Survivor Could Benefit from a Roguelike Mode Like TLOU2, GOW Ragnarok

Highlights

Star Wars Jedi Survivor improved upon its predecessor in nearly every aspect, with its Soulslike combat, richly rendered locations, and compelling story portrayed by a fantastic cast.
Respawn Entertainment has the opportunity to add a roguelike mode to Jedi Survivor, following the trend of other AAA titles, to extend the game’s life cycle and provide players with new challenges.
The existing features of Jedi Survivor, such as the Force Tears bonus challenges and the Haxion Brood bounty hunters, could be expanded upon in a roguelike mode, offering a range of new scenarios and optional bosses for players to face.

Respawn Entertainment’s Star Wars Jedi: Survivor delivered an excellent title in the beloved Star Wars universe earlier this year. With its Soulslike combat, richly rendered locations, and a compelling story portrayed by a fantastic cast, Star Wars Jedi Survivor improved upon its predecessor, 2019’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, in nearly every aspect. Jedi Survivor streamlined many of Fallen Order’s rougher edges as well as expanded on its ideas and mechanics, coalescing into a smooth and satisfying gameplay experience.

While Jedi Survivor focuses mainly on a single-player story in a larger series of maps and takes inspiration from RPG quest design, it already contains a number of elements that would lend themselves well to a roguelike mode. And with some other similar AAA titles adding roguelike modes, Respawn has a chance to follow suit and provide fans with a similar one for Jedi Survivor.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was nominated for Best Performance and Best Action/Adventure Game in The Game Awards 2023, although it did not win in either category.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor’s Sequel Has 5 Obvious Directions for Its Story

Cal Kestis and his friends endured quite a bit of tragedy in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, giving the sequel’s story a lot to explore and expand on.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Could Make Great Use of a Roguelike Mode Ala GOW Ragnarok, TLOU2

Roguelike Modes Are All the Rage Recently

Roguelike modes appear to be becoming a popular trend, notably with a few of Sony’s first-party properties receiving roguelike modes in a short time. The upcoming The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered will include the No Return roguelike mode, and just recently revealed at The Game Awards 2023, God of War Ragnarok’s Valhalla DLC looks to be one as well. A roguelike mode can greatly extend a game’s life cycle, bringing players back long after completing the main campaign to test themselves and their mastery over the games’ mechanics in various situations. Stars Wars Jedi: Survivor is not a PlayStation exclusive, and thus has the potential for an even wider audience to enjoy a possible roguelike addition alongside its existing structure.

How Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Could Incorporate a Roguelike Mode

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor‘s combat mechanics are tightly designed and great fun to engage with. Cal Kestis’ array of Force powers and options regarding lightsaber styles and stances allow for a wide range of player choice and creativity in approaching fights. Beyond that, though, Jedi Survivor‘s Force Tears are a feature that could provide the blueprint for expansion into a fully fleshed out roguelike experience. These are bonus challenges that can be found hidden across the various locales players explore with Cal and his allies. Coming in two types — arena combat and traversal obstacle courses — and complete with timer scores, Force Tears are already set up as the perfect jumping off point to form an enjoyable series of roguelike scenarios.

Respawn could lean into the framework that Force Tears afford, and design longer, more elaborate versions of them as a roguelike mode for Jedi Survivor. This would also provide an opportunity to give players some new toys by adding more items or upgrades to Jedi Survivor‘s range of abilities. Even if they might only be usable within the roguelike sections themselves, so as not to unbalance the core design, it could still be a chance to test out early versions of any ideas Respawn might be cooking up for a third entry.

A roguelike mode could also introduce more optional bosses like the Haxion Brood bounty hunters. Players could perhaps be tasked with a series of boss rush battles, with them being randomly chosen from a pool of possible foes. While these are only a few possibilities, the overall potential for a Star Wars Jedi: Survivor roguelike mode is strong, and Respawn should seriously consider one, as fans would surely welcome more Jedi Survivor content.