Jedi Survivor intrigues me...

 And worries me...

I still remember well the days when we could expect a brand new Star Wars game at least once every year thanks to the decently accepting licences that Lucas Arts maintained, before the bad days of 'The Disney Occupancy'. In that time it didn't matter for a gamer if the Star Wars franchise was putting out a new movie, because we could create our own games in our heads with the countless dozens of pieces of media surrounding the space opera and the magic space wizards. Which of course means that I remember how jarring a time it was when no new Stars Wars media was being created whatsoever, leaving us hopefuls waiting in the dust for anything new. For the single player fans, it really wasn't until the 'Star Wars: Jedi' series that we had anything to hold onto. (So thanks for that EA!)

But what a wait it was, because 'Fallen Order' has to be one of my favourite action adventure games of the past generation for how well it handled fun-feeling combat, exploration puzzles and great stand-out set-piece moments: I really do see how the gaming public managed to latch themselves onto this game as their Star Wars trilogy. Personally, for the first time in a long time, I'm actually infused by the direction of the narrative and where they're going to take the story next to make Cal Kestis' survival throughout the age of the Jedi purge relevant in the grand scope of Star Wars storytelling. The narrative of an action adventure game has my attention- that's how you know these devs have crafted something special here to work on across the next decade.

Of course, with that attention to narrative comes a cast of characters I'm seriously excited to get to know more about. One of my only real hang-ups with the Fallen Order story was the fact that because Cal and Cere got the majority of the attention, side characters tended to just be around. I feel like we only scratched the surface of characters like Dreez and Merrin; both of which have the opportunity to really take centre stage a little more now that they've been set loose on the universe to be their own people. It even looks like Merrin may be becoming something of a late-life Jedi Padawan from some of the early footage we've seen, which would place her at a central point in the narrative moving forward as we explore this new rebel shootoff of the Jedi.

And the real reason I want more games to come out of this franchise; is to expand the world of modern Star Wars outside of the excessive constrained, and actually somewhat boring, scope of what Disney have been messing around with. Even their purported far-shoot from the main timeline, the High Republic, hasn't yet got that star power entry of this is must-watch content; leaving those bored with the events of the Skywalker sage feeling burnt out. Even the Mandalorian managed to tie in the Skywalkers- only Andor and the 'Star Wars: Jedi' series are interested expanding out the lore in any distinct and interesting direction; so I hold onto both of them like lightning rods keeping this franchise from becoming stale. Just as with Harry Potter, I want the property to outgrow the owners and become it's own thing; that's how media becomes evergreen.

But with my anticipation comes a considerable amount of trepidation, because with the greatest expectations comes hand-in-hand the greatest potential for a fall from grace. The higher the pedestal, the more gruesome the splat at the bottom end. One such issue I have would be related to the God of War problem, namely that I wonder if this franchise had given itself enough time between entries to really formulate new ideas or if it's just recycling more of the same but in a bigger prettier package. God of War was said to be a near perfect game, so people accepted it when that game's sequel didn't go in any great strides to push the game formula forward, but I for one will say that Jedi Fallen Order had some weak points that could have done with some touch-ups. I just hope the team aren't resting on the laurels of what they had already made.

For one I think that the boss fights of 'Jedi: Fallen Order', at least those on the critical path, were largely just ok- with one stand-out exception being the tree-top duel with the Seventh Sister. That fight alone had several stages, attack-switch ups, variant timing and all that great stuff witch makes a challenging and memorable Souls-like duel. Compared to her, even the final boss fight is disappointingly straight-forward and generic- even for all of the pomp and grandeur around the setting of those later fights. I need the main-line fights to respect life-bar stages going forward, to keep the fight feeling dynamic and ever shifting, and perhaps to include more creative elements akin to what Sekiro does- tying specific actions to solve certain fights. Imagine if 'Jedi Survivor' pulls off a fight with the scope and versatility of the 'Divine Dragon'; that would be a heart stopper moment!

And one last worry point, it's the amount of new characters that we're going to see out of Jedi Survivor. Rather than keep the team together as they were at the end of 'Fallen Order', 'Survivor' has scattered them to the wind and given the players a new set of friends to become familiar with. But as I mentioned, I still think there's considerable growing the base team still has yet to do. It's not like Mass Effect where every crew mate has enough character building to be chucked out into the wild and still be legends in their own right, I genuinely think that certain crewmates from the first game were still in their foetal stage of narrative progression, and I wonder if we'll feel like we've missed them growing up in the jarring transition from where they had just started blooming to where they've already fully blossomed in the modern world.

But my concerns and worries are brought out of a place of love. Love for this franchise and the development studio that didn't forget about the sizable amount of Star Wars fans that just don't get the same thrill out of online games that they do from fantastic single player masterpieces. I just want this trilogy of Star Wars games to be absolutely perfect and satisfying in the way that the recent trilogy of Star Wars movies just wasn't, and if I even catch a whiff of problems I'm going to hunt it down like a bloodhound. But I was just as sceptical of that first game when it first reared it's atypical head, and I'll likely be just as weary of the third game when it's around that time; I guess I'll never miss a chance to be pleasantly surprised by a game that ultimately outperforms my expectations. So go ahead, Respawn: Outperform!