Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has arrived, and Cal Kestis is once more roaming the galaxy far, far away. Before release, we'd gathered enough info to bring a Bantha to its knees, or whatever Star Wars reference you might prefer. Confirming all our expectations, EA revealed the Fallen Order sequel at the Star Wars Celebration event in May 2022. With enough lightsabers on hand to rival General Grievous, our boy Cal faces every Jedi's greatest test: choosing a facial hair style.
We collected everything you need to know about the new adventures Cal Kestis will embark on: the new planets to roam, the new lightsaber styles to practice, and the new lizard pals to stomp around on. Here's your personal holocron with everything we knew about the next chapter for Cal Kestis.
What is the Jedi: Survivor release date?
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor released on April 28, 2023. As with Fallen Order, Survivor released simultaneously on PC and consoles.
Jedi: Survivor was originally planned for a March release date but in January EA announced the delay to April, saying "In order for the team to hit the Respawn quality bar, provide the team the time they need, and achieve the level of polish our fans deserve, we have added six crucial weeks to our release schedule."
We've even had a few hours of hands-on with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor to get some first impressions.
Here's the latest Jedi: Survivor gameplay footage
In this 9-minute gameplay video from IGN, we find a crash-landed Cal Kestis on Koboh, one of the sequel's early planets. While Cal scrounges for parts to repair his ship, we get a look at Jedi: Survivor's platforming exploration, and a hefty sampling of Cal's new combat options.
Cal has essentially evolved into a Swiss army knife of lightsabers, switching on the fly between dual sabers, single saber, and double-bladed saber stances, weaving in force pushes and throws to disrupt enemy attacks. In one fight, he goes full Darth Maul mode, turning a room into a blender for droids. There's one of those Brad-Pitt-as-Achilles-in-Troy jumping stabs, too. Good stuff.
And while we don't see Cal collecting any ponchos, he does find a jacket in a chest. As we all know, nobody can Jedi: Survive without a healthy wardrobe.
What other Jedi: Survivor trailers are there?
This Game Awards 2022 trailer gives us our first looks at Star Wars Jedi: Survivor gameplay. Clearly shooting for the "dark middle chapter" vibe, we're given plenty of quick shots of protagonist Cal Kestis employing some new additions to his Soulslike lightsaber combat—like dual sabers and a Kylo Ren-esque great saber—while generally being a menace to stormtroopers. Oh, and at one point he's hang-gliding from a pterodactyl.
The first teaser trailer for Jedi: Survivor didn't give too much away, but Cal and BD were certainly still prominent. A Pau'an character, possibly chief Jedi-hunter The Grand Inquisitor, shows up to deliver a threatening voice over: "Tell me, Cal Kestis. Why lead when they won't follow? Why fight when you can't win?" Beyond that, we get a quick shot of his ship the Mantis crashed on a desert planet, Cal crossing sabers with a hooded Sith, and a mysterious figure in an abandoned bacta tank.
Read our Star Wars Jedi: Survivor review
In our Star Wars Jedi: Survivor review, we came away from Cal's second outing with pretty positive feelings. Combat enjoys an expanded toolkit and enemy roster, while Respawn has improved on the slog of the first game's platforming by hearkening back to the jungle-gym scampering of PS2-era greats. And of course, playing Jedi dress-up is a delight.
If Survivor truly stumbles anywhere, it's in performance. As of the the review's writing, the game regularly dives into unacceptable framerates, joining the legion of recent PC ports with rough optimization. Hopefully, it's something that can be ironed out.
Our Jedi: Survivor preview left us with a new hope
After a four hour hands-on Star Wars Jedi: Survivor preview, we're feeling optimistic about Cal's second outing. One might be forgiven for declaring that this is where the fun begins, or insisting that this is podracing. But in the far less insufferable words of our Morgan Park, "Jedi: Survivor is hitting the spot."
Cal's improved platforming, expanded combat options, and wider array of foes make a promising showing for the sequel's upcoming release.
What's new in Jedi: Survivor gameplay?
First and foremost, Cal Kestis will be getting some additions to his suite of Jedi combat styles. In an interview with Game Informer, game director Stig Asmussen said that Survivor will feature five "fully realized" fighting stances for Cal. Among these is a dual-wielding stance with two lightsabers, as well as a slower, heavy stance with a Kylo Ren-style crossguard lightsaber.
It sounds like Cal will also be adopting some scum and villainy flavor with one of his new stances, as Asmussen described one combat style where Cal wields a blaster alongside his saber. "It really speaks to where we find Cal in this part of the story,” Asmussen said. It might be uncivilized, but shooting a guy is a useful survival skill when you're being hunted by an evil empire.
Additionally, Cal will have some new platforming and traversal options for exploring the game's new locales. A grappling hook-like ascension cable will let him climb cliffs and zip across gaps. And by taming wildlife, Cal can befriend alien creatures as mounts, allowing him to ride lizards and hang-glide from space pterodactyls.
Jedi: Survivor is expanding Cal's cosmetic choices
In Jedi: Survivor, Cal Kestis is widening his aesthetic palette. While we mourn the ending age of endless ponchos, the sequel's offering a whole host of options for fine-tunning your Jedi fit. As you can see in this preview footage shared on reddit, you'll build a wardrobe of individual jackets, shirts to mix-and-match as you choose. You'll also get to select from a surprisingly-deep suite of hairstyle and facial hair options. If you've longed for the day where you can face the Empire with a mullet/handlebar moustache combo, your time has come.
What do we know about the Jedi: Survivor story?
EA's told us the sequel takes place five years after the first Star Wars Jedi game, placing it right in the middle between the prequels and the original trilogy at around 9 years before the Battle of Yavin. That also means it's happening at roughly the same point on the timeline as the recent Obi-Wan show. "Cal must stay one step ahead of the Empire’s constant pursuit as he begins to feel the weight of being one of the last remaining Jedi in the galaxy," EA says. "Accompanied by his trusty companion BD-1, Cal will meet and ally himself with an array of unique and interesting characters on his journey."
If you're wondering what happened to Cal and his Mantis crew in the years between Fallen Order and Survivor, good news: there's a book for that. An interim novel, Star Wars Jedi: Battle Scars, covers the gap between the first and second games, hopefully giving some indication of why Cal seems to be on his own by the time of Survivor.
In Survivor, we can safely expect plenty of new and returning faces as Cal outruns his Imperial hunters. Fellow Jedi Cere Junda will make another appearance. Among Cal's new friends is one Bode Akuna, a mercenary and AI companion who'll help Cal out in combat. “He and Cal form a special bond,” game director Stig Asmussen saids. “It’s almost like they’re brothers."
As you'd expect Cal will be facing plenty of unfriendly figures. We'll likely see more of his freshly-established personal beef with Darth Vader, which capped off the last game by leaving Cal with a new lightsaber wound. The trailers above show some currently-unnamed potential rivals, like a burly, bounty hunter-y alien and a mysterious brooding figure who Cal releases from a bacta tank.
Here are the Jedi: Survivor system requirements
It seems like space moustaches have a heavy price. In this case, it's apparently paid in hard drive space, with Star Wars: Jedi Survivor demanding 155GB of storage real estate.
Minimum system requirements
- OS: Windows 10 64-bit
- CPU: Intel Core i7-7700 / Ryzen 5 1400
- GPU: GTX 1070 / Radeon RX 580, 8GB VRAM
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Storage: 155 GB available space
Recommended system requirements
- OS: Windows 10 64-bit
- CPU: Intel Core i5 11600K / Ryzen 5 5600X
- GPU: 8GB VRAM | RTX2070 / RX 6700 XT
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Storage: 155 GB available space
