Second Emulation

The Jedi's Journey Continues with Enhanced Fights and New Game Thrills

• Shawn Juarez • Episode 57

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Ever wondered how it feels to wield a lightsaber with even more precision and personal flair? Strap in, because on Second Emulation, we're slicing through the details of Jedi Survivors, the sequel that elevates the Force to new heights. My journey with Cal Kestis takes a deeper dive into enhanced gameplay mechanics, introducing stances and a skill tree that let you shape the Jedi of your dreams. Despite a few bumps in the road, the combat is as thrilling as ever, and I'm here to share which features had me cheering and which ones had me wishing for a patch update.

Now, let's talk about the heart and soul of any epic saga: the characters. Cal and his crew return with more complex narratives, and we focus on the surprising twists in Bode Akuna's arc. Was his late-game reveal as a Jedi and final boss showdown a narrative triumph, or did it miss the mark? We analyze the emotional resonance of his story compared to the bond between Cal and Marin, and question the consistency in the portrayal of their powers. The quest for sanctuary and the future of the Jedi Order give us plenty to mull over, and I'm laying it all out for you.

For those who crave the thrill of the fight over and over, we're tackling the topic of replayability. Is the allure of New Game Plus enough to beckon you back to the galaxy far, far away? I've got some thoughts on that and the criteria for my 3 out of 4 game rating. From mechanics to customization and the pull of the narrative, we delve into what makes a game worth revisiting—or not. Remember, your gaming journey is as unique as you are, and we're celebrating that individuality right here on Second Emulation. Don't forget to join the conversation on social media and subscribe for a galaxy's worth of pop culture goodness!

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  📍  Welcome to Second Emulation, the podcast that explores all things pop culture, from movies and TV shows to the latest anime releases. Join us as we dive into the world of entertainment, sharing our thoughts, opinions, and insights on the latest trends and releases. With a focus on what's hot and what's not, we're your go-to source for all things pop culture. So sit back, relax, and let's get started

I'd like to thank Emily for that lovely intro and welcome our listeners back to another episode. And today we're going to be talking about when Jedi survivors will be my second video game review on a video game. And for those who don't know, this video game in particularly was something that we actually streamed on our Twitch and YouTube channel for review.

For those who don't know, you can find the links to the Twitch and YouTube channel in the episode description.  Now as I mentioned earlier when I did the  Sea of Stars review,  Reviewing video games is something I'm still trying to figure out the format  on so  it's still going to be rough around the edges and I do apologize, but as I do more of these hopefully the format will be locked down.

So with  that, let's get into the episode.  I'm  fairly familiar with the game as I played the first installment to this series, which is Jedi Fallen Order, which was, I believe, on the PS4.  I've had that, and I became a fan because who doesn't want to be a Jedi? Essentially, have their dead body. You know, do everything Jedi can do.

And obviously it was an introduction to a character that  no one's heard of, so it was an original character. You know, obviously when you  hear Star Wars and Jedi, your mind Ley goes to, you know, the famous Luke.  Obi Wan, and then, you know, just the roster of Jedi's within the era. So it was nice to actually, you know, go into this blind with an original cast and storyline.

And this picks up right after Fallen Order, which I thought was very nice.  One of the things we'll end up touching upon it's going to be gameplay mechanics, you know,  What are some things that feel, you know, play a little bit crucial, whether it's smooth controls for, you know, a strategy in depth game whether the mechanics can, you know, break the game experience.

So kind of going over what my experience with the gameplay mechanics for this game as this is a sequel. So there were some things that either, you know Well, they built upon their original game and they either added, you know, so with this being a sequel, there were some new things that they added to the game.

Those were like stances. They're stances were something that you did have in the fallen order.  They did build upon that a bit more by adding, I think, more stances.  In the Fallen Order, you only had your single lightsaber and then the dual the  dual blade, which was the long, the lightsaber staff.

And those were the two that you had for Fallen Order. This game, they actually built out the stances where you had your dual blade, your long staff a claymore,  lightsaber, and then a gun and sword gunplay mechanic, which was nice. And each one had their own skill tree, which was  Something that was very new for this one.

So you could essentially build your play style depending on what stance you preferred throughout the game. And each stance had a essentially stats, you know, strength, weaknesses I kind of, well,  I guess essentially strengths and weaknesses. And You know enemy types that you could, you know, had a hard time, Or you know, an easy time going up against. 

Me personally, I kind of, you know, stayed with the the single, and. The staff, but then once I was able to do the dual blade  I had the two light sabers and that's kind of where I stuck with the majority of the game  mechanic wise  The other stances you kind of don't get access to them until later in the game  Throughout, so that was I believe Mechanic wise was kind of, I felt like what felt short, I felt like kind of break the game because  if you wanted access to those type of abilities or skills, you couldn't get them until later.

And then by that time, you know, where you're progressing in the story,  there were things that, you know, Hey, I could really use this. You know at this point, but you progressed so far back, unless you're one of those individuals who wants to go,  be a completionist,  then yeah it would serve that purpose, for the game. 

Other mechanics I thought was pretty interesting.  For this was customization  customization was very big. It made it more personal  of you to essentially customize not not only just Cal Kass's aesthetic appearance but everything from your lightsaber  to Cal's appearance to his gun to BD like  it made it feel like you.

You were Cal, made it more personal as opposed to, and just, you know, fall in order, where the only kind of customization you really had was like adjusting the poncho, you know, to wear it or not wear it but here you essentially got to  Choose hair style, beard style, clothes, pants, blade,  you know, design of your, your saber, everything to like the smallest detail and  To be honest, there'd be certain points where I would just get on and once I got a new piece of clothing or a new piece of a lightsaber, I would just be spending maybe a good chunk of my time to, you know, to put it together at a workbench and just see, you know, how everything looks together and color code it all together to make sure that I looked Pretty cool, you know, with different outfits.

So the  customization game like mechanics I thought was pretty good and I enjoyed because it made it feel like more personal of you becoming this character.  I find it,  I find it very enjoyable playing the game that you had that certain aspect mechanic for this game.  Now, the combat mechanic was still the same,  and there were certain points where the combat mechanics did kind of fall short and  for me it was, it did get annoying sometimes where you would, you know, perform a parry and their character would, you know,  Hidden attack that even though it's supposed to be block would be unblockable.

I mean the There would be enemies that, you know, that would indicate red, that would show that they have an unblockable, you know, an attack that's not blockable. But you know, there'd be certain aspo,  certain aspects where you would Perry or block and. so these are all the enemies we are still getting through, there will be points were you trying to evade and then you get caught up in the animation so there were things about battle mechanics that though, that carried over, that Did get kind of annoying at times and I think  You that became a problem Mechanic wise was when you were dealing with one or more enemies.

I felt like the lock on Feature what allowed you to lock on to an enemy was nice, but it only worked on a single enemy Once you had a group of enemies It, you would deal with one and then you had to reset it again. It didn't automatically pivot to another enemy that made battling, you know, groups of people very difficult because once you eliminate one, you'd have to reset it for the next person, or you would just lose track of who you were fighting.

And this made it very difficult during boss fights. This mechanic was that. boss fight who had phases, when you would lock on enemies and you would fight them, and they would enter a new phase. The lock would fall off and you have to relock onto that enemy. This mech That mechanic was very annoying because you have to relock unto them relock onto them and  If they, once the phase, the new phase started and if you didn't know, they would be into a, they would enter their battle animation and you would try to block and then try to re  lock on so you could, you know, find them on the map. 

That was just one mechanic that I felt I could have done a little bit better with. Cause I found myself dying. A lot to like, you know, that could have been avoided if I knew where the attacks were coming from. If I was able to like lock onto the enemy, if it would've like auto-lock or essentially just auto lock. 

And so that was one, another mechanic in battle mechanic, which is the auto lock feature that I wish they could have improved upon more. But that's my opinion on that.  Next is the introduction of perks. So this is something new. So perks are a passive ability that you get for cow cases. You can.  Add to his character.

So not only do you get on your skill tree for like force abilities, psychic telekinesis. So the standard that you have for a skill tree, but you also obtain perks  up to and he has like 10 skill 10 perks slots that you can get. You know, obtain  and perks that you could use. Each perk tells you how many slots they utilize and each perk tells you also what they do.

And these are passive abilities. So I thought that was pretty good. So each one, you know, can tell you like one might say, you know for an example would be your light saber throw does more damage you, you know, when you Perry an enemy, once you perry that enemy, he takes damage on that Perry. There was one path ability that I used that thought was, you know, came in very handy, was.

That it healed, it provided an extra stam, but also during healing, it staggered enemies.  And, another one that, you know, out loud gave me more of a, a longer block.  I think it's like a blockage. There we go. That's the word I was looking for. Yeah, and these actually came in handy because they also changed  battle and gameplay mechanics in the game  to your style You know, if someone who only had a few, maybe two stems You get the extra one based on that one perk, now you go for three.

So, I thought the introduction of the perks did help. You know, it was a nice mechanic. And you can find some of the perks throughout the game, throughout the story, and you can buy some. And some you know, even are, you know, stance very much. 

As I was going to say, some are actually geared toward the different stances, which I thought was, you know, a good way to kind of incorporate them. 

Now, I wasn't able to find all the perks, but I do know there's a, a laundry list of them available from when I could see how many, you know, in the grid that you can find. And I'm sure, you know, off camera, I'll probably go in and try to do a hundred percent of the game at some point, but the main story of the game took me quite a while. 

Now we're going to be going, you know, talking about storyline and character development. Now, as I mentioned, beginning of this episode, the storyline kind of picks up  I want to say a couple years after Fallen Order. So Cal Kassas, you know, has,  you know, years of just being, I guess you can say like an outlaw, you would say with this crew of just fighting the empire and doing scrimmage type battles.

And he's developed, you know, he's obtained a crew, you know, from the friends he's created from the Fallen Order. And so,  with that,  the storyline seems to be, you know, kind of linear in one way after completing the game. I was kind of,  you know,  I want to say,  not confused, but a little bit like,  I guess you could say wanting more and wish I had more questions answered than left because  the game itself starts off, you know, thinking that we're going to have this big, you know, fight against the empire.

We have characters that are introduced and then you get to the end and you're like, okay, you know,  It feels like a letdown,  mostly.  We developed these characters, you know, we have Cal Kassas, Maren, Bota Kuna, Grease, Detris, and Sarah Juna all have, you know,  great development in the story.  Now, how they're utilized is,  Cal being the main character, he's utilized very well in the story and Maren  Utilized very well  Bode Not so well.

I feel like through the game he  is Underutilized  until the very end and he's essentially the dark horse  Now,  it's not really spoilers for the game, because the game has been out, but  What kind of, I guess, what annoyed me in this is that, you know, Boyd, you know,  Akuna is essentially a Jedi, you know, he's been a Jedi the entire time, but there's been You know, actual major fights that you've had with another Jedi and that entire time he never once used his abilities.

He kept them hidden. And in turn, also becomes the final boss of the entire game,  which I kind of felt was a letdown.  for the entire series.  The game itself is called Survivor and I know They're trying to survive like they're trying to locate a place where they can go to which kind of reminds me of like the story plots of of You know the mandalorian and luke skywalker trying to find a place to rebuild the jedi temple And there's always that undertone like they want to rebuild Or have a safe haven this is like still during the time of the empire is still like this rule  In this big Machine, and No One is like O U T no one's safe  But the High Republic Jedi you know is so blinded that He Wants to find safe Haven  idontknow  It brought some interesting storylines and I thought they could like introduce and you know further  Developed those stories  But it was kind of a letdown  Like when we saw the trailer of like the the Jedi that was introduced  His storyline  takes up at least 70, actually his storyline takes up about 80 percent of the game. 

So up until when you first start the game to like he's introduced,  he's introduced and then your entire gameplay of the story is developed around him 

and getting to Tantalor, and this area that he's you know, discovered and kept hidden, and it's all about Tantalor,  and not about you know, anything else,  and I thought it was kind of like, you know, 

this is odd  that the whole game would be about, trying to find  stop him  trying to find it you know  prevent it  or get to him like, it wasn't, let's stop the empire from finding us it was, lets  stop him from getting to Tanilore  and escaping  So,  the storyline was like, you know,  pretty weird in that sense, was that they used him for the, for the majority of the gameplay, and then once he was done, Bode became the next villain of the game. 

And, They used the whole like Obi Wan and Anakin brother, you know, relationship. Same with Calcasas and Bo, because they had, you know, fought together against the Empire. They use that same kind of like brother type relationship. They, they spent time together, you know, and here he's betraying them.  So,  It was just, you know,  It was interesting, did I feel engaged with the characters?

I felt more engaged with Cal Kessa's and Marin's interactions than I did with Bode and Cal.  Bode just seemed like he was, he was in and out.  He was the plot device like their interactions just seemed very stale. Marin had more emotion, and I think it's because, you know, there was a romantic like romantic feelings behind it.

Bode was just an empty shell, essentially between the two,  between their interactions. questions. 1  And so, and it, you could see it in the gameplay, like inter, their interactions that he just, he didn't,  he had alternative motives that  they  didn't really come to light.  Like he was keeping things hidden until there was an opportune moment to strike.

And so.  It was like he was in the shadows a bit. 

And his character wasn't developed enough.  So I couldn't really care for Bo because he was, you know, introduced into like for this game. Only to like, you know,  you know, him for him to get axed as a villain.  Marin I cared about for agrees I cared for Sarah I cared for because these were characters that carried over from the first game Bowed and anyone that we they introduced I didn't really care for because I Had a feeling like death flags that they weren't going to be around for much longer just like how you know they were introduced I  think the part I development.

The most annoying part was that  they gave Bode abilities that Cal couldn't even do.  Like force abilities, force slices, things that Cal Kassus couldn't do. So when you had to fight him in these phases, Like character development  he was doing stuff that made him more overpowered then like, then Cal Kastis, which didn't make any sense because you know, where did he get his training?

Like he was just, you know,  working with the Empire's intelligence Like they didn't go more in depth about his character, him having a daughter It's so it just didn't make any sense that Cal could he be you know stronger than Cal  When Cal has been fighting the Empire for a while  so again  The storyline was okay up to a  certain point.

It started to drag on more so when it became the main focus of like,  you know,  Jedi's High Republic, and finding Tanallor when it just pivots from that to like we need to find a home base for, you know, a safe haven for the Jedi, which I'm assuming is the main title for, you know, survivor. We need to survive.

But wasn't at the whole point. of Calcasas. He was already surviving as it is. I mean, you know, just telling him that they have to have a safe haven to go to now  and help people when they've been already helping people to begin with. Is he going to like now be training the next of Jedis? Who knows? I mean, hopefully there's like another game to kind of further.

His journey. 

It just, like it, I know it feels like I'm ranting, but it, the storyline  kind of feels unfinished.  Some of the characters feel undeveloped. We don't get any good plot points for him and Meron. They do share a,  a few romantic moments, but it's never really pushed upon.  And they kinda just leave it there. 

Seer  They did her kind of dirty in this game. I mean, they did her dirty in the fall, the Fallen Order, and she did have a moment to shine, but like the moment you do have her and you get to play her,  it still, I feel like,  She still gets it done dirty. I mean,  like she has no skill tree. She's essentially very basic.

And the whole point of her character is just to die, to hold the line and die.  And I just felt like  that  didn't make any sense. Maybe it's like story driven, like she's to hold the line and then die. I feel like.  If that was the case, they could've just made that whole cinematic instead of you playing it, cause then, you know,  dying over and over, that whole battle sequence with Vader  was terrible.

I mean, terribly hard. Not terrible in general, just terribly hard  to do over and over again. But,  you know, having to like, You Watch it over and over again to beat him and then ultimately just watch her die by his hand. That could have been a cinematic you know, thing to do.  It felt like she was just a lamb to the slaughter in the first place,  in my opinion. 

But next we're moving on to  visual  Appeal.  Now, the game actually looks good. I mean, since I, you know, I played it on the PS5, it looks, you know,  Graphically good. Now, I'm not one per I'm not a person who's like needs to have it in 4k resolution where I need to know that That is calcastus. It needs to look like a real person like I need to see every pixel there. 

Me, I'm content. The game looks good graphic wise. I mean  And I'll say this every time I grew up in an era We had the Super Nintendo and I played Super Mario Bros  graphics for that were not great, but that's where I compare. Compare, you know, that to now.  If it, I put in a disc and it plays and looks fine, I am content, but I know there are others who, you know, want it to be as pristine as possible, they want like, the blade of grass to look like grass in real life, and to each their own, this was aesthetically pleasing  It really pushed my system to its core and you can I guess change the settings Performance wise I'll have to double check that but I feel like this, you know  from Fallen order to now really, you know made leaps  And changes graphically to the game. You can see the comparison differences. 

Actually, let me say that. You can see the differences in the two games graphically.  And, you know, for me, I'm ok with that. You know, I'm not a huge fan of You know, graphic and visual buff, but the art style still the same with Star Wars. You know, it still keeps that at its core.  We went to go see some new areas.

So that was interesting. Encountered some new,  new enemies I hadn't seen before. So that  was kind of  Kind of shocking, you know,  I can't say how many times I've died to a new enemy or walk into an area and then get caught off guard. Now  what I did say, well, I like about the visual. This kind of plays into the visual appeal is that  customization,  when you're able to customize Cal casts his appearance from his hair to his beard. 

That  is pristine. We're able to choose, you know, his beard style, clean cut to, you know, spotty.  That, I would say,  was the most visual appealing thing about the game they were able to do. I mean, 

My character, the style that I have for Kyle right now is a,  is a bun and he's, you know, five o'clock shadow, but able to like switch from that to clean shaving, the clean shave  and it looked pristine, flawless, like what they were able to do, perfect. And I mean, it looks like the actor. Like if you were to see the actor on the street and he, if he were to like grow out his hair, everything,  perfect. 

And overall, I mean, you, the game puts you in like, as if you're in Star Wars as if you're  in these worlds playing as a Jedi. I mean,  I get to ride on what I can only say is the closest thing to a joke able. You'd probably get  in Star Wars  Little  you know Final Fantasy dropped there, but I mean  It's the it's the truth.

I mean you get to play as the Jedi So I mean the closest thing in these world you get to visit everything feels  Like you're in this  Great 

Everything feels  like you're in the universe of Star Wars.  From aesthetic  to visual to graphics. I mean, when you  turn on your lightsaber, you hear that,  that hum. And then you turn it off. Like it's just every detail.  Just cements the fact that this is a Star Wars game and it's so aesthetically pleasing. 

Does this game have replay value?  That depends on, you know, the type of gamer you are. Me personally,  I've played it a lot.  I just finished the main story, so I still have, you know, side missions, side quests I have to complete and, you know, get all of the perks. Now once that's done, and I'm, you know, do the 100%,  They did open up New Game Plus, which carries all, carries over all your, your saved and everything you have with a new experience.

And I know there are individuals who like to take on new challenges and a new gameplay with the hardest difficulty. Now, this game does have some replay value when they do offer a new game plus experience  and longevity. Now, since this is a linear story, it just depends on the type of Gamer you are now  Me personally. 

I don't  I Wouldn't replay the game again  Just for the fact I played it once  and then once I complete it, I would not Play new game. Plus it may take some time for me to revisit the game over the years. And then, you know, just see if I, you know, start, maybe start up a new game plus. But as of right now, it does have a replay value if you're into the new came plus new challenges.

But if you were to like, you know. We play it now it does not unless you're someone who likes to do maybe speed runs or likes to grind and like do like no damage challenges. I don't see. Maybe doing like the longevity of this game But if you're maybe doing like a challenge where you do fall an order and then you do Survivor things of that nature and you'd like to do a new game plus  but  The replay value I would say would be for me personally would be one and done  But that is just me  now I I do know that I A lot of when the game first came out there were a lot of content creators who played it and then once they were done  with the main story they just put the game down and then for you know, and I kind of Agree with it, like once you play the main story Unless you're really, you know completionist, you're not gonna pick up the game again or do new game plus and I feel like with games that have a set story one set story  Once you may beat that main story And done everything on the side quest There's really nothing more to offer other than New Game Plus if that is your thing but otherwise the game just is going to sit on the shelf unless they decide to add more support to the game, new story which I doubt they'll probably will. 

So this game itself, is there, you know, replay value?  I want to say it's, it's 50 50 depending on who you ask. Longevity of the game? The game holds up since the game is pretty current, so there is longevity of the game if they still decide to support it. It, since we are still in the, you know, realm of Star Wars, I don't know if there is been announcements for it.

third game I'll have to look it up, but I do know that this series is doing pretty well and I would like to see where the story continues. It is in my library, so I do have Fallen Order and I do have this game and if they do make a third one I will be getting that one as well. 

But I'm going to have to rate this game at least a 3 out of 4 Reasons for it is that there are things that I loved in Those four categories that I mentioned, but also there's things that I did not like about the game  That couldn't allow me to give it a 4 out of 4.  And this is the first time I'm going to use like a 4 out of 4 rating.

I might change it to a 5 out of 5. I'm still trying to work out the rating system for reviewing games, but for right now I'm doing a a 3 out of 4. It might change, but  that's my rating for this game for the Jedi Survivor is I'm going to give it a 3 out of 4.  Because it is a sequel, there were some things that they did change that made it different from its predecessor.

You know, game mechanics, customization,  storyline, which  fell kind of flat a bit. Not too many good boss battles overall. Felt like the boss battles were kind of the same. Same enemy types,  so forth. And, It didn't really expand too much. So character development, storyline, and game mechanics, you know, kind of, you  know, pushed it to that three out of four rating that I gave this game. 

And there you have it folks. Not  A kind of touching review on my review of the game after playing it online and streaming it. The mechanic, gameplay, storyline, and character development, and graphics, and some visual appeal.  And does the game have I hope this episode helps you know,  you decide if you want to pick up the game for yourself.

Again, my opinion shouldn't help sway yours. If you like the video game itself, you should buy the game and enjoy the game and make decision on your own. Because it's  essentially, we're all just here to have fun and play video games, but you know,  and I'm just doing my thing as well.  And I hope you enjoyed this episode.

Again, this is a format that's going to change over time when I do these video game reviews and hopefully, you know, they will get better. But I want to thank you for listening and I'll catch you guys in the next one. All right, bye. 

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