Star Wars Jedi is at Its Best with an Enemy Variety Dichotomy

Cal Kestis has had to contend with quite a few diverse enemies ever since the clones were ordered to turn on the Jedi and the Star Wars Jedi series has always done a marvelous job of depicting that. Cal’s journey in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order brings him to different planets in search of information on Zeffo tombs while Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is more of an effort to find a place Cal and his companions can call home. Regardless, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and its predecessor have never been one-note in terms of whom Cal is willing to brandish a lightsaber against, and oftentimes that includes more than the ubiquitous buckethead or clanker.

But even if a planet is occupied by foes far and wide like Kashyyyk in Fallen Order or Koboh in Survivor, these critters are a light where there is otherwise darkness. Still, where there are adorable animals in the Star Wars Jedi franchise there is also more than its fair share of hostile beasts, and there is no better immersion in these games than when human or droid enemies are interspersed with a planet’s antagonistic fauna and interact with one another before Cal even arrives to intervene—or not.

Star Wars Jedi’s Flora and Fauna Give Their Respective Planets a Wealth of Personality

Docile creatures found throughout the galaxy such as boglings, nekkos, and spamels represent a corner of the Star Wars mythology that is always fascinating to witness because it determines that not every inch of a planet may be war-torn. However, whether a planet’s fauna would be naturally hostile or not, it is brilliant seeing these creatures backed into a corner and fighting against would-be oppressors.

Indeed, each Fallen Order planet is teeming with hostile fauna and it’s excellent to see stormtroopers already entrenched in an oftentimes hysterical struggle. Stumbling upon scazz packs tearing stormtroopers limb from limb or suddenly emerging from holes in the ground to ambush them is always exciting, though it means players must contend with them once they’ve finished menacing the Imps.

Star Wars Jedi’s Hostile Creature Interactions Prove They are More Than Mere Enemy NPCs

This allows Star Wars Jedi’s galaxy to not feel so enclosed as to only feature humanoid enemies, and the fact that they all interact—with players able to take advantage of scazz rats mobbing a purge trooper, for instance—makes these planets wonderfully immersive. It is therefore believable that they’d have their own ongoings at any given moment, rather than there being NPCs simply waiting for Cal to appear.

Survivor’s Imperial and fauna interactions are farther and fewer between, but mainly because players are often dealing with Bedlam Raiders or the Haxion Brood in settings like Coruscant, the Shattered Moon, or Nova Garon that lack wildlife. All fauna is thus restricted to Koboh and Jedha, Survivor’s two open-zone Metroidvania maps, and it’s thrilling coming across goroccos and mogus on the former or sutabans and skritons on the latter.

The third Star Wars Jedi game is presumably going to continue this theme as it’s been one of the more profound throughlines of the series so far, as evidenced by the many creatures sadly imprisoned on Ordo Eris. If so, Respawn will hopefully select explorable planets carefully to best represent their vicious flora and fauna.