Respawn has hit the ground running with a ton of patches for its recent action-adventure game Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, but the most recent one is for all those who aren’t a fan of our eight-legged friends out there.
As promised, Respawn has added a great deal of new content on day one of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor’s release including plenty of new accessibility features to make this title enjoyable for a wider playerbase. However, there’s one feature that has stood out to me in particular; this is Jedi: Survivor’s arachnophobia toggle setting.
If you’re one of the kindred souls who nearly had a heart attack trying to venture through the Kashyyyk forests of the Wookie homeworld thanks to some spindly attackers known as the Wyyyschokk, then this feature is for you. At the toggle of a menu setting, players can completely eradicate the eight-legged invaders from Respawn’s new title entirely.
An itsy bitsy problem
ICYMI: Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (2023) will feature the ability to toggle an arachnophobia option in accessibility settings to remove spiders from the game entirely... pic.twitter.com/9NBkmfDML2April 25, 2023
Over the years, there have been plenty of creative solutions players have taken to overcome arachnophobia. For some, Obsidian’s survival action-adventure game set in a spider-infested back garden, Grounded, proved to be too much. Fortunately, it came with its own accessibility option for arachnophobes. I, for one, couldn’t think of anything worse than getting harassed by giant man-eating spiders, so having the option to turn down the detail on these monstrosities and turn them into something comical came as a great relief.
However, not all developers like Respawn and Obsidian are so kind as to put in arachnophobia barriers for their players; sometimes, we have to take matters into our own hands. This was the case for The Witcher 3 and its hairy muscular spiders that infested damp caves and isolated swamps. Luckily the Spider no More mod effectively replaces all the arachnomorphs for various other monsters.
Similarly, the first-person action RPG Dark Messiah of Might and Magic included a similar mod that helped players ease their way through spider-infested sections by changing the creepy crawlies into pigs.
Whether or not developers get involved, there’s often a way to remove our eight-legged friends from games. While these fan-made mods clearly work and provide an important service for those who want to game without having a heart attack, it’s nice to see developers including these settings from the get-go. Now spider-dislikers can enjoy the latest chapter of Cal Kestis's story in peace.
