With the official announcement of an April 5th release date for Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, developer, TT Games has also released a brand-new gameplay trailer. This new trailer demonstrates a whole host of new and innovative ideas and mechanics that fans of both Star Wars and the Lego games are sure to enjoy.
This trailer came after a series of delays and even released amidst a development crunch scandal. Nevertheless, it has done a great job at getting fans excited about the game's updated graphics and gameplay direction as well as new (and in some cases returning) features, of which there are plenty to discuss.
8 Mumble Mode
Rather than speak a real language, Lego characters would make unintelligible mumbling sounds in the earlier titles. This led to hilariously over-the-top comedic moments that served to tell or retell a story with only miming and grunting (and some silly props for added effect). This ended up being something fans would miss upon its removal in favor of full-on voice acting starting with Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes.
With Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, mumbling is being added back into the series as a toggleable feature. While it remains to be seen if cutscenes will be animated in an accommodating fashion, fans of the old mumble-style Lego games are sure to get a kick out of its long-awaited return.
7 Greater Open World
The world that Skywalker Saga is teasing seems like it's going to be a truly epic one in scope. With all the planets from the nine films open to the player to fly to and explore regardless of the era (prequel, original trilogy, or sequel era films), all of which have multiple locations, the potential for fun and unique experiences is immense.
There are even going to be random events that vary depending on the era, such as encountering a star destroyer in space near a planet and battling it. It's not known if there will be random events on the planets themselves, but it is certainly possible.
6 Enhanced Combat
The combat mechanics in Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga are looking like they're getting a major upgrade. Blaster attacks seem to invoke third-person shooter vibes while Lightsaber combat looks much more fluid and capable than ever before. Moves look like they can be chained for greater effect and can even be combined with force abilities, which also seem to be getting an upgrade as well.
Objects and even enemies themselves be picked up with the Force and thrown at will for both combative and level progression purposes. It also seems like it's possible to incorporate force abilities into Lightsaber combos for extra flavor. All of this should serve to make combat feel fresh and new.
5 Enhanced Vehicle Gameplay
Vehicles have been continuously improved upon with each new Lego game, and The Skywalker Here does not appear to be an exception. Ships and speeders seem to be much more screen accurate in how they look and control in the upcoming game. When it comes to ships, dog fights in the sky and in space have a much more authentic feel to them while the classic land speeders are quick and agile, perfect for exploring the large and open areas on each of the planets.
On top of this, there is sure to be an absurd number of unlockable vehicles for use in both free play and in story missions across the three eras of Star Wars.
4 New Level Strategies
While previous Lego games have always based their level design on puzzle solving, there was little in the way of creativity when it came to doing this. Skywalker Saga aims to change this by having more types of ways to progress through each level.
In the trailer, the player can be seen taking both a straightforward approach and a "stealthy" approach to progressing through the level. Puzzle solving is obviously still present, however, it seems like levels will be featuring more than one kind of puzzle per area, allowing players to choose which one to solve in order to progress.
3 Quests and Side Missions
In addition to the main story missions for each film, free play will be full of exciting side missions and quests to complete while exploring the Star Wars galaxy. These side missions will take players to new areas on the various planets and even across space itself, where players will interact with NPCs, complete objectives, and potentially earn rich rewards like studs, unlocks, or collectibles.
Players will be given a whole host of reasons to explore each and every corner of the game's massive interplanetary overworld.
2 Upgrading Classes
Skywalker Saga is going to be putting a new spin on the traditional class system found in every Lego game in the form of an upgrade mechanic. What this means is that the tried and true character classes such as bounty hunter or Jedi (two of the nine total classes) can have various aspects of their class improved over time.
For example, this can mean making existing things like Force abilities more powerful or even unlocking brand-new moves altogether. Upgrades seem to be obtained primarily with studs, though Khyber bricks can also be used to purchase them. These are rare collectibles found by exploring the overworld.
1 The DLC Packs
Lego games have had DLC character packs for quite a while, so it's no surprise that Skywalker Saga is continuing the trend. So far, there are seven character packs that players can download either individually or all at once through the deluxe edition. These packs include: Mandalorian season 1 and 2, Bad Batch, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, The Trooper Pack, and the Classic Characters Pack.
Therefore, in addition to the already insane amount of playable characters featured in the Skywalker Saga proper, there will be even more characters from spin-off stories for fans to play with. Some of these might even end up being their favorites.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga releases April 5, 2022, for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.