There are far too many collectibles to find across the galaxy in LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. To get 100% completion, over 1,000 Kyber Bricks need to be collected by completing various activities. Players will also need to find a few hundred Minikits, characters, and ships, as well as earn True Jedi in every story level. Although collectibles increase replayability, it can get boring completing similar puzzles for hours at a time.
After starting the game, players have the choice between Story Mode and Free Play. Most of the collectibles can be found while exploring different areas in Free Play. However, some collectibles, like the Minikits in LEGO Star Wars: Skywalker Saga, are in story missions rather than the large hub areas. With a variety of items to look out for in every level and open area, finding the collectibles in this game can seem like a daunting task.
The biggest downside to collectible hunting is that each area will need to be opened up in Story Mode first. Since some areas are locked behind the final mission of one of the trilogies, accessing every hub area means completing all nine episodes. There are only five story missions per episode, so most of the content in the game comes from collectibles, and finding them gets repetitive after a while. A better balance between main missions and side activities would have helped to break up the monotony that comes with solving the same button puzzles on every planet.
The Screen Can Get Too Crowded In LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
Unlocking the Collectable Detector in LEGO Star Wars: Skywalker Saga is the best way to hunt for Kyber Bricks. Unfortunately, activating it means giving up half or more of the screen to blue circles that indicate an item's location. The Collectable Detector can highlight Minikits, ships, Kyber Bricks, and Data Cards when every tier is unlocked. The ability can be turned off, but after unlocking the third tier, there's no way to deactivate only some of the collectible locations. Turning the Collectable Detector off while playing story missions can clear the clutter on the screen, but it can also make it harder to find Minikits. There are some Minikits that are very difficult to find without the upgrade turned on, so it's likely it will be needed in at least a few levels.
While exploring the hub worlds in LEGO Star Wars: Skywalker Saga, it can be fun to leave the Collectable Detector off and discover secrets without help, but eventually, it may be necessary to find the last few items in an area. The only alternative for tracking collectibles is to purchase rumors for each side mission and puzzle in a hub area and try to use the information to reach the collectible. The rumors can be vague and offer little to no help, so having those big glowing circles on the screen is sometimes unavoidable. If there were fewer collectibles in the game, the screen wouldn't be as hard to look at with the Collectable Detector on.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Should Have Had More Story Missions
Each of the nine episodes in LEGO Star Wars: Skywalker Saga has five levels, so there are 45 story missions to play through. Completing every Story Mode level makes up less than half of the game's content, and it's easy to want to play through some classic movie moments before exploring the open areas. Unfortunately, getting through the story levels too quickly can make the rest of the game seem tedious and not worthwhile. Of course, there are some side missions and puzzles that unlock unique characters and ships, and they can keep things interesting for a while, but the game could've benefited more from additional story levels rather than more characters.
In several episodes, LEGO Star Wars: Skywalker Saga misses plot points or rushes the story by cutting out key information. Instead of loading up every area with dozens of Kyber Bricks, more levels should have been made to create a complete story for all nine episodes. Overall, the episodes in the game follow the same basic plot as the movies they're based on, but there are some noticeable discrepancies, especially for players who are die-hard Star Wars fans. There are also plenty of movie moments missing completely from the game. Without so many collectibles to find throughout the galaxy, there could have been more story missions to experience.
The Puzzles Are Repetitive In LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
After exploring a good portion of the galaxy in LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, a handful of puzzles will be repeated multiple times. Many of the Kyber Bricks in hub areas are locked behind button puzzles that generally have the same or a similar solution. After an hour or two of collectible hunting, it starts to feel like solving the same exact puzzles or completing the same side missions over and over, just in a different setting. Force lifting boxes onto buttons gets boring after a while, even if different characters are being used. Along with button puzzles, every hub area also has climbing challenges, and various terminals to unlock or access that lead to different collectibles.
The terminals throughout LEGO Star Wars: Skywalker Saga unlock new areas or allow players to access things like turrets or alarms. There are a large number of Kyber Bricks that can be collected by accessing terminals with specific characters, all of which have the ability to by them once the upgrade is unlocked. After getting the upgrades to by terminals, accessing them to find collectibles becomes redundant, and waiting for the animations to finish starts to become inconvenient.
Due to a large number of repeated puzzles, it's hard to play for long periods of time. Once the Story Mode is finished, it's difficult to be fully invested in completing the rest of the content. Finding over 1,000 collectibles means committing a lot of time repeating puzzles and unlocking characters that feel very similar to control. Many of the characters are also in the Extras category, so they aren't affected by any upgraded class abilities, making it even less worthwhile to unlock them all. Having everything unlocked in LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is a monotonous experience because there are just too many collectibles to find throughout the game.
