Although Cal Kestis was part of a crew in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order exploring the galaxy in the Stinger Mantis ship with his mentor, Cere Junda; his captain, Greez, and (in time) his former sworn enemy turned best friend, Nightsister Merrin, once ashore, It was quite a lonely adventure. Not counting, of course, the company of the adorable BD-1.
This changes in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor thanks to the addition of Bode Akuna, a new character in Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, played by Noshir Dalal, who can be seen in the introduction trailer lending Cal a hand in both a scene and in-game, where he executes a cool tandem finisher on a soldier explorer. But Bode’s presence as a companion character goes far beyond the finishing moves. In fact, he is part of a system that Respawn has dubbed “Character-in-Gameplay”.
Characters-in-Gameplay is a term used internally at Respawn to differentiate between the NPCs that accompany Cal in actual gameplay segments from characters that are left behind in specific narrative hubs. As game designer Jason Zhu explains: “There was a desire for NPCs to be used as guides in levels, and as we talked about it, one thing led to another until people started wondering: “Why don’t we have the NPCs travel and fight alongside Cal?”“.
It was desired that the NPCs serve as a guide in the levels.
The team then evaluated whether it was feasible to implement such a system with the technology available to them, and finally decided that it was worth spending time and effort to create a system that would allow companions to join Cal in battle. There was already a precedent in Fallen Order: the battle against the Malicos boss, in which Merrin helps you throughout the fight. That served as a starting point, and the character system in the game is very much an expansion of what players saw during that boss battle.
When I accompany Cal, Bode will actively participate in combat. It can attack and kill enemies on its own, draw the attention of some enemies to take pressure off the player, and you can command it to help you by performing some kind of special move on a single target to destabilize it.
To give a specific example, narrative technical designer Joanna Robb tells us: “When you see a good opportunity, you can give Bode the signal to make the attack, and he will use his jetpack to ram the enemy with a vicious kick, then quickly follow up by throwing a shock grenade to stun other nearby enemies. It’s a great way to launch a tough enemy into the air, briefly knocking them out of combat, or you can run over them with a dash attack for a quick hit.”
When accompanying Cal, Bode will actively participate in the fight
Robb adds that he also there are many custom behaviors for Bode that help make it a reliable ally. Bode will respond to your own abilities and attacks with his own technique. If you Force Push an enemy, Bode will fire a charge that deals high damage. You can even grab a probe droid, throw it at a group of stormtroopers and Bode’s shot will detonate the droid causing a huge explosion that will take out the group of enemies at once.
“All these behaviors are not necessarily tutorials, but rather they are designed to offer you emergent moments that are totally yoursbut they look choreographed, like you’re in one of the movies,” Robb explains.
Out of combat Bode will follow you around the world, using his jetpack to reach places that Cal’s Force powers normally allow him to reach via double jumps, wall runs, etc. Robb says that one of the most interesting things about creating an AI companion capable of navigating through such complex spaces is that he has pushed the team to develop a new Motion Matching animation system for Bode.
Don’t expect Cal to always have someone watching his back.
“The Motion Matching system allows animations to direct your movement, making you much more responsive and dynamic than our other AI characters. This makes him feel on the same level as Cal, as a character with the ability to act in the world, not just a fighter on your side,” Robb explains.
However, don’t expect Cal to always have someone watching his back. According to Robb and Zhu, the prevalence of accompanying characters depends on the story. If you spend time exploring all the secondary content on a planet, Bode will stay on the Mantis.” Adds Robb, “There’s a good pacing. When the plot reaches its peak, the companion will give an extra boost to both the narrative and the gameplay.”
As to whether or not there will be more companion characters apart from BodeRobb did say that Bode will be the first character Cal will team up with, but instead of talking about characters that would join Cal as combat partners, he preferred to rule out some.
“I’m sure many fans of the first game are dying to know if everyone’s favorite Mantis crew member, Cal’s adopted stowaway bogling, will also be a companion, and I’m sorry to say no,” Robb said.
For more IGN First on Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, check out our exclusive post-play trailer or Cal’s five fighting stances fully explained.
