Saber Forum

So I'll be updating this thread but i got to play the first three hours or so of this game last night, and wanted to share my thoughts with y'all. This will be spoiler free (obviously) and can serve as a "should I buy this" guide. It should be noted this is my perspective of the game being  played on the hardest difficulty setting "Grand Master"

First off is the game good? Yes

Fallen Order plays like a mix of Dark Souls and Uncharted. Big action cutsceney setpeices are broken up by combat consisting of dodges, strikes, and parries. I was concerned about difficulty, as many Star Wars games can lend to the easy side of things, but on GM this game is hard, but not unfairly hard. Every time I died, its because I knew I made a mistake instead of bad design, and I like that alot. The parry and dodge windows are short, but effective, and enemies are aggressive and unique (even the stormtroopers are pretty distinct from each other in their actions!)  

The game also has some elements of the Metroidvania genre, certain locations and paths unavailable to you until you unlock the corresponding force ability or tool. The maps are suprisingly large and twisted, certainly being inspired by Dark Souls in this regard, you can absolutely lose yourself trying to find every little secret on a planet. I spent over 2 of my 3 hours of playtime exploring the first planet you find. Investigating every secret, boss, enemy, pathway etc. I returned to my ship and viewed my completion score for that planet. 60% complete, 2/6 secrets discovered. Okay, I have exploring to do here.

Customization wise, I couldnt be happier, Cal, the Mantis (your ship), and BD-1 all have customize able skins/colors, the lightsaber can be cosmetically modified part by part, with new outfits and saber parts being unlocked along thr way. Your codex has a practical purpose in this game - if you die to an enemy alot check you codex! Sometimes it has hints about that enemies behavior that can help you in a fight.

I was really worried about the villains. The Inquisitors thus far have been kind of a joke in canon, and I was concerned the Second and Ninth Sister wouldnt be very intimidating enemies. I was verrrry wrong on that regard, where I havent seen much of the Ninth Sister yet, the Second Sister from the moment shes in the game makes it clear you are not prepared to fight her.

Tone of the game is darker than your average fair. We got on-screen character deaths in 30 minutes or less. Its like Dominoes Pizza for dead friends. This game does benefit from a darker tone, as the setting is far from cheery. The game also very much wants to dabble in the mysteries and arcana of the Force, which I *always* welcome.

Save points are very much like Dark Souls bonfires. You can level up Cal's skills, or rest which restores your hp, healing items, and respawns all non-boss enemies.

Also for all of you saying that Cal's lightsaber looks a lot like it was a saber staff: this (non spoiler) pic from my codex is for you:

(https://i.imgur.com/qDusQz4.jpg)

This games freaking awesome.  I think I've had too much fun putting saber parts together and exploring all the crap I'm not supposed to find yet.

Thank you PS! I had a feeling you would have a review up today. Sounds like everything I expected and more. -1

I have really enjoyed playing the game and has been most fun. All I have to do now is figure out how to get the extra content to work.

Fantastic game! But I was right that my rig is not sufficient...although I meet the minimum specs and some of the recommended, I mostly have 10 FPS in-game. Managed to get to 30 FPS, but I don't remember which settings led to this :-\

I played some this morning and I am very happy with this game. In fact, I purchased a new monitor just because the one I have is just not up to what I want to see performance wise.

Got it! It was Acronis Active Protection (part of Acronis True Image 2018) which made problems. Added J:FO to the whitelist, and now it's running on 40-60 FPS ;D

Congrats on solving your fps problem.

Taking my sweet time with this one...may be February before I finish but thats ok.  Can't wait to see what the modding community does with this

Played for about an hour last night. So far I'm having fun. Enjoying the story and gameplay. Hoping I get to play it more before Thanksgiving Break, but I kind of doubt it.

On Friday night, I played it for 5.5 hours then played it on Saturday for about 8 to 9 hours. Love it

Spoiler-loaded review coming today!

30 hours of gameplay later, I need to revise my first impressions. This game's not amazing...it's incredibly amazing ;D It's huge, it's deep, it has a great story, and it's so fun searching the worlds for all secrets and scans, exploring new places...I'm in Chapter 4, but I think this isn't the end. I still need at least 15-20 hours to finish the story and find all secrets as well as all Origin achievements.

I don't regret pre-ordering this! You really see the difference between EA as a developer and publisher and EA as a sole publisher...

I like how you can go back and search more, for areas you didn't know how to get to. I'm trying to follow the story arc, but it's too fun to keep at it full time.

Meanwhile im working toward that 100% on Grandmaster...Ilum, Dathomir, and Bogano I have 100% explored all chests & secrets. Now just for Kashyyyk and the absolute monster of a map that is Zeffo

Really? I have Zeffo 100% explored but I also got lost a bit on Zeffo the second round so that probably helped

What I find very time-consuming is getting all the scans, echoes and database entries. I often think I've missed one or pushed an one-time enemy over an edge, not realizing that he might be a one-time scan as well, especially when returning to a planet for the second or third time and still not having completed its database...Exploring and searching for chests & secrets is easier :D

Part of the story line for me is to find all the chests, side quests, etc. The wife just blows through the story and circle back, I can't do that

Same here. I even try to get all Origin achievements within one single run. It will be difficult, but it's possible.

Even back in Metroid Prime times, I always wanted 100% at the end of the story :D

The only thing I miss is an in-game counter for scans and echoes (different from the database), similar to the exploration grade of the planets and how many chests/secrets there are in a specific area...that would make it easier to track the progress, so that you can concentrate on those areas where you still need some % for completion and don't have to run over the whole planet again for the last scan...

+1 Been there, doing that................again and again. Got fed up trying to find those last few % and just returned to other planets instead. Trying not to complete the last few missions, but getting 100% completion is annoying, lol.

Understood but some things are only meant for the second visit or later which places a hinder on things when we try to finish everything. Ferro may be a bit long winded at times but it's also one of the fun ones

Played for about an hour Saturday night. Spent the entire time exploring Bogano (didn't even find everything, there is a ton more for me to explore still).

Yea..every time I get an upgrade I'll go back to get stuff I can get to now... I like to be as "leveled" up as I can be by endgame of any game I play. 

The way the game's design, we have to visit the planets a few times to fully get everything

Oh yeah. I just mean that 1 hour at a time is barely enough time to do anything.

True. I'm at 35 hours after two weeks, so you need at least 2-3 hours per day to get significant progress...assuming you also look for secrets and not only following the story arc ;)

I really just want to play the story, but I can't keep myself from attempting to find new things. But yeah, got another hour in last night, and I will get quite a few more hours this weekend.

I beat the story within 3 days, I've been just going around through the things I missed or couldn't get to.  Not much now

Heh, I've been poking and prodding at the game to see what hidden areas and easter eggs are there, plus finding out where I can fall thru the map..................a few hundred times.

Finished the story today at 95%. Now it's all about getting the last few % and achievements ^^

I'm not particularly enjoying Bogano right now, but that could just be because I was tired last night.

Well, it's the first world after Bracca. And in most cases those worlds after the "tutorial" are relatively small and simple. Just wait, it's getting better after you leave Bogano the first time ;)

Bracca is good and I like Bogano, myself. My favorite is note by Racona: removed due to major spoilers of the story ;)

There's some things I like about Bogano, and it isn't bad, I think I was just too tired last night to deal with the puzzles and stupid little fox things that leap out of the holes at you.

Still really enjoying the game even though some sections give me vertigo.

Photo mode just got dropped yesterday. You can also remove a certain "mandatory" lightsaber part now

(https://i.imgur.com/84WBQ8T.jpg)

Thank Goodness... such an eye sore

Where do you get these patch notes? I tried to look them up, but didn't find a genuine source for them...

This is the official reddit ....

https://www.reddit.com/r/FallenOrder/comments/e8shje/star_wars_jedi_fallen_order_patch_wc_dec_10/ (https://www.reddit.com/r/FallenOrder/comments/e8shje/star_wars_jedi_fallen_order_patch_wc_dec_10/)

I mean i figured it out by hopping on the game lol

That's another way :D Haven't looked into J:FO since I beat the Story Mode...I switched to BFII again. Need to get the last Origin achievement and working on more milestones.

Im still trying to 100% the game on GM....Zeffo is not small.

Nope, it's big...that's what I love about it ;D

So after playing a couple days ago, I realized that is is not Bogano that I dislike, it is Zeffo. And I don't dislike it, I was just tired of being in a tomb the entire time. I'm enjoying Kashyyyk though.

All planets maxed out regarding secrets, chests and exploration. Still need a few database entries on Dathomir, though. Anything else is at 100% since today ;D

Even the Achievements - my first Origin game that has all Achievements unlocked...

Nice! Im still missing entries on Kashyyyk as well as a few seeds

Yeah, some are really well-hidden...sometimes it was a real pain, searching the same area three or more times to find those last few bits :D

I made the mistake of starting anew.......before I had finished getting all the areas/chests/secrets completed.


Oops.

In the same savegame slot? Not good...

I did Kashyyyk, but they sent me back to Zeffo, so I'll have to figure out how to continue there. Still haven't even finished the story, because I'm slow and I don't spend a ton of time playing the game.

It's what I get for putting the game on a secondary drive and not paying attention to the saves. In checking the game files only one save instance was available. After moving the files, I uninstalled, cleaned, then did a fresh install. Ran a new game, saved, then renamed that to the 2nd file and transferred the original save in. Both now show active, so now I just need to play thru. Gives me a chance to play thru more and get areas I originally missed.

I did play this game the week it released and I love it! I do not play a lot of video games these days but the story was everything I wanted it to be. I recommend it to anyone! I hope more SW games like this come out soon.

Sorry, I haven't been around the forum in months and just wanted to share my opinion.

Finally finished the game and WOW! i'm blown away by the last 2 days of game play. I can see why they've decided to keep going with the game, either with more content or the next chapter of the game. Talked to a co-worker who got a PS4 copy over the Holiday and they're very impressed with the game too.

Personally I preordered the game and I was super excited for it. I played hours upon hours with my orange lightsaber. After playing it for so long I’ve come to realize that this game probably wouldn’t be good if it wasn’t Star Wars. Don’t get me wrong, the story-line and characters are all super cool, and I love anything Star Wars. There’s just so much they need to polish up to make the game more well-rounded in my opinion. Also once you get to the end there isn’t much to do aside from grabbing secrets and collectibles you missed before. Unless you create a new save, there isn’t any replayability to the game. They definitely need to think about adding in more content in a DLC or something in my opinion. I’m also not too happy about the fact that I preordered specifically to get the extra content and then they go and release it for everyone a few months later. So much for being exclusive

It was definaltyh a Worthy addition to the Star Wars Lore IMO, but much like Rogue One, Rebels and Solo....you have to come up with an explanation on where these characters are by the time of ANH.  If Cere and Cal are still around at the time after ANH wouldn't they go looking for Luke after he destroyed the Death Star.  It wasn't a secret he was a Jedi.

The developers have said they want to do a sequel for that story

I know, an I am looking forward to it.  Just curious how they are going to work it out.  We know where Obi-Wan and Yoda were.  Ezra was somewhere in the Unknown Regions with Thrawn, Kanan was One with the Force and Ahsoka was hiding on Malachor V as far as we currently know.  Now we need an explanation on where Cal, Merrin (whos character I love) and Cere were.

Well, if you finished the game, you know all the people they met. Nothing more for me to say on that. There's 10,000 systems they can put into a sequel that won't ever touch on anything that happened in the movies at all. They could go the EU route and touch more on what happened in the comics or novels too. So many different areas they can explore, that won't interfere with the movie timeline.

Sure, but they are going to have to work to convince me if they were alive after the Destruction of the First Death Star why they did not seek Luke out.  That's the rub when it comes to adding in Jedi Survivors other than Yoda and Obi-Wan into this time frame.  It can be done but its got to really convince me like I said.

just got Fallen Order along with an Xbox 1 X and yelped when Cal came on screen and I finally realize where US got their "Fallen" saber from... yeah, late to the party.
Trying to play on Jedi Master, but getting a little tired of respawning every 30 seconds.... probably will demote myself to padawan (or whatever is 'easy story mode' soon.

Theres

Padawan (Easy)
Knight (Normal)
Master (Hard)
Grandmaster (Do you like Dark Souls?)

Can you unlock different characters to play with in fallen order like you could in the force unleashed?

No, throughout the game you play only as Cal Kestis. However, in New Game + you can use a dark side outfit for Cal

Ah! I didn't know about the outfit.
I still don't know if I'll replay it though. I enjoyed it, but for me it lacked more in depth exchanges with the pnj crew. Same story, with kotor like discussions with the crew would be the dream for me.

Just bought myself a copy, guess I'll read through everything here and post something after I've played a bit... I can't wait to break into it. I've heard nothing but good things and it sounds like my kinda game.

Kudos on making a "spoiler free" thread PsychoSith.

Happy to help!

Finally got into this, must say it's pretty good so far, maybe a bit clunky and I'm not a fan of the checkpoint respawn system, I prefer systems like Tomb Raider / Batman with frequent check points where you don't lose anything, it would be nice if you could choose the type of save system you like, checkpoint or the respawn, all about the choice. Compared to the last game i played tomb raider it feels slower in terms of the platforming bits, the puzzles are generally good though, still dislike it when you don't have a component ability you need - i'm sure i will backtrack later but it feels a bit of a a cheap way of recycling locations (same criticism of tomb raider/Batman games). But really those few gripes are common to other games so nothing terminal.  It's like Uncharted/Batman with lightsabers in my view and that is a good thing, the aethetic and environments re especially good (though one wonders how practical the layout of some of the imperial facilities/ruins really are ,they seem more designed for the game and puzzles than what a functional base etc. would really look like, again minor issue).

It's not Kotor, not the force unleashed, it is its own things and it does it well. It tantalizingly raises expectations of what a modern KOTOR like game could be.

Lord S Gray, I share some of your complaints/concerns overall. I'm just guessing I'm majority of the way through and nearing the end... some aspects of the game are indeed frustrating. Some in enjoyable ways, others in seemingly unnecessary ways. But definitely a more enjoyable experience than not. If I had to rate it so far, 7/10 maybe 7.5. It's been a good story, fun combat at times, and some relatively interesting environs. I agree as well, (as I've said to someone else previously) it does raise great ideas what a modern KOTOR could look like/combat mechanics could be. Although I just don't know if I trust EA with a deep-story game like that, as a remake. I mean it'd be beautiful, and the SWBF II story gives hope they COULD accomplish it possibly; but they'd incite angry lightsaber wielding mobs if they did a shameful remake of KOTOR! Although I would buy a nasty collectors edition of that release in an instant. Anyway, JFO has been worth the money and may retain some replay value for all achievements/unlocking all content like most games. At the end of the day it's succeeded in making me want to purchase a Fallen, or laugh when fighting gets intense and I ignite my own lightsaber for mood lighting/motivation to fight in earnest. The game for sure has it's moments and endearing qualities.

Yes very fairly put a 7 is what I would probably rate it as well, its solid, shows promise but has some issue that could've been cleaned up a bit more, LOL my fav bit is still seeing Jedi Master Bra'tac. My hope is they do something a bit new if they ever do an rpg, maybe this High Republic setting, I'd love them to take some advice from both Kotor but also games since then - mass effect and dragon age.

OMG yes, glad I'm not the only one who drew the parallel between Master Bra'tac and his counterpart. I'm kind of ashamed of the fact he wasn't in anything previously if he's an IRL fan and has such a previous acting career to his credit, gotta say under used resource bordering in the DUH category. The instant I recognized him I was beyond myself. I mean who failed in casting to not have used him in a movie or tv show live action? He's got experience with a freakin staff in action sequences for years in critically acclaimed TV! Could have given the man a saberstaff and let him go to work years ago but instead we got kylo ren and fin? Launch whoever did casting out the nearest airlock and build me a time machine... make it so. Maybe a little off topic but seriously... He could play a jedi, sith, Kreia's boyfriend or her freakin mentor for all I care. Anything makes sense, but yeah great choice indeed. Shel kek nem ron.