Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Cameron Monaghan

Debra Wilson

Monagahan and Wilson did voice work and motion capture as Cal Kestis and Cere Junda respectively.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order takes place five years after the events of Revenge of the Sith. The game follows Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis (Cameron Monaghan) as he is being hunted by the Second Sister (Elizabeth Grullón) and her partner, the Ninth Sister (Misty Lee), both trained by the Sith Lord Darth Vader (Scott Lawrence) as part of the Imperial Inquisitors program. Supporting characters include: Cal's friend and scrapping partner Prauf (JB Blanc); former Jedi Knight-turned-mercenary Cere Junda (Debra Wilson); Greez Dritus (Daniel Roebuck), owner and pilot of the Stinger Mantis and Cere's friend; BD-1 (Ben Burtt), a small droid which befriends and accompanies Cal; Jedi Master Eno Cordova (Tony Amendola), who appears in hologram messages; Partisan leader Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker); Merrin (Tina Ivlev), one of the last surviving members of the Nightsister clan of Dathomir; and Dark Jedi Taron Malicos (Liam McIntyre). Wookiee chieftain Tarfful briefly appears on Kashyyyk, while Cal's former Jedi Master, Jaro Tapal (Travis Willingham), and numerous clone troopers (Dee Bradley Baker) appear in flashbacks. The Grand Inquisitor is featured as an unseen character often contacted by the Second and Ninth Sister, with Cal only hearing the former two Inquisitors' sides of their correspondence.

Five years after the Great Jedi Purge and the Galactic Republic's conversion into the Galactic Empire, former Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis is hiding on the planet Bracca, where he works as a scrapper salvaging ships from the Clone Wars. After Cal is recorded by an Imperial Probe droid using the Force to save his friend Prauf, two Inquisitors known as the Second Sister and the Ninth Sister are sent to investigate. After the Second Sister kills Prauf for speaking up against the Empire, Cal makes his escape, briefly engaging in a duel with the Second Sister before he is rescued by former Jedi Knight Cere Junda and her partner, pilot Greez Dritus, on their ship, the Stinger Mantis.

Cere takes Cal to the planet Bogano in the hopes that he can access an ancient vault. En route to the vault, Cal befriends a small droid named BD-1, who shows him a message from former Jedi Master Eno Cordova, revealing that the vault was built by an ancient civilization called the Zeffo and that a Jedi Holocron containing a list of Force-sensitive children has been hidden inside by Cordova. Cere believes the list could help rebuild the Jedi Order, but the only way to access the vault is by following Cordova's path. Cal heads to the Zeffo homeworld and explores an ancient temple, finding a clue pointing to Cordova's friend, the Wookiee chieftain Tarfful. On the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk, Cal encounters notorious insurgent Saw Gerrera, whom he helps free several Wookiees enslaved by the Empire.

Unable to find Tarfful, Cal returns to Zeffo to find more clues regarding the vault but is ambushed by the Second Sister, who reveals herself as Trilla Suduri, Cere's former Padawan. She explains that she was captured by the Empire after Cere betrayed her hidden location under torture, and warns Cal that Cere will inevitably betray him once they find the Holocron. Eventually, Cal learns he requires a Zeffo artifact called an Astrium to unlock the vault, before being captured by a Haxion Brood bounty hunter and forced to fight in a gladiatorial arena owned by Haxion boss Sorc Tormo. After Cere and Greez rescue him, Cal returns to Kashyyyk to meet with Tarfful, who instructs him to investigate the top of the Origin Tree. At the top of the tree, he finds another recording of Cordova saying that an Astrium can be found in a Zeffo tomb on Dathomir before being attacked by the Ninth Sister, whom he defeats.

On Dathomir, Cal's progress is impeded by Nightsister Merrin, who blames the Jedi for the massacre of her people during the Clone Wars, and attempts to keep him away using an army of revenants. After experiencing a flashback of his former master, Jaro Tapal, sacrificing himself to protect him during Order 66, the kyber crystal of Cal's lightsaber is destroyed. He meets former Jedi Taron Malicos, who crash-landed on Dathomir during the Purge and has been seeking to learn the magic of the Nightsisters, over time going insane and succumbing to the dark side of the Force. Cal refuses Malicos' offer to teach him this dark power and flees after Merrin attacks them both. Aboard the Stinger Mantis, Cere admits she cut her connection to the Force after briefly falling to the dark side upon learning Trilla became an Inquisitor. After traveling to Ilum to rebuild his lightsaber, Cal returns to Dathomir, where he retrieves the Astrium and overcomes his guilt for his part in Jaro's death. He defeats Malicos with the unexpected aid of Merrin, who agrees to join the Stinger Mantis crew.

Back on Bogano, Cal unlocks the vault, experiencing a vision of Force-sensitive children being attacked by the Empire while he becomes an Inquisitor himself. After escaping the vision, Trilla attacks him and steals the Holocron. Cere reassumes her role as a Jedi and knights Cal before revealing she knows where Trilla is going. The pair infiltrate the Fortress Inquisitorius on Mustafar's oceanic moon Nur, battling their way through legions of stormtroopers before finally reaching Trilla. Cal defeats Trilla and retrieves the Holocron. Cere then reconciles with Trilla, with the latter returning to the light for a brief moment before Darth Vader appears and kills her. Unable to defeat Vader, Cal and Cere barely escape from his grasp and are saved from drowning by Merrin. Back on the Stinger Mantis, the crew celebrates having accomplished their mission before coming to the realization that the children listed on the Holocron may well spend the rest of their lives in danger should they become Jedi, and should be left alone to decide their own destinies. Cal unceremoniously destroys the Holocron with his lightsaber and asks where they will go next.

The team collaborated with Ben Burtt while creating the sound effects for Cal's companion droid BD-1.

Aaron Contreras led the game's writing team, which also included Chris Avellone and four other writers,[19] some of whom have previously worked on Star Wars animation shows including The Clone Wars and Rebels.[20] The team chose to set the game between Episode III and Episode IV because this period features elements and imagery that were instantly recognizable to fans of the franchise but remained relatively less explored in mainstream idea. According to Jeff Magers, the game's lead level designer, the period between Episode III and Episode IV was dominated by the totalitarian Empire, making it "a perfect place for a video game hero, as a flickering candle of light in a very dark place."[21] The team wanted to create an "authentic" Jedi story and a classic hero journey,[22] and wanted it to evoke feelings of the original trilogy.[23] At the beginning of the game, Cal is not yet a Jedi, as his training ended abruptly as the Jedi were purged during Order 66. Fallen Order, therefore, was described as a "David and Goliath story," focusing on "the classic battle of good versus evil."

One of the main themes of the story was "trauma," and how people react in moments of desperation was described to be at the "emotional heart" of the story. This was mainly reflected through Cal's journey as he gradually becomes more competent and confident in his own abilities and slowly goes from being hesitant to trust people to ultimately bonding with the game's cast of supporting characters as they rebel against the Empire.[20][24] Cameron Monaghan provided voice and motion capture for the character. The game has a male human character as its protagonist because the sequel film trilogy already has Rey as the central character, and the team believed that an alien protagonist would "alienate" a lot of fans of the series.[25] Elizabeth Grullon provided the voice for the Second Sister. The character's British accent was improvised during the recording sessions as she "had a strong intuition" that Trilla had a British dialect when she first read the script. The character first appeared in comic series Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith, though she was created by Respawn and Lucasfilm for the game.[26]

The ship Stinger Mantis was designed by Star Wars artist Doug Chiang, while its captain Greez Dritus belongs to a new alien species made for Fallen Order. According to Asmussen, the character was inspired by "John C. Reilly and Mr. Furley from Three's Company." BD-1 took two years to design. Throughout the game, Cal gradually bonded with BD-1, a relationship which Asmussen compared to that of Charlie Brown and his animal companions Snoopy and Woodstock.[13] The droid was initially codenamed "bird dog", as its design was reminiscent to that of a bird, while having the personality of a dog.[27] As a companion robot, Respawn designed it to be very "personable," and described it as Cal's best friend. The team initially design a bolster for BD-1 so he could fly around, but later settled for a bipedal design because the team wanted him to be an exploration droid. It has a pair of big eyes, which allow him to scan different objects and project a map hologram. The team initially brainstormed about giving the droid lines of dialogue, though ultimately decided to work with Ben Burtt to create its beeping sounds.[13] Cal was initially envisioned as a "tinkerer" who would create BD-1 from scraps, and BD-1 would serve as Cal's backpack. This idea was, however, abandoned. Early design of the BD-1 is reminiscent to that of BB-8 from the sequel trilogy, though they had to change its design once they saw the trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Purge Troopers were created in conjunction with Marvel Comics. While they were first seen in comic books, Fallen Order would mark their first appearance as enemy combatants.[28]

Respawn wanted players to explore the world without having to provide excessive guidance.[13] The team was inspired by the design of Metroid Prime, in particularly how frequent new upgrades are offered to players. The team believed that the game's Metroidvania structure enabled players to explore each location freely, while allowing the team to deliver occasional handcrafted moments.[13] "Retraversal" was one of the game's core design pillar.[29] The Force powers, in particularly, were described as "lock-and-key mechanisms" which can be used to solve puzzles and unlock secret areas.[30] While levels may seem linear at first, Cal can revisit planets to explore previously inaccessible areas by unlocking alternate paths using newly unlocked transversal abilities, further reflecting Cal's narrative growth as a character, as he became more confident in himself and his connection with the Force throughout the course of the story.[31] The game does not feature a fast travel system, as the team believed that players would explore each location more thoroughly and look for shortcuts when they are not allowed to skip through the critical path.[32] Visually, the game was heavily inspired by Rogue One and Solo: A Star Wars Story.[29] The team also took inspirations from Star Wars Rebels, which took place in the same period.[33]

The combat of the game was described to be "thoughtful" and "methodical."[34] It was not combo-based, as the team did not want players to mash buttons. Instead, the game was about striking at enemies and using Force abilities at the right moments and catching enemies off guard. This was an early design decision as the team believed Jedi are highly trained warriors that focus on "precision and efficiency". The player must study an opponent's move set and react to them accordingly with different tactics and timing of attack.[13] To stay true to the Star Wars universe, Cal can kill stormtroopers with one hit using his lightsaber. To make the combat more challenging, the team added the Block meter for some enemies, and introduced a diverse group of enemies, such as wild creatures whose thick skin cannot be easily pierced.[31] The combat was described as a middle ground between The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker and games developed by FromSoftware such as Bloodborne and Dark Souls, as the team wanted the game to be grounded and challenging, while remaining an accessible experience as Star Wars is a brand with a wide reach.[35][36] In particularly, the team did not want the game to be crushing or unforgiving.[37] The team introduced several difficulty modes, which mostly change the amount of time players have to parry an enemy, how aggressive the enemy AI is, and the amount of health players would lose when they are hit. According to the design team, the lethality of Cal's weapons would still be reflected even in the most difficult mode.[38] However, stormtroopers and human characters would not be dismembered by the lightsaber due to guidelines imposed by Disney/Lucasfilm. According to the team, moments of dismemberment were rare and only seen during dramatic moments in the Star Wars films.[39]

Gordy Haab and Stephen Barton served as the game's composer.[40] The former had previously composed the scores for Star Wars: The Old Republic and Star Wars: Battlefront while the latter had collaborated with the studio on the Titanfall series, Uncharted series and Apex Legends. The score was recorded at Abbey Road Studios with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Bach Choir of London.[13] According to the game's audio director Nick Laviers, the game's music was designed to evoke those from the original film trilogy, being both "futuristic" while having a "1970s, warm and familiar technology vibe".[41] Haab added that the score of the game was "dark", and some of the tracks "[border] on gothic horror". Composing Cal's theme was singled out as one of the team's hardest challenges because Cal goes through a hero journey in the game and the music cannot foreshadow too much of his character development, especially during the beginning of the game. Haab intentionally avoided listening to established Star Wars music in order to create something new for Fallen Order.[40] Mongolian folk metal band The Hu wrote and recorded a song, "Sugaan Essena", which featured prominently in the game. The song lyrics were written in Mongolian, then translated into a fictional Star Wars language.[42]

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order received "generally favorable reviews", according to review aggregator Metacritic.[60][61][62] Critics liked the game for being a self-contained Star Wars single-player title,[67][68] and felt that Fallen Order had successfully combined distinct systems from multiple game genres together.[66][71][72] Many reviewers noted the game's subpar technical performance.[66][73][63] The success of Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, alongside Marvel's Spider-Man, prompted Disney to encourage game developers to make more original games based on its properties.[74]

Andrew Reiner from Game Informer praised Cal as the game's protagonist, calling him "likeable" and applauded the relationship between him and BD-1, likening the droid to a "friendly lapdog". He liked the story for its pacing and mystique and praised the flashback scenes for adding extra dimensions to the game's characters.[63] Phil Hornshaw from GameSpot agreed and praised the droid's gameplay presence, which made it an inseparable part of the game. He also enjoyed the narrative of the game, though he felt that it only started to excel when it began exploring the deepening friendship between Cal and the game's supporting characters.[64] Writing for GamesRadar, Ben Tryer felt that the story was fairly generic, although he praised Cal for being an earnest character, and Trilla for being an intruiging villain who has a full character arc.[65] Both IGN' Dan Stepleton and VentureBeat's Jeff Grubb described Cal as a servicable character, and felt that the supporting characters such as Cere and Trilla had outshone him.[70][67] While Grubb praised the game's writing, he was disappointed that the story was a typical Star Wars story about light versus dark, which has been explored numerous times in other Star Wars media.[70] Kat Bailey, writing for USgamer, added that the story progressed at a "breakneck speed", though she applauded the story's dark moments, describing the Empire in the game as "sinister".[69]

The exploration aspect of the game was widely liked. Reiner described it as the game's "most dynamic and entertaining quality," though he noted that the design of some locations was too "gamey," thus hurting players' immersion. However, he disliked sometimes having to revisit planets due to obligatory and unimaginative narrative reasons.[63] Hornshaw noted that each planet featured in the game was beautifully realized, and added that players were always well-rewarded for exploring off the beaten path.[64] Ben Tyrer from GamesRadar applauded each location's intricate design, and praised the game's Metroidvania gameplay, as players will be able to find "intriguing" locations every time they revisit a planet. He also enjoyed the puzzles featured in Fallen Order, which he likened to those found in Tomb Raider.[65] Stepleton applauded the team for their "attention to detail" and their devotion to stay true to the source materials, though he remarked the in-game Wookiees were "offensively ugly".[67] Brad Shoemaker from Giant Bomb disliked the lack of a fast travel option, making exploration a "chore" early in the game when Cal lacked many abilities.[66] Tom Senior from PC Gamer described the game's locations as "massive, tangled dungeon with a good mix of gorgeous exteriors and atmospheric Imperial bases", but he noted that the third-person exploration gameplay was "old-fashioned".[68]

The combat was praised by critics. Reiner noted each swing of the lightsaber felt impactful and each combat encounter was an intense experience. However, he noted that movements of some opponents were not well-telegraphed.[63] Hornshaw and Senior lauded the difficult nature of the game, likening it to Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Hornshaw further added that each combat encounter can be an "exciting, cerebral exercise" because enemies can easily defeat the player. Both remarked that the game was less punishing when compared with other FromSoftware games, making gameplay tough but rewarding enough to so that players would feel like they are controlling a powerful Jedi knight. He also enjoyed the game for not giving Cal too much power, which in turn, made the Empire a "frightening threat" due to the differences in power level between the two.[64][68] Tyrer remarked that the game was "demanding" but not "punishing" and praised the difficulty options for allowing players to fine tune their experience.[65] Stepleton noted Cal's lightsaber rarely interacted with the environment, and having inaccessible areas blocked off by a door was "silly".[67] VG247' Sherif Saed disliked certain combat encounters for overwhelming players with several enemy types attacking at the same time, and remarked that lightsaber combat, especially parrying and blocking, can be inconsistent, resulting in a frustrating gameplay experience.[71]

The PlayStation 4 version of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order sold 26,761 copies within its first week on sale in Japan, which made it the fifth bestselling retail game of the week.[75] In the UK, it was the second bestselling retail game during its first week on sale, only behind Pokémon Sword and Shield, with 66% of sales being for the PlayStation 4 version and the remaining 34% for the Xbox One version.[76] It was also the fourth biggest physical release of 2019.[77] In the US, it was the second best-selling game in November and December 2019, only behind the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare reboot. It was 2019's sixth best-selling game in the US with only two months in the market, and Respawn's bestselling premium title of all-time in terms of dollar sales.[78]

Publisher Electronic Arts confirmed that Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order had the fastest-selling digital launch for any Star Wars game within its first two weeks on sale.[79] The game sold more than 8 million copies by the end of January 2020, exceeding EA's expectations.[80] More than 10 million units were sold by March 31, 2020.[81] By June 2021, the game had attracted more than 20 million players.[82]