‘Jedi: Survivor’ Director Stig Asmussen Talks Spoilers, Unravels More Details About Game’s Characters and Their Decisions
The game director behind Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Stig Asmussen, sat down with IGN on its podcast, Beyond, to talk spoilers, characters, and the moral decisions featured in the game’s story. Asmussen worked as the game director on both Jedi: Survivor and Jedi: Fallen Order.
Released in April, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor received massive critical acclaim for its story, visuals and gameplay improvements, marking it as a strong successor to 2019’s Jedi: Fallen Order. Our reviewer was also impressed by the game, calling it “the best Star Wars in years” in his review. Stig Asmussen is a well-known developer within the gaming industry, having also worked on the original God of War series.
Spoilers for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor follow …
A central talking point of the discussion was the character Bode Akuna. It’s revealed in the game’s story that Bode was also a survivor of “Order 66” and has a daughter named Kata whom he’s willing to protect at any cost. Asmussen was asked about how the character came about and had this response:
“Bode was born out of our narrative director Aaron Contreras. He had this idea from — of all movies — Point Break. That was the genesis for it. We wanted to have this character that [players] have this friendship — this bond [with]. But then just take the player on a ride and learn that this guy is a traitor at the same time Cal learns that.”
Later on in the interview, Asmussen was asked if Cameron Monaghan, the actor that portrays Cal Kestis, improvised any moments while on set. Asmussen then replied by saying the way Cal executes Bode was improvised.
“The last, and probably, the most important moment in the game, where [Cal] fires two shots, that was [Cameron’s] idea to do the second shot.”
When asked about the tough moral dilemma Cal faced of killing Bode — killing the father of young Kata, and killing one of Cal’s closest allies — and of further plunging Cal towards the dark side, Asmussen had this to say about that fateful moment:
“Bode became a monster. He had completely lost the plot. He would’ve killed Cal. If that shot fired from his blaster, Cal would be dead. Cal can’t take that risk. That’s why he did it with extreme prejudice. He goes in for that second shot.
There’s that stare — that moment — between him and Merrin, too. They’re kind of in this together. He got validation from her, as like, ‘yeah, that’s what you should do.'”
Many recent Star Wars projects have also delved into morally challenging aspects and Jedi: Survivor is not without its fair share of morally gray moments as well. Asmussen was asked about this and what that meant for the game.
“Cal is wading in the muck, trying to do what he believes are good things. But they’re all adding up to nothing because the Empire can’t be beaten. You talk about this morally gray and we find ourselves there because he’s going to do whatever it takes …
If the story has that “shades of gray,” I find it much more nuanced and interesting. As a player, you have to make different sacrifices in the game. The most important thing to us as a team was “Do the sacrifices pay off? Do they feel worth it? Is this the decision Cal would make?”
Asmussen was also asked if he and his team at Respawn Entertainment considered a morality system for Jedi: Survivor.
“No. This is a Star Wars canon story. Cal is a real character in Star Wars. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having that system. But having a character that has a real story that is going to start and end in a certain way means that we can’t have that degree of flexibility.”
Finally, when asked about Cameron Monaghan’s performance, Asmussen was also asked about how much of an impact the actor had on the development of the story.
“Most of what Cal is in the game is what [Cameron] brings to Cal’s character. He reads the script and really tries to wrap his head around the meaning of each scene and how Cal would portray himself based on the character that he’s been performing for so many years now. He’s constantly questioning on the stage, not only what Cal would be doing in a situation, but maybe what other people would be doing in the scene as well. He’s almost like a director on the stage.”
With the release of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Respawn Entertainment is currently working on two other Star Wars games. One will be a first-person shooter, while the other will be a strategy-based game. Presumably a third entry in the Star Wars Jedi series is underway also. There is also the open-world Star Wars game developed by Massive, a Ubisoft company, that could be arriving in early 2024.
Born and raised in Hawaii, Jay Goodearl runs the YouTube Gaming channel “Good Games, Dude” His channel aims to open up video games to beginners and immediate players and help them understand what makes games the art form that it is.
