Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Redemption

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Redemption would be a new installment in the Star Wars Jedi Knight series of games that was left off with the installment Jedi Academy in 2003, and would be available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, and Wii U. I wanted to make an idea like this because although Jedi Academy wasn't one of my favorite games ever, I saw in it a formula that has massive potential in today's gaming market and one that was excellent for Star Wars adventure games in general.

In addition, I've found that for as massive a Star Wars fan as I am, I've hardly done any ideas for the franchise, and none at all with a particularly deep story. Now that I've gained some more knowledge of the franchise's extended universe (as well as a bit of a better grasp of game design), I decided I wanted to try my hand at writing up a game in this franchise.

It should also be noted that for the purposes of this idea, I'll be going by the canon set forth by the existing extended universe of Star Wars, as that's the one that established the series in the first place.

Story
The game continues the timeline of the series revolving around the jedi master Kyle Katarn, the close friend and contemporary of Luke Skywalker. By now in the timeline, both men are older and wiser, and don't go out on mission as much as they used to, though they frequently take part in overseeing the affairs of the jedi and in providing council.

The actual story focuses on someone who begins the game as a sith in training; nothing is strictly specified about them - the player can customize their appearance, species, and gender, and even choose from a selection of first and last names for them (though for the purposes of this article, I'm going to refer to the protagonist as Kal Zeldar, the default name combination, and I'll assume he's a male to simplify the reading).

At the beginning of the story, Kal fights a duel against a fellow Sith acolyte in an attempt to move up in their ranks; the duel is presided over by the reigning overlord of the Sith, Lord Torrad, his lieutenant Darth Rixus, and a number of denizens of the planet Korriban, where the Sith Academy is located. The player is thrown into a situation where they learn the basics of the game, and to advance, they simply have to win the duel. On winning, Kal kills his opponent; both Torrad and Rixus compliment him on his strength, and it is established that Kal has made a name for himself as something of a prodigy, with an impressive number of sinister deeds to his name. The crowd begins cheering wildly, but out of nowhere, Rixus plunges his lightsaber through Torrad's chest. Chaos begins raging as Torrad's guard is attacked by traitorous rogue dark jedi; people in the crowd begin to scatter, and despite Kal's best efforts to fight back against the assailants, he ends up getting knocked out and left on the ground.

On waking, Kal finds himself collapsed in the cargo bay of a shuttle craft alongside a number of more severely wounded Sith. A soldier working for the traitorous Rixas enters the bay to check on the prisoners, but suddenly, the craft comes under attack; Kal takes advantage of the situation to attack the guard with the force and steal his gun, liberating the other prisoners and looking to seize control of the ship and escape. He begins shooting his way up to the bridge, and in the process finds out that the craft is being raided by a troop of New Republic soldiers, led by a few jedi. Kal makes his way past them and gets to the bridge, only to be incapacitated once again by an unfamiliar female jedi.

Next thing Kal knows, he's in a cell sitting across from Kyle Katarn, and the two know of each other. Kal is fully prepared to reflect whatever Kyle says to try and shake him, but Kyle doesn't even waste time. He says that he knows Kal's type, and he seems informed by some personal knowledge of him: he says he's someone who grew up rough, and was trained to be rough his whole life. Now he wanted nothing but to follow his own path, and yet he was still preoccupied with following the commands of petty Sith lords who only served themselves, as the dark side wore away his very being. Kyle goes on to say that if he really wanted to be free, he wouldn't live to kill people and compete in a vain struggle for power - he would do whatever he could for people who needed the assurance of the force.

Kyle presents Kal with a decision to make; he decides to let Kal loose - after all, he's been left with no compatriots left and no way to return to his masters. Kyle tells him that if he wants to try his hand at being a jedi, he can venture a short way to the temple, or if he wants to take his chances out in the galaxy, he can take a shuttle craft and leave at his own leisure without any weapons or supplies.

At this point, the player has a choice to leave and go solo or stay with the jedi. Each choice will lead to a different story progression, but the ultimate goal is the same: to pursue Darth Rixus, discover his motives, and deal justice to him - whether it was for the sake of the light side or the dark side remains a mystery to be determined.

Solo Story
Assuming Kal decides to fly off into the galaxy on his own, his ship ends up having to come in for a landing on the Outer Rim desert planet of Florrum, a rogue planet inhabited by various mercenaries, as well as Jawas. He starts in the middle of the desert, and seizes a Skalder, a large, rideable animal, to ride into a distant settlement past some acid geysers. He gets attacked by bandits along the way, but manages to fight through them and reach the settlement, which turns out to be called Jarrost. There he meets up with an old friend, the trandoshan Trisk, whom he asks about the activities of the Sith.

Trisk says he doesn't have his finger on the pulse of Sith scheming, but he has a rival who does: Lebra Two-Guns, a death stick smuggler and humanoid trafficker. Trisk tells his old friend Kal that he could use the help of a force-user, even if he didn't have a lightsaber, and makes a deal that in exchange for helping him crash Lebra's operations, he would help Kal get the answers he was looking for.

Upon invading Lebra's hideout, Kal and Trisk find him coordinating with a Sith acolyte, and after taking control of the area, they interrogate the wounded acolyte. Kal learns that Darth Rixus has taken control of the Sith remnant by force as part of a longstanding plot, and now plans to revive a spirit of the dark side that will shake the foundations of the galaxy. It sounds to them like grandstanding, and they don't fall for it; but out of nowhere, the acolyte breaks his bonds and attacks them. After a brief skirmish, Trisk kills him with a shot to the head. They take the opportunity to search his person and find a small holocron that verifies his story. It also includes some sets of coordinates revealing the locations of various Sith bases, each of them presumably pursuing a different goal. Kal now knows what he has to do, but before leaving, he decides to take away the acolyte's lightsaber, but replaces the red crystal with a spare one that Trisk happened to have from years before, having lost some of his zeal for the dark side.

After interrupting Sith endeavors on the planets of Dantooine, Rhen Var, Coruscant, and Byss, Kal finally pieces together Rixus's plot after following up on a clue leading him to the Nathema system. In a ruined temple, he finds a remote Sith database before being cornered by a group of four powerful Sith lords called the Quadratum of Vitiate, three of whom he'd already had confrontations with on previous missions, led by Rixus himself. After putting up the best fight he can, Kal is kidnapped and held for an unknown purpose.

Darth Rixus reveals that they're looking to revive the spirit of the ancient Sith Emperor Vitiate of the Old Republic, who lived thousands of years ago. With the support of his power and ability to plan, they could revive the Sith empire to make it as powerful as it was in the Old Republic era. Furthermore, they plan to use Kal as a blood sacrifice to bring Vitiate's ghost back into the physical world, because he has significant strength with the force, and even has latent dark energy flowing through him. However, before they can do so, the jedi, led by Kyle Katarn, Jaden Korr, and the female jedi who had knocked Kal out (who he finds is named Danir) intervene, and Kal escapes with them after a short battle.

After they regroup, Kal and the rest of the jedi pursue the Quadratum of Vitiate, killing off three of its four members: on Ord Mantell, they hunt down Sith battle master Darth Vorin, master of dual blades; on Felucia they hunt down Sith sorcerer Darth Khaja; and finally, on Mustafar, they hunt down Sith force master Darth Sataal. Finally, they confront Darth Rixus himself in an ancient system of caverns on Geonosis. After a lengthy chase and a fierce fight, Rixus uses telekinesis to knock out Danir and electrocutes Kal, bringing him to his knees. At this point, Rixus offers Kal a choice: he could try to resist further, in which case he would surely die, or he could become his apprentice, and they would dominate the galaxy together.

The story ends in one of two ways, depending on what the player chooses to do. If Kal chooses to return to the dark side, he gives into his anger and kills Darth Rixus while his guard is down. Danir regains consciousness and realizes she has to fight with Kal. Kal slays her and uses her as a sacrifice of force power to restore Emperor Vitiate's spirit. After expressing his gratitude, Vitiate's dark force ghost possesses Kal right as Kyle Katarn, Jaden Korr, and Luke Skywalker show up with a large number of jedi. The game ends when a slightly more powerful Kal fights these jedi and ultimately falls in battle. The jedi lament the loss of Kal and Danir, and Vitiate's ghost fades back into oblivion.

If Kal chooses to remain with the light side, the duel is with Darth Rixus instead of Danir, and Kal promptly defeats him. Vitiate's spirit then takes advantage of Rixus's force power to try to force itself into Kal's consciousness and use him as a vessel. The confrontation then moves into the psyches of the two combatants; Vitiate tries to wear away Kal's sanity with illusion, and Kal eventually duels Vitiate in his mind. Upon winning, Kal returns to reality, and Vitiate's spirit fades back into nothingness.

Danir is awake by the time Kal regains his senses, and the jedi mentioned before arrive on the scene. After finding out what happened, Luke and Kyle commend Kal for his efforts and offer him a place on the Jedi Order, but Kal refuses on the grounds that he no longer wants to live life governed by the force, and promptly decides to go off and seek his own path.

Lightsaber Combat
The swordplay in Jedi Redemption would be a current-gen refinement of what was seen in Jedi Academy. In that game, lightsaber combat did not have "blocking" as a clear-cut game mechanic. It would either be automatic, or two lightsabers would essentially block each other when their attacks clashed together, causing both attackers to recoil slightly. This led to some seriously intense combat where two opponents would continually try to break through each other's defenses or catch one another with their guard down in order to land a hit.

This system was remarkably straightforward, but felt more intense than fighting in most other Star Wars games because of its chaotic, freeform nature. In this game, the movements and animation would be more advanced, as you would expect from a newer game. Fighting on odd terrain like ramps would be more intuitive and realistic, as would special maneuvers like running and jumping on walls. In addition, combat would flow more easily than ever before, with a variety of combat options available to the player at any given moment to make each encounter unpredictable.

Combat would also be made more intuitive through better hitboxes and overall control. Acrobatics would feel less floaty, in order to ensure that the player's control over his/her character feels direct and immersive.

Force Power
Since the force is also incorporated into these games, it would come back as a more realistic feature as well. Force pushes and pulls would cancel each other out, but if one successfully hits, it can throw off the rhythm of the person affected and leave them open. They would also allow the player to exploit the environment, throwing or pulling opponents off ledges from a short distance.

As in the last installment, the player would have access to both light and dark side powers, without usage of either type of power clearly affecting the good/evil character of the user. In addition, the force would work off the same system as it did before: force points would top out at 100, and regenerate quickly after being used up. Each power would take up a certain amount of points.

The force powers seen in Jedi Academy would all return in this installment; there were four of each kind of light side, dark side, and neutral powers:

Returning Powers

 * Force Push - Pushes the opponent away if successful.
 * Force Pull - Pulls the opponent towards you if successful.
 * Force Speed - Allows the user to move at blurring speed for a short period of time; useful for overwhelming opponents.
 * Force Sense - Temporarily highlights opponents in the area around the user - can be used to see through nearby walls and past mind tricks.
 * Tutaminis (Force Absorb) - Allows the user to siphon some force power off of force-based attacks used against him.
 * Force Barrier - Causes the user to take less damage while in effect. Wears off gradually over time.
 * Force Heal - Allows the user to sacrifice force power for more health.
 * Mind Trick (Force Cloak) - Allows the user to turn himself temporarily invisible, although he can still be seen by force sense.
 * Force Lightning - Allows the user to attack with a continuous stream of lightning at the expense of force power.
 * Force Drain - Allows the user to siphon force energy and health slowly from the opponent; it can be broken out of quickly and the user must have direct contact with the opponent.
 * Force Rage - Takes a few moments of immobility to charge, but temporarily allows the user to do more damage at the expense of slowly losing health.
 * Force Grip - Allows the user to choke out the opponent slowly and move them slightly through the air.

New Powers

 * Battle Mind - Takes a few moments and a large amount of force power to charge, but gives the user ten seconds of invulnerability. Meant to be used in anticipation of a tough battle.
 * Telekinesis - Allows the user to control and throw objects in the environment.
 * Force Projection - The user can project a moving decoy of themselves to confuse opponents.

Other Weaponry
The Jedi Knight series is known for featuring the use of weapons other than lightsabers, like blasters and explosives. I would include this in Jedi Redemption as well, but they would be more realistic interpretations of the weapons of the previous game. They would have a third person component, and the game would have cover mechanics to deepen the experience of shootouts.

I won't go through the process of naming all the weapons that would be in the game, but I will say that each one would have two phases that would serve different purposes. Levels would also be designed in such a way that using different phases of a given weapon would provide an advantage in certain situations.