Everything we know about Oculus’ Star Wars: Tales From The Galaxy’s Edge

Star Wars: Tales From The Galaxy’s Edge is the next VR-only Star Wars game from acclaimed developer ILMxLAB. As another Oculus-exclusive title, it’s quickly becoming apparent that Oculus is the platform of choice for Star Wars VR games. Star Wars: Tales From The Galaxy’s Edge is an Oculus Quest and Oculus Quest 2-exclusive game and will not be coming to the Oculus Rift on PC due to Facebook sunsetting the Rift platform. That means that the Oculus Quest 2 is the best way to play the game, which is now available on the Oculus store for $25.

Oculus Studios and ILMxLAB have partnered with the same folks who crafted the Smuggler’s Run attraction at Disneyworld and Disneyland’s Galaxy’s Edge theme park to help work on the studio’s latest game. The goal is to create a virtual reality game that matches the experience you can have at the theme park, albeit with more action, interactivity, and aliens than you’ll find in the physical locations. Tales From the Galaxy’s Edge will also see players exploring the history of Star Wars through the tales of Seezelslak, the bartender at the Blackspire Outpost cantina.

Jump to:

• Our review
• Setting and timeline
• Story and characters
• Gameplay and graphics
• Release date and platforms

Star Wars: Tales From The Galaxy’s Edge Our review

We’ve done a lot of deep-diving and speculating for months about what the team at ILMxLAB is putting together, but now you can read about exactly what you’ll be doing in the first part of Star Wars: Tales From the Galaxy’s Edge in our review. Coming from the previous Vader Immortal series — which was only around 30 minutes per episode — being able to clock in over 6 hours of Star Wars goodness on a single title was incredibly refreshing. Check out the review to see how everything turned out!

Star Wars: Tales From The Galaxy’s Edge Setting and timeline

Star Wars: Tales From The Galaxy’s Edge takes place on the planet Batuu, with Blackspire Outpost acting as a home base during your time on the planet. Batuu and Blackspire Outpost were made famous at Disney’s Florida and California theme parks in the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge lands. Players are able to explore a few locations in Blackspire Outpost such as the cantina and droid repair bay, as well as the “wilds of Batuu.”

Blackspire Outpost is a trading outpost that’s frequented by smugglers and gangs alike. These areas were all painstakingly recreated by the developers after they visited the real-life theme park locations to make them as authentic-looking as possible, especially if you’ve visited the real-life locations.

In addition to events on Batuu, players will find themselves essentially traveling through time as they relive the stories told by Seezelslak. Players will physically embody the main characters in each of these stories, which will take place during different timelines, events, and places throughout Star Wars cinematic history. The first part of Tales From the Galaxy’s Edge features stories from The High Republic era, which is the first time we’ve gotten a glimpse of this timeline in any form. We’re expecting more stories from this era in part 2 of the game, which is due sometime in 2021.

While players are on Batuu, events will take place between Star Wars movies The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker as the First Order continues to take control of the galaxy. The planet Batuu is located in the Outer Rim Territories, which, as the name suggests, is further away from a lot of the fighting and other events that might be happening in the struggle between the Resistance and the First Order, as seen in the movies and TV shows.

For reference, the planet Dagobah, where Yoda exiled himself to after Order 66, and Utapau, where Obi-Wan Kenobi killed General Grievous, are located in the Outer Rim Territories. These planets were generally considered to be hideouts from the events happening in several Star Wars movies.

Star Wars: Tales From The Galaxy’s Edge Story and characters

In Star Wars: Tales From The Galaxy’s Edge, players will initially take the role of a droid repair technician who crash-lands on Batuu after pirates attacked their ship. Players will quickly find themselves thrust into the seedy underbelly of the galaxy, as Blackspire Outpost is a haven for smugglers and criminals of all types.

Central to the story is Seezelslak, an Azumel bartender who knows everyone and everything in the outpost and is sure to score you a job or two along the way. Seezelslak’s storytelling skills are known far and wide, and it’s these stories that will lend variety to your missions in the game. In fact, Seezelslak’s stories will literally transport you through time and space where you’ll meet iconic Star Wars characters like C-3PO and Yoda and get to interact with them like never before.

As the Azumel tells his tales, the player will get to live out those stories in VR.

Seezelslak is voiced by Bobby Moynihan from Saturday Night Live and Star Wars Resistance, while another character, Tara Rashin, is voiced by Debra Wilson from Mad TV and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Tara Rashin is a Quarren pirate who heads the local Guavian Death Gang pirates on Batuu and is searching for something special on the planet. Even Anthony Daniels will be reprising his role as C-3PO, lending significant authenticity to the experience.

Star Wars: Tales From The Galaxy’s Edge Gameplay and graphics

Tales features highly varied gameplay that takes players from shooting to puzzles, character interaction to shopping, space travel, Force wielding, and even Lightsaber battles. The action in Tales takes place across a much broader scope of characters and settings when compared to the team’s previous VR game, the Vader Immortal trilogy, with the gameplay changing depending on which character’s story you’re exploring.

Star Wars: Tales From The Galaxy’s Edge features lots of blaster fights, deadly encounters with Guavian Death Gang pirates, and other harrowing adventures.

Star Wars: Tales From The Galaxy’s Edge is said to feature lots of blaster fights, deadly encounters with Guavian Death Gang pirates, and other harrowing adventures. Players can also expect a vibrant world full of creatures and aliens to interact with, as well as plenty of distractions along the way. In addition to space darts and other pub games, players will find fully working jukeboxes in the cantina and likely plenty of trinkets and items in the shops surrounding it. And that’s just when hanging around Blackspire outpost, of course.

The game features some very impressive visuals on the Oculus Quest 2, including ultra-crisp resolution, high-resolution textures, detailed models, and realtime lighting effects. The game will run just fine on the original Oculus Quest, though, so don’t worry about missing out if you don’t have a Quest 2.

ILMxLAB is working with the same special effects folks that worked on the Smuggler’s Run attraction at the Galaxy’s Edge Disney theme park land. The team cites that this is being done to perfectly match the theme park’s theme and overall mood so that players and patrons alike will feel like they’re stepping into the same world, no matter if it’s a physical or virtual version of that world.

Star Wars: Tales From The Galaxy’s Edge Release date and platforms

Part 1 of Star Wars: Tales From The Galaxy’s Edge is now available on the Oculus store for $25, and is a VR-exclusive game for the Oculus Quest and Oculus Quest 2. ILMxLAB developed the game and also developed the Vader Immortal trilogy of Star Wars games released in 2019. Oculus Studios published the game.

Part 2 is expected to be released sometime in 2021.

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Oculus Quest 2

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