Star Wars Jedi: Survivor does something that sequels rarely do and lets players keep their power-ups from the previous game. Most of us expected Cal Kestis to start from scratch, with only moves like the double jump being immediately available, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.
Design director Jason de Heras and senior director of production Kasumi Shishido talked with GamesRadar about the changes they made now that Cal’s more powerful from the get-go. The devs discussed how enemies have been tweaked to handle some of Cal’s more advanced force powers to ensure a balanced experience.
"We knew we wanted his skills to continue in Survivor, and that was one of the challenges," de Heras explained. "We had to kind of tweak enemies to handle his new powers from the start. We don't want to take away those moves, because they feel good. You can't go backwards, and feel like a Padawan. It has to feel that the power level is the same, but also, you have to reach another level."
Although Cal will be more powerful at the start of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, he won’t be too unstoppable. The devs explained how Cal still has a lot to learn since he isn’t in Yoda’s level when it comes to force skills. It’s also so that player progression doesn’t feel moot as we still want to feel the growth that Cal will go through in the sequel.
Most gaming sequels tend to start the character from scratch, which is why Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is such a nice surprise. Compare this to sequels of Kingdom Hearts or Mega Man X and the change feels revolutionary. Even the upcoming Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is going to make Link start weak, though his new abilities should compensate for that.
In terms of new stuff, Survivor will let players cut the limbs off stormtroopers, which is always fun. The sequel is also expected to address some complaints from its predecessor, like adding more cosmetic options and adding fast travel.
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Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will be coming out later this month on April 28 for the PS5, Xbox Series, and PC.