Do to how I gm I found all of the "new" mechanics irrelevant. I've always been a master of weaving plots for the PC's in any Star Wars game. I don't need dice mechanics to tell me these things, and if the player doesn't want to start with a flaw he shouldn't need one. Naturally over the course of the game I find it often happens anyways in any RPG.
It really feels like an RPG for newbs. Telling them where, when, and how to roleplay. More importantly it provides clear tangible benefits for roleplaying. Except that is the newbs way of doing it. Roleplaying should just be something you do. None of my players expect rewards for it, and do it because they like it. I hate how this is creating a new generation of rpg players who have to be forcibly told via mechanics they did a good job. Instead of seeing the ramifications of their actions in the game world. I feel the rules incredibly obtuse, intrusive, and slow. I'm certainly not buying it for the combat rules I'll tell you that.
I go so far as to invoke the word casual. I'm personally not a fan. I prefer more
interesting games where you as a player need to do the thinking. You also need to actively engage in my semi-open rpg's. Sitting back like a
bump on a log is possible, but not going to get you far. Much like the sad fates of those who give up in Dark Souls. My games are brutal, merciless, and even politics heavy. However ultimately it is always fair, and my players generally feel that their own demise is from something they did.
The core has two good things going for it. Great art and the starship rules make more sense than Saga/fun. I don't feel it's worth playing though, and when I did run it my entire group hated it. It felt like a nagging mother telling them what to do, how to play, what era to use, and on it went. The combat was goofy and slow. I felt like I was playing a mentally deficient person. No one could hit anything except everything. Convenient lights, fire extinguishers, droids, guns were dropping, and all sorts of dumb stupidity. It took us two hours to run through what was just people getting their weapons dropped. We were all so miserable they asked me to just end it.
Stormtroopers in the movies shoot better than anyone in this book. They might miss, but at least every second shot doesn't make someone drop their guns or burst something a convenient way to obscure their fire.
