Highlights
- The boss fights in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor are thrilling and challenging, with narrative significance woven into climactic duels.
- The game subverts expectations with its dark undertones that don’t clash with moments of humor, such as the comedic demise of the boss Rick the Door Technician.
- The success of the fun boss concept could lead to similar gimmicks in the sequel, like bringing back Rick with a potential new boss moniker or introducing a new NPC summon for a humorous and immediate death.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, like any Soulslike worth its salt, is full of thrilling and challenging boss fights. Enemies that are placed throughout each planet can be equally imposing, but climactic duels that hold narrative significance are made electrifying in the Star Wars Jedi franchise. The High Republic-era’s Dagan Gera is confronted repeatedly and that may sully how intimidating he is as an opponent, for example, while the suspenseful build-up to Rayvis’ boss fight leads to an extraordinarily difficult and unique boss fight, especially following a tremendously arduous area of enemies to persevere past.
That said, Survivor also has boss fights that are memorable for their nostalgia-inducing and world-building connections to Fallen Order, such as the Spawn of Oggdo and Darth Vader boss fights. Survivor subverts the expectations of a classical Star Wars story, but its relatively dark undertones never clash with the moments of humor that color it, either. This is particularly true of one of its most incredible bosses, Rick the Door Technician. Rick is an otherwise ordinary stormtrooper with a boss’ health bar who charges at the player and is cut down swiftly, and his comedic demise shouldn’t be for nothing.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor’s Sequel Shouldn’t Deny a Return to Coruscant
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor briefly made room for Coruscant as little more than an epic introductory set piece and a sequel should explore it further.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor’s Rick the Door Technician Should Make a Climactic Return
Survivor’s Rick the Door Technician Boss is a Hysterical Gimmick
On a cold playthrough, Rick’s health bar appearing triggers the same kind of tension and anticipation players get when they stumble onto any boss fight. Because Soulslike bosses are known for their tedious nature with multiple attempts at learning their attacks almost always required to beat them, it’s unsurprising that confusion follows when all players see is a single stormtrooper running down a corridor at them. It’s instinctual to think that there’s more to the boss than there is, and yet he goes down as quickly as any other stormtrooper.
This is effective in the way of challenging players’ expectations of regular bosses, but it’s also effective due to how fun of a scenario it is with Rick actually having a personality, much less a name instead of a designation. It’s hilarious how quickly Rick is put down, and the tension lifts from players’ shoulders when they suddenly comprehend that this was meant to be a fun gimmick in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and not a legitimate boss fight in the traditional sense.
Star Wars Jedi’s Next Game Should Perpetuate This Fun Boss Idea
Because this boss concept was so successful, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Respawn try to catch lightning in a bottle a second time with something similar. It would be phenomenal to see Rick the Door Technician come back from his seemingly fatal conclusion only to have been put back together and seek vengeance, for example. More bizarre circumstances have occurred before in Star Wars canon, and seeing Rick with a potential new boss name descriptor would be another fun punch of nostalgia for Star Wars Jedi’s threequel looking back at Survivor.
Rick being voiced by Yuri Lowenthal makes him doubly special, too, and his surprise reprisal could possibly lend him more dialogue this time around. On the other hand, Respawn could simply create a new character for the sake of a comparable gimmick, maybe even on the side of an NPC summon helping Cal in a boss fight who is intended to perish immediately and humorously as they enter the fight. Respawn is surely creative enough to come up with something equally funny in a sequel, adding more to the franchise’s Soulslike charm while also allowing players a moment to take the edge off between some truly grueling battles.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
$30 $70 Save $40
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is the sequel to the critically-acclaimed Fallen Order, which was also developed by Respawn and published by EA. Continuing Cal Kestis’ story, Survivor is an action-adventure game with Soulslike combat, multiple planets to explore, and an engaging story.
- Franchise
- Star Wars
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS5, Xbox Series X
- Released
- April 28, 2023
- Developer(s)
- Respawn Entertainment
- Publisher(s)
- Electronic Arts
- Genre(s)
- Action-Adventure, Soulslike
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 4
- ESRB
- T For Teen due to Mild Language, Violence
