Unleashing the Force: A Groundbreaking Star Wars Game Beyond Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

Highlights

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor successfully expands the franchise's gameplay and shows that it can explore new horizons in gaming.

The popularity of Survivor indicates that Star Wars should explore more radical directions in future games, such as venturing into expansive and immersive Souls-like experiences.

A prospective Star Wars Souls-like game could showcase a solitary, uncharted planet, integrating intense blaster and lightsaber battles, and providing a range of customizable character builds for the main hero.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, the recent release, successfully introduced the immensely popular franchise to new territories while staying true to its fundamental principles. Unlike many Star Wars games that have limited themselves to a particular gameplay framework, this release demonstrated that the franchise can expand its boundaries in the gaming world.

Given the triumph of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, the franchise may now feel more at ease in venturing into even more unconventional territories within the gaming medium. Considering this, it could be the right moment for Star Wars to courageously delve deeper into the realm of expansive Souls-like releases, surpassing what Fallen Order and Survivor have already achieved.

The Unique Gameplay of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

The recent Star Wars Jedi: Survivor maintains many of the core gameplay aspects from its predecessor, Fallen Order. These games provide a more realistic approach to controlling a single Jedi, focusing less on extravagant elements like those found in The Force Unleashed. As a result, both Fallen Order and Survivor offer a consistently challenging experience, with some of the toughest moments in the Star Wars gaming franchise. Similar to its predecessor, Survivor includes boss battles and expansive areas that players can explore at their own pace. These areas can be revisited multiple times, with enemies respawning upon each visit, drawing parallels to the successful Souls-like games developed by FromSoftware.

What a Full-Blown Star Wars Souls-Like Could Look Like

The combat system in Survivor offers a unique approach for a Star Wars game, allowing players to seamlessly switch between blaster and lightsaber combat with their chosen character. This fusion of different combat styles requires players to demonstrate a higher level of focus, emphasizing precise parrying and well-timed attacks. By further refining and expanding upon this concept, the potential for an ambitious and fully immersive Star Wars Souls-like experience becomes evident.

The Souls-like genre is gaining popularity in the mainstream gaming industry, exemplified by the success of games like Elden Ring. Although the Jedi games provide a solid foundation, some adjustments are necessary to create a more immersive and faithful Souls experience. Respawn's two Jedi games incorporate numerous Souls-like mechanics, clearly classifying them within the genre. However, due to the additional elements such as platforming, the games lean more towards the traditional action-adventure genre in terms of their gameplay loop.

A Star Wars game, inspired by the Souls series, could be set on an unexplored planet within the franchise. This would provide an opportunity to delve into the lore of the chosen location, emphasizing world-building, a key aspect of the Souls formula. To ramp up the difficulty, combat in this Star Wars game would need to be even more challenging, making a forgotten Sith planet the ideal setting for encountering formidable enemies.

If this project incorporates the blaster combat mechanics from Survivor, it could offer a unique fusion of Dark Souls and Bloodborne elements, while still placing lightsaber combat at the forefront. The protagonist would begin the game stranded and unequipped, needing to scavenge ancient relics on the planet to construct rudimentary lightsabers and armor, before upgrading to more efficient gear. In a similar fashion to Elden Ring, the game would feature an open world environment, allowing players to choose from a multitude of diverse character builds, some of which may not even involve a lightsaber.

Many Star Wars media offerings often have a tendency to exhibit excessive similarities, even though the franchise encompasses a vast array of periods and narratives. Considering this, it would be a significant breakthrough for the Star Wars intellectual property to introduce a game that resembles the Souls series, taking into account the solid foundation laid by Survivor.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is currently accessible on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, with versions for PS4 and Xbox One currently under development.