Star Wars Jedi: Survivor gives players many lightsaber stances to experiment with. These include duel-wielding lightsabers, the use of a double-blade, and a classic single-blade stance. Surprisingly, the least used style in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is one that ties into the sequel trilogy films.
According to an official graphic of gameplay statistics, the crossguard lightsaber stance in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was the least popular style in the game. Only 7 percent of players used the stance regularly with the blaster stance coming in just ahead with 8 percent. The most popular was the single-blade style at 31 percent with the duel wield style coming in at 29 percent. Given the way the style plays in the game, however, it shouldn't come as that big of a surprise.
The Soulslike Combat of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Jedi: Survivor
Early on it was revealed that Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order had similar combat to Sekrio: Shadows Die Twice and generally took a lot of inspiration from FromSoftware games. This mainly took the form of combat being relatively slow, with players having to think about how they approached different targets and how they fought them. This continued into Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, but the game gave the players more options to work with in terms of combat styles.
Several months before the game was released, the game's director revealed that Star Wars Jedi: Survivor would have five different combat styles. The game overall played more like a hack and slasher than a traditional Soulslike game and encouraged quicker movement and reflexes as opposed to the more deliberate combat of its predecessor. As a result, some of the styles were less practical than others. As it turned out, one of the least practical lightsaber styles was the crossguard.
Why The Crossguard Style Is Star Wars Jedi: Survivor's Least Popular
The Kylo Ren-inspired crossguard lightsaber in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is found relatively later in the storyline. The issue with the style is that it's a very slow-paced one. Like many of the two-handed weapons in Dark Souls, the crossguard lightsaber is one that deals a lot of damage and can be useful against larger, heavier opponents.
The weapon's attacks have a longer windup and impact time and are not very practical against the more agile opponents that make up the majority of the game's enemies. This leaves the character more open to attacks, making it a very high-risk style. It is also possible that the style's cinematic baggage may have something to do with its lack of popularity as compared to some of the other available stances and their ratings on the poll.
It's been argued that the first trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens teased too much, and it was the first time audiences saw a crossguard lightsaber. Unfortunately, its wielder, Kylo Ren, turned out to be something of a controversial character in the Star Wars canon. His personality and motivations in the film have been criticized, and the first two films set him up as one of the more despicable characters in the franchise. It's very possible that some players have no interest in using a weapon style that will associate them with the sequel trilogy antagonist.
Each lightsaber style likely has its own fans who prefer one style over the other. It's hard to say exactly why one style is more popular than another, and it all depends on how gamers want to play. It is possible that the association with Kylo Ren and the overall faster gameplay of the new installment had something to do with it. Still, it isn't clear if Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will have any DLC and new content could be tailored towards the crossguard to make it more appealing. At the moment, this stance remains the game's least popular.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.