Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, the sequel to the third-person action-adventure game, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, will be released on April 28. Here is a detailed recap of the story before picking up the newest installment of Cal Kestis’ journey.
Order 66
Our main character, a young padawan named Cal Kestis is training under Jedi Master Jaro Tapal on a Republic ship presumably headed to Mygeeto. He learns the basics of force, such as force push, force pull, and double jump. However, one day, a typical training session ends in tragedy. Kestis walks to the training grounds as clones, who make up the Grand Republic army, greet him and give him high fives. When he meets with his master, one clone receives a message from the chancellor with the infamous words: “Execute Order 66.”
As we all know, the turning point in Star Wars is Order 66. This is the event that turned all the clones against the Jedi, resulting in the Jedi purge. Tapal defends his padawan but is eventually overwhelmed by clone troopers. He is shot several times in the chest, killing the Jedi master in front of his padawan. In a flurry of emotion, Kestis stops the clones in their tracks with his force-slow ability, then barely gets away in an escape pod.
Out of Hiding
The story picks up five years after Order 66. Specifically, after Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith but before Episode IV: A New Hope. Kestis has been hiding on the junkyard planet Bracca, careful not to reveal his origins to anybody. As a scrapper, he finds components in old wreckage, including Clone War-era vessels, for the Scrapper Guild and sells them to the Empire. Kestis befriends a co-worker named Prauf. He insists that Kestis make something of his life, instead of staying on Bracca as a scrapper like himself. The two became close friends as they worked day in and day out breaking down wreckage.
While on the job, the supports holding up a Star Destroyer broke causing Prauf to fall. Kestis, out of pure adrenaline uses the force to slow Prauf’s fall and save his friend. Prauf now knew Kestis’ secret but vowed never to tell anyone. Unbeknownst to them, an Imperial Probe droid captured the scene, revealing an Order 66 survivor to the Empire.
The Inquisitors are an organization of dark-side force yielders tasked by Darth Vader with eliminating survivors of Order 66 and hunting down force-sensitive children. Upon arriving at Bracca, two Inquisitors, the second and ninth sisters, line up all scrapper employees. In an act of defiance, Prauf speaks up to protect his friend but is struck down by the second sister. As per usual Kestis reacts with rage and tries to kill the inquisitors, but he has forgotten his Jedi training and is no match for the dark side users. After a fight with stormtroopers and the inquisitors, a mysterious ship arrives to pick up Kestis, saving him. Onboard the ship are Cere Junda and Greez Dritus.
The New Mission
Once safe on the ship known as the Mantis, Kestis meets Junda who was a Jedi Knight under Jedi Master Eno Cordova. After the Jedi purge, Junda severed her connection with the force out of fear of giving in to the dark side. She then vowed to secretly rebuild the Jedi order. She found a pilot in Greez Dritus. Since his fairs were cheap and he wasn’t afraid of breaking the law, Junda hired him to help her accomplish her goal. As soon as the two heard about a Jedi on Bracca, they raced to the planet to meet him.
After getting caught up, Junda informs Kestis that her old master Cordova was fascinated with studying Zeffo, an ancient, now-deceased race of force-wielders that slowly succumbed to the dark side. Cordova visited an ancient Zeffo vault on the planet Bogano. To learn anything from the Zeffo or the Holocron her old master left behind, Junda sent Cestis to the vault.
On Bogana Kestis meets BD-1, a small and friendly droid. The two connect instantly and BD-1 joins the crew for the rest of the journey. It’s revealed that BD-1 was actually Cordova’s droid and has valuable Cordova messages locked in its memory. BD-1’s goal was to find someone he believed in and with the connection, his memories would slowly unlock. With BD-1, Kestis enters the Zeffo tomb and learns that Cordova hid a list of force-sensitive children in the Holocron. To unlock the vault holding it, the padawan must find more information from three Zeffo Sage tombs, and thus, the adventure begins.
Identity of the Second Sister
The first tomb, the Tomb of Eliram, is located on Zeffo’s homeworld. Here, Kestis pushes some balls around and finds a holo recording of Cordova. He says the Wookie Chieftten, Tarfful, can help them in their pursuit. The team heads to the famous planet of Kashyyyk but as soon as they land, Kestis gets embroiled in a resistance uprising led by Saw Gerrera against the empire. If you have seen Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, or Star Wars: Rebels then you will recognize Gerrera as a harsh and brutal resistance fighter that often gets labeled as an extremist. Gerrera and his fighters attempted to free the Wookies who were forced to work at a sap refinery. Kestis, like a good Jedi, helped the resistance and frees as many Wookies as he could. With Kestis’ help, the fighters liberate the sap refinery, however, Tarfull is nowhere to be found.
Right when the resistance fighters agreed to find and rescue Tarfull, Kestis received an imperial transmission that the Empire was about to unearth another tomb on Zeffo. Wanting to beat the empire to the Holocron, the Jedi jump on the Mantis, and the team races back to Zeffo. When the team arrives at Zeffo, Kestis gets caught in a trap by the second sister. The two have a lightsaber duel but Kestis is still no match for the dark-side wielder.
He would have died in the fight if BD-1 hadn’t separated the combatants with a laser field. Here, we get the first bombshell of the game. The second sister takes off her mask and reveals her real name is Trilla. She also reveals that she was a Jedi padawan under Cere Junda. Junda was tortured by the Empire and gave up her padawan to save herself. In the wake of the betrayal, Trilla went down the dark path.
After barely surviving the encounter, Kestis encrypts another transmission from Cordova. This transmission reveals they need a device called the Zeffo Astrium to open the vault on Bogano and get the Holocron. With this newfound information, and the desire to confront Junda, Kestis heads back to the Mantis. However, he is captured by a bounty hunter and taken to an unknown location.
Drama On The Mantis
Kestis wakes up in a cell and escapes using force. He finds BD-1 and navigates a large, derelict prison holding monsters you’ve fought throughout the game. Eventually, the Jedi and his droid companion enter an arena, with a bustling crowd around them. In addition, there is a giant hologram of a person standing in front of them. This person introduces himself as Sorc Tormo, who hosts gladiatorial matches with the galaxy’s most fierce creatures.
It turns out Greez Dritus, your pilot, has a history of betting on these fights and owes a debt. As retribution, Tormo kidnaps the Mantis crew and forces Kestis to participate in a deadly gladiatorial-esque rumble. Luckily, after the young Jedi fights some foes, the rest of the Mantis crew ram into the arena with their ship. They pick up Kestis, and escape. After this seemingly random detour, Kestis has a lot to discuss with his crew. One of them lied about paying his debts and the other gave her former apprentice over to the empire.
As expected, tensions are high on the Mantis. Cal confronts Cere about her former padawan, angry that she kept the information secret. However, the dispute is not resolved because they’re interrupted by a transmission from one of Gerrera’s fighters on Kashyyyk. She informs them that Trilla attacked the resistance soldiers on Kashyyk, leaving them decimated, and causing Gerrera to retreat from the world. However, they managed to rescue Tarfull, so the Mantis crew heads back to the forest planet. On the way there, Dritus has a heart-to-heart with Kestis where he apologizes for getting them in trouble with Tormo and confesses that Junda and Kestis joining his ship was the best thing that ever happened to him. Before them, he lived for gambling. Finally, he urges Kestis to cut Junda some slack, saying everyone makes mistakes.
Facing Trauma on Dathomir
On Kashyyk, Tarfull instructs Kestis to climb the Origin Tree where he discovers another clue for his search: The Astrium is located in a tomb on Dathomir. Unfortunately, the ninth sister, who accompanied the second sister when they tried to capture Kestis on Bracca, attacks the Jedi and a battle ensues. Kestis gets the upper hand and force pushes her off the tree, seemingly killing her. Having taken care of the second sister, the crew heads for Dathomir and continues on their hunt.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order takes cues from The Clone Wars animated show when it comes to Dathomir lore. It is the homeworld of the Zabrak, the tattooed and horned species, made famous by Darth Maul. Along with the Zabrak, Dathomir is home to the Nightsisters, a witch clan that uses magick. A dispute between Count Dooku, a now-deceased Sith Lord, and Mother Talzin, clan leader of the Nighsisters, culminated in Count Dooku’s orders to annihilate the Nighsisters. Kestis arrives five years after this turmoil.
On the way to the tomb, a surviving Nighsister appears out of a green mist and announces that Jedi are not welcome on the planet. She materializes Zabrak warriors and disappears. After fighting through the warriors, Kestis comes across a hooded man in a black cloak who definitely is not evil. He identifies himself as a wanderer who studies ancient ruins and warns the Jedi not to enter the tomb. Apparently, according to him, the Nighsister Kestis encountered before is named Merrin and she is corrupted by the evil in the tomb. After a quick gameplay detour, Kestis enters the tomb.
He encounters a vision of his former master, Jaro Tapal, who says his blood is on Kestis’ hands. The vision exposed his regret for not saving his master. The vision is so intense that Kestis screams in agony and his lightsaber is destroyed. On his way out of the tomb, Kestis runs into the hooded man again. He reveals himself as Taron Malicos, a former Jedi who fell to the dark side. In classic Star Wars bad-guy fashion, Malicos tries to persuade Kestis to learn the force from him and invites him into his family. However, Merrin interrupts the conversation. It is revealed that Malicos has told Merrin for years that the Jedi killed her people. However, here he invites a Jedi into his family. The Nightsister raises the dead to attack Malicos and Kestis, forcing our protagonist to leave the planet.
Healing on Dathomir
Back on The Mantis, Kestis breaks down in front of Junda and laments his inability to save his master. In response, Junda finally explains her full story. Sometime after giving her apprentice over to the Empire, she was captured by them and met Trilla face to face. She saw the results of her mistake face to face. The emotions were too much for Junda and she tapped into the dark side killing everyone in the room except Trilla. She tells this story to show Kestis that she can’t change the past just like how he can’t change what happened during Order 66. She encourages Kestis to move on and advises him to build another lightsaber.
The team then heads to IIum an icy planet home to the Crystal Caves. Here, before the purge, all the padawans, guided by the force, collect their lightsaber crystals. BD-1 gives Kestis the motivation to accomplish his goal by revealing that it was their connection, BD-1’s trust in Kestis, that unlocked his memories. So, Kestis builds his own lightsaber by combining components of Tapal’s and Cere’s lightsaber hilt. With newfound confidence, Kestis travels back to Dathomir.
Back on the red planet, Kestis confronts the vision of his former master again. This time, though, Kestis is able to remain calm, realizing that he must accept what happened and move on. He learns to forgive himself for not protecting his master and realizes that failure is a part of life. Upon the character’s growth, the tomb path opens up and the padawan is one step closer to the Astrium.
After venturing further into the tomb, Merrin approaches Kestis; this time without violent intent. The two reveal the truth of their respective tribes. Merrin learns that the Jedi were actually peacekeepers who were betrayed by the people they protected and Kestis learns that Merrin might be the last of her kind. Now with mutual understanding, the two decide to take on Malicos. After a hard-fought battle, the fallen Jedi is defeated. Together, they find the Astrium, and Kestis accepts Merrin’s request to join his crew. Finally, the team has everything they need to return to Bogano and retrieve the Holocron.
The Final Decision
Kestis unlocks the vault and grabs the Holocron, but is engulfed in a nightmarish vision. The crew found all the force-sensitive children and Kestis was training them. It looks like Junda’s dream of rebuilding the Jedi Order may become a reality. However, the pretty picture is suddenly clouded when the Empire shows up and slaughters the young ones. Then, the vision jumps to another point in time and Kestis is an inquisitor, implying that he turned to the dark side after his padawans were killed. Then the vision changes to Cere and Trilla being tortured by the Empire. Shocked, Kestis awakens from the vision only to face Trilla in the flesh. After a brief battle, she takes the Hologron and escapes.
Kestis races to the Mantis, tells Junda that he saw her getting tortured, and apologizes for how foolish he was to get upset with her. When Junda learns that Trilla has the Hologron, she blames herself for setting Trilla down this dark path. Kestis reminds Junda of what he learned about failure from her: that it is a part of life and we must learn to move on. Upon seeing how much Kestis has grown, Junda knights Kestis. Now that he is officially a Jedi Knight, the team travels to the Fortress Inquisitorius to find Trilla and get the Hologron back.
Fortress Inquisitorius is a huge underwater fortress that serves as the inquisitor’s base of operations. As the Mantis crew approaches the fortress, Merrin cloaks the ship with Magick and they can enter undetected. Junda and Kestis fight their way through the fortress and catch up with Trilla. After finally defeating her, Kestis takes the Holocron, and Junda can apologize to Trilla face to face. The conversation, though, is cut short when deep and ominous breathing echoes across the room.
The current Sith Lord, Darth Vader appears and kills Trilla then tosses Junda off a platform. With the Holocron in his hand and knowing he is no match for Vader, Kestis runs for his life. Eventually, Vader catches up to him, but Junda appears and creates a force field between them and the Sith Lord. To escape, Kestis force pushes the glass wall of the underwater fortress, causing water to rush in. The two barely escape.
Back on the Mantis, the crew look at the Holocron trying to decide what to do now. Kestis, realizing all the trouble he suffered as a Jedi survivor and remembering his vision of the children’s death, decides to destroy the Holocron. It may jeopardize the future Jedi Council, but it ensures that no one will know about the force-sensitive children, keeping them safe from the Empire’s clutches.
That’s where Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order ends. Kestis’ journey will continue with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor when the sequel launches on April 28 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
