u/Beamo1080

Over the last few days I’ve been playing two games: Dusk, the recently released PC port of Twilight Princess, and Star Wars Jedi Survivor. In this time it’s occurred to me how much more similar Jedi Survivor is to the older type of Zelda games, particularly Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword, than those games are to the major Switch releases, Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom in particular.

Previously I’d considered it more of a “soulslike” because of its combat and save point structure, but this game has an emphasis on using new abilities for puzzle solving and unlocking the exploration of new areas on the map, a classic Zelda trope. In the main planet which features a fairly large open area reminiscent of Hyrule Field, the player even gets a mount, which is actually primarily used for puzzle solving or to access higher areas.

What strikes me also going back to Twilight Princess is just how much that game focuses on its story. I’d always understood it as a story-driven game but after playing through much of Botw and Totk through their Switch 2 editions, seeing Twilight Princess’s cutscenes rendered in HD 60fps with higher resolution textures reminded me of how much the cinematic nature of this game impacted me as a kid. The plot is not only intriguing with the slow build of a mystery as to who the “king of darkness” really is, but it’s fundamentally a character story about Midna and Link coming to trust each other. Kakariko village may be small in TP in comparison to the big village areas in the Switch games, but each character in TP has more detail written into them by the game’s story focus.

Likewise Jedi Survivor is very story driven, but not in a way that modern games can be overbearing. A game like Red Dead Redemption 2, or Uncharted, can feel like the player is playing some parts up until they get to a cutscene or story section that is basically railroaded and only needs the slightest player input. It’s also not like Botw, where the story is divided into different parts that basically never intersect, leaving the player in a game where they can skip every cutscene and never be confused about what they’re doing next. Jedi Survivor is more like Twilight Princess, where the cutscenes come at impactful times but never too much or not enough. There are plenty of moments in Survivor that echo the immense story driven impact of scenes like King Bulbin storming through Kakariko, where a cutscene directly leads to an intense situation resolved through gameplay.

I’m curious if anyone here has played the Star Wars Jedi series and has made this connection. Jedi Fallen Order felt more like a Metroidvania to me with how linear and separated its level designs were in comparison to its sequel. I’m about 20 hours into Jedi Survivor and so far it’s the best Star Wars game I’ve played and it gives me hope that Zelda as a series will be carried on in spirit.

As one last question, do you think Twilight Princess’s story would’ve been just as enjoyable with voice acting?