‘Star Wars: Outlaws’ Details Game’s Planets, Characters, Exploration, and Addressed Popular Kyle Katarn Theory
The developer of Star Wars: Outlaws, Massive Entertainment, hosted a panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2023 where they discussed more about the game’s characters, planets, and the game’s exploration. Many of the game’s developers also spoke to media outlets to discuss some of the characters, and inspirations, and even address a popular fan theory regarding the game and Kyle Katarn.
For those who weren’t in attendance at San Diego Comic-Con, StarWars.com published an interview with the game’s creative director, Julian Gerighty, discussing some of the game’s many elements. A six-minute behind-the-scenes featurette with Massive Entertainment was also made available online on YouTube (provided below). Alongside this, news outlets such as IGN and Screen Rant were able to provide some other details that were given inside the panel as well as interview some of the developers.
One of the details given was about some of the crime syndicates that players will interact with. Senior creative executive, Matt Martin says in the behind-the-scenes video that there are even some new syndicates never seen before.
“We will see some really cool syndicates, both from existing lore and newly created for the game.”
After saying this, the video displays new artwork of Kay standing face-to-face with Jabba in his palace. And while this isn’t a direct quote from the developers, IGN did state that during the panel, it was mentioned that players will be spending some time in Jabba’s palace, running missions for him and even betraying him.
“We’ll also be spending a lot of time at Jabba’s palace, it sounds like, running missions for the Hutt himself and navigating the criminal underworld he’s at the center of. And yes, it’s possible not just to work for Jabba, but also to betray him — which of course has its own set of consequences.”
One of the new crime families that players will be encountering is a group called the Ashiga Clan. They are based on the planet Kijimi, the snowy planet shown in The Rise of Skywalker, and creative director Julian Gerighty had this to say about them when speaking to StarWars.com:
“The Ashiga Clan is a clan that we created in close collaboration with Lucasfilm Games. They’re based on Kijimi, which we saw in The Rise of Skywalker. It’s a faction that we really designed around this idea of a very hierarchical society that’s based on honor, tradition, and history. Their visuals are very much inspired by insects, and they propose a gameplay challenge for the player in terms of NPCs that are really contrasted to everybody else. So that’s not just in combat, but it’s also in stealth. There’s a lot of things that they manage to fill out for us to be able to have a very different experience for players compared to some of the other syndicates that you’ll meet, like the Hutts or the Pykes.”
The developers also talked about the locations within the game and some of the inspirations behind them. Two of the major planets they discussed were Toshara and Tatooine. Toshara is a new planet developed specifically for the game and that is inspired by biomes in East Africa. Narrative director Navid Khavari had this to say about Toshara with IGN:
“It’s a new moon that we crafted together with Lucasfilm Games. It’s inspired by Eastern Africa Savannah. We took this approach where you would have a thriving, bustling underworld capital city, but also, wide open plains that you can just hop in your speeder and take off down.”
Massive Entertainment also elaborated on one of the planet’s more unique locations called Mirogana. Mirogana is a city that has been built within a suspended rock, and that’s slowly been carved away by the constant winds of the planet.
Kay’s speeder looks to be vital in getting around Toshara. When asked by IGN if players will be able to change the appearance of the speeder, creative director Julian Gerighty said that “there will be some personalization in it.”
And while players will be spending much time traveling around Toshara, Gerighty also hinted at some secrets players may be able to uncover on the planet, including a rare enemy, and possibly the ability to discover alien foods. IGN managed to get a quote from Gerighty at the panel:
“There are a couple of surprises I don’t want to spoil. There is a particular predator on Toshara that is mind-blowingly cool. So if you have a fear of frogs, this might not be the game for you. It’s okay, it’s very rare. The second thing is that food is incredibly important to the world of Star Wars. And if you enjoy food and discovering alien concoctions, this is going to be an exciting experience for you.”
Switching over to Tatooine, Gerighty, when speaking to StarWars.com, highlighted the tourist-like experience that players will be able to have when exploring iconic locations, including Mos Eisley.
“It was a big challenge because there are so many things that exist on Tatooine that it’s become a puzzle to put things together. But we went back to the source. We went to some of the DK visual guides, and we started building, ‘Okay, what are the most important parts, and what’s gonna make the most fun for the player to explore?’ So Mos Eisley is a big part of it, but there’s also a lot of the dunes, the canyons, and things that you really expect. You know, the greatest hits of Tatooine that we try and put together.
We talked about the sort of singular nature of open worlds to allow the player to have agency on their experience. But there’s another part of it that I love and that’s very Ubisoft in a way, which is virtual tourism. And the virtual tourism in a place like Tatooine is great because I’ve always wondered how far the moisture farms were from Mos Eisley. I’ve always wondered how the cantina was constructed. So all of these things, we’re trying to do justice to the source material by really recreating it as authentically as possible, with the help of Lucasfilm Games.”
Finally, creative director Julian Gerighty spoke with Screen Rant about a popular fan theory regarding the character Jaylen that was seen in the first trailer for the game. Even though the character bears visual similarities to the Jedi Knight series protagonist, Kyle Katarn, Gerighty shuts out any correlation.
“It is not Kyle Katarn. It’s a character you’re going to be working with, that has their own motivations. It’s impossible for us to talk more about it without revealing too much!”
Star Wars: Outlaws is slated for release sometime in 2024 and will be released on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X and S.
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.
