24 Interesting Tidbits We Learned About Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Respawn is looking into New Game Plus and Photo Mode. “New Game Plus is hard because it’s a Metroidvania-inspired game, so if you start the game with all your abilities, you kind of break things,” director Stig Asmussen says.

There will be difficulty settings. We asked if they would be based on Star Wars names, like padawan and Jedi, etc., but their names have not yet been decided.

The game will run better on Xbox One X and PlayStation 4 Pro, but Respawn didn’t have specifics on what would be improved on the higher-end consoles. “This is a Respawn game, so we’re aiming for it to play well on the lowest spec, but you will get the best experience on a high-end PC, for sure,” Asmussen says.

The map is in an in-world hologram, and if you try and look at it while enemies are around, they will attack you.

We asked Asmussen about lightsaber limb dismemberment and he said, “Obviously we don’t want this game to be mature-rated, so there might be some of that, but it would not be on human characters. We’re still working that out.” Creatures and robots will definitely respond to the lightsabers’ cutting ability, and human enemies take accurate, visible damage on their armor based on the players’ attacks, but hyperviolent destruction with various bloodied body parts constantly flying through the air won’t be in the game. “That wouldn’t be true to Star Wars,” Asmussen says.

The first Force power you will have in the game is Force Slow, which lets you slow down enemies and elements of the environment.

You start the game with two health canisters, but you will be able to find more through the course of the game.

The handful of meeting rooms we saw and sat in while visiting Respawn were Star Wars-themed. We spent most of our day in Hoth, which was next to a meeting room called Cloud City. The whole office was covered with gigantic Star Wars murals.

There was also a speeder bike (which was used for Star Wars Battlefront marketing) and a Darth Maul statue in the studios’ entrance.

Reacting to the scene where Cal starts piloting the AT-AT in the E3 demo, we asked if there would be other moments like that where Cal would control vehicles. “There are other moments of exotic gameplay that is one-off stuff, but… that’s all I am really comfortable saying right now,” Asmussen says.

According the the game’s artists, Rogue One and Rebels are the main points of inspiration in terms of Fallen Order’s general art and design.

The AT-AT’s that appear in Fallen Order (at least the ones in the Kashyyyk level) are based predominantly off the AT-AT designs from the show Rebels. Because of the source design, internally Respawn calls them “RAT-ATs,” short for Rebels AT-ATs.

You can sheathe and unsheathe the lightsaber using left on the d-pad. It’s a cool-looking animation, and an unsheathed lightsaber can be used as a flashlight.

BD-1’s lights will change colors and pulsate to alert you of certain things. “When he’s feeling good about things and he is happy he is green,” Asmussen says. “It’s also an extra indicator for danger or if your health is low when it turns red.”

Respawn’s goal is to include no load screens and have everything be seamless, even moving planet to planet and cutscene-to-gameplay transitions.

We’ve already confirmed that the ship, the Stinger Mantis, BD-1, some of Cal’s clothes, and the lightsaber can be all be customized. Here are some more details.

While in combat, you can still do well without locking on to enemies. It is optional. In our experience, though, we found a lot more success from locking on to enemies and focusing on them one at a time.

You will get some kind of reward for scanning stuff, beyond just additional information and world-building, but Respawn is still figuring out exactly what that will be.

The map will have information to help you know exactly when you’ve found everything, but it will still keep some secrets.

The combat team tried to avoid attacks that involve hitting more than one button, like X and Y simultaneously, for example.

The E3 demo is more linear than the rest of the game. Asmussen says that portion was chosen because it was a more cinematic section of the game that worked well for showing the game off on the E3 stage.

If you track down the enemy that killed you and return the favor, you will recover your lost XP, and get both a health boost and a boost to your Jedi power meter. It’s in place to be used as a potential comeback mechanic and encourage you to approach the same combat encounters in new ways. If the big bad in one area killed you previously, you might want to focus on that enemy instead of the weaker ones flanking it, like you did on your first run.

Enemies will say things during combat, but Cal doesn’t have combat barks. The player can initiate a call to BD-1 for a health cannister, but Cal won’t be quipping while fighting enemies.

Asmussen knows whether or not the game will have an opening scroll and the, “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” screen, but he wouldn’t tell us if they will be included or now.

Blocking is important, but if you’re more into dodging, you should still be able to find success.