Respawn Entertainment's Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order released on November 15, 2019, and, with its release, brought Cal Kestis into the Star Wars universe, telling his story of a Jedi on the run after the events of Revenge of the Sith. With its Souls-like checkpoint system, exploration inspired by Metroid Prime, and a combat system seemingly inspired by both Dark Souls and games like Batman: Arkham Asylum, the game released to overwhelming critical acclaim, putting it in contention as one of the best Star Wars games of all time, while also swiftly shattering EA's sales expectations. It came as no surprise that Jedi: Fallen Order was confirmed to be the first in a franchise, with EA looking to expand the world with Respawn Entertainment at the helm once again.
At launch, the Fallen Order experience, while stellar and remarkable from a character and story-telling standpoint, was bare beyond a first playthrough, with no reason given to the players to revisit the game's diverse set of scenery and planets. Six months later, to celebrate Star Wars Day, the game would be updated to include a Challenge Mode, a customizable Battle Grid, and, by popular demand, a New Game + Mode, incentivizing a return to the title. These additions addressed one of the game's minor complaints, but with a sequel being planned at some point down the line, there are other new additions to the game that could create new wrinkles for the series.
Through the course of Jedi: Fallen Order, users play as Cal Kestis, a Jedi Padawan, as he navigates the world on the run after the events of Order 66. His status as a Padawan is apparent through the game as he fights with a relatively unrefined style as compared to the styles demonstrated by those in the Prequel Trilogy. The addition of an evolving form of lightsaber combat would go a long way in showing the character's growth through the course of a journey, while also allowing the combat to remain fresh through the entirety of the title. This would also call back to prior games in Star Wars history, particularly Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy where characters would learn different styles of lightsaber combat, altering how they can approach certain enemies and encounters.
How Jedi: Fallen Order 2 Can Improve On The Original
In the Jedi Knight series, a popular feature of those games is multiplayer lightsaber combat, and in the current generation of Star Wars titles, lightsaber dueling has seen a decline, with there only being very few boss fights within Jedi: Fallen Order that are true lightsaber duels. If lightsaber combat were to be refined, and returned to fit a more "action-oriented" style of game, allowing players to take their skills online against one another would serve as a logical next step. The online world of Jedi Academy proves popular among Star Wars fans even today, so a new generation's take on lightsaber combat would be a welcome addition.
The success of Jedi: Fallen Order has lent itself to future installments of the series, and with that comes the desire to not fix what isn't broken. While there was nothing "broken" in how the combat was handled in Jedi: Fallen Order, the prospect of a sequel seems like an appropriate time for Respawn Entertainment to take a look at the base that they've built and expand on the particulars of lightsaber combat. With former God of War director Stig Asmussen at the helm, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has the potential to become the "Chosen One" in offering players a fun and fluid lightsaber action game, so long as it doesn't succumb to the Dark Side.