Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (PS5)
I’ve been playing Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. I found the game on the PS Store bundled with the new Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. It was on the 30th anniversary of Playstation herself, when we got the nice themes dedicated to all generations of Playstation consoles. I’m currently using the PS3 theme on my home screen! As for Fallen Order, it was a seamless transition from Uncharted. It’s an action/adventure game, with some puzzles, but far fewer than in Uncharted, and much easier to solve.
It was my first time playing a Star Wars game, and I enjoyed it. My references to Star Wars come from the trilogy running from 1977 to 1983, which I saw more than 100 times on a VHS tape that has now deteriorated. Those are the movies I refer to as “the first three movies” or “the original trilogy.” Or I could say that I prefer episodes IV to VI, but I prefer not to. I haven’t been much into Star Wars since then, and even though I watched the rest of the series, I don’t remember any of it.
Landscape in IlumCal flying a Shyyyo bird in Kashyyyk The parkour in Fallen Order can be tricky in some sections. Fortunately, we can keep trying because we don’t actually die and return to a checkpoint, thank god. Despite being akin to a soulslike, the game is as soulslike as you want it to be, in a sense. I didn’t want it to have that extra layer of difficulty, so I lowered the settings to a level that I felt comfortable with. Additionally, it is a metroidvania. Some sections of the map can’t be explored the first time we visit a new area/planet, some doors are locked from the other side, bridges are raised, ropes are held up high or too far away, ledges are too high to reach, etc. All this will be traversable with new Jedi powers that our character Cal Kestis will be able to remember from his former master. At this point in the game, I have all planets explored well above 50% with some around 90%. I will not 100% the game, but I’m satisfied with the level of exploration I’ve been able to achieve on my own.
Holotable inside the Mantis showing the planets we can visitAfter a certain point I had to force myself to learn how to read what passes for a map in this game. Like in any metroidvania, mastering the map is very important to access new areas, especially in planets like Zeffo, where the labyrinth is intricate, with many secret areas, shortcuts, treasure, you name it. It’s not possible to fast travel directly back to the Mantis or between checkpoints, therefore we should expect a lot of backtracking, especially during exploration and after new areas are accessible. Reaching new areas is mostly fine when all shortcuts are unlocked, but still, traveling to an area farther from the ship means we should travel the whole way back and most likely get lost in the process.
Enter the map. It’s a holomap accessible through BD-1 (our little, cutest and sweetest droid) and as the name implies it’s a monochromatic 3D map. The tonalities go from darker blue to lighter blue. The background is also blue. Since it’s a hologram, we can still see the environment in the background when we check the map, which adds an extra layer of visual noise. It’s possible to rotate, zoom in and out, all that good stuff, but properly reading it is a pain.
Map of Zeffo after exploring a crash site.Due to the elevation we can cycle between different area levels. They’re represented with a lighter tone of blue. Hovering the cursor on a given area highlights that section. Sometimes I had to zoom all the way in because the map was so packed with layers and I couldn’t understand how to proceed. I don’t think this solution is very user-friendly or eye-friendly. A few more accessibility settings could have helped people get a better look at these maps. After we get the abilities to freeze, push, or pull objects, as well as the ability to wall run and double jump (almost at the end) things get a little easier to navigate. As previously mentioned, we can’t fast travel between checkpoints, and the map will remain our best friend, for better or worse.
Since it took me so long to finish this post, I eventually finished the main story. In terms of collectibles and explored areas I got a respectable 88% exploration mark. The exploration was extremely satisfying, as was the combat and all the new Jedi powers and abilities I unlocked throughout the game.
In hindsight, I think some characters like Merrin were introduced a bit too late in the story, which leads me to conclude that I should have visited Dathomir first, maybe? Regardless, at the start I wouldn’t have had access to most traversal abilities. I’d like to have seen her bonding with the rest of the crew for a longer period.
In Dathomir, looking at the MantisI’m not going over the whole story here, only a few highlights: the strained relationship between Cere and the Second Sister – a Jedi inquisitor who was once her Padawan – demonstrated how different one’s path can be when fighting against the dark side from a place of freedom versus getting coerced into it by the Empire, with only a few remnants of a former sense of self left. Then, the connection between Cal and Cere, which I found very meaningful, when they were learning to trust each other and navigating their own challenges with the Force and what it meant to live the path of a Jedi. Basically, I enjoyed everything about Greez and BD-1 – respectively, the best ship captain and the cutest, most resourceful droid. The Jedi Holocron served as only part of the journey and not the objective in itself, and finally, Cal recovering the memories of his training and overcoming his past trauma brings many moments of his self-healing journey to us. I think these were the aspects of the main story that stuck with me. We can find many more details about the lore in the Databank and Tactical Guide.
Bring her backBD-1, Greez, Cere, Cal, and Merrin Well, writing a text that started mainly with a rant about the map made me realize that I actually enjoyed the game! I had genuine fun with it, and now I’m looking forward to playing Survivor and seeing where the story takes me.
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