Star Wars games have been a big thing since decades, but it seems like the franchise has slowed down in the gaming space since Disney acquired SW back in 2012. That being said, there are still some gems that have come out recently like the Battlefront revivals.
With some Star Wars games like Zero Company expected to make a big announcement this weekend at Star Wars Celebration, I want to take a look back at the franchise that has somehow managed to succeed after so many failed recent attempts at SW games—Star Wars Jedi.
Fallen Order
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order released back in 2019 and was considered to be the big AAA Star Wars title that fans have been waiting for when it comes to lightsaber-focused action platforming. Admittedly, the Battlefront titles were also considered to be AAA quality, but they were more of shooter games, and it didn’t help that Battlefront II was met with controversy before the game launched thanks to lootbox mechanics.
Before Fallen Order came out, a lot of fans thought that EA might end up losing its Star Wars license because of the major flop that was Battlefront, but lo and behold, they managed to get a massive hit with Fallen Order, and the story of Cal Kestis is one that gaming fans celebrate to this day.
Described by some as a ‘Diet Dark Souls’, Fallen Order followed the story of a former Jedi Padawan in hiding who is somehow whisked back into the fight and must re-learn his Jedi skills after years in the dark. The gameplay was admittedly more complicated than previous Star Wars slashers before it, and reviewers thought it was a mishmash of elements from more successful titles like Uncharted, Metroid, and of course, Dark Souls.
Despite its success, a lot of fans thought that Jedi was actually pretty underbaked and didn’t do anything new for the genre; but since no other Star Wars game had been able to match the quality of Fallen Order when it released, it managed to get a ‘good enough’ status that fans were eagerly waiting for the sequel that addressed all the missing things from the first game like a variety of cosmetics and accessories plus more lightsaber fighting styles.
Survivor
By the time Star Wars Jedi: Survivor came out, the game had pretty much addressed everything that was missing from Fallen Order. The world was larger, and Cal had a multitude of lightsaber fighting styles—including a heavy sword version featuring the crossguard saber and a style that made use of a saber and a blaster at the same time.
From the variation of ponchos from the first game, Cal now had a choice of a variety of different outfits all inspired by different appearances in the Star Wars universe. And what’s more, players can also customize Cal’s hairstyle and facial hair from full-on beards to a handlebar mustache.
The game had a great reception when it came out, with a lot of praise for how much it improved on everything that came before it. Now fans are waiting for a third game in the Jedi series, but one can’t help but wonder—why does it seem like only the Jedi games are successful, and the other Star Wars titles have all been underwhelming?
Outlaws and Hunters
Ever since Fallen Order launched, there have been several attempts at Star Wars games—most of which have had trouble getting off the ground.
Sure, EA lost its exclusivity when it came to the Star Wars brand, opening up the door for more developers to make games, but even Ubisoft’s highly hyped-up shooter Star Wars Outlaws managed to underperform when it launched.
There was even an attempt at a Star Wars hero shooter Overwatch clone with Star Wars: Hunters; and that game ended up getting canceled even though a lot of fans were eager for it to be released on PC later this year.
For now, it does seem like Lucasfilm Games is only betting on re-releases of classic titles from the Lucasarts era. Their most recent release is the slasher-platformer Star Wars: Episode I – Jedi Power Battles.
It’s also worth mentioning that there were several titles that had been announced that were just canceled out of nowhere. Last year it was said that Respawn was working on an FPS Star Wars title, but it was eventually cancelled. We also got a sick trailer for Quantic Dream’s Star Wars Eclipse—which ended up getting cut as well.
So the question remains…
Why is Star Wars Jedi the Only Successful SW Game Franchise?
There could be several factors as to why Jedi still managed to succeed while others failed. For one, it does bring in two kinds of gamers to its fold with Soulslike and Star Wars fans being its core demographic. Simply put, it’s just a great game befitting of the SW brand.
Third-person open-world games like Outlaws, though massive, were considered pretty barebones when it came to the overall gaming experience, and the same could be said about Hunters—which now had to compete with the success of Marvel Rivals.
There’s also the big elephant in the room which is the Star Wars fandom. Ever since The Last Jedi released, there has been a faction of the fandom (dubbed by the internet as the ‘Fandom Menace’) who’ve made careers out of hate-farming everything coming out of the Disney era that they have branded ‘woke’—which kind of makes Star Wars a nightmare to work on if you’re a creative.
Everything featuring women or POC is met with relentless bashing and hours of hate rants; with some creators getting harassed online by angry fans who claim that they’re ‘ruining their childhoods.’ In the meantime, titles like Jedi that have a protagonist who is a straight white male are deemed safe from any vitriol.
Maybe there’s a Star Wars game renaissance just around the corner. A lot of fans are looking forward to seeing more of the remake of Knights of the Old Republic which is going to bring Revan back to the spotlight. Sadly, even if a Saber Interactive developer came out and say the game is far from canceled, the reality is fans have had zero news about it since its reveal in September 2021. Plus the LEGO Star Wars games were still a lot of fun.
With more Disney+ content waiting to be mined and a new upcoming Rey Skywalker trilogy, maybe Lucasfilm Games will have more titles to come up with in the next few years.
For now, fans are waiting for the reveal of the next Jedi game from Respawn this weekend at Star Wars Celebration.