A new varation of Din Djarin, aka “The Mandalorian,” recently came to Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes with a Hero’s Journey event, walking through the events of the first season of The Mandalorian.
This version is of the bounty hunter wearing beskar armor, and the event itself is absolutely fantastic. While the absurdly low drop rate on the special cantina drops for Kuiil and IG-11 puts a slight damper on it, that’s really the only possible complaint one could have about this event. It’s thrilling to play, really well-done, features requirements that actually make sense, isn’t over-the-top with gearing (i.e. the biggest challenge is the star level, not gear level), and permanently in the Journey Guide.
In short, I think it’s one of the very best events in this game’s history.
But as I thought about the other events that have been done, I realized a striking connection between them: I really think that the Hero’s Journey events are the very best in the entire game. We’ve gotten six of them now, and all of them would compare very favorably to other events in the game – and, in my opinion, at least the top three events in this game’s history have been Hero’s Journey events.
Here’s my ranking of the Hero’s Journey events.
6. Jedi Knight Revan – “Legend of the Old Republic”
First appearance: October 18, 2018
The Jedi Knight Revan event walks you through moments from the incredibly popular Knights of the Old Republic games, which was a huge moment in this game. It culminates with you fighting the mighty Terentatek, which is an impressive and well-designed foe in this game, but otherwise things are relatively standard in this event.
5. Darth Revan – “Scourge of the Old Republic”
First appearance: March 25, 2019
Keeping the focus on the Old Republic, the Darth Revan event stepped things up a bit by including more cutscenes and a few more creative battles and environments. But perhaps the best part of the event actually comes at the end; after you defeat the Jedi that stand against Darth Revan and your team from getting to the Star Forge, and just when you think the event is over, Darth Malak appears in a brief cutscene! This moment was completely unexpected and out of nowhere, and it was a tease that Malak was coming to the game soon. Just a few weeks later he arrived in a different event. This was the first (and really only) time that the game has put such a direct tease right into an event, and it worked very well here.
4. Rey (Jedi Training) – “Rey’s Hero’s Journey”
First appearance: December 15, 2017
In connection with the release of The Last Jedi came a new version of Rey to the game, giving you the chance to play through the events of The Force Awakens. Perhaps some will best remember this event for being what started a downward trend in this game of insane and unreasonable requirements, but we’re not factoring that into this ranking, as we’re thinking about just the events themselves and not the surrounding circumstances. While it’s always fun to play through the events of a Star Wars movie, this event was relatively standard – until the penultimate phase. You enter the battle with Rey and Finn, facing off against Kylo Ren in the forests of Starkiller Base, and you may quickly grow frustrated: Rey continues to be stunned, while Finn can’t land a single hit on Kylo once his protection is gone. But you’ll soon learn that the event is designed this way, and it’s waiting for Finn to be defeated. When that happens, Rey gains a new ability, which allows her to summon the lightsaber to herself through a great cutscene. It is this moment that really sets this event apart, and it’s then followed by a level of Rey and Kylo fighting to wrap things up and unlock the character.
3. The Mandalorian (Beskar Armor) – “The Mandalorian’s Hero’s Journey”
First appearance: December 16, 2020
This event allows you to play through a number of key moments from the first season of The Mandalorian, and I’ll be honest: it may be the most cinematic event this game has ever done. The amount of cutscenes, and the quality of them, seem to have taken things to another level. It’s mainly those cutscenes that make the event so great, but there’s a lot of creativity with it too – for instance, when Mando takes over the turret in the first event and winds up blasting the door once you’ve defeated all the enemies, or when Mando and Cara Dune have to face off against the old Imperial walker from Chapter 4.
2. Commander Luke Skywalker – “Luke Skywalker’s Hero’s Journey”
First appearance: August 10, 2017
You might actually be surprised by the order here, because this one was almost number one – I went back and forth a number of times even when writing this article. This was the first Hero’s Journey event, and at least until this summer was the clear gold standard for Galaxy of Heroes events (and depending on who you ask, it may still be). We had waited a long time for a ‘Jedi’ version of Luke Skywalker, and while this one wasn’t exactly it, this was the version from The Empire Strikes Back. To unlock him, you had to play through the events of A New Hope. This was thrilling to do, and it went to show how even relatively simple battles can take on much more meaning when put in a context like this one. But it was the penultimate tier that really blew our minds in the best of ways. As you play as Obi-Wan Kenobi (Old Ben) and face off against Darth Vader, you come to discover that the goal is simply to survive until a new special ability hits its cooldown. This ability allows you to sacrifice yourself to save Luke, and what follows is an epic cutscene showing Old Ben sacrificing himself aboard the Death Star. This level remains, without any doubt in my mind, the very high point of this game. It expanded our notions of just what Galaxy of Heroes could do, and was almost breathtakingly fun to play. Creative and awesome.
1. Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker – “Luke Skywalker’s Hero’s Journey”
First appearance: June 18, 2020
So it may surprise you, then, to discover that I actually give the more recent Luke Skywalker Hero’s Journey event the ever so slight edge here. To be honest, I could go either way between these two Luke events, but here’s why I’m putting this one number one: not only is this the version of Luke we’d all been waiting for (the Jedi version, with the green lightsaber), but it also is one of the most creatively diverse events. In my opinion, that’s the thing that sets it slightly apart from the first Luke event. In this one, you play through The Empire Strikes Back. You start with levels both as the Wampa against Luke and Luke against the Wampa, giving you a re-skinned version of the Jedi as you play through it. In tier three, you’ve got to try to defeat the enemy troopers before Darth Vader arrives to the battle at Echo Base. Then in tier four, a ship battle, you’ve got to buy enough time for all of your ships to escape to hyperspace. Then you play as Luke and Hermit Yoda in the cave on Dagobah, and Yoda soon flees to leave Luke alone to face the vision of Vader. You then play a level trying to escape from Cloud City, and then it’s down to the final two battles, which see Luke face off against Darth Vader. First, you play as Luke, and you’ve got to fight against Vader and objects he may throw at you. It’s introduced by an epic cutscene of that iconic moment from Empire where they first face off. Then in the second of these two levels, you play as Vader and need to hold on long enough to use a new special ability, “Disarm.” This launches you into a cutscene of Luke vs. Vader that ends with Luke getting his hand chopped off and Vader making the big reveal. So all things considered, though this one didn’t have a tier as amazing as the Commander Luke Skywalker event did, this one made use of many different creative and unique mechanics throughout the levels that maintained the level of excitement paired with awesome cutscenes.
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