Major release of this month of April, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will polarize all our attention during the next weeks and during this time, EA and Respawn Entertainment continue to reveal us a little more their last game and what awaits us in this last one .
Stig Asmussen talks about the work done since the first opus
It is on the occasion of a long interview with Xbox Wire that Stig Asmussen, the game director at Respawn Entertainment, spoke without concession on the development of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, whether by evoking the learnings of the first opus, the fights of the game or the choices made during the development.
Our colleagues from Xbox Wire were able to try the new game for three hours and did not fail to mention the flaws of the first opus, flaws that the developers took the time to define and correct:
“When you develop a game, you don’t really know what the outcome will be until it comes out. You can do as many test phases as you want, once millions of people have it in their hands, things will be very different. This can comfort us on a number of things, but also highlight those that could have been implemented, such as fast travel for example.
While Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was intended as a Metroidvania and should not involve fast travel, Respawn heard community feedback and decided to integrate a fast travel mechanic into Jedi Survivor which should be much more intuitive and rewarding.
This new title will also incorporate an improved “hub” system compared to the first title in which the Mantis, your ship, acted as the central point. In Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Cal Kestis will be able to establish himself in different places to speak with the members of the crew, consult his collection or even interact with objects, but that was about all. Nevertheless, the various “hubs” will be more alive than ever. The article published by the Xbox teams details the experience they may have had during the test:
“In the part of the game that we were able to try, Cal had settled in Rambler’s Ranch, a small town on the planet Koboh. In addition to having to assume the fact of being one of the last living Jedis, he decides to help the inhabitants to develop their city. The game then turns into a space western and takes up elements that we saw in the Star Wars series like The Book of Boba Fett. To sum up, Cal has become a kind of sheriff looking to clean up the town by getting rid of his outlaws. Add to that the richness of the Star Wars universe and you’ve got something more believable and immersive. You can also collect seeds, plant them and develop your garden in the middle of the city: it really feels more like living the life of Cal than just a story within him. »
We will obviously have to see what happens with the controller in hand, but the principle itself is very interesting and should bring another depth to the game, a new dimension given that the universe will react to your actions (the city will fill up, new NPCs will arrive…). The other important aspect is that of the personalization which has been improved on this new title.
“The customization came very late in the development of the first game. When we got to try out the title in a fully playable version, we didn’t feel rewarded. There were appearances for BD-1, for the Mantis, but those were just appearances and I think players felt that. On the other hand, I think that the customization of the lightsaber was successful and that our community liked it. So we decided to apply the same recipe for all customization features in the suite.”
Subsequently, Stig Asmussen explains to us that the developers have taken the time to analyze player feedback on the use of the game map. The latter has been redesigned to be more intuitive through the levels to be explored. :
“Everything is clearer, in particular thanks to the possibility of adding tags. BD-1 now has binoculars, allowing you to scan the environment and add points of interest. Readability is enhanced and you always know where you need to go to continue the adventure. We learned a lot and we were able to improve this aspect.”
Among the other parts of the game to be polished, Respawn focused on the fights which were already well worked out, but which benefited from some rather interesting additions in Jedi: Survivor. According to Xbox Wire, the fights are generally more reactive and new fighting techniques have been integrated, such as the five postures, each with their own strengths and being more or less useful depending on your opponents.
“In the first game, we weren’t able to do everything we wanted with dual saber wielding. In Fallen Order, you were getting this ability towards the end of the game, when we wanted to implement it as a stance. We just ran out of time. However, we had already made a lot of progress and this mechanic was ready from the first six weeks of development of Jedi: Survivor…
These five stances embody Jedi: Survivor’s biggest improvement, especially since they all have a unique personality. We have created a kind of synergy between enemies and stances, some of them will be more effective against one type of opponents than against another. But, I prefer to clarify, you can always defeat any enemy, regardless of your posture.
Enemies can parry your lightsaber in different ways, we worked with Lucasfilm to determine what kind of technology opponents ready to take on a Jedi can use. These can be shields or electrical devices capable of blocking a lightsaber. You can kill a lot of enemies in one shot, you just have to find an opening.
Everything revolves around that. We need to provide them with the tools to parry a lightsaber, but also make sure they can fit into this universe and give them a reason to exist. We have always made sure that is the case. Ah and we also added the dismemberments. The fans asked us for it and Lucasfilm allowed us to do it”.
As you will have understood, the fights will be more advanced than ever and many combinations will be offered to you in order to defeat the different enemies that you will encounter on your way. The combat mechanics seem very permissive, but will surely require additional mastery. Anyway, we will have to wait a few more weeks before finding Cal Kestis and BD-1 in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor which will be released on April 28 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. In the meantime, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is still available on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, as well as in Xbox Game Pass.
