In Amy Hennig's Opinion, JEDI: FALLEN ORDER Is "Demonstration Of A Change Of Strategy For EA"

Unlike EA's last two Respawn's Star Wars video games, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is a single-player-only, story-driven experience that will reportedly be focused on the core gameplay, allowing the player to take part in something that is a little bit more organically correct than DICE's Battlefront titles.

In an interview with Eurogamer, Director Amy Hennig, the woman responsible for bringing the Uncharted and Legacy of Kain series to life, shared her initial thoughts on the Fallen Order reveal at last week's Star Wars Celebration. Given that her Project Ragtag, which she was working on for at least a couple of years at Visceral Games, was canceled by EA in October 2017, you would probably expect that she wouldn't try to hide her strong opinions on the company, but the truth is a bit more complex.

"[It's] odd!" Hennig said. "I have to be candid with you. I mean, it's coming from the EA Star Wars Twitter handle, so it's certainly part of the plan, but I don't know whether it's implicitly referencing previous comments they made after our project was killed?" As a reminder, EA announced that the game won't have any microtransactions mere hours before SWJ:FO's reveal at the Celebration.
 
"There is so much change in this industry all the time. Over the course of my time at EA, we were back and forth on what the overall publishing corporation wanted. Everybody's trying to figure out what the right path is. I also think Respawn's game has the benefit of being largely developed before they were acquired. It is a protected entity, and Vince [Zampella] makes very sure - because he's part of the executive team at EA, he can protect the interests of Respawn," Hennig added.
 
"This is all speculation on my part, I don't know why the change of heart happened, because that was very clearly not an acceptable plan when we were working on Ragtag," Hennig continued. "But you know, things change. [The decision to cancel Ragtag] was made in summer 2017. We found out in October 2017. So that's almost two years ago, and a lot has changed in that time, and there's been a pretty public and vocal backlash against the idea gamers don't want single-player finite games without all these extra modes. Of course they do, of course we do. So maybe this is just a demonstration of a change of strategy for EA."
 
"And you've got to understand there's been huge changes in management there since all of this happened as well. Both Patrick Soderlund and Jade Raymond have left in the meantime, and Laura Miele, who was the franchise general manager for Star Wars when I joined, is now in Patrick's role. So I don't have any insider knowledge, but there's a lot of reasons they could have adopted a new attitude for this. And I'm glad for Respawn's sake, because I'm excited about their game, and I've heard great things about it."
 
As for Ragtag, the game that was "too linear" for EA bosses without any multiplayer modes and online play, "I had to take what I'd figured out [for Uncharted] in terms of deconstructing pulp adventure, and say alright, Star Wars is also in that category, but it has certain things that are distinct, or at least distinct from our core inspiration which was of course Indiana Jones," Hennig said.

"And one of those things, and I've talked about this before, is you stay with Indiana Jones the whole time, the other characters are side characters - they're companions, they're important to the story, but they're not co-protagonists, it's not really an ensemble in the classic sense. When we think about ensembles, we think about heist films, caper films, Where Eagle's Dare, Dirty Dozen, Von Ryan's Express. All of these films are about this ragtag - hence the codename! - group of individuals who have to come together."
 
"The roadmap originally when I joined, when I was working with Lucasfilm - a lot of it back then was top secret, the saga films, the standalone films and where they were going to fall, the animated TV series building towards the live action TV series, and the games. And all of this stuff playing together, interlocking in this new canon. It was very cool to think this game we were working on was just as relevant as the films, particularly the standalone films because that's the best analogy, that it was being treated just as seriously, and that we were working through the story and all the original material we were creating for that reason," Hennig explained.
 
"It's disappointing not to be able to share the game we were developing, because I think it was really cool and pretty compelling," Ragtag Director concluded. According to various reports, Ragtag would tell a story that takes place just before the events of The Empire Strikes Back, with Todd Stashwick playing a character nicknamed ‘Dodger," the titular ragtag who dodged the draft into Imperial service, living on his home world of Alderaan amidst the ‘terrorists’ that blew up the first Death Star.

In Fallen Order, you play as Cal Kestis, a never-before-seen character portrayed by Cameron Monaghan (Gotham’s Joker) who has managed to survive Order 66, the brutal Jedi purge that took place right after Supreme Chancellor Palpatine became the Emperor. Be sure to take a look at the title below:

Cal Kestis—one of the last surviving members of the Jedi Order after the purge of Order 66—is now a Padawan on the run. Experience this all-new single-player Star Wars story from Respawn Entertainment and EA Star Wars on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC this holiday season. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is an action-adventure game set after Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith. Develop your Force abilities, hone your lightsaber techniques, and explore the ancient mysteries of a long-lost civilization—all while staying one step ahead of the Empire and its deadly Inquisitors.