LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Sagahas a pretty intimidating task ahead of it: adapt not three, not six, but nineStar Warsmovies into one huge video game.LEGO Star Warsand theLEGOseries of licensed games have done some big things on a whole, butLEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Sagais undoubtedly on a whole other level. Traveller’s Tales claims that the game will include a staggering 45 levels, with 5 levels for each of the nine movies, bringing the entire core franchise together in oneLEGOgame. Traveller’s Tales has been making these games for long enough that spirits remain high among fans, but a massive project is a massive project.
The sheer scale ofLEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Sagabegs some organizational questions. How exactly are the game’s 45 levels distributed? In terms of physical location, the multi-planet galactic overworld has plenty of room forThe Skywalker Saga’s level entry points, but how does Traveller’s Tales plan on splitting up the stories? Although it doesn’t sound like a huge change,LEGO Star Warsgoing from 6 levels per movie to 5 levels per movie makes a world of difference. In order to capture the totality ofeachStar Warsmovie’s plot,The Skywalker Sagamay need to make some significant changes toLEGO Star Wars' traditional structure.
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Comparing Skywalker Saga to Early LEGO Star Wars
At the beginning ofLEGO Star Wars' lifespan, six chapters or levels per movie seemed to do the trick when it came to storytelling.LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game,which adapted the prequel trilogy, used the structure first. It narrowed down each movie to about six major story beats, then made levels out of them and tied them together with cutscenes bridging the gap between the events of each episode.LEGO Star Wars 2: The OriginalTrilogyrepeated the structure to such success that the ensuingLEGO Star Wars: The Complete Sagasimply compiled all the levels of the previous twoLEGO Star Warsgames and updated them slightly.
All of this is to say thatLEGOgames are very comfortable dividing storiesinto six levels. OtherLEGOfranchises often use the same structure, and evenLEGO Star Wars 3: The Clone Warsdivided episodes fromStar Wars: The Clone Warsinto groups of six.The Skywalker Saga’s decision to drop down to five levels from six is a fundamental shift inLEGO Star Wars' storytelling structure.The Skywalker Sagadoesn’t have the luxury of reusing previous levels likeThe Complete Sagadid. On the contrary, it has to pare down the overarchingStar Warsstory quite a bit.
The most obvious solution toThe Skywalker Saga’s chapter problem is to just drop a chapter from each previousLEGOversion of each movie. However, that structure doesn’t work for every movie. For example,theLEGOversion ofRevenge of the Sithcould do without the Kashyyyk level, since that’s only a minor part of the film itself, butThe Empire Strikes Back’sLEGOversion is a little short on levels that could be stripped forThe Skywalker Saga.It also doesn’t help thatLEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakensbroke that single movie up into ten chapters, not six. Traveller’s Tales will have to get creative if it wants to make five chapters work for every movie.
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How The Skywalker Saga Could Address Its Chapters
Perhaps the most obvious possibility available toThe Skywalker Sagais to make use of its overworld.The Skywalker Sagabills itselfin large part on its sprawling, heavily detailed overworld that’s full of things to do. In order to strip down the story elements contained within chapters,The Skywalker Sagamight have special one-time events that take place in the overworld while the player is progressing through the plot. Since players are going to spend so much time in the game’s overworld anyway, plot-relevant events would be a great way to get fans accustomed to navigating it. The aforementionedRevenge of the Sithchapter on Kashyyyk is a great example of a level that could be reduced to a quick battle and a puzzle that unlocks the next chapter in that movie.
Another solution would simply be to makeThe Skywalker Saga’s levels longer thanpreviousLEGO Star Warslevelsare on average. For example, previousLEGOadaptations ofReturn of the Jedifeature two Endor levels: one representing the speeder chase there, and another representing the attack on the Imperial Base on Endor’s forest moon. These plot points are separate enough to deserve distinct levels, but inThe Skywalker Saga’s case, they could also be stitched together into one big chapter about the Battle of Endor with an extended cutscene in the middle. Such long levels could be a little cumbersome for aLEGOgame, butThe Skywalker Saga’s implied overworld scale might make longer levels feel more appropriate than usual.
The Skywalker Saga Defines LEGO Storytelling
Whenever any franchise undergoes major changes, there’s bound to be growing pains.LEGO Star Warsis already going through some pains,asThe Skywalker Saga’s repeated delays indicate. It could face some more in the future once fans finally get their hands on the game. It’s always possible that someStar Warsfans will take issue with how Traveller’s Tales truncates the franchise’s overarching story for the purposes ofThe Skywalker Saga.However, it’s a necessary risk; 45 chapters is already a massive undertaking for Traveller’s Tales, which traditionally makesLEGOgames with well under 30 levels. The last thing it needs is to aim for a whopping 54 chapters inThe Skywalker Saga.
Although there are risks involves inThe Skywalker Saga’s shorter movie adaptations, there’s also plenty to gain. Whatever creative ways Traveller’s Tales uses to tell theStar Warsstory in sufficient detail with fewer levels at hand will give the studio valuable experience in developing the nextLEGOgame. Fans already know thatLEGO Star Warsis growingin some important departments, like the overworld and the combat system. It’s only natural that theLEGOgame franchise evolves its means of storytelling at the same time. Whatever Traveller’s Tales chooses to do inThe Skywalker Saga,it’ll be helpful and informative as it decides the overarchingLEGOfranchise’s future.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Sagareleases in Spring 2022 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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