Why I’ll Never Play Jedi Fallen Order Again
By: Rashawn Ganues
Tags: Gaming Culture, PlayStation 4, Family, Videogames, Gaming

Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order

Over a year ago my twelve year old son bought the Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order video game. As a proud gamer and dad, I would listen in as he would be frantically button mashing to use force powers and swing his lightsaber to defeat enemies as the games protagonist Cal Kestis. In true Star Wars fashion he escaped evil and is on a journey through the galaxy to become a hero. Sometimes I would even find excuses to go in his room just to watch him play and provide veteran gamer tips. We both aren’t die hard Star Wars fans but have always been captivated by that “Star Wars Magic”. Either way he loved the game but there was one thing he didn't like and it was the way progess is saved.

In most games today you can save your progess into the game at almost every second. This allows you to make as many mistakes as you want and still be able to come right back to or restart your most recent encounter. It’s a very convenient feature for most players and allows a forgiving game experience. In this particular game that is not the case. In order to save progress you have to find checkpoints throughout the game known as “meditation circles” which are located throughout the map. If your character is defeated you will restart at the last checkpoint which usually is pretty far away or takes a decent amount of time for you to return to your last encounter. Very inconvenient.

One day about three weeks into the game all of his frantic button mashing came to an end. I would casually go into his room and ask “No Star Wars today?” and would receive a defeated respone of “No”. One day he finally let me know he was stuck at a part deep into the game and have given up all hope. I was so confused. How could he just give up? Then remembered I had been there many times as a kid his age. Sometimes I gave up forever and sometimes I came back weeks later on a mission to succeed at all costs.

A year later he never returned to the game but it showed up on Black Friday at Gamestop for a reasonable price. My son is an Xbox player and I’m a PlayStation player so I figured I would buy the game on PlayStation and try my luck. If I beat the game I would have bragging rights but could also turn it into a lesson about experience and patience. If I didn’t beat the game I would be fine with the discounted price I paid.

I tried the game the first day and everything was great. There were puzzles, big worlds, and of course lightsaber battles. My son would return the favor of finding excuses to come see how I was doing and pass on his advice. Then I got to the second planet Zeffo, which for anyone that has played the game, lets just say it’s fairly early on. No matter how hard I tried, things just wouldn’t go my way. I was beaten, and beaten, and beaten some more. All to start all over again even further away. Very demoralizing. I did this over and over for about two days. Each time getting just a little further. Then I reached my breaking point. My frustration reached an all time high that I hadn’t felt for years. I could no longer relive this: live, die, repeat cycle. At that moment I did what any sane person would do. I turned off the game deleted any trace of it from my PS4 and vowed to never play it again. That night I went to my son’s room gave him a hug, told him what I did, and told him I love him as we compared notes on how much we would never play that game again.