Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order teased the potential that it could have with an elaborate NPC companion system. Players accompanied Cere Junda and Greez Dritus across the galaxy aboard the Stinger Mantis, and recruiting Fallen Order’s Nightsister Merrin and a Bogling at the end felt like a step in the right direction for having new crew members come along. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor seemingly abandons the Mantis as the player’s hub, substituting it for Koboh’s town hub and cantina, but one companion improvement the sequel introduces should influence God of War Ragnarok’s own sequel.
God of War Ragnarok and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order share few similarities, but a trend in modern AAA gaming seems to be the inclusion of NPC companions who not only accompany players as conversationalists but also as combatants. Fallen Order has BD-1 with the player at almost all times, but otherwise there is not a fully fledged companion system like Survivor has. God of War Ragnarok demonstrates how important companions could be in the series’ future, and Survivor’s tag-team takedown animations would be great to see between Kratos and other characters.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Features Companion Takedowns
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has shown combat that allows both Cal Kestis and his current NPC companion to attack an enemy in a tag-team takedown. Indeed, Survivor may not be as lonesome as presumed with companion characters Merrin and Bode Akuna, and both characters have their own animations for collaborative takedowns that seem to be active finishers while a companion is nearby.
Fallen Order had Merrin aid Cal in Taron Malicos’ boss fight on Dathomir, but it will be incredible to see her fight alongside Cal in actual combat as a dedicated companion, rather than only seeing her attack intermittently from the sidelines. It is still unclear what Bode’s role in Survivor is, such as whether he can be fully trusted or not, but it is still exciting to see that companion tag-team takedowns will be available with multiple characters.
Many games with NPC companions like this sort of satisfying synchronicity, which likely peaked in Batman: Arkham Knight’s own Dual Play system - something Gotham Knights players missed out on without companion NPCs - that lets players swap between characters and have combo-led takedown animations between them. Either way, Survivor’s own implementation of NPC companion is a feature all modern action games could learn from.
God of War Ragnarok’s Sequel Will Likely Feature More NPC Companions
God of War having Atreus at Kratos’ hip was phenomenal for storytelling, though spamming arrow fire on enemies was only a limited taste of what an NPC companion could offer to the franchise. Then, God of War Ragnarok buffed that out further with many more NPC companions who all contributed something unique to combat, even if that was only expressed through a dynamic ability that a previous companion lacked.
God of War Ragnarok’s New Game Plus update improved Niflheim’s Sparring Arena, which now allows players to choose their preferred companion match-up, and fans could easily take this and Ragnarok’s narrative to assume that the franchise’s next installments will also emphasize NPC companions in combat. If so, it would be excellent to see Kratos and Freya juggling an enemy in a takedown animation, for example.
Knowing how many abilities and weapons Kratos has, there could be any number of fun animation permutations conceived between him and another character, let alone Atreus and another character wherever he ends up. Takedown animations are not necessary for NPCs to be satisfying in combat, but it would seem like a logical next step that Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is right to have capitalized on.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor launches on April 28, 2023, for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.