Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is drawing inspiration from its combat from an unlikely source, with its lead combat designer calling the game “very similar” to Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. The game’s debut video at E3 didn’t reveal too much about how combat would feel in the game, but comparisons to From Software’s most recent title started flying in after reports of its behind-closed-doors demo, and this statement from Respawn confirms that that’s no coincidence.
Much of the conversation about Sekiro has focused on its difficulty, which is typical for From Software games. It even sparked an accessibility debate involving players, critics, and game developers about whether the game was keeping people with disabilities out entirely. However, its combat also had some features that made it a little less punishing than the studio’s previous games. In particular, it did away with the long-time Dark Souls mainstay of a stamina bar, which put a limit to how many actions players could perform before needing to stop and catch their breath. In Sekiro, players could slash, block, or jump as much as they wanted without worrying about stamina.
That’s the element that Jedi: Fallen Order’s developers evidently found inspiring, and even “comforting,” according to Jason de Heras, the game’s lead combat designer. WCCFTech reported on an interview with Edge Magazine where de Heras pointed out how they found the freedom that Sekiro gave players by removing the stamina bar inspiring.
De Heras then called that system “very similar” to the one Respawn Entertainment was designing for Jedi: Fallen Order. In the same interview, the game’s director, Stig Asmussen, expressed his appreciation for From Software’s games, going back even before the studio started to gain a following with Demon’s Souls. Asmussen called King’s Field II, released in 1995, one of his favorite games ever. According to Asmussen, though, Respawn isn’t trying to emulate any particular element of From Software’s games, but rather trying to learn from the different ways that playing them is fun.
“They let you attack, they let you roll, they do all this for free – and then the AI will tell you if you’re doing the correct thing. It just confirmed to us that you don’t have to limit everything the player does; let them have a little more agency, and then let the AI give them a slap on the wrist or a punch in the face.”
Plenty of games have tried to mimic what makes Dark Souls special, but none have lived up their inspiration. The most successful of them try to take lessons from From Software’s unique game design without outright copying any particular aspect. With the massive success of Sekiro, it was inevitable that developers would start approaching it in the same way that they’ve looked to Dark Souls for inspiration for the past several years, and it’s heartening to see that a studio as accomplished as Respawn putting its own spin on it for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
Next: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Review - A Brutally Difficult Masterpiece
Source: Edge Magazine (via Wccftech)
