Survivor Perfectly Mixes Every Era Of Star Wars Together

In the early years of Disney’s Star Wars ownership, it felt like the company had no interest in any era of the franchise beyond the original trilogy. Much of the material he extracted for his own projects came from these films, leaving vast swathes of Star Wars history by the wayside. But more recently, Disney and Lucasfilm have seemingly realized there’s more to Star Wars than just these classic movies. And Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is a great example of how to bring together all the different eras of one of the most popular sci-fi franchises of all time.

Minor spoilers below related to how Survivor connects to other Star Wars properties.

Released at the end of last month, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is the fantastic sequel to Respawn and EA’s 2019 hit action-adventure game, Jedi: Fallen Order. In this bigger and better sequel, players return to the role of Cal Kestis, a young Jedi who survived the Order 66 purge as a child. Now he and his ragtag group of friends work together to overthrow the Empire while outmaneuvering anyone who tries to catch them, which includes not only the Empire itself, but also bounty hunters and criminal syndicates. . And this time around, Cal’s grand space adventure connects to virtually every major Star Wars era we’ve seen in movies and TV.

So right away it’s easy to see the references to the original trilogy, aka the old Star Wars movies with Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher that came out in the late 70s and early 80s. imperials dressed in white armor, as they appear in old movies. We also see TIE fighters and AT-STs, popular Imperial vehicles from those classic movies. But beyond those obvious references, Survivor also has ties to the Rogue One spin-off movie and the Obi-Wan Kenobi show. Both of these events take place around the same time as A New Hope, the first film in the original trilogy.

How Respawn’s New Star Wars Game References Spin-Offs and The Clone Wars

Throughout the game, you will encounter KX security droids that first appeared in Rogue One. The beloved droid character K-2SO was a reprogrammed KX security bot. In the meantime, you will also hear about The hidden path or the path, something first introduced on the Disney+ show Obi-Wan Kenobi. Interestingly, the idea for The Path – an Underground Railroad-like network of people trying to help surviving Jedi and Force-sensitive refugees escape the Empire’s grip – was originally pitched as a possible storyline for Fallen Order. It didn’t happen, but it seems the idea survived and ended up in the Obi-Wan show, which is just another way to connect the series and Fallen Order.

However, Survivor doesn’t just reference the OG movies and connected spin-offs, and actually includes a ton of direct connections to the Prequel movies and the Clone Wars series.

The most obvious are all the different battle droids that you encounter in the game, including the well-known B1 and B2 droids first seen in Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones respectively. However, Cal also encounters Magnaguard droids who were often seen guarding General Grievous during the Clone Wars and first appeared in Revenge of the Sith. There is also BX Commando Droids which never appeared in the live-action movies, but was instead created for the CG animated series as a faster, deadlier variant of battle droids that could actually give the Clones and Jedi a run for their money. their money.

Elsewhere in the game, you’ll also come across remnants of AAT tanks, Vulture Droid ships, and ruined bases from the Clone Wars. Perhaps the most interesting and easily missed Clone Wars connection is the villainous Rayvis. He’s a Gen’Dai, a rarely seen alien species that is damn hard to kill and has a very long lifespan because its body is made up of thousands of regenerative tentacles, allowing it to regenerate after taking damage. The first Gen’Dai ever seen in Star Wars was the Durge Bounty Hunter. He was created by Lucasfilm for the original Clone Wars 2D shorts and comics in 2003. (Durge has since appeared in canon via the new Star Wars comics.)

How Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Connects to the Sequel Movies and More

But wait, there’s more! Survivor also has references to both the High Republic and the Sequel Trilogy. I won’t say too much about the High Republic connections as they play a big part in the overall narrative of the game, but it’s cool to see this relatively new part of Star Wars—which currently only exists in books and comics— to be prominently featured in such an important new Lucasfilm project.

As for the Sequel movie references, they’re a little less cool than the Clone Wars connections already mentioned, but still nice to see. A connection is the inclusion of a Trodatom, a species of slug-like alien first seen in The Rise of Skywalker. Another minor issue is that quite early in the game you can unlock a crossguard lightsaber, something that was first seen in the force awakens.

Screenshot: Respawn/EA/Lucasfilm

To be clear: just including references doesn’t make Survivor a great game. However, the way Respawn has carefully and thoughtfully weaved all of Star Wars throughout the game is impressive. None of it interferes with the main story that the game tells and none of it feels forced or pushed because “Well, we have to include that too!” Instead, it all merges into one giant, delicious Star Wars meal.

Best of all, Respawn doesn’t rely solely on nostalgia or pre-established characters or items. Jedi: Survivor is packed with new aliens, planets, Force abilities, characters, ships, and more. Respawn is clearly confident in its ability to create new Star Wars content. So these past references and connections aren’t used to support the game or make people care, but are just a bit of extra seasoning mixed in to make everything a little more Star Wars-y.

And that’s how it should be done moving forward with future Star Wars projects. Remember what came before, but don’t be afraid to create something new and different.