Jedi Fallen Order Shows Soulslikes Can Freely Tell A Story
Most Soulslike games combine the brutal mechanics of the genre with cryptic, minimalist storytelling. Fallen Order shows that the genre can do more.
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When Demon’s Souls and its spiritual successor series Dark Souls spawned the Soulslike sub-genre, they left powerful impressions that other developers would carry into both the gameplay and storytelling of future, similar games. The gameplay elements of a Soulslike are obvious enough, typically featuring stamina-based battle systems where one or two ill-timed dodges or blocks can lead to death, some sort of experience currency that is lost on defeat but can be retrieved if the site of the loss is revisited, and so on. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order showed that the gameplay of a Soulslike does not have to be paired with the cryptic, minimalist storytelling of the original titles, and future games in the genre would be wise to learn from its example.
Traditional Soulslike games, including Demon Souls and Bloodborne, are haunting, surreal experiences. They eschew the cinematic introductions and characterizations provided by many other games of their time, instead opting for a sense of dread and discovery. The worlds of these games have lots of lore, and it is often fascinating but not presented in the narrative fashion of typical games. The stories in these games are, instead, hinted at, inferred, and implied in the details of the world and the experience. The story of a typical Soulslike is the stuff of fan theories and internet speculation.
This is still a valid approach for a game, but Jedi: Fallen Order illustrates that the gameplay elements of a Soulslike can pair with more traditional storytelling. The setting of Star Wars, one of the most well-known franchises in media, is far from a cryptic unknown. The opening sequences of Fallen Order resemble something from an Uncharted game more than a typical Soulslike. They provide backstory, context, and character development, while familiarizing the player with movement and climbing mechanics. Once the player travels beyond the game’s starting world, the Soulslike elements become evident. Meditation circles replace campfires, and Stims from a helpful droid replace blood vials and Estus flasks.
The Soulslike Genre Has Largely Remained Cryptic
The Soulslike sub-genre is among the few where an extremely specific style of storytelling has been consistently tied with genre gameplay elements. Beyond the expected mechanical challenges, players have come to assume they will play an adventurer thrust into a bleak and treacherous world with more questions than answers. The default experience is akin to NES-era games, where the entirety of a game’s lore would be included in a physical instruction manual, and in-game storytelling would be scarce at best. This can be a wonderful and uniquely engrossing experience, but the genre can do more.
Jedi: Fallen Order was a breath of fresh air for Soulslikes, telling a clear and complete story with a strong character arc for protagonist Cal Kestis and development of supporting characters, like Cere Junda. By the end of the game, Cal grows from a half-trained Jedi living in hiding to being a full Jedi Knight, whose decisions determine the fate of the order. Cere moves beyond her fear of using The Force, learning to forgive herself for the moment of weakness that allowed the Empire to capture her Padawan, as well as her own brush with The Dark Side.
Other Genres Evolved By Separating Gameplay From Storytelling Conventions
If RPGs did not move beyond high fantasy epics like Ultima and Dragon Quest, players would miss out on unique titles like the Persona and Fallout series. Games like Inside, Braid and Celeste allow side-scrolling platformers to tell stories of a disturbing or deeply personal nature. The Soulslike is a newer genre than most, and if nothing else Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order shows that it is capable of more than a series of carbon copies of the formula that made the originals stand out. Developers can separate the storytelling conventions of a genre from its gameplay conventions, and doing so can produce fresh, new experiences, instead of simply replicating the genre’s originators.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/jedi-fallen-order-dark-souls-soulslike-game-story/