opening up entirely new areas that were once just barely out of reach from a well-timed doubler jump. 

　　Cal Kestis’ prowess with a lightsaber is similarly carried over into Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. Already comfortable with the single-blade style, Cal quickly picks up the knowledge and comprehension to wield four additional combat styles, beginning with a double-bladed saber stance once made famous by Darth Maul and a dual-wielding stance that splits his lightsaber into two equal parts to spin and flourish through overwhelming entire groups of stormtroopers alike. Much later in the journey, after Cal has left Koboh for the first time, he’ll pick up two new stances that weren’t in the previous title: a massive flared claymore and crossguard that Kylo Ren made famous in the most recent trilogy and an unorthodox stance where Cal wields his lightsaber in one hand and a Blaster in the offhand. Each weapon style has its specific strengths that can be adapted to the player’s style and any two stances can be equipped and swapped out merely by resting at the nearest meditation point.

　　Star Wars Jedi: Survivor’s combat remains largely based upon the masocore framework of the likes of Nioh, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, and the previous Jedi: Fallen Order. Even the lowest-ranking of Stormtroopers can prove deadly if they can get their marks set on Cal. Each weapon stance has a limited selection of attacks that can be woven together with unlocked Force abilities that can make Cal feel like an Empire-killing machine, even if he can’t survive an ambush in many instances. 

　　In many regards, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor ditches any traditional leveling that players might expect and simplifies it to a few core upgrades. Cal won’t be picking up new Kyber crystals and slotting them into his lightsaber for additional damage. Instead, all of his personal growth comes by way of maximum health upgrades and earning skill points at each eligible level. Instead, Cal Kestis will become an even more deadly Jedi in the hands of a skilled player that grasps the nuances of parrying enemy attacks and weaving together Force Pull/Push to control the crowd and let Cal dictate the flow of combat. If you’re struggling to grasp the combat of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, a variety of difficulty settings can tweak enemy aggression and damage taken by a significant degree. The lowest difficulty, Story Mode, makes it nearly impossible to lose but serves as an important option to allow players of any skill level to see Cal Kestis’ journey through until the end. Various other accessibility options are available to aid players, from eliminating button holds for certain actions, disabling fall damage, and an optional slow mode that can grind time to a halt to permit players time to consider their options. 

　　Cal Kestis’ customization might first seem like there would be a valid reason to use the myriad of workbenches scattered throughout Koboh and the galaxy at large but these only exist to change the vanity for the player. Customizing the color or individual components of Cal’s lightsaber offers no tactical advantage save for being more fashional on the battlefield. If it weren’t for being able to change the special charged ammo used in Cal’s Blaster stance, there would be little reason to keep visiting these workbenches unless the player excessively enjoys changing up the style to suit their mood.

　　Exploration, one of Jedi: Fallen Order’s strong suits with the variety of traversal upgrades and neatly tucked away secrets, similarly remains the most addicting aspect of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. A redesigned map finally allows players to see not just where their intended goal is but also locked doors and other obstacles that require thinking outside the box and a few additional tools to work with. Beacons can be left on the map to mark objects of significance, such as the fortune Droids scattered throughout the galaxy that reward the player with a specific form of in-game currency that disappear at the slightest provocation (throwing the lightsaber while in single-saber stance is my go-to for slaying these loot bearing droids). Cal won’t have to journey back to the Saloon or the Mantis on foot, as fast travel has finally been implemented to permit Cal to travel between discovered meditation points.

　　At launch, the biggest deterrent to get the most out of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor remains the performance on PlayStation 5 and other platforms. Stuttering upon entering new areas or a general sluggishness to traverse the Koboh landscape are frequent even on PS5’s Performance Mode. The other notable issue is in general navigation throughout the environment. Many platforms and traversal points are often painted in a subtle white hue that gives players a rough idea of where to go next without holding the players' hand and doing all of the work for them.

　　Only specifically scripted platforms and objects can be jumped upon or used in exploration; jumping onto an unintended slope or platform usually results in Cal plummeting to his doom afterward. As a Jedi does not deal in absolutes, there is certainly the possibility of seeing these and other issues eliminated before the general public can get their hands on Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.

　　While Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was a surprise journey when it was first released, the time spent apart hasn’t made Cal Kestis’ adventures any less enjoyable. A similar framework in unfamiliar territories helps to establish Jedi: Survivor as a quality sequel to the original release. Jedi: Survivor still plays it safe in comparison to the prior game. It may be difficult to give Jedi: Survivor full marks for its individuality, but compared to the predecessor focused on Cal’s time as a Jedi Padawan, each title can stand up on its own merits, and Jedi: Survivor polishes up much of the experience as it propels the narrative ever forward on Cal Kestis’ journey to Tanalorr.

　　Reviewed on PlayStation 5 (code provided by the publisher).

　　8.3

　　Wccftech Rating

　　Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

　　Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

　　Cal Kestis' latest journey, this time to seek out a long-lost Jedi stronghold on Tanalorr, should feel intimately familiar to fans of Jedi: Fallen Order. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor builds upon the successes of the original title but doesn't quite do enough to stand up on its own merits.

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