Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Won't Have Dismemberment... Because Disney

Will the combat still feel punchy enough?

by Ewan Paterson
Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order Hero
EA

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has just finished a solid debut at this year's E3, and while it seems as though Respawn saved the best details for behind the scenes, one thing fans all seem to agree on is that the combat looks pretty great.

EA's first Star Wars game with a lightsaber focus, Fallen Order's combat looks punchy, weighty and methodical. Be that as it may, some fans were mildly concerned at the fact protagonist Cal Kestis wasn't cleaving his enemies in half, severing limbs and just generally doing lightsaber-y things with his laser sword. The old Jedi Knight titles all featured dismemberment, and the mechanic was most recently scene 2010's The Force Unleashed 2, with neither entries in DICE's Battlefront reboot showcasing Jedi chopping Stormtroopers to pieces.

Instead, Fallen Order opts for a middle ground. Your lightsaber isn't the glorified glow-stick of yesteryear, but when it makes contact with Stormtroopers they all remain intact. Some may come to see this either as a nice middle-ground, or an annoying step down when comparing the title to Raven's older Star Wars games from the early 2000s. Either way it's a change, and it's one Respawn have now addressed.

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Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order Combat
EA

According to IGN, the reason for Fallen Order's toned down violence is specifically because Disney requested it not to feature dismemberment of any kind. According to the article, players will be able to lop the limbs off droids and creatures, but not any humanoids. IGN also spoke to Tatyana Drewry Carvin, a story artist working on Season 7 of The Clone Wars, and it appears to be an edict Disney have applied to all Star Wars properties.

"One of the rules we were given was to always hide the cut in case of decapitation. And never show blood... The burn of the lightsaber is supposed to cauterize it instantly."

So, there you have it. Fallen Order won't feature any dismemberment... because Disney. The combat for Fallen Order still looks great of course, but hiding the consequences of wielding a lightsaber seems slightly antithetical to what Respawn are aiming for with the title. Here's hoping it all comes together November 15.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.