Star Wars Jedi: Survivor introduces plenty of new skills for Cal, but it doesn't leave his droid companion behind as it does so, as BD-1 is getting his own (literally) visual upgrade.
At a recent Star Wars Jedi: Survivor preview, 12DOVE spoke to Respawn's senior director of production Kasumi Shishido. Asked about BD-1's development, Shishido said that "as Cal grows and develops new skills, we did want to introduce new skills for BD-1, too, since you're always with BD-1."
As well as the holomap, healing, and traversal tools that BD-1 offers Cal, the droid will now also be able to use their BD Visor. When activated, the skills "allows Cal to transform BD into a binoculars-like visor that lets him see objects and key points of interest from a distance and mark them on his holomap."
Shishido says that the idea started out as "a kind of test;" "I think we thought 'why not use BD-1, he's our companion.' And that kind of clicked, from prototyping, and making sure that it works with the story and works with his character design. Luckily, BD-1 kind of looks like a binocular, so that worked out perfectly for us."
Replaying Fallen Order, I'm interested to see how useful the BD Visor is set to be. We do know that there are new fast travel and traversal tools available to help Cal get around (although you don't have to use them), but the vast majority of the first game is set in environments that don't really require binoculars to help you see what's coming your way. In her preview, Heather describes seeing an impressive vista from the top of a Breath of the Wild-style plateau, suggesting that "from the off, this planet feels much bigger than anything I explored in Fallen Order."
Cal's not a padawan anymore, which is why he had to keep his Fallen Order skills for the sequel.
