Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Review: I've got a good feeling about this

In a galaxy far, far away, where the Force is strong and epic battles define the fate of the cosmos, a new chapter in the Jedi series unfolds. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, the much-anticipated sequel to its predecessor, takes the player on an exhilarating journey through the Star Wars universe. With lightsabers blazing, powerful Force abilities at the player's fingertips, a host of thrilling characters, and a captivating story, Jedi Survivor promises an adventure like no other. Now, without further ado, RPG Ranked presents... a Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Review: I've got a good feeling about this.

Battle System - 10

This took the sandy foundation laid down by this game's predecessor and built up a phenomenal combat system! With five different absolutely distinct lightsaber styles and many Force abilities, the combat feels much more fluid and snappy than in the last game. On top of that, this game has so many new and inventive enemies that are way cooler than the enemies in the first game! And somehow? The bosses are better, too! Everything about the combat here is just leagues ahead of its predecessor, making it some of the most enthralling RPG combat I've ever played!

Story - 7

While as straightforward and simple as the story of Fallen Order, I found the basic concept of the story here much more compelling. The idea of locating a planet isolated from the rest of the world and a plethora of different factions fighting for that end goal is an intriguing way? This story is utterly fantastic. From a group trying to establish a Jedi Order, a group trying to save their kids, and a group trying to make a secret Sith base, it's a race to the finish full of twists right after the opening hours of the game. However, that's also my flaw with this game—this plot is so simple, and the final moments were pretty underwhelming in some ways. However, as a whole, the plot in this game was substantial, and I can't wait to see how the inevitable third installment will continue to build off of this excellent premise.

Music - 8

Like in Jedi: Fallen Order, the music here is fantastic and establishes a phenomenal tone for the game. While individual tracks weren't outstanding, and I can't remember individual tracks present, I sure do remember that this soundtrack did a phenomenal job making the game feel alive—like a true Star Wars story. Ultimately, this soundtrack is so much more than its individual track, but it isn't precisely a soundtrack I'll be blasting in my car or while working on a project.

Art & Graphics - 9.5

I gave the graphics in Fallen Order a 9 and was so tempted to give this game's graphics a 10, but I felt like that'd be unreasonable. While the environments, cutscenes, special effects, and character models look incredible, there's one problem here: the questionable rendering. Lots of times, I'll be watching a breathtaking cutscene, and then all of a sudden, a wall of a ship or somebody's hair would just disappear! While this game's content was superb, a couple months more of playtesting could've fleshed out this game and made it even more immersive than before. However, in the end, when weird graphical glitches are one of the worst things about your game, you know you've made an incredible game. And, in the end, as much as I love immersion, I play games for fun—and what's more fun than Cal's disappearing in a critical, dramatic cutscene? I honestly don't know. While the rendering has occasional issues, it hardly detracted from my experience, and I still found this game to have some of the most beautiful graphics in recent memory.

Characters - 7

This game has just as awesome of characters as before, with most of the characters from the original returning and even more fantastic characters being added! Two highlights for me were Bode, a good friend of Cal's whom he's done a plethora of missions with since we've last seen him in the last game, and Rayvis, a ruthless crime syndicate leader who is a menace and teams up with the main villain, a corrupt Jedi from the High Republic. I also loved how Cal was much more developed here; however, Cere and Greez aren't quite as prevalent or developed, so the score rounded out here. All the villains here were precisely on par with those in Fallen Order, so, in the end, like in my review of that game, I give this score a 9 out of 10.

Sidequests - 7

This game mainly carries the same ideas from the first game—a collect-a-thon for customization, character upgrades, and experience. And, of course, there are bounty hunters again this time, but, thankfully, there's a new, far superior system of tracking down and killing them. This game also has many little minigames present as the hub of the game, Greez's cantina! Also, this game features NPC sidequests (albeit sidequests that just lead you to things you could discover on your own, but it was fun nonetheless)! My favorite minigame was the holographic chess (Holotactics) you could play! However, one fantastic feature from the original is missing—the Battle Arena. That feature added so much to the overall experience, and it was dearly missed here... it was my favorite sidequest in the original—killing Cal's evil doppelganger was a blast! As much as I loved some of the Force Tears, it just didn't replace the fantastic-ness of the arena. But I digress. While the Battle Arena is missed, his game generally had much better side content than the original, and it deserves a score of 7 out of 10.

Quality of Life - 5

This is easily the most criticized aspect of this game, and for a good reason—this game was released in an unfinished state, with occasional game-breaking bugs and frequent frame-rate drops. However, I can't help but admire how quick and well done some of the patches were, and I frequently was able to use bugs to skip portions of the game, which always was a good time and gave me some good laughs. My best friend and I spent multiple hours just trying to glitch through as many walls as we could. Quite frankly, it was an absolute blast. Nostalgia aside, as much as this game made many quality-of-life improvements over the original, such as in-game mape improvements and fast travel, being released as a buggy mess warrants a less-than-stellar score in this category.

Locations - 9.5

This is the only way I found this game to be a step back from its predecessor. As much as Koboh and Jedha are expansive, fun-to-explore planets that are more comprehensive than the planets found in Fallen Order, there is a lack of variety here that wasn't present in that title. However, even though there's a lack of variety and fan nostalgia for the planets in Fallen Order, this game still comes close to reaching the heights of its predecessor. While there is less variety in the planets, Koboh is more fully realized than every planet in Fallen Order combined, and it was such a joy to explore. While Coruscant, the Imperial Base, Tanalorr, and the Shattered Moon were brief, semi-mediocre portions of the game, Koboh is so fantastically crafted that I almost didn't care because, in the end, Koboh was such an enormous planet and is now one of my new favorite planets in Star Wars. Ultimately, while this game lacked planet variety, Koboh had all the variety of the planets in the first game combined, making this game have the most expansive planetary exploration in a Star Wars game to date.

Progression System - 10

As you may have seen in my Fallen Order review, I thought the skill tree in that game was incredibly lame. It didn't allow for too much player choice in its customization, and it had a severe lack of variation in the lightsaber combat. However, with all the new lightsaber choices and the extraordinary Force abilities, the customization in this game allowed for some of the most unique and varied combat I've played in a video game to date. From an aerial-based, versatile single-bladed skill tree to the crowd-clearing double-bladed skill tree; from the dual-wielding that is fantastic for duels to Crossguard, which is perfect for taking down heavy, tanky monsters; and my favorite of all, the blaster stance, which provides an exciting balance of swordplaying and sharpshooting. And then all the Force abilities? They have their own skill trees, too! Ultimately, this game has some incredible progression that makes the game endlessly replayable and so much better than the original.

The Verdict

Fun Factor: 10
Overall Score: 82%
Letter Rating: S

This game is an astronomical step up from its predecessor in virtually every way. This game was a grandiose, galactic journey that I'll never forget, and while it isn't perfect, it's pretty close. This game was everything I could've asked for in a single-player Star Wars experience. I'm ecstatic for the inevitable third game—I think it will perfect this formula into a bona-fide masterpiece. Or maybe it'll be an absolute trainwreck... only time will tell. But regardless, Jedi: Survivor is a must-play experience I'd recommend to anyone.

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Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (Xbox Series X)
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor: Deluxe Edition (Xbox Series X)
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (PS5)
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor: Deluxe Edition (PS5)
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (Steam)
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor: Deluxe Edition (Steam)
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (Origin)
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor: Deluxe Edition (Origin)

Primary Version: Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (Xbox Series X)