With almost a month to go until Jedi: Survivor’s new release date on April 28, Respawn Entertainment unveiled a story trailer which teases some cool new features, highlighted Merrin’s return, and confirmed the game’s The High Republic era connection. Between the excellent interquel novel Jedi: Battle Scars by Sam Maggs, which bridges the two games by fleshing out its characters and where they’re heading for Survivor, and this new trailer, I’m all aboard the hype train for the game (even if random animal murder still features heavily). Check out some new screenshots, the THR connection, and more below the cut!
While I figured Merrin would show up eventually after being conspicuously absent in the first trailer and subsequent gameplay reveals, especially since I highly doubted they would let the novel take a major character out of the story, it is almost hard to quantify how exciting it was to see her in the latest trailer! Not only does this stem from my love of her in the first game, but it mainly comes from the truly wonderful Battle Scars! She’s front and center throughout and goes through the book’s biggest arc, and its spiciest scenes, so seeing how and where she goes next, as well as Cal, Greez (we find out how he’s lost his arm in the book, by the way!), and Cere definitely got a big push from the novel.
From the first glimpse of the mysterious new stranger, the gold robes they’ve worn definitely sparked theories he could be a Jedi from the High Republic era and this trailer looks to confirm it via both the Jedi Order’s crest from said era on the outfit and his accusations against Cal. I can’t imagine, 200 years (or more) after the Jedi Order’s prime, waking up and finding the galaxy plagued by an Empire and the Order all but gone…is he antagonistic because of what happened, what he woke up to with the Order gone, or does his anger stem from whatever happened with him centuries before? Maybe he saw the Order’s fall coming and is just taking out on Cal? Or…is he actually a Jedi and is he actually from that era, or did he find those robes and claims to be? If he is…how and why is he back now? Either way, I am very intrigued to learn more about his story due how big of The High Republic fan I am, so consider me intrigued about this game on this almost alone.
Thankfully fast travel was confirmed recently, washing away another gripe with the first game, though this trailer showing off AI Companion gameplay where characters like Bode and Merrin get involved with combos opens up a whole world of possibilities. If there was one part where Fallen Order excelled, it was its combat, so new options on top of an already solid system is something to anticipate.
April 28 is closing in fast, and while I won’t have a review right away, I’ll definitely have one on the site at least a month after (or sooner, depending on how much time I can carve out to focus and beat it).
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Twitter @MynockManor and Instagram @mynockmanor.