There’s quite a bit for Star Wars fans to look forward to in 2021, but for me, one of the biggest is the release of LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga!
We don’t have an official release date on the game (though my guess would be sometime around May 4), but just the knowledge that we’re actually getting a new and improved and updated version of Lego Star Wars is incredibly exciting!!
For those who are really desperate for more information about the game, including the scope of it, more was recently revealed in an article in the Official Playstation Magazine, which was posted on Reddit. There was quite a bit included there that’s interesting, but I’ll mention five things in particular about the game that we learned:
1. It’s the biggest game they have made
In the interview, Dawn McDiarmid (the lead hub designer for TT Games) says that, “Not only is this the biggest game we have made but it was also built from the ground up with a new engine.” That means that it won’t just be an updated re-skin of the prior games but is totally rebuilt, which is cool. But the more notable part there is probably just that the size and scope of this game is unlike anything they’ve done before, so they’ve given it the treatment that it deserves.
2. Clone Wars?!?
All we know about so far is that all nine Skywalker films will be included, and there will be DLC character packs from other material. In this interview, McDiarmid confirmed that you can begin playing wherever you want, so you’re not locked into a specific order you need to play it in (though I’m sure I’ll be playing through it in order). But notice how he says that: “We want players to experience Star Wars how they want, and to that end when you start the game you can play through any of the nine films in order! You are not locked into a linear progression through the entire series, so if you want to start with Clone Wars or work backwards from The Rise of Skywalker, you can.” So, yeah, he mentioned The Clone Wars! That would be massive news for this game, as we previously didn’t have any indication that the series would be included. And previously in that same quote, he mentions how you can play through any of the nine films. So I think it’s most likely that he just intended to refer to the prequel trilogy or something like that, but said Clone Wars. If so, that’s a very unfortunate and disappointing slip of the tongue. But IF we actually are going to be getting material from The Clone Wars, that would make this even more incredible than it surely will already be.
3. An upgrade system?
In describing some of the new gameplay features that The Skywalker Saga will have, McDiarmid mentioned “a brand-new upgrade system.” That’s all the information we have about that, but it feels important. Lego games haven’t had any sort of upgrade or progression system before, but if this means that there will be an element of upgrades that you can do for certain characters or something, that would be interesting. Again, we need more information on this, but that’s the new gameplay feature that really stood out to me.
4. There will be around 800 characters, with 300 playable!!
One of the ways in which this will be the biggest game they’ve ever done is with the characters: McDiarmid revealed that there are around 800 characters total in the game, with around 300 of them playable! He mentioned specifically Yaddle, the Wampa, and Babu Frik, but there are tons more. In case you’re wondering, LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga had 160 playable characters, so this is double that, while LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens had 200 playable characters. That’s really awesome, and it means that there will be plenty of work to do to unlock characters.
5. There are 28 unique locations
Here’s what McDiarmid had to say about the explorable locations:
“There are 23 planets/moons with 28 unique locations that the player can visit, each full of quests, challenges, items, and characters to find. If you have a favourite Star Wars location it’s pretty likely you can visit it in-game. Each of these planets also features a local space where you can take advantage of the many ships you can unlock to get in dogfights and defeat capital ships which, when boarded, reveal even more areas to explore!”
This game will make use of a feature more recent Lego games have had, of having hub locations to explore that have a number of other side quests that are separate from the “mission” levels. It sounds like this game will have plenty of them, and that means that there will be tons of content in this game to keep us playing for a long time, which is great.
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