Interview: Drew Karpyshyn on The Jedi Knight
As an addendum to yesterday's reveal of the Jedi Sentinel and Jedi Guardian, we were about to wrangle some additional details about the Jedi Knight class from Drew Karpyshyn, BioWare's Lead Writer.Read on for the follow up to our Comic-Con interview with him to find out his take on what went into creating the Jedi Knight, and debunking the perceived Sith bias in BioWare and LucasArts' marketing efforts.
We spoke with you last time about crafting the general stories in Star Wars: The Old Republic. In light of the information found in PC Gamer, we wanted to focus this time on what makes a Jedi Knight the Jedi Knight. Can you elaborate on how BioWare approached the Jedi Knight from a design standpoint?
Drew: One of the interesting things about the Jedi Knight is how iconic it is for Star Wars. Lightsabers are what I think of when I first think of Star Wars. We know the Jedi Knight story was explored quite a bit, so the thing we wanted to do is get you something that captures the experience, but is still very fresh and very new. And the iconic figure from the movies that I think represents this style of Jedi Knight is Mace Windu. I think this is your Jedi Knight role model... right? This is the guy. He is badass with a lightsaber, he follows the code, he knows what it is all about and he knows what he wants to do to get stuff done. So that was our guideline.
With that guiding our design, we set out to say, "okay now, let's put this character into some situations that fit into our Old Republic time frame." The story needs to fit into this time of war between the Republic and the Empire where the Republic is sort of in a difficult position. The Empire, as everyone knows, sacked Coruscant as we see in the Deceived Trailer. This is tough for the Republic, and this is a guy who doesn't want to sit by while the Dark side does it's thing. He is not going to sit on the sidelines, but he also has to respect the peace treaty that is set up. He is not going to run off on his own and start breaking rules because he is a Jedi -- he does not do that.
That is where we set up this situation for him, and we had to be respectful of that. We didn't want to slip into some of the things that maybe wouldn't feel like a "Mace character." We don't want to have him become this rebel that defies the Jedi Council because that isn't really what the Jedi Knight story is. Now, having said that, of course as a player you can take it in all different directions and you can go down a darker path as you can in most BioWare games... but you'll still be a Jedi Knight.
Where the moral choices are concerned, we saw Dark side points and Light side points in gameplay demos. With this in mind, we see many similarities between the Sith Warrior and Jedi Knight, so what are the differences between those two stories from a morality standpoint? What makes a Dark side choice for a Jedi Knight different from a Dark side choice for a Sith Warrior?
Drew: Obviously, as you alluded to, they are in many ways opposite sides of the same coin. But, we wanted to go a little bit further in differentiating them. We don't want it to just be, "you're a Jedi Knight if you pick A, and you're a Sith Warrior if you pick B." We didn't want to go in that direction. So they both have their own unique story, of course as all our classes do, and what we did was focus on the framework of the story they are set in.
For example, the Sith Warrior is in a very different environment. He is in an environment where cutthroat ambition is encouraged and his masters are looking to challenge him in a way that if he fails, he dies. It is a very different setup. The Jedi Knight is in a very different kind of environment. His goal is to be a protector. His goal is to be a defender of the Republic and to those who are unable to defend themselves. He is definitely in a hero role. The Sith Warrior is more about surviving and acquiring power, while the Jedi Knight's decisions are focused more on accepting responsibility, self sacrifice, and putting other ahead of himself while still managing to overcome the evils and horrors that assault the galaxy.
Now when you go down the Dark side of the Jedi Knight, you are basically abdicating some of this responsibility. You're becoming a little more selfish and looking out for your own interest. Now this is a Dark side path, but you are still doing it within the framework of working for the Jedi Council and opposing the Empire. You are never saying you are going to join the Emperor; you still want to stop him. You're simply taking a different path to your goals. Whereas the Sith has totally different goals. It is really what your goals are in the story and in the character arc that define your class, how you go about getting there is the dark side light side part, but your goals are ultimately going to be very different from a Sith Warrior's.
I think that confirms that there is no mirroring between the story arcs.
Drew: There is none. There are planet stories that are faction specific, so everyone on a faction will have the same planet story, but each faction will have a unique story for each location. Every class has their own class story that follows you throughout the game and there is no mirroring. Even between the Jedi classes there is no mirroring, let alone between the Jedi and the Sith. They are unique characters. You all have your own motivations; you all have your own end goals. Very different.
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Posted 8/17/2010 7:11:41 PM- View User Profile
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Posted 8/17/2010 4:21:35 AM- View User Profile
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Posted 8/15/2010 11:37:28 PMI want you to go in that bag, and find my lightsaber.
It's the one that says Bad Motherfu***r.
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Posted 8/15/2010 8:36:53 AM- View User Profile
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Posted 8/15/2010 6:46:59 AMwhen he talked about the planet story arcs being faction specific i thought to myself, what a lost opportunity to introduce some good faction v faction story interactivity-a sort of mantra ive been chanting on the tor forums, "bring the story out into the open world" and let the players impact the game world.
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Posted 8/15/2010 5:38:02 AM- View User Profile
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Posted 8/15/2010 6:52:55 AMIMO
Wound in the Force::GoHann (lvl 35 Maurader)
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Posted 8/15/2010 6:50:32 AMWound in the Force::GoHann (lvl 35 Maurader)
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Posted 8/15/2010 3:54:11 AMSome of his hints makes me think almost immediately at Revan's storyline.
Whatever they have planned, I'm expecting a dam good story.