Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order adds cosmetics, combat and more in update

True to form, May the Fourth 2020 brought Star Wars fans a slew of new content and teasers of content to come – The Rise of Skywalker debuted on Disney+; viewers said farewell to The Clone Wars in an explosive and gut-wrenching series finale; Taika Waititi was announced as the director for an unnamed future feature film.

And for gamers, EA announced a sprawling update to its hit 2019 title Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

For veterans of the game who were hoped there might be extra challenges post-game, never fear: a new Meditation Training mode has been added, accessed via the many meditation checkpoints scattered throughout the game's explorable planets.

In this new combat suite, Cal Kestis will be able to battle enemies, including bosses, in two different modes: combat challenges and the battle grid.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has become famous for its obvious nods to games that came before in terms of gameplay – most notably the Dark Souls and Uncharted franchises, and to a lesser extent, the Arkham series of Batman games.

The game has expanded its similarities to the acclaimed Arkham series in the combat challenges mode, which pits Cal against waves of enemies across multiple planetary backdrops from across the galaxy, including the Imperial stronghold Fortress Inquisitorius, the setting of the game's final act.

EA says each location will feature its own unique challenges, and just like the arcade mode in Batman Arkham City, each challenge will have different numbers of waves and will have a three-star completion rating.

The challenges were designed for 'veteran players', according to EA, to be tackled when Cal is at his strongest.

Beating the challenges will reward the player with stars, which can be used to unlock three new skins for Cal's droid pal, BD-1. 

This next mode is much more customisable and is essentially a sandbox for players to create their own encounters.

Players can choose the location, the size of the encounter they want to face, tinker with various difficulty modifiers, and set the overall combat difficulty to one of the four difficulty levels.

In this mode, Cal can duel characters seen in his dark visions, including his old master Jaro Tapal.

Perhaps the number one request from fans, players can now replay the game after reaching its end, carrying over the cosmetic upgrades, like lightsaber parts and ponchos, into a new game.

But don't expect to possess the upgraded force-powers you learn throughout your first playthrough in NJ+, as this would completely negate the premise of the game's plot, which sees Cal grow and recover from the trauma of Order 66 through rediscovering himself and his force powers.

A final touch for those more attuned to the dark side of the force was also included – NJ+ also features a whole new outfit, depicting Cal as an Inquisitor, complete with a scarlet kyber crystal for a blood-red lightsaber.

Along with these new features, EA has also patched some new accessibility features into the game, such as text scaling and options to avoid button-mashing for quick-time events.

It has also improved some combat bugs, focusing on parrying and blocking, as well as the overall responsiveness of gameplay.

Have fun, and may the force be with you!