This is the VULKK.com review of LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. I’m giving you my own impressions of the game’s level and character design, story, freedom, gameplay features and an overall final thought if and why you should play this title. It does contain a few elements of a “Beginners Guide” to help you learn how certain elements work or what they are for.
Note about possible spoilers: This review contains some light spoilers. It does mention characters, environments and even a few other things that some might consider spoilers. I firmly believe that the article will only help you make a decision and not ruin your experience. We all know what happens in Star Wars after all.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is a refreshing approach to the Star Wars franchise. A goofy sense of humor, healthy mockery of some memorable moments and epic fights will fill you with nostalgia and steal a laugh out of you. But don’t fool yourself, there are many things in this game that are far from perfect.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga was something that thousands of gamers and fans were eagerly waiting for. A complete playthrough of the nine episodes, new stunning visuals, and developers mentioning it would be an incredible experience made waiting for the release so frustrating after the game’s multiple delays.
After what felt like an eternity, on April 5th, I finally got my hands on the Deluxe Edition for the Nintendo Switch. Though, it’s also available for Xbox, PS 5, and Steam. I’m not someone who buys into the hype of games that easily, but for this one, I was very excited (for better or worse).
I took my time to play and explore as much as I could before emitting an opinion, here are my thoughts and experience.
Level design
The first thing that you see when starting the game is a trailer that includes scenes, dialogues and characters from all nine episodes, after a minute they all come together as if they were going to take a group picture. Not knowing what to expect from the game, I got enthusiastic after this small intro.
The levels are beautifully designed, every one of them is packed with tons of details, creatures, proper lighting, textures and sounds. As you walk through every scenario you’ll encounter easter eggs, clever jokes, NPCs that run away if you start shooting, and an incredible amount of side quests.
I lost count of how many times I just wanted to ignore the main mission and just explore the map. TT games did an incredible job capturing the essence and qualities of almost every location.
One of the things that I enjoyed the most is how immersive the whole experience is. Everywhere you go, you actually feel like you are in a Star Wars game. Every dialogue, ambient sound, character, structure, plant and animal was placed carefully to create a scenario that absorbs you for hours.
The cherry on top is how perfectly timed the music is, every time you go to a different location the music will instantly change to fit the moment. Star Wars’ music is a very important part of the experience and they did a good job with it.
Missions and Story Accuracy
Free Play gives you the possibility to use and switch any character in the game at any given moment. Do you want to fight Jango Fett as Boba or face Darth Vader as the all-mighty Wicket? Then this is for you.
I have to admit that being able to play as anyone at any given time increased the fun I had. But before jumping into Free Play you must complete the game in Story Mode.
Story Mode is pretty self-explanatory, you can start playing by selecting the first episode of each trilogy, I, IV and VII. Only after finishing them, you’ll be able to play the next ones, not the biggest fan of the idea but I understand why they want you to play them in (relative) order.
I decided to play it in chronological order. As I progressed through the story, I noticed some scenes and dialogues were cut off or mixed. I know it was done to “save” some time while still having congruent storytelling.
But, I didn’t like feeling that some parts were too rushed. I want to see the scene as it was displayed in the movie, having two scenes mixed together is a big no for me. As someone who has seen the movies endless times, I was disappointed.
There are several memorable moments in the movies and they stayed true to the majority of them. My favorite ones were the Boonta Eve race in Episode I, the all-time classic Battle of Hoth and the last stand of the Resistance in Exegol. I’m not saying these are the only good ones but are certainly the ones that gave me the most fun.
Side missions are important for progression and push you to continue exploration after you finish the main story. Every character with a side mission has a background story that increases the immersion and cohesion of the game. You won’t have to look for many minutes before encountering one. Completing them will grant you studs, kyber bricks and even characters. I haven’t played all of them, but so far, my favorite side mission is the one that allowed me to fight a Krayt Dragon. If you also want to face it, talk to Yaddle in Coruscant.
The amount of content is unbelievable, you’ll spend dozens of hours or even hundreds grinding before you complete 100% of the game, especially if you enjoy goofing around like myself.
If you play straight through the main story levels without “distracting” yourself, you’d have completed roughly around 37-43%.
Combat and Boss Fights
There are many ways to approach a fight, you can go full berserker mode with a force user and crush every one of your enemies, manipulate them to turn on each other or throw everything you find at them.
If you prefer ranged characters, sniping them down is a good way to practice your accuracy. Headshots are a thing on this game so your sharp-shooter abilities will be rewarded.
I was surprised by the amount of combat animations and combos that characters are able to perform, lightsaber ones are particularly flashy! Even if it’s a cartoonish game, there’s room for skill expression and that is something that matters to a lot of players.
The space combat is fun but bland, there are many ships to choose from. All of them are easy to maneuver so it really comes down to which one you like the most. I have to say that the best space battles happen on story mode, the Death Star is the best example of it.
As you explore the space you’ll be able to encounter different types of enemy ships but all the battles are pretty much the same, I’m a little disappointed that TT Games didn’t give us more options than just eliminating all enemy ships.
If I counted right, there are 33 boss fights in this game, that’s a pretty good amount. Not all of them are as “difficult” as others, lots of them are more like mini-bosses but they are still presented as boss fights.
My favorite boss fight was Darth Maul by far, it brought me memories of the old Star Wars: Jedi Power Battles. Fighting and defeating him multiple times as you progress through the Theed generator room was so fun. Sadly, this is not the case for the majority of boss fights.
Most of the bosses share the same types of attacks; a straight line dash, an aoe strike, an unstoppable combo or a projectile are the most common ones. Lots of the boss fights felt tedious, with repetitive mechanics, close spaces and few ways to interact with your surroundings.
I also don’t agree with some of the choices they made, not being able to battle Palpatine as Windu but having to fight Jabba as R2-D2 left me confused and disappointed. Though, the good fights compensate for the boring ones. Other fights that I really enjoyed were the Praetorian Guards, the battle arena of Geonosis, Jabba’s Rancor and Emperor Palpatine on Return of the Jedi.
Should you play solo or co-op
Playing solo vs. co-op shouldn’t be a hard decision. If you have someone to play with, do it. I experienced much more fun playing with my sister as opposed to playing on my own. There are lots of things you can do playing with a friend, reaching certain places, racing on the Boonta Eve or laugh at each other when both die in a silly way.
There is only one big negative thing about playing co-op, which is that some boss fights had to introduce a filler character to aid the first player. I’ll use the example of Anakin vs. Obi-Wan fight on Mustafar. Player one is having an epic lightsaber duel while the second player is watching from the distance with either R2-D2 or C-3PO, “helping” the other player by activating terminals. This isn’t common but it still happens a few times and it’s a bummer that one player completely misses the action on important moments.
Characters
There are almost 400 hundred characters to play. Most of them are locked and you need to encounter them in the story before being able to play them.
It’s worth mentioning that even completing the level where the character appears does not guarantee that you unlock it, this mainly applies to secondary characters. I normally wouldn’t mind it but 380 is a bit too much for me. I’ll probably just try to get my favorite ones.
The roster of characters is a bit controversial. Some people are mad that they included Mama the Hutt or Porkins and not Captain Rex. Personally, I’m salty that there’s no Jedi Temple Guard, but this game is about the movies and not the animated series. However, we’re getting character packs from The Bad Batch and The Mandalorian! Perhaps Clone Wars fans will get some love in the future.
Characters are divided into 9 types of different classes; Jedi, Protocol Droid, Astromech Droid, Dark Side, Villain, Scoundrel, Bounty Hunter, Scavenger and Hero.
All classes have different abilities and perks that make them useful in different situations, particularly when it comes to gathering the collectibles of the game.
Collectibles and Extra Features
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Legacy is all about collectibles. Minikits have been a part of the LEGO Star Wars games since the beginning. Collecting them all grants you in-game content, however, you are only able to get all of them after unlocking the Free Play Option. This is because you need certain characters with different abilities to access certain spots where the Minikits are located.
Kyber bricks allow you to upgrade your character’s abilities, but just like the Minikits and Datacards, you need to find them first. The good news is that they are everywhere, in space, on every battlefield or under a rock (literally). Even if they’re everywhere there are over one thousand kyber bricks so it won’t be that fast to collect them all.
Datacards are small cards that are spread across all levels, they’re needed to unlock funny modes like the lightsaber baguettes. Collecting them or not has no impact on the story but if you are a “completionist” then you’ll certainly need them. Finding them isn’t hard but you need to invest a decent amount of time to get the 19 datacards. Some of them are hidden in hard-to-reach places and others are in almost too obvious locations.
Extras are modifiers that can be obtained with Datacards or using your studs (in-game currency) to buy them. Cantina music in the background, a Porg companion or civilians as GNK power droids are some of the features included in the extras.
Cheat codes allow you to unlock two different ships and eighteen characters. The most remarkable ones are Aayla Secura, Dengar, Tarkin, Shaak Ti, the Razor Crest and holiday special versions of Darth Vader, Chewbacca and C-3PO. As you can tell, they made sure to give us many ways to unlock content and I love it.
The menu is all but intuitive, it is loaded with a bunch of stuff that the game doesn’t explain to you. Having two “main menus” with their respective sub-menus can be overwhelming for the casual player or someone who doesn’t have previous notions about the game. It’s not the end of the world, but a game that is more on the casual side of the balance should have a menu that is clear for everyone, experienced players or not.
It’s just a little buggy
Modern games are filled with bugs, sadly this isn’t the exception. There are a lot of bugs reported in forums and social media, but I can only speak for myself. I encountered only 2 game-breaking bugs. The first one was the most frustrating because I had only been playing for 10-15 minutes.
Just as I was going to finish Episode’s I first level, as Obi-Wan approaches the final door, the game simply crashed. Out of curiosity I tried to recreate the crash and succeeded 3 times out of 3. To be able to continue I simply had Qui-Gon walk through the door and kept Obi-Wan as far as possible from it (co-op mode). There’s a bug that allows players to recreate 31 copies of a character, I find that so hilarious.
The second one happened in the Maul fight, there’s a spot where you can lift a container to cross to the other side. Well, I fell and my character never died, Qui-Gon just kept falling into a never-ending abyss. Honestly, it was very funny and I laughed for like 5 minutes.
Watching him become a very very small spot in a black screen was hilarious, but it is not something that should be happening and it can ruin the experience for other people.
Overall thoughts
This game gave me mixed emotions. I have always considered LEGO: Star Wars games as “casual games” that you pick when you just want to have a good time. But some elements give me the impression that you need to grind for a good number of hours, nothing compared to an MMO but I still find it odd. By no means I’m complaining, I will try to complete 100% of the game because it’s very fun.
The gameplay is solid, you have room to experiment and try all kinds of stuff without being punished, especially in terms of combat. There isn’t a difficulty option and there is no limit on how many times you can die. I’m fine with this but I know some gamers are all about completing games on the hardest difficulty.
Some parts of the game are extremely detailed and you can tell how much love was put into this game, which makes it even stranger when other parts of the game (scenes, dialogues and fights) feel rushed or even incomplete.
The amount of playable characters is absurd (in a good way), I can’t imagine how much work it took to give every character; walking, fighting, jumping animations, fully voiced dialogue or alternate appearances. I probably won’t try all of them but I’m grateful that they went above and beyond to give us so many options.
LEGO: Star Wars: The Skywalker Legacy is a perfect game to play with your friends or family. Despite its flaws, you’ll still have a good time re-living your favorite Star Wars moments with the characteristic sense of humor that the LEGO games provide. I don’t know how much I’ll play after I complete it 100%, for the time being, I’m going to enjoy it as much as possible. If you haven’t played a LEGO Star Wars game I think this is a perfect opportunity to experience one for the first time, you may not like it due to x or y reasons, but I definitely think it is worth a shot.
Have you played it yet? What are your thoughts? Do you agree or disagree with something that I said?
