Fallen Order Just Got An Official Prequel

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has earned its status as one of the best Star Wars games of all time. It’s a beautiful cocktail of gameplay genres, mixing Soulslike, action-adventure-platformer, and Metroidvania flavors, and it regales Star Wars fans with a terrific tale that further examines the era that shortly follows the Clone Wars and the Jedi Purge. Plus, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order protagonist Cal Kestis and antagonist Trilla Suduri represent two sides of the same coin, which makes both of their stories all the more special in a galaxy far, far away.

We were overdue for a turn-based tactics Star Wars game, and Bit Reactor’s Star Wars Zero Company finally delivered. It was a stroke of genius to set Star Wars Zero Company’s story in the “twilight of the Clone Wars,” specifically, as it could then depict one of the most dramatic and pivotal events in Star Wars lore (and include clone troopers in players’ customizable squads). However, it also allowed the game to reprise a significant Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order character and flesh their backstory out a bit more in a thrilling ‘boss fight.’

Zero Company Has A Surprise Second Sister Boss Fight

Increasing Bond levels and chatting with Star Wars Zero Company’s scripted operator companions in the Ring of Kafrene’s Den is highly rewarding if players care to carve out the few cycles they’re given between required missions. It’s seemingly impossible to tend to every operator’s side quests in a single playthrough, especially if they permanently perish, and fans who adore Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order will want to prioritize one operator’s questline every chance they get.

Star Wars Zero Company’s Tel-Rea Vokoss is the most unique unit players will have on their crew, namely because she’s a Jedi Padawan who’s armed with a mastery of the Force and skill with dual lightsabers. Obviously rooted in the teachings of the Jedi Council’s upbringing and affected by Emperor Sheev Palpatine’s Order 66, Tel-Rea’s storyline eventually reaches a cinematic climax when it name-drops Trilla.

It might’ve been neat to see more of Trilla before she was psychologically tortured and poisoned, but anyone who’s played Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and hears her name will already know that, based on where these games’ narratives intersect in Star Wars’ prequel timeline, Trilla won’t be ‘Trilla’ when they see her, but the Inquisitorius’ Second Sister.

As foreseen, the Second Sister appears clad in black and wielding her red-bladed lightsaber, not unlike how players first see her in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and she’s incredibly intimidating in the boss fight that ensues. Well, to be fair, it’s not much of a ‘boss fight’ at all—players can’t actually hope to defeat her, and must simply survive for a number of turns.

Jedi: Fallen Order’s Legacy Precedes It

Unfortunately, for the sake of the surprise, Star Wars Zero Company has little time to spare for Tel-Rea and Trilla’s relationship, nor does it have anything poignant to say about Tel-Rea reconciling that she’s one of the last surviving Jedi following the perceived eradication of the Jedi. Moreover, she was attacked by a clone trooper she presumably knew well and got along with at the Den, and there’s no resolution regarding how she and Star Wars Zero Company’s Trick might’ve interacted with one another once he came out of the bacta tank and was rehabilitated.

Clone Wars-era Star Wars games could become oversaturated quickly if that’s the basket that every egg gets tossed into. That said, considering how Star Wars game lore hardly ever transcends the medium and permeates the official canon, Star Wars Zero Company demonstrates how lore can at least be shared and acknowledged between games without shame or reservation.

Even if we never see or hear about Trilla/the Second Sister anywhere beyond the realm of Star Wars games, for instance, it’s great that there are opportunities for such games’ characters to make unexpected appearances and not be leashed to the games they debuted in. If nothing else, this suggests that we may someday see Cal somewhere other than a Star Wars Jedi game like Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, or the upcoming third installment of the franchise.