The Troubled Brilliance of Jedi Survivor

 

When the much anticipated sequel to Jedi Fallen Order released in 2022 the reviews were fairly mixed. Poor performance and game breaking bugs led to widespread complaints and negative reviews. Although stability was much improved with later patches the launch state of the game was pretty bad and gave the game a negative reputation from the start that has been slow to overcome. Even now, as of this writing, Jedi: Survivor sits at an overall mixed score on Steam for the English reviews. 

Unfortunately all of this negativity overshadowed what was, in truth, an extremely well written story, excellent characters and plot twists that surprised even my much jaded self. To talk about these things will require spoilers so if you have not played the game or witnessed the story yet please do so before reading any further but if you don't mind or have played the game already then it is time to discuss just how well Jedi: Survivor tackles it's subject matter. 

 

To begin with the name of the game provides a central thesis that the characters and plot returns to time and time again; survival. At first it seemed from the trailers that the "survivor" in Jedi: Survivor was the mysterious figure long trapped in a medical bacta tank. This character, Dagan Gera, is absolutely a survivor but he is not the survivor, he is a survivor. In truth there are many survivors in Jedi: Survivor, many different Jedi survivors at that, Cal Kestis, the 9th Sister, Bode Akuna, Cere Junda, Master Cordova and Dagan Gera. All of them are survivors of the Jedi Order, each of which have found a different way to survive the fall of the order, not all of them good. The 9th Sister has become so lost to rage and pain that she has lost all hope. The former Jedi Masana Tide, the 9th Sister has given up on everything she once believed or fought for and become a merciless weapon in the hands of the Empire. Obsessed with hunting down and eradicating surviving Jedi like Cal Kestis. The 9th Sister is the first of the other Jedi survivors that the player encounters and one of the more tragic, she is a victim just like all of the others and one that has passed far beyond rescue or redemption, when Cal kills her it is an act of mercy but one that is clearly painful and tragic. Masana Tide is a dark reflection of what Cal could be if he gave into the hopelessness and anger, if he embraced the dark side and abandoned his mission. 

 

The 9th Sister is the first survivor Cal encounters but far from the last. The second is Dagan Gera. Unknown to Cal the survivor of the High Republic Jedi Order fell to the dark side long ago and embraces his darkness and anger almost immediately after being liberated from his centuries long hibernation in a medical bacta tank. Dagan bleeds his yellow kyber crystal to a dark orange and attacks Cal, unleashing his anger and resentment at who he sees as a pathetic pawn of the failed and fallen Jedi Order. Even weakened and down one arm Dagan is a fierce opponent driven by a depth less obsession to reclaim his lost trophy, the world of Tanalorr. Cal is shocked at the anger and madness that have overtaken Dagan, but it takes some time for him to realize the true depth of Dagan's obsession and it's cause. The former Jedi has become so bitter about the loss of his life's work, his perceived betrayal by the Jedi and his desperation to reclaim the world of Tanalorr hidden within the Koboh Abyss that he has abandoned his code, his ideals and his virtues, turned his weapon against his comrades, murdered his fellow Jedi and betrayed the order. Even awoken centuries later Dagan cannot see anything other than his desperate objective, he cares not about the fall of the Jedi Order or the rise of the Empire, the stormtroopers and purge troopers that get in his way are a mere inconvenience. 

Dagan's obsession is ultimately his undoing and he serves as a dark reflection of the protagonist Cal Kestis. In Dagan's fall Cal can see the ultimate fate he himself could face if he lets his endless war against the Empire consume him. Cal can see how his own actions pushed away his friends and allies and threatened to consume his entire being. Cal is faced with a hard truth, continue his campaign in the face of adversity until it eventually burns away everything good in him, or abandon his mission to support and protect those he cares about. Unfortunately the choice is taken from Cal by the obsession of another but we will get there shortly. 

The next two Jedi survivors Cal meets are Master Cordova and Cere Junda. The former master and apprentice have re-united and worked together to rebuild an archive of Jedi knowledge on the moon of Jedha. Acting in concert with the underground refugee support network the Hidden Path the two Jedi have largely focused their efforts on rescuing and cataloguing texts and writings of the Jedi Order and preserved them in a new hidden archive. Although a positive focus for their efforts both surviving Jedi have made it their mission to recover and preserve the learning of the past, even as the galaxy burns around them. Although somewhat successful it would only ever be a matter of time before the Empire found them and the archive and that is indeed what would happen in the course of the game. 

Enter our last Jedi survivor, Bode Akuna. Introduced in the beginning as a jetpack wearing gunslinger and new recruit to Cal's anti-Empire resistance group Bode is the only member of the team other than Cal who survives their mission on Coruscant and joins Cal throughout his efforts to investigate the Koboh Abyss and rediscover Tanalorr. What Cal and the player do not realize until it is too late is that Bode has been working with the Empire this whole time. The former Jedi intelligence operative bargained with the Imperial intelligence services for his survival after Order 66. In exchange for Bode's work uncovering and destroying anti-Imperial resistance cells Imperial security would keep Bode, and most importantly his daughter, safe from the Inquisitors. In Tanalorr this last Jedi survivor sees the opportunity to be safe from the Empire forever, a hidden world where he and his daughter would be impossible to reach. As Bode gets closer to Cal and his friends the Imperial informant begins to believe he could include Cal in his plans, that he and his daughter could hide on Tanalorr with Cal and Merrin and maybe a few others and remain in complete isolation until the threat of the Empire eventually passed. However Cal's decision to try and use Tanalorr as a stronghold for the Hidden Path clashes with Bode's objective for a completely isolated safe haven. Cal wants to use Tanalorr as a place to bring refugees fleeing from the Empire and other Jedi survivors, a place to train new Jedi and a stronghold from which to launch further operations against the Empire. Unfortunately such activities would risk bringing Imperial attention. No matter how well hidden or difficult to reach it would only be a matter of time before the Empire and the Inquisition would find a way to reach Tanalorr and capture or kill everyone there. Bode could not lose this one chance at escaping the Empire for good and so he acts. 

Unknown to Cal and his allies Bode reveals the location of the Hidden Path on Jedha. He steals the repaired compass, the only way to safely navigate the abyss and reach Tanalorr, and murders Master Cordova to prevent him from remaking the compass from scratch. Only as Cal chases down Bode and eventually clashes with him on a spire of rock in the remote wilderness of Jedha does Bode reveal his force abilities and wields a lightsaber he claimed from the fallen body of Dagan Gera. Bode's identity as a former Jedi makes his betrayal all the worse, for Bode had brought about the very disaster against his friends and allies that he himself was trying to escape from and had been running from for years. However by this point Bode had become so obsessed with protecting his daughter from the Empire that he would do anything, betray anyone, kill anyone if it meant protecting his child. Just like Dagan Gera the traitor Bode had become so obsessed with his singular objective that he lost sight of everything else and was willing to throw away everything and everyone else in pursuit of that goal. 

 

In the defense of the archive Cere Junda confronts Darth Vader and is killed, though she puts up an excellent fight she is outmatched. Cal returns just in time to find the mortally wounded Jedi in her last moments as the archive she so painstakingly rebuilt burns to the ground around her. Everything Cordova and Cere worked for has been lost. Their obsession with preserving the knowledge of the past became a liability that kept them in place too long and left them exposed to attack. In a fury and risking a catastrophic fall to the dark side the grief stricken Cal pursues Bode to a secret Imperial base which Bode lured Cal to on purpose to use him as a distraction. With the facility tied up reacting to Cal's attack the traitor Bode takes the opportunity to rescue his daughter and flee to Tanalorr. Only the intervention of Merrin prevents Cal from falling to the dark side and unleashing his anger on the remaining Imperials. 

At first it seems bode has won, he has eliminated all threats, covered his tracks and escaped to a place where no one can get to him. However the High Republic arrays remain active and Cal and his companions are able to use the failing machines to make one last desperate attempt to reach Tanalorr and by the narrowest of margins they are successful. Cal confronts Bode and despite the fallen Jedi's best efforts he is ultimately defeated. In the end Cal and his remaining friends have claimed the much sought after hidden fortress of Tanalorr, and despite the death of his allies and the loss of the Jedha archive Cal still has the communication codes for the Hidden Path and has an opportunity to rebuild the refugee network. Ultimately Cal chooses to make Tanalorr a fortress for the displaced, a safehouse where the survivors of the Empire's atrocities can come to for safety and community, a place where they can rebuild in peace and security, even though this prize came at a terrible and bitter cost. 

The story of Jedi Survivor revolves around not a single survivor but many, each of which dealt with their loss and their struggles in very different manners. Cere and Cordova tried to hold onto the past, Masana Tide had given up all hope and embraced darkness, Dagan Gera succumbed to his single-minded obsession and was willing to burn down anything and everything that got in his way and Bode was so desperate to protect what was important to him that he did not even realize the monster he had become. Each survivor Cal encounters teaches him something different about loss and obsession, darkness and pain and perseverance. In the end Cal conducts a funeral for Bode, Cere and Cordova, though for some reason he left Dagan Gera's body alone at the summit of the observatory. This funeral marks the end of what was and the beginning of what will be, with the survivors gathered on Tanalorr and choosing to make it a stronghold for refugees and resistance fighters against the Empire. Before the attack on Cere's archive Cal confessed his feelings for Merrin and chose to abandon the tenets of the Jedi Order restricting attachment and now with the pair the only remaining trained force users on Tanalorr and with Bode's young daughter Kata in their care it seems likely that they will train a new generation of force users beginning with Kata and do so in a manner that does not align completely with the traditions of the Jedi Order. 

Unfortunately this fantastic story is undone by the terrible performance issues that plagued the game at release and still plague it to this day, Jedi Survivor runs terribly and did not sell all that well. I would like to see a sequel that continues Cal's story and apparently a Jedi 3 is in development but I will believe it when I see it. In the meantime this flawed gem remains one of the few bright spots in a franchise that has suffered terribly under Disney's mismanagement, especially where games are concerned. Well worth a play through for those really interested in the Jedi and Star Wars in general but a struggle to get through at times.