Jedi: Fallen Order First Trailer, Releases November 15 (SWCC 2019)

Our first look at this year’s Jedi: Fallen Order comes in the form of a CGI trailer, which both has raised my anticipation for the first single-player only game in almost a decade (Battlefront II‘s had a GREAT story, but gameplay left a little to be desired) but it has also given me some apprehension for the experience. Fallen Order comes from Respawn Entertainment, home of the Titanfall franchise, which includes Titanfall 1/2 and Apex Legends, of which the single-player mode for Titanfall 2 was far better than it deserved to be, even despite its brevity, so I’m not terribly concerned with the gameplay and pacing of this game. When Fallen Order lead Cal Kestis (Cameron Monaghan) wall runs at one point in the trailer, that’s a popular move from the Titanfall games because the main character had a jump pack that allowed them to pull off awesome stunts, so this’ll be a fun game to play, no matter what. However, the concerns it raised were two fold, which I’ll get into a little more under the cut: 1) It gave off a little too much of a The Force Unleashed vibe, which overpowering Jedi just to give players a power trip just doesn’t feel right anymore when Jedi Master Luke Skywalker does the most badass Jedi thing ever by not fighting. 2) I’ve never watched Shameless (shame on me), but I absolutely loved Cameron Monaghan in Gotham, back when I was still watching the show, and felt he’d be a great Joker, but making the main character a plain white dude is rather disappointing when basically all the Jedi (seen on screen in shows/movies) who survived Order 66 are other dudes. The first concern was tempered by the panel/cliff notes version at the official site, and regardless I’m still anticipating the game, but I’ll be a little cautious about it when it launches November 15, 2019. I go into a little more detail below, as well as dig into the identity of the Second Sister Inquisitor chasing Cal, as well as some screenshots from the trailer.

UPDATE: You can read my review of the game here!

The Force Unleashed series’ power trip always seemed to be an antithesis for what Jedi really are, so a lot of Fallen Order‘s trailer seemed to make Cal look more and more powerful as the game goes on. But the panel reveals you upgrade lightsaber combat and Force abilities to bring players “thoughtful combat,” to avoid it becoming a button masher like TFU was, which I hope holds true because I’d love a game which makes said combat more of a dance. As for Cal being another dude, a comic from last year made Jocasta Nu one of the coolest survivors of Order 66, so I’m curious what Cal will bring to the table besides being a player surrogate into the GFFA. Speaking of that comic…

The Second Sister Inquisitor was actually first seen in last year’s comic Darth Vader – Dark Lord of the Sith, issue #19, which writer Charles Soule had been teasing a connection to this game within the final arc’s pages, and beyond an Inquisitor character, I couldn’t think of what else it would’ve really been, so it’s nice to see what he had been teasing all this time. As for her identity, one has to look to a Spanish written book about the Dark Side of the Force, which reveals the Second Sister, “…is motivated by a deep-seated hatred towards the Jedi Order that had failed her.” If you’ve ever watched The Clone Wars, and have been curious about the fate of Barriss Offee, then it’s rather easy to suggest you’ll finally get to see her again as the Second Sister. If this is true, I really hope Cal doesn’t end up killing her, but instead helping her turn back to the light. However, Cal being alive makes one wonder if he makes it to the original trilogy and what he was up to during it, while Barriss going good would raise the same questions, but I’ll be curious to see which route they go regardless. Soule also created, alongside his awesome art team, Purge Troopers (seen in the “Burning Seas” arc and specifically in the cover for issue #16) who fight alongside the Inquisitors, and now they are a part of the game as well. I’ll be curious to see who Cal all meets on his journey, like the woman with Cal in the gallery below, but right now these connections are some of the most exciting aspects of Jedi: Fallen Order. I expect we’ll finally see gameplay, which I prefer to these CGI trailers, at EA Play 2019 in June.

You can check out the panel ~~at the 2hr 44min mark of the second day livestream video~~ in the video below, with some BTS footage and concept art to check out. There’s also a video of Cameron Monaghan on the Star Wars Show Live Stage. Below are the screenshots from the official site’s gallery, nothing gameplay unfortunately. There’s also an art gallery with the poster image. UPDATE: And now an art book has been announced