#jfo playthrough

[gizkalord]

finished jfo on jedi master difficulty!! finally got the hang of the precision dodge+kick+slash combo plus liberal use of the double saber attack so i tore through the nur troopers, and had to take a few tries with second sister but we made it through with the “force push her in the middle of an attack sequence/unblockable and hack away” strategy ✌️

[alenkosx]

Then & Now. 

“She likes you.”

“She didn’t at first.”

[is-that-sand-in-my-waffles]

Cal on Coruscant looking at the Imperial Palace??? He can go anywhere he wants, just not home????

[breakfastteatime]

Cal staggers aboard the Mantis looking… well, he doesn’t look good. Perhaps he tangled with Zeffo’s wildlife and came off worse. Greez stares at him, cataloguing injuries. Cal's hand is torn up, there’s blood seeping from his hairline, and what is with that massive black eye?

And speaking of his eyes…

“Are you high?” Greez’s voice comes out at least an octave higher than he intended, causing Cere to stick her head out of the cockpit.

“No!” Cal does not help his case by bursting out into laughter. “I wish I was.”

Cere steps out. “Cal? What happened?”

He turns to her, but his eyes don’t quite meet hers. Cere frowns. Greez has a bad feeling wailing in the back of his mind. Whatever Cal’s about to say, he knows it’s going to be very, very messy.

“Uh, so someone used a flash grenade on me.”

Greez grabs the table to hold himself up. “Someone from the Brood?”

Cal winces. “Yeah…”

So, this is Greez's fault. “Oh, kid, I am so sorry.”

Cal flaps a hand in his direction. “It’s not your fault, Greez, don’t worry about it.”

“But –”

Cere interrupts, and she sounds nearly as incredulous as Greez. “Cal, are you blind?”

“Blind?” Greez feels sick. The kid’s blind?

“Only temporarily,” Cal insists. “Although it is lasting longer this time. Weird.”

Weird? That’s all he has to say? It’s weird being blind? And then a new terrible thought dawns. “Wait, how did you get back here?” Greez demands.

Cal shrugs. “Used the Force. Kinda, y’know, sensed where stuff would be.”

BD-1 issues a squawk.

“And BD helped. A lot. I fell over a few times to begin with. Gonna have to replenish those stims, huh?”

BD-1 warbles.

"You used them all?" Greez asks. Because if he still had these injuries, what else had happened?

"I'm absolutely fine, Greez, seriously, don't worry."

"You're blind and bloody!" Greez groans. "This is not fine!"

Cere steps up close. Cal accepts her ministrations with all the grace he can muster. “Your pupils have dilated,” she says. “What can you actually see?”

“It’s all very white,” he says. “And I guess whenever I’m looking at something bright, it hurts.”

“Right,” Cere says with the tone of a woman on a mission. “Let’s get you somewhere dark. You need to give your eyes time to readjust. And we definitely need to clean you up.”

BD-1 beeps something and Greez decides to interpret it as ‘I told you so!’

Sighing dramatically, Cal allows himself to be dragged away. Greez goes too, because he’s not going to relax until he’s sure Cal’s not permanently injured. He’s Cere’s assistant, grabbing supplies as needed, including a lengthy washcloth for Cal to rest over his eyes.

“I could meditate with my eyes closed,” Cal suggests as he takes the cloth and obligingly places it over his closed eyes.

“Later,” Cere says. “I want to be sure there’s no permanent damage.”

“It’s my own fault,” Cal says as Cere wipes out the massive gash hiding under his hair. “The bounty hunter threw the flash grenade when I knocked them off the cliff and, like an idiot, I looked right at it.”

“So the bounty hunter landed a few blows?” Cere asks.

“Nah,” Cal says. “I fell a couple times trying to get back up a cliff.”

Greez hears himself moan. Because of course Cal climbed cliffs while blind. Why wouldn’t he? A normal person might sit down and have a perfectly understandable panic attack. Cal? He climbed. “And you definitely hadn't gone blind before this?” Greez asks. “You’re not hiding some terrible brain injury?”

“Nope, definitely the flash grenade,” Cal says. He doesn’t flinch when Cere applies bacta to his head and moves onto his injured hand. “Promise.”

“How?” Greez can’t get his head around this. “How did…”

“Like I said, the Force and BD helped,” Cal says.

BD-1 is very proud of himself.

“Explains why your hand’s missing a few layers of skin,” Cere comments.

Greez figures he’s better off not looking.

“Yeah, that stings,” Cal chuckles, the sound strained.

“You did well to get back here,” Cere says. “Using the Force for such an extended period would not have been easy.”

Cal gives a huge yawn to prove her point. “Yeah, never done that before,” he eventually admits.

It’s not a comfort at all to know a blind Cal was out there experimenting with his abilities. Why are Jedi like this? “You didn’t think to call for help?” Greez asks.

“Nah, it was fine.” Cal yawns again. “Totally had it under control.”

“That hand says otherwise,” Greez says, daring to take a look at the strips of skin hanging loose. Oof, bad idea. Very bad idea. That’s gonna haunt his dreams. He draws breath to continue.

Cere nudges him, a silent note to keep quiet.

“Tell me all about it later,” Cere says. "I know we train without our sight, but not quite like this."

Cal’s only response is a grunt. By the time Cere’s finished, he’s fully asleep. She asks Greez to dim the engine room's lights to further help Cal's eyes to readjust. They leave him under BD-1’s watchful gaze until, precisely one hour later, Cere goes to wake him. Greez stays in the galley, chewing on a thumb. Cere returns without Cal a little while later. She reaches over, gives Greez a pat on the shoulder. “It’s blurry, but his vision is returning. He’ll be fine. His eyes need longer to adjust. And he probably needs to sleep for a while yet, so leave him be.”

“Alright. So he's gonna be okay?”

"He'll be fine," Cere says, heading back to the cockpit. "And picked up a useful skill."

Giddy with relief, Greez bakes sorry-for-bringing-the-Brood-down-on-your-head-but-hey-you're-not-blind cookies, ready for when Cal wakes up.

[dragonleighs]

I've realised the reason I'm struggling to move on to the next chapter of my fic is that I genuinely don't want to write it. With this in mind, I've now decided to entirely cut out that section and cover it by a couple of paragraphs of exposition

[skoulsons]

ok while jfo has frustrated me beyond belief sometimes with controls, the story is really great and it’s so fun to explore the Star Wars galaxy outside of the locations and characters that the movies and co show. You see growth in all the characters and it really feels new and fresh. The emotions it draws out of you are so good

[shefellofftheworld]

Please lose the last shreds of your self control and yell about bd-1's arc and its place thematically in fallen order

Ahh I was not expecting anyone to want the rant but SINCE YOU ASKED

So I absolutely love JFO and everything about it, because at its core it’s a story about hope and healing when everything has fallen to pieces. I can’t get enough of that. I’m going to do my best to keep this post to a reasonable length, but I am going to be honest: brevity is not my strong suit when it comes to stuff I like. You have been warned. 

Here’s the thing about BD-1: he didn’t need an arc. They didn’t need to thread him through the thematic and emotional heart of this game as much as they did!! That’s part of why his arc took me so much by surprise. He basically has a stealth arc, and it works so well because he’s already serving the game really well before I even got an inkling of it. So first I’m gonna go through BD-1 as I experienced him in my first playthrough, and then look at the ways that JFO retroactively adds a TON of meaning to his interactions with Cal. 

Long post and many spoilers for Jedi: Fallen Order under the cut:

Bogano: First Impressions

BD-1 is a cute lil droid companion, and frankly Respawn could have stopped there and I would have been entirely on board. I mean, look at him.

He’s adorable. 

Respawn didn’t stop there though! BD also serves to make several game mechanics diegetic in a really cool way. He provides the map, he does the healing, and he analyses stuff for the codex. Again: Respawn did not need to go as hard as they did. Cute Droid That Serves Gameplay Purpose would have been more than enough to sell me on BD-1. But! They not only used BD-1 to make those mechanics fit inside the narrative of the game, they used the gameplay mechanics to inform BD’s character!!!!

Excuse me while I take a moment to be incredibly excited about good game design. 

So we first meet BD-1 on Bogano, just after the prologue/tutorial level for the game. We met Cal on Bracca, got introduced to our initial exploration and fighting mechanics, and played through JFO’s inciting incident. Cere and Greez drop Cal off on Bogano and give him two goals: meet someone important, and find the key to rebuilding the Jedi order. 

We’re now introduced to the Meditation mechanic (Star Wars Brand Bonfires). It’s yet another example of how Respawn took a mechanic specific to the genre of game they were making and then turned it into a core part of the narrative. 

I love this game so much.

It’s already been established that Cal’s trauma is hindering his ability to connect to the force—whenever he tries, he relives his memories of Order 66. After we finish the Meditation Tutorial, we exit to a cutscene that reinforces that character beat:

And introduces someone new. 

I know I talked a lot about Cal here, but that’s because BD-1’s characterisation is intrinsically linked to his interactions with Cal—he’s a Companion Character. It’s important that we first meet BD here. The first time we meet BD, Cal is in pain and BD-1 wants to help. 

(I love him) 

Throughout the game, we understand BD’s dialogue through other character’s responses—mostly Cal’s. In this scene, BD introduces himself and then asks Cal if he’s OK. Awww. Cal says he’s looking for someone, and BD-1 perks up and responds. “No, not you,” says Cal immediately. He’s looking for a Jedi! We’ve definitely never seen this play out before. BD-1 is not discouraged. He knows about a Jedi! He is Very Excited to lead Cal where he needs to go. 

We learn a lot about BD from this scene! First: he’s adorable. I know I’ve said that a lot, but it bears repeating. 

look at him

In terms of characterisation, we learn that BD-1 is helpful, important to Cal’s quest somehow, and apparently full of love and enthusiasm. He wants to know if Cal is ok!!! And he wants to help!!! BD stands both for Buddy Droid and for Best Droid. This scene has done its job well: the story has progressed, and presumably there remains not a single member of the audience who hasn’t instantly fallen in love with the Loveable Droid Character. This is good, because he’s going to be with us for the rest of the game. 

Now we get to mechanics. First, we’re introduced to the map. Cal sees the Vault in the distance, and says that whoever he’s looking for must be waiting there. BD-1 stops frolicking to show Cal his map of the area, and the game takes a moment to do a tutorial. BD has helpfully put an objective marker over the vault! Thanks, lil guy. The holomap also highlights unexplored areas—more standard game fare, but because the map is diegetic, it’s also technically information about BD-1. He wants to help us explore! 

The next thing we learn about BD-1 is that apparently he, uh. Likes to improvise. “Any ideas?” asks Cal. “We’ve got to get across this gap somehow.” BD-1 proposes that he serves as a tool to help Cal zipline across gaps. Both of them seem to have fun ziplining. 

“How’d you know that would work?” 

“Bee bo-boop!” 

“Wait, you didn’t?” 

Don’t sound so concerned, Cal. Nobody fell into any bottomless chasms. You don’t have any room to talk, anyway. I saw you on Bracca. 

We run around a little more, and then the unthinkable happens. BD-1 rushes to the defense of a lil critter that’s about to get eaten by a predator, and gets his leg chomped for his troubles. He does a heartbreaking little limp away from danger while Cal practices his lightsaber skills 

poor baby

Words cannot do this scene justice so I'll just give you a video:

This scene reinforces how adorable BD-1 is (very adorable, in case anybody wasn’t sure) and continues to set up his friendship with Cal. It also serves to set up an in-game way for the devs to control access to certain areas of the map—BD’s busted scomp link is going to stop us from opening a few doors until we’ve hit a few more story beats. 

This scene is also one of the most important in BD-1’s arc, but that doesn’t become apparent until later. 

Shortly after this, Cal happens to receive some injuries that nobody could have possibly forseen or prevented by not swinging lightsabers at live wires. We get one of the most adorable cutscenes in the game:

And then BD-1 presents Cal with the Star Wars Brand Estus Flask and joins Cal as a permanent companion.

(he's so cute)

Cal asks BD-1 how he got to Bogano, and BD-1 says he doesn’t remember. Weird for a droid to be forgetful, but oh well. To the Vault!

Ok but first we need to get some cosmetic loot, because the real goal of Jedi: Fallen Order is to collect ponchos.

BD-1 goes rifling through chests for us, because the devs at Respawn saw an opportunity for adorable character moments and grabbed it with both hands. Over the course of the game, BD-1 continues to fling himself at the nearest poncho receptacle. Cal in response takes a journey from confused through resigned and lands on indulgent. I love this game so much. 

Ok, now to the Vault!

Wait wait wait BD-1 has found something cool and he really really wants to show it to you. 

Now for real to the Vault.

There’s some more story stuff that happens before we get there, but that’s the bulk of our initial introduction to BD-1. We make a friend and learn a bunch of new mechanics, which themselves teach us about our friend. BD-1 is a friendly little droid who wants to help and likes to explore and learn things. He’s a bit of an adrenaline junkie and gets excited when there’s something to scan. He doesn’t like it when Cal gets hurt, and for some reason wants to go to the same Plot Location that Cal does.

He’s probably not the person Cere wants us to meet, though. That’s a Jedi! A great warrior. For sure. 

(I think I’m funny)

At the vault, we learn that BD-1 is, in fact, the person Cere wants us to meet. In fairness to Cal, though, there is also technically a Jedi. Technically. 

BD-1 contains encrypted messages from Jedi Master Eno Cordova, who has hidden the holocron we’re looking for. In order to find it, he wants us to follow in his footsteps. Thus follows one of my favourite scenes for Cal, but this post is already going to be too long so I’ll spare anyone who’s made it this far that particular ramble. Cal and BD-1 officially team up, find some more clues, access a couple of Master Cordova’s video diaries, and head back to the ship. 

I will now proceed to exercise incredible restraint and move on to the next section rather than giving you a play-by-play of BD-1’s every move for the rest of the game. I would say 'you’re welcome', but you’re missing out on BD-1, so. 

The Burgeoning Friendship

I want to emphasise how constantly present BD-1 is in JFO’s story. Not only is he literally present on Cal’s back for the vast majority of the game, but he’s also constantly interacting with both Cal and the player. 

For one, there’s all those mechanics I mentioned earlier. Every time we look at the map, heal damage, or find something new, JFO is drawing our attention to BD-1. Granted, some actions are less obvious than others—we don’t pause in the middle of any given battle to show a long ‘BD-1 gives Cal a healing stim’ animation, and rightfully so—but when we’re just running around the map, BD-1 manages to feel like a character in his own right. He gets excited when Cal finds more healing stims (or literally any box for him to jump into), he runs around to show us things, he’s got his own adorable little idle fidget animations, the whole shebang. Mechanically he pretty much ends up functioning as a secondary player character. 

Teamwork!

There’s also a bunch of incidental dialogue between Cal and BD as we run around. Cal likes to comment on what’s going on—be it a new force echo, a distant objective, or even just his thoughts and feelings about whatever is happening at the time. It’s a good way to keep an audience in touch with a character, but it can feel a bit weird to have a character start talking to the air about whatever it is the devs/writers want the player to know right now. Enter BD-1! Now Cal is talking to the cute robot buddy, which is incredibly relatable. 

I, too, would tell this little guy all of my deepest darkest secrets. 

BD-1’s trustworthy face aside, it’s also a good design choice! Now not only do we have a way to naturally insert whatever information Cal needs to deliver at any given time, we can turn that information into character beats for both parties. Cal and BD respond to each other, and so both of them feel more like independent characters who are present in and reacting to their circumstances. It helps keep us immersed in the narrative even when we’ve temporarily left the narrative behind to attempt the same jumping puzzle 15 times in our endless quest for ponchos.

My compulsion to give Cal as many ponchos as his little heart desires aside, Cal and BD’s conversations are really effective at keeping the player involved in what Cal is feeling. Some of my favourite moments are when BD-1 checks in with Cal while they explore the crashed Venator (ow), or when the two of them find Cordova’s old workshop. There’s definitely more, but I’ll be honest I have neither the time nor the energy to play or watch through the entire game to find it. If you’re reading this, though: you absolutely should. It’s such a good game. 

Where was I? 

Right! Narrative! 

I’ve spoken about gameplay, but we really see BD-1’s narrative presence in cutscenes. He’s constantly involved in every story beat, even if sometimes he gets a little distracted. 

He's very worried about your salt intake, Greez

BD-1 cares about our quest and about our characters. He has fun hijacking an AT-AT, and intervenes to help Cal when a fight is getting a bit dicey 

To outline the full extent of BD-1’s involvement in the narrative would be to outline the whole narrative, and I swear I am trying to keep this post to a somewhat readable length, so I won’t do that. But I want to highlight these moments. They’re moments that get us attached to our characters, and moments that build the story. They draw us in to the relationship between Cal and BD-1, and also in a sense build a relationship between BD-1 and the player. I know that when I play JFO, I’ll often talk to BD-1 myself. If he hops off of Cal’s shoulder to look at something, I get excited too. NG+ removing all of the chests may make completing every corner of the game more convenient, but sometimes I’ll start again from scratch just to let BD have his fun. One of the benefits of games as a narrative medium is how involved the player is in the story—even at its most linear, the player is still an active participant. Another benefit to a game like JFO is the length. More is not always better, but in this case Respawn uses the player’s time well. No matter what we’re doing, we’re interacting with the world and the characters—and time spent interacting is time spent building a connection. 

All this is to say that by the time we take our little detour via bounty hunter coliseum, I am right there with Cal panicking about our little friend 

Those monsters

Dathomir and Ilum: The Payoff

This section is going to be hard for me to write coherently, mainly because whenever I think about this part of the game my brain stops forming words and instead descends into incoherent screeching interspersed with playbacks of various moments. I have to take a minute before I even go to Dathomir because I know what’s coming. I love this game so much and this sequence wrecks me every time. 

I’ll do my best though! 

Cal and BD have been through a lot together by this point. They’ve joined a rebellion, fought Inquisitors and delved into ancient ruins. They’ve been hunted by the Empire and by bounty hunters. We’ve done all that with them, too. As we go to Dathomir, Cal is wrestling with a lot of things. He’s back to the level he was at before the Purge, but he’s still hurting and traumatised. 

I could talk at length about Dathomir, but this is a post about BD-1 and I am ostensibly trying to keep this somewhat concise. 

(laughs in over 2500 words so far)

It is on Dathomir that things come to a head. Cal has a flashback of the events of the Purge, then faces a vision of his dead Master Tapal. When he comes to, his lightsaber—the one passed on to him by Jaro Tapal as he died—is broken. He is forced to flee Dathomir, and returns to Cere and Greez on the Mantis. 

It’s a heartbreaking sequence. The player is right there with him throughout—we are high-fiving the trooper who teases Cal. We are navigating the vents of the Venator as clone troopers hunt us down. We are watching Jaro Tapal die defending Cal, and then we are fighting a vision who verbalises what Cal has been feeling this whole time—he has failed. His master died because he was weak and slow and useless. He can’t save the Jedi Order. He isn’t fit to wield his Master’s saber, and he isn’t fit to be a Jedi. 

BD-1 is not there for any of it. 

BD-1 has been with us for practically the entire game. In every cutscene I can remember, he’s been involved. He’s been running around doing his thing, or peeking over Cal’s shoulder. In this sequence, he is not present. He’s not there in the flashback, and he’s not there when we fight Jaro Tapal. He is present when the vision ends—but not really. He’s positioned so that we can barely see him behind Cal’s head. 

Cal goes through all this alone. 

(I will note that having now watched the scene a few times with special focus on BD-1, it does look as if he’s watching the rest of the room? Which gives me the impression that he’s tried to get through to Cal, realised he’s not responsive, and decided to watch his back while he deals with his Trauma-Based Force Stuff. Which. Ow. That’s so cute but he must have been so worried.)

It’s not until after Cal starts to leave that we check back in with BD-1. He sounds wrecked. And BD-1 can’t help. 

The saddest wooo

We now proceed through a conversation with Cere and also, incidentally, several tissues. 

Ow.

But! There’s hope! New goal: Get Cal a new kyber crystal to replace the broken one, then everything will be fixed and we’ll be ok. 

:(

After some more troubles, because poor Cal can’t catch a break, we finally get to the crystal. Cal seems upsettingly close to freezing to death, but we’ve made it! 

And then the crystal breaks. 

Cal gives up. 

Like, it’s-open-for-interpretation-but-I’m-pretty-sure-he’s-just-decided-to-lie-there-until-he-dies gives up. 

not pictured: my distressed yelling

And then: Eno Cordova speaks, and BD-1 enters the frame. “Failure is not the end, my friend.” It’s Cordova’s words, but BD-1 is playing the recording. BD-1 is encouraging Cal. Cal doesn’t really believe him. 

So BD-1 shows Cal Master Eno Cordova’s final recording:

Look, I am trying my best to be something resembling coherent here but. SCREAMS. 

S C R E A M S

I could talk at length about how much I love this whole scene but I have been basically just recounting for a while now so I will be brief. 

This scene completely reframes BD-1 as a character. He was already more than just a cute mechanics delivery system, but in this scene we learn that he chose to have his memories erased, and also that he chooses to believe in Cal. His faith in Cal gives Cal faith in himself, so he gets up and keeps fighting. 

Now please excuse me while I cry a little more. 

The First Meeting Again: What Makes Us Who We Are

One thing I really want to highlight from the above scene is that line from Eno Cordova: 

“Only with a trusted connection will your memories be restored.” 

I know it’s already pretty thoroughly emphasised by the game itself, but I didn’t quite understand its full impact on Cal’s journey and the themes of JFO until I replayed the game. 

Remember that scene way back on Bogano where BD-1 injured his leg and Cal fixed it? 

When I first played, I found it a little odd that BD-1 scanned Cal here. Why not earlier? Why now? I also thought it was a bit of a clunky story moment—Cal has already indicated that he’s going to the vault. Why are they repeating that goal here?

Because Cal fixed his leg. 

BD-1 was hurting, and Cal helped, and so the first memory was unlocked—a drive to get to the vault and show him the way forward. 

It’s a sweet little moment, and it’s cool to understand it better on a replay, but I think it’s also a moment that’s core to the themes of the game. On Dathomir, Cal’s fears are revealed: he is no Jedi. On Ilum, he gives up. 

And then BD-1 says: you were a Jedi all along. 

It’s been a repeated refrain throughout JFO: we are who we are because we choose to keep going. Jaro Tapal tells Cal that failing and getting up is the only way to succeed. Cere says “it’s the choice to keep fighting that makes us who we are.” Cordova says “Hope will always survive in those who continue to fight.” 

Cal has been doubting himself ever since his Master died. He’s been hiding, cut off from the force and from his people. But over and over we see him choosing to help. He helps Prauf on Bracca, knowing it could cost him his life. He helps BD-1 on Bogano, just because he can. He helps Saw Gererra’s fighters and the Wookies on Kashyyk, because they need it. He struggles and he messes up, but over and over he chooses to help. To quote another piece of Star Wars media: His compassion leaves a trail. BD-1 shines a light on that trail. 

Respawn did not have to go as hard as they did with BD-1. He’s a cute little droid who delivers some mechanics in a cool diegetic way. They could have stopped there. Instead, they use BD-1 to enrich the story and the characters, and to drive home one of the the major themes of the game: how we work out who we are when everything has fallen apart. 

In the end, our gang won’t rebuild the Jedi Order. In that sense, they’ve failed. But each and every one of them is fighting. They’re holding on to hope, and sharing it with one another. It’s what makes them who they are. And by being who they are—in Cal’s case, choosing to be a Jedi, they have won a victory, even if they fail. 

Man I love this game.

[accidental-spice]

Me: I'm gonna get some art done!

Me: *proceeds to watch part one of a JFO playthrough, and six Chenford tributes

[yellow-faerie]

Okay in reference to your tags on the Bode post you reblogged from me: I kinda had a theory you were the anon! And I'm honestly very glad to find someone who feels the same way about him because I haven't seen many other people (other than my sister) who do!

If you don't mind me asking, I have two questions for you: what did you think of the rest of Survivor, and what sort of Star Wars fan fic do you write? I saw you mentioned it in your bio!

Lol I do think I went through a few of your posts before sending that ask - but yes, I do agree! Bode is a lot more complicated than I think a lot of people give him credit for; he's a father and a man haunted by a lot of loss which doesn't excuse his actions, but does explain them and make me feel a good deal of empathy to him. I think there's actually a line when they're in the ISB base where Cal calls him a traitor and Bode is like...no, I'm a father

Which is really not an excuse for killing people Bode (but is a very good explanation for how he got where he is)

You said it a lot more eloquently lol

(interestingly, Bode is a sort of parallel to Anakin in some ways - killing and betraying people they see as family/very close friends for the people they love, even though it changes them into something unrecognisable that the person they love can't quite reconcile with)

I do not mind questions at all!

For fanfic, because that's the shorter answer, I write pretty much anything - legends, Kotor, swtor (to some extent, I haven't played through enough of it yet to do proper fic), og, rebels, tcw, extended universe stuff (and even a bit of the sequels although that has to be veru handpicked lol)

I have interacted with so much of the SW universe to some extent and it's such a good sandbox that I will dabble in writing anything lol

(currently I'm doing a lot of Kotor stuff as I finished survivor and decided to fill the hole with yet another playthrough of my favourite unfinished trilogy <3)

As for Jedi Survivor, Imma put my thoughts under the cut because I have...a lot of them lol (there will be spoilers)

I love the graphics, so SO much

Each planet felt different and unique and reminded me how much I loved to play JFO

Also the worlds felt a lot bigger? I think it's because I didn't really do much side stuff, just kinda beelined the plot so a lot of the side quest stuff was just kinda there as fun background NPC chatter lkl

MERRICAL! MERRICAL! MERRICAL!

It's being survivors of two separate genocides by the same tyrannical government and even when you search elsewhere, you still belong at each others side

And it's the Merrin talking Cal down when he's about to kill Denvik and it's Merrin giving Cal space to work out if he wants a relationship or if that wouldn't work but letting him know her own intentions

That moment on Jedha where she calms him down from a nightmare but then takes her own comfort just by being near?

And it's Merrin in general lol my darlingest fave <3

Also! After that kiss on Jedha after everyone has gone back in, my brother said (as a joke) "and now they have sex!" And then it immediately cuts to morning

Iconic moment

Also on Jedha - spamels! Someone out there went desert creature - so, a camel - a camel in space - so a space camel - a spamel

Which just makes me think of the tinned meat which is a...really weird thing to be thinking about

Greez opened a canteena! Monk, I love him - also Mosey

In fact, all of Ramblers Reach, I really like that they gave you a main base that's so...connected to people in this game??

Also that garden, I could spend all day in that garden

And the High Republic stuff! I still think it's weird that everyone is treating it as if it's ancient history when it's two hundred years ago BUT I really love the aesthetic and the story

I tried getting into the high republic books a while back but only managed one before I had to return them to the library, but this game has made me really excited for the high republic game and has inspired me to try and read the books again

Shout-out to Dagan Gera for being sufficiently unhinged for me to like him, and Rayvis for giving off massive Kotor!Mandalorian vibes

And Bode was a very interesting twist villain as looking back in the game, you can see it almost

(also my older brother called him being a traitor twelve minutes after meeting him which was either incredibly perceptive or he saw it online and is thing to make me think he's incredibly perceptive - either way, he got ridiculously pleased when he was proved right which did not fit with the mood of Cordova's murder lol)

And Kata! It's definitely going to be some time before she fully trusts Cal etc. etc. HOWEVER, we now have a daughter and that is wonderful (I'm living for the found family)

And CERE!

I WAS EMOTIONALLY DEVASTATED IT'S LITERALLY THE SECOND TIME CAL HAS HAD TO CRADLE THE BODY OF HIS DEAD MASTER YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH THIS HURTS ME

And it was the way Greez was so uncharacteristically ANGRY after Cere's death - and just- dhhfjebidnde

On a less devastating note - Cal, my dude, should have had to have had time to recover from both the slash wound from Dagan and the blaster shot from Bode which were both to the upper torso

Like...they caused enough damage in the fight to be a weakness but you can just walk it off apparently??

I don't think so

(I am going to write fic about this, probably)

Zee - I was so suspicious of Zee to begin with because she was so cheery but her voice kinda sounded like Nikola from the Magnus Archives and like-

Yeah I was fully expecting betrayal from Zee right up until we got back to Rambler's reach and I realised...she's just cheery, that's just her personality

I talked to her the bare minimum lol, I couldn't get creepy talking doll out of my head

That beginning sequence on Coruscant though?? That moment with the Jedi Temple where Cal realises what's happened and you can see the horror and bone deep resignation within him (and that's probably the first time that he properly starts wondering if he can do anything about the empire, after all there's that whole plot where people are like...settle down a bit)

I honestly wasn't that attached to the rest of Cal's crew who died - apart from Mags, literally JUSTICE FOR MAGS 2023, SHE DESERVED BETTER

There were so many little bits that made me genuinely laugh and feel things throughout the game and it felt a lot like Star Wars which is a big thing in its own right

Also Cordova being there threw me off but it was a nice surprise, if a bit weird lol as I was fairly convinced he was dead/in the unknown regions - but hell, I kinda understand it (even if us finding him in the last game might have made his appearance a bit more understandable)

I do have some things I'm not so happy with (some story choices in particular, and the way they presented Cal's slow descent to the dark side being the main ones) but I'm overall really happy with the game

It was the sequel that jfo deserved and it was it's own game in it's own right and I really enjoyed playing it - now I've finished the story, I'll probably stop doing such intense playing, but I do genuinely want to 100% complete it which says a lot, because I don't usually have the patience to do that

There's so much I could probably say that I can't think of now (and I don't think I've said anything about BD-1 which is a travesty of the highest proportions because my boy <3 I missed you <3 I'm so glad you're here and thriving <3) and I'm not really getting into the things I disliked because it would bring the post down (and also I need to be a bit more eloquent and a bit more awake for that one lol)

Anyway, thank you very much for the ask :D it made my evening, ngl, I love talking about star wars

[gizkalord]

Beat malicos on jedi master on my first try 😎

[calkestis]

Do you ever watch playthroughs? I'm watching someone play JFO on the hardest difficulty and doing a no damage run and its crazy. They had to spend so many hrs studying/playing it to even do that. It makes the game feel even more cinematic. I could never do this lol

ohh, i love watching playthroughs! and also all sorts of challenges from the game. i totally agree, one of the most amazing things i've seen is the lead combat designer of the game defeating inquisitor cal in the meditation training, on jedi grandmaster, with no damage (here)

i couldn't last one minute against inquisitor cal on jedi knight difficulty ashjdgaw

but it just shows how gorgeous this game is. i just don't have the skill (or patience) to master it on this level

[sheyshen]

narrowed down my to play list to what i wanna work on this year at least:

mmos: wow, swtor, xiv, and bonus sims (since that’s an unending game) replay: DA (canon playthrough), greedfall, jedi fallen order, MELE (insanity) new: assassin’s creed (ones i haven’t finished), halo (when I don’t have a headache), cyberpunk (also if no headache)

i think i’m gonna keep replaying JFO with the arcann mod lol, but most are prep for games that come out this year (probably) (mirage, dreadwolf, jedi survivor)

[gaybd1]

WHAT IF I stopped watching jfo playthroughs on loop and did a sw ep 1-6 marathon instead. as a treat

[argentleos-channel-gaming]

Jedi Fallen Order clips!

[temperedknight]

Just beat Jedi: Fallen Order on Master (Hard) difficulty, since

1. I'm not buying Survivor for 70 dollars lmao

2. Reportedly Survivor is still busted on PC so I'll wait until Respawn fixes it

I last beat it... oh, when it came out a couple years ago? I played on Knight (Normal) back then and found it quite difficult. For this Master playthrough, my only real challenges were in the early game before I had any serious options. I first-tried every boss, blasted through the puzzles, and didn't have any trouble with any enemies.

Pretty sure the difference is because I played Sekiro in the interstitial time and that game is basically the Platonic Ideal from which JFO derives its combat system. The bosses in JFO seem *laughably* slow and easy to read, comparatively, and while the JFO parry is clunkier it's also FAR more forgiving with its time window.

My biggest criticism of JFO is how sticky the movement system is. It's really just there for the Metroidvania progression and that's it. Wallrunning, climbing, etc. are never used in combat and that's a damn shame - basically just Uncharted style scripted cutscenes. Respawn, aka the Titanfall guys, made JFO, so I *know* they could have done it well, but, eh. It's currently the best Jedi Knight simulator out there (besides maybe Star Wars: Dark Forces: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy which has far too many colons). I'll try Survivor when it goes on sale and is patched.