Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is the next big AAA game that Respawn Entertainment is working on. From everything shown of it at this year’s E3 press conference, it looks to be taking the franchise in a fun direction.
We’ve seen open-world environments for players to explore and a bevy of fun tactical moves to master. An emphasis is also being put on the story, which should immerse players in this world and make them that much more eager to find out what’s in store for their Jedi.
Speaking of the Jedi heavily featured in this game, he’s a human named Cal Kestis. The choice of adding a male human as the protagonist is getting a lot of attention as of late. In a world full of various intergalactic species, many fans of the series are scratching their heads about the choice.
To give a little explanation as to why they chose a male protagonist, the director of the game — Stig Asmussen — sat down and gave insights on their decisions. According to him, they initially thought about choosing an alien race. It would take the series in a novel direction and perhaps give fans new backstories and lore to sink their teeth into.
Yet, the developers kept coming back to a male human. They felt that by choosing an alien race, the game would alienate a huge number of gamers that are picking up this game on November 15, 2019.
Choosing a male lead makes sense in a lot of ways. Players themselves are human and playing as a human helps create a sort of connection. You can empathize with your character’s plight because of this shared connection.
Male leads are pretty much the standard with most video games that come out to date. You can’t really blame the developers for taking this direction, either. It’s a safe move that rarely ever gets much flack.
The fact that this game is set in the Star Wars universe and the lead is a human sets it up for polarization. Even still, Cal seems like a serviceable character. Not everyone will agree with this, but he sort of has that every-man hero vibe to him. It’s not the boldest direction from Respawn Entertainment, but Cal should resonate a lot with gamers today.
Hopefully, Respawn gets a little bolder as far as this game’s story and character progression. If they do, then it wouldn’t be surprising to see this upcoming game sell really well out of the gate.
