After numerous delays and months of fan anticipation, there is finally some good news on LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. The next installment in the long-running LEGO franchise has been sitting at a spring 2022 release window for some time now, but TT Games has confirmed with a new trailer that LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga will release on April 5. Along with this release date, the newest trailer provided a gameplay overview that covered nearly every new mechanic featured in the ambitious title, and some of them look to significantly shake up the LEGO formula.
Features like widespread exploration and new combat mechanics have been at the forefront of LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga's marketing for a long time now, but the newest gameplay trailer revealed something that has been under wraps. As a part of The Skywalker Saga's new gameplay mechanics, the game will introduce RPG elements that have never been seen in a LEGO title before. The franchise has made incremental changes over its long history, but leaning towards a genre that LEGO has never quite dabbled in at this scale could reinforce The Skywalker Saga as a truly unique entry.
LEGO's Previous Gameplay Approach
The LEGO games have always tried to reach a broad audience, so gameplay between each entry has usually been rather accessible and simple. While many entries have contained hundreds of unique characters to choose from, there often hasn't been much variation between how most of them play. In previous LEGO Star Wars games for example, a character like Obi-Wan Kenobi would have mostly the same abilities as Darth Vader. The one distinction might be that Vader could use a Force Choke on characters while Kenobi couldn't use such dark powers, but other than that, they effectively played the same.
In addition to relying on a few archetypes for various characters, most LEGO games haven't allowed players to upgrade characters in any way. Once a player unlocks someone new, that character has one full set of abilities that can't be changed. While this helped maintained the LEGO franchise's level of simplicity and made completing puzzles easier, after a certain point using the same character with the same abilities could get repetitive. The only way to experience new gameplay opportunities would be to unlock a new character, and even with each game's extensive rosters, some were more exciting to use than others.
How LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Introduces RPG Elements
Developer TT Games seems to have found the ultimate solution to keep The Skywalker Saga's gameplay interesting, and it's through a character class and upgrade system reminiscent of recent RPGs. While the feature only got a bit of time in The Skywalker Saga's lengthy overview trailer, what was shown gave fans an idea of how the mechanics will work. Starting with the class system, the trailer stated that each character will fall into one of ten classes, with Jedi, bounty hunter, and astromech droid making up just a few. Within those classes, players will be able to upgrade abilities that allow characters to use things like strengthened Force powers, or new tools to solve puzzles.
The newest trailer for LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga only gave fans a taste of what these new RPG mechanics will look like, but it's possible that they will be even more extensive than what's been shown so far. The class system alone looks like it could make combat and general gameplay engaging throughout, but the upgrades within each class could give The Skywalker Saga an unprecedented amount of depth for a LEGO game. After all the patience that fans have exercised waiting for more news on LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, it seems like the wait was finally worth it.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga releases April 5th, 2022 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
