Jedi: Survivor should be fun, but little would beat a Star Wars game allowing fans to play as an Inquisitor hunting Jedi with Sekiro-style combat.
Jedi: Survivor was recently announced, but the future of Star Wars video games is rather open from a gameplay standpoint. After the success of Jedi: Fallen Order, it’s obvious why Respawn Entertainment wants to continue following Cal Kestis’ adventures. That said, a Star Wars video game starring an Inquisitor – a dark side force user trained to hunt down the few remaining Jedi – could be even cooler, especially if it takes some gameplay inspiration from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
While Cal Kestis is generally considered an engaging protagonist, he is at least the fifth ex-Jedi to canonically survive Order 66, behind Obi-Wan, Yoda, Kanan, and Ahsoka. Post-republic Jedi survivors are no longer a rarity, and Inquisitors have become far more popular since their inclusion in Jedi: Fallen Order. One of the strongest aspects of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is its well-done and unorthodox story, which follows a dark, gritty villain. The first Jedi game has its strengths, but narrative excellence is not one of them, as Fallen Order‘s story is another formulaic Star Wars tale of a ragtag group of heroes who dare to stand against the empire in a subtle enough way so as not to clash with established canon.
In other words, it’s time for something new, and a Star Wars Inquisitor-based game with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice-style combat seems like one of the best possible ideas. Jedi: Fallen Order borrows quite a few elements from FromSoftware’s Souls series, but its combat is somewhere between Dark Souls and Sekiro, with similarities to the Batman: Arkham series. The combat mechanics work fairly well considering most enemies are not fellow lightsaber wielders. Still, the game’s greatest appeal is fighting against Inquisitors and other force users, but these boss battles end up feeling slightly awkward and underwhelming.
Future Star Wars Video Games Could Learn A Lot From Sekiro
After all, lightsaber duels are one of the coolest concepts in the Star Wars universe, but in Fallen Order, every Inquisitor just feels like another boss. While the parry and block system seems well-suited for lightsabers, the combat is too slow to do the fights justice, and force powers are too minor to contribute much. Sekiro‘s acclaim was largely due to its sword-fight mechanics, which combine smooth, lightning-fast combat physics with a simple yet elegant posture system. Star Wars can easily implement this combat system, with force abilities acting more like Sekiro‘s prosthetic tools than Batman: Arkham‘s gadgets.
The Jedi series uses several interesting Dark Souls mechanics in its first entry. Fallen Order‘s condensed maps utilize the same kind of unlockable shortcuts to connect areas. After dying, Cal gets one chance to recover his experience by harming his killer, similar to recovering Souls or Elden Ring‘s gameplay equivalent, Runes. Fallen Order‘s meditation circles serve the same purpose as bonfires, and Respawn Entertainment did little to disguise their similarities. At this point, game developers should not hesitate to borrow the FromSoftware mechanic that would fit best in the Star Wars universe – and while risks are being taken, games might as well let fans Sekiro-duel Jedi as an Inquisitor, too.
About The Author
