Traveller’s Tales has promised innovative combat inLEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Sagafor a long time. It has described some pretty compelling changes, like third-person shooting for ranged characters and a combo system for melee characters, but it hasn’t provided much footage of these systems. Now thatLEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Sagahas an official gameplay overview leading up to its launch, that has changed completely. Fans now have a pretty clear picture of what fighting is like inThe Skywalker Saga, and somehow it’s even more inventive and elaborate than what Traveller’s Tales initially promised so long ago.
The Skywalker Saga’s Jedi and Sithhave clearly gotten a lot of love from the developers, based on the variety of Force powers they can use to influence their opponents, as well as the flashy combos that players can apparently string together with the right button combinations. Perhaps more importantly, though,The Skywalker Saga’s gameplay overview provides concrete evidence that other classes of combatants are getting some major upgrades inThe Skywalker Sagatoo, letting non-Force wielders keep up with Jedi and Sith in combat. Traveller’s Tales will make all kinds of characters inThe Skywalker Sagashine with the help of melee mechanics and special abilities stemming from character classes.
RELATED:LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Looks Like a Definitive Celebration of Star Wars
Fixing a LEGO Star Wars Combat Flaw
At its heart,The Skywalker Sagareflects traditions ofStar Warscombat in the same way as every otherLEGOStar Warsgame: Some characters wield lightsabers, some prefer blasters, and a handful of others might prefer more unique melee weapons, like a MagnaGuard’s electrostaff.The Skywalker Sagadiffers frommany olderLEGO Star Warsgames, however, in that every ranged character seems to be capable of melee attacks, and some characters are newly usable in battle. In entries likeLEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga,if a character doesn’t have any inherent weapon, they can’t attack, and characters with blasters aren’t always particularly useful at close range because they lack a melee option.
To a certain extent, it makes sense that someone like C-3PO wouldn’t have any way of attacking, since protocol droids aren’t designed for combat, but that inability can still make playing as a protocol droid feel risky and burdensome even for a moment.
The problem is worsened when playing as someone like Jar Jar Binks inThe Complete Saga;Jar Jar certainly could throw a punchat a droid if needed, but he just doesn’t have the option inThe Complete Saga, meaning he’s completely helpless in combat. As a result, oldLEGO Star Warsgames tilted combat in the favor of characters already associated with combat, especially Jedi, whose Force powers and laser deflection often make them more interesting in battle than blaster wielders.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Sagaseems to favor player freedom over franchise realism in this department. The new gameplay overview indicates that every playable character inThe Skywalker Sagawith even the slightest skill in combat has some means of fending for themselves in both melee and ranged fights. What’s more, blaster wielders and non-traditional fighters will have techniques and attacks that made themas compelling to control as lightsaber masters.
RELATED:LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga’s RPG Mechanics are a Huge Upgrade
The Skywalker Saga’s Combat Enhancements
The Skywalker Saga’s changes to shooting and aiming immediately showcase how ranged characters can compete with Jedi and Sith in terms of unique combat mechanics. The gameplay trailer showed off the third-person shooting that players have seen before, but it also emphasized the importance of precision. Shooting an enemy in the leg, for instance, might make them hop on one foot in pain, stunning them briefly. That ability to apply status effects through careful shooting makesThe Skywalker Saga’s ranged stars likeHan Solo and Princess Leiafar more engaging.
The benefits of skillful aiming inThe Skywalker Sagais only the start of ranged characters' enhancements. One clip from the gameplay overview shows Poe Dameron juggling a First Order trooper with midair punches before using a grappling hook to pull himself to an enemy. Another clip explainingThe Skywalker Saga’s skill trees showsBoba Fett stunning a crowd of foeswith a shock grenade, allowing him to run past them safely. Traveller’s Tales has clearly gone to great lengths to ensure that blaster wielders have unique options that keep them competitive with Force wielders in combat.
What’s more, there’s good evidence that a lot of non-traditional combatants can really put up a fight inThe Skywalker Saga.The trailer shows R2-D2 essentially performing a suplex on an enemy, for instance. It doesn’t go into the details on howThe Skywalker Saga’s less combat-oriented charactershandle in battle, but R2-D2’s wrestling throw strongly suggests that even the most unorthodox playable characters, like Jabba the Hutt and Babu Frik, might have special fighting techniques that make them as fun to play as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader.
Equal LEGO Star Wars Combat
None of this is to say that Jedi and Sith aren’t getting upgrades of their own, of course. Force users seem to have much more liberty to pick up and throw objects at their opponents, for instance, giving them a great new ranged tool. They can also use Force mind tricks to deceive and manipulate their enemies, creating distractions that might be invaluable for stealth lovers sneaking throughThe Skywalker Saga’s branching levels. Overall, though, Traveller’s Tales really seems to have put an emphasis on upgrading blaster wielders andStar Wars' weirder characters so that they can stand up to Jedi and Sith in terms of combat complexity.
Broadly enhancingLEGO Star Warscharacter designwhile leveling the playing field in combat sets another great standard for the future ofLEGOgames. Traveller’s Tales can carry the principle of unique character classes with distinct but equitable abilities into all kinds of other franchises, especially superhero games likeLEGO BatmanandLEGO Marvelwhere people with refined fighting skills have to stand out next to characters with elaborate superpowers.
The Skywalker Saga’s combat looks like a major step forward thanks to all the improvements made to the player’s fighting options. Hopefully those ideas carry on in anyLEGO Star Warsgames that follow, as well as all of Traveller’s Tales' other licensedLEGOfranchises.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Sagareleases August 01, 2025 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
MORE:What Comes in the LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Deluxe Edition
