Star Wars: Light and Dark

"Fight for the Force, fight for the future."

- Tagline

Star Wars: Light and Dark is a 3D fighting video game based on the Star Wars franchise released on May 4th, 2022 for PS5, Xbox One X, and Nintendo Switch. It is developed by 50A Studios, published by Electronic Arts, and backwards compatible with the PS4 and Xbox 360.

The game is an arena fighter styled to the likes of the Soul Calibur games with some influence from fellow past Star Wars video games, namely the Battlefront and Force Unleashed games, as well as  Masters of Teräs Käsi. It is a crossover between the current Disney continuity Star Wars with the Legends timeline, featuring characters and locations from the lengty history of the Star Wars franchise.

Plot
STAR WARS: LIGHT AND DARK
 * -|Opening Crawl / Back Cover Text =

The New Republic is no more. The First Order has destroyed it and left hope reeling for the rest of the galaxy. The Resistance is on the run from the First Order, and the young Jedi, REY, was sent to find her legendary predecessor: LUKE SKYWALKER.

While the First Order is burning the galaxy and stomping out the desperate Resistance, something in the Force changed. An anomaly unlike anything the universe has ever known.

The Balance of the Force has been thrown into disarray. Dead tyrants arise from their graves and the Light's paragons arrive from outside the galaxy's history.

Only the Force knows what has happened, and there is no telling of what will happen next in this calamity.

May the Force be with all who lives... and you. Star Wars: Light and Dark sees the main canon universe partially merge with the Legends universe thanks to the meddling of a powerful Force creature. As a result, several planets that only existed in Legends get transplanted into the main continuity. The merge was done mainly to gather both galaxies' most powerful and capable Force users, Jedi, Sith, or otherwise. Such an action was imperfect, however, as other non-Force users from the past get tangled up and also ended up in the present day. Several places which exist in both universes have melded, as well, and long-dead figures return from different points of their lives. In this chaos, heroes of the Light Side and the Dark Side's despots reluctantly team-up with their respective alignments to bring triumph to the Force's aspects they represent.
 * -|Summary and Setting =

For whatever alliance and uneasy truces that have been forged, none of them know the cause and goal of their resurrections, however. And when they discover the truth behind all this, they will know that they are all meant for a cause larger than themselves...

Button Commands
Star Wars: Light and Dark is a 3D arena fighting game where players take control of a unique character and attempt to defeat their enemies in a one-on-one match either by depleting their hitpoints or by knocking them out of the ring. The gameplay is heavily inspired by Soul Calibur, though the controls differ due to the different nature of both games. The stages have varying sizes and not all of them permit ring-out victories.

Before stepping in the more complex explanations of the game's combat mechanics, here are the button commands for the game, as well as several instructions: These commands are typical to the game's entire mechanics. There may be several characters who utilize some buttons for different commands, but across the entire board, the button commands above apply to everyone.

Statistics
Every character has different stats that determine how well they perform in certain aspects within the battle. Some are best used as defensive powerhouses, while others are aggressive bruisers or zoning sharpshooters. Each attribute's value numbers from 1000 until 3000, but some stats are not judged through the numbers. The statistics/attributes are as followed:

 Health , otherwise known as Hitpoints, determine the amount of attacks a character can endure before being defeated. Some characters can regenerate lost health, either through the Force or by more mundane means. Healing may permanently restore a fixed amount of health or just temporarily restore what health the character has lost before returning to its original level.  Defense  determines the amount of damage reduction a character has against attacks, including the damage received while blocking and the damage taken while getting hit regularly.  Offense  displays how much damage a character's attacks can deal, both melee and ranged ones.  Mobility  represents how fast the character can move by walking or sprinting. Flying is not counted within this stat as it is included in Unique.  Power  determines the amount of power a character generates to fill up the Power Meter. Power is gained by attacking the enemy. Performing Power Moves do not generate Power. The  Power Meter  is used to display how much Power a character possesses. Once the character has a certain amount of Power, then they can unleash Power Moves. The Power Meter looks similar to the Marvel vs Capcom series' Hyper Combo Gauge, possessing a maximum of four meters. Characters have multiple Power Moves that require a set amount of meters to perform. As a balancing mechanic, however, they cannot chain a Power Move to another immediately. Instead, the characters have a two-second delay before they can attempt another Power Move after doing the previous one. The Force Meter is solely used by Force users and it is located right beneath the their health bar. Their colors differ from one Force user to another, depending on their affiliation to the Light Side,  Dark Side , or  anything in between . Unlike the Power Meter, the Force Meter is recharged automatically after having a portion of it consumed to use Force powers. It's also used to deflect blaster bolts and perform Force Counters, which frees its user from restraining Force powers. Once it is depleted, its users cannot utilize Force powers until it's recharged. Low-cost Force powers can still be used, however, at the risk of quickly draining the Force Meter once again. Unique describes every special trait and characteristic a character has. This includes the weapons they wield, their ability to jump or fly, and several others.
 * -|Health =
 * -|Defense =
 * -|Offense =
 * -|Mobility =
 * -|Power =
 * -|Power Meter =
 * -|Force Meter =
 * -|Unique =

Combat
Typical to fighting games, Star Wars: Light and Dark possesses a combo system. It is designed to be accessible and rather simple so it can be accessed by newer players more easily. Almost every character is easy to pick up, but no character in game can be mastered without difficulty. Regardless, the game's combo system permits the chaining of one move with another, as well as linking a combo to another. The game encourages the players to discover more combos as they progress through the game, the in-game pop-up tutorials only providing basic combos.

Combos aren't just the only method of victory. Utilizing special moves and the Power Meter, players can wreck a large amount of the enemy's health. Force users can use their Force powers, which in turn draw power from the Force Meter, to open up new combo opportunities or punish the mistakes of their enemies. To balance the disparity between Force sensitives and regular ones, the former's powers cannot reach the entire stage to affect the enemy.

Several times were the Saber Lock mechanic mentioned before. Like what was said, Saber Lock can only be performed if two characters with lightsabers or other related weapons execute a melee weapon Block Breaker at one another. While locked, both characters struggle to overcome each other in the clash by continuously pressing a designated button, informed by the game itself on-screen. The winner knocks back the opponent and the loser gets stunned for one and a half second, just enough for the former to punish the latter with his/her own attacks.

Players can perform a dash move by moving the left thumbstick twice to the intended direction. Air dashes are also possible, but all forms of dash cannot be done indefinitely. Taking inspiration from Star Wars Battlefront II but with a more uniform approach, every character can consecutively dash for three times before having to undergo a three-second cooldown. Every one second, the player can dash again, but needs to wait even longer for the full 'dash meter' to charge.

Dashing is mostly done by Force users. Non-Force sensitives do a combat roll in place of that, on the other hand, but the mechanics remain the same. While dashing or combat rolling, characters are still susceptible to damage, but take 4% reduced damage. Not that it prevents them from getting affected by Force powers.

Knocking an enemy off a ledge can result in victory, but not every map has such fatal ledges. In fact, some stages have multiple sections that can be accessed by knocking the opponent off a ledge or even by destroying the current section's floor, similar to how Tekken handles environmental destruction.

Game Modes
"Journey through a galaxy in crisis with the iconic heroes and legends of Star Wars, both from the past and present."
 * -|Campaign =

- Description The game's single player story mode revolves around the battles of two newly-formed factions. On the other side, the Resistance of Light, is composed of the Light Side's heroic figures from different parts of the galaxy and history who work together to defeat the Dark Siders with General Leia's Resistance as their umbrella organization. The Dark Side's villains cautiously join the First Order and fight for their beliefs as the Dark Assembly.

The story is divided into the Light Side and the Dark Side campaigns. Together, both campaigns form a cohesive storyline which compliments one another in details and plot. In the campaigns, players progress through the story with different characters and inhabit a number of hub worlds. In these hub worlds, players can take control of assigned characters and interact with the hub's other inhabitants. Players can change their roaming characters, as long as they can play as them in the next mission and they are in the player's faction.

There are 20 chapters for each campaign and a number of side-missions players can undertake to recruit new characters or add new customization options to the player's inventory. Players can customize the appearances of the characters they have in the Campaign with both the items they gained outside the mode and the ones they find inside this very mode. Customized characters appear according to the player's meddling to them in cutscenes. For story purposes, however, some characters cannot get their lightsaber colors changed.

The Campaign can be played with several difficulty options, which are (starting from the easiest up to the hardest) Padawan, Jedi Knight, Jedi Master, and Sith Lord. "Hone your skills and realize your greatest potential. Train hard enough, and you may just receive a reward for your hard work..."
 * -|Training =

- Description

A mode where players can train their ability to use certain characters in different stages against different opponents. Players can set their own conditions for the opponent or even the player character himself/herself. Instead of fighting the game's playable characters, players can also opt to fight four training-exclusive enemies in the form of an IG-100 MagnaGuard (IG-103), a Sith Trooper (Pharro), a Praetorian Guard (Ninth Guard), and a Shadow Guard (SG-1698). Should players have spent at least ten minutes training with each of these training characters, the next time they enter the mode, they will be faced with a secret boss fight.

Defeating the secret training boss is no easy task, and players are given the option to fight him again or just train when they re-enter the mode. Winning this apocalyptic battle will reward the player's roster with the boss himself: PROXY from Star Wars: the Force Unleashed. "Find your enlightment by fighting for the Light Side, or kill all who resists your will for the Dark Side."
 * -|Galactic Quest =

- Description

Take on a series of enemies in challenging encounters with progressively harder difficulty levels. Defeating Galactic Quest will yield players unique endings for the characters they use. The mode can be played with the same difficulty levels as the Campaign's, but the difficulty spike from one encounter to another will still happen. Different difficulties also pit players against a different amount of enemies, amounting to 20 enemies in Sith Lord. Completing Galactic Quest in all of its four difficulty setting with specific characters rewards players with new in-game contents, which are presented through achievements. "Battle an AI-controlled enemy with your own settings."
 * -|Versus =

- Description

Choose a character for you and the AI to play, set the difficulty, stage, and special modifiers, then engage in a duel with one another. "Destroy your beloved ones in a duel of the fates."
 * -|Hotseat =

- Description

Similar to Versus mode, but instead of beating up AI-controlled characters, players get to fight with a friend or family member of theirs, who controls the second character. "Prove yourself the greatest fighter in the galaxy."
 * -|Multiplayer =

- Description

Fight against other players online with your own customized characters and achieve victory. There is an online leaderboard for this mode, displaying a player's ranking among all the other players. Players can increase or decrease their ranks by attaining points while fighting and getting complimentary points at the end of a match, the winner getting a larger amount of points than the loser. The game has several multiplayer 'seasons' which reward players with a number of in-game contents for their participation.

As more and more updates arrive, multiplayer soon finds its use as a method to attain new characters. New characters are rewarded for those who are among the highest ranked in the leaderboard. Players that miss out the ranks can still get the new characters by completing a number of milestones to unlock them. "Bask in whatever glory you have attained thus far and change the appearances of your champions."
 * -|Holocron Library =

- Description

The Holocron Library acts as the player's gallery of collectibles. There, players can see the biographies of the characters they own, concept arts, and other customization options players have gained in their progression throughout the game. The Library is also where players can customize their characters. Players can also play back campaign cutscenes and change the intros and outros of selected characters (this feature can be done before the start of any non-Campaign battles, too).

Customization
The game has a wide array of customization options, some exclusive, and some shared among a number of characters. Every character have their own skins, but some skins, on the other hand, are broken down to parts which can be shared with other characters. Most skins are awarded wholly to the players, allowing them to individually 'break down' and give parts of the skin to other characters they have. In the Holocron Library, players can identify the skins' parts and also character parts which can be customized. Players can also change the color scheme of the skin parts and add emblems to some parts should they wish to.

Players can change the colors of characters' lightsaber blades, provided the option is available. Force sensitives with experience in both the Light and Dark Side may change their blade colors from those of the Light to the Dark Side's red. These changes will not affect character dialogues. Every character also has different intros and outros the player can unlock by progressing through the game.

Content Progression and Updates
There is no form of currency in this game and therefore, no microtransactions. Every customization content in-game is achieved by playing the game's various modes. Once the player has finished a certain milestone or achievement, he/she will be notified of his/her accomplishment and receives the reward that moment exact. If a player gains the reward in the middle of a battle, he/she will still possess the reward when he/she exits. Some achievements reward players in the middle of cutscenes, and the same principle applies like before.

The game will be updated in a semi-monthly basis, handling its contents similar to how Star Wars Battlefront II distributed DLCs. New characters, mini-campaigns, and customization options will be available throughout the game's life cycle. 50A Studios plan to support the game for at least three years before moving on to other projects.

Characters and Cast
The game has a total of thirty six playable characters at launch, three of which are hidden characters. The roster is composed of both characters from the current Disney continuity and the past Legends timeline, also featuring some notable alternate incarnations of a single character. Some characters are 'merges' between their Canon and Legends incarnations, granting them memories of both versions.

Players who pre-order the game are able to play as Shae Vizla, otherwise known as Mandalore the Avenger from Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Launch
Characters who are categorized as bounty hunters and mercenaries are counted here, regardless of their histories. These characters are unplayable. These characters either appear as cameos, enemies, or NPCs within the game.
 * -|Light Side =
 * 1) Anakin Skywalker (Voiced by Matt Lanter) (Prequel Trilogy)
 * 2) Satele Shan (Voiced by Jennifer Hale) (The Old Republic)
 * 3) Cal Kestis (Voiced by Cameron Monaghan) (Jedi: Fallen Orer)
 * 4) Captain Rex (Voiced by Dee Bradley Baker) (The Clone Wars)
 * 5) Chewbacca
 * 6) Luke Skywalker (Voiced by Lloyd Floyd) (Original Trilogy)
 * 7) Boss (Voiced by Dee Bradley Baker) (Republic Commando)
 * 8) Rey (Voiced by Daisy Ridley) (Sequel Trilogy)
 * 9) Obi-Wan Kenobi (Voiced by James Arnold Taylor) (Prequel Trilogy)
 * 10) Qui-Gon Jinn (Voiced by Fred Tatasciore) (Prequel Trilogy)
 * 11) Starkiller (Voiced by Sam Witwer) (The Force Unleashed II)
 * 12) Yoda (Voiced by Tom Kane)
 * -|Dark Side =
 * 1) Arden Lyn (Voiced by Edie Mirman) (Masters of Teräs Käsi)
 * 2) Captain Phasma (Voiced by Ellen Dubin) (Sequel Trilogy)
 * 3) Count Dooku (Voiced by Corey Burton) (Prequel Trilogy)
 * 4) Darth Maul (Voiced by Sam Witwer) (Prequel Trilogy)
 * 5) Darth Vader (Voiced by Matt Sloan) (Original Trilogy)
 * 6) Grand Inquisitor (Voiced by Jason Isaacs) (Rebels)
 * 7) General Grievous (Voiced by Richard McGonagle) (Prequel Trilogy)
 * 8) Iden Versio (Voiced by Janina Gavankar) (Battlefront II (2017))
 * 9) Kylo Ren (Voiced by Matthew Russel Wood) (Sequel Trilogy)
 * 10) Lord Scourge (Voiced by Joseph Gatt) (The Old Republic)
 * 11) Palpatine (Voiced by Ian Abercrombie)
 * 12) Revan (Voiced by Spencer Garrett) (The Old Republic)
 * -|Unaffiliated =
 * 1) Boba Fett (Voiced by Temuerra Morrison) (Original Trilogy)
 * 2) Black Krrsantan (Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith)
 * 3) Calo Nord (Voiced by Lloyd Sherr) (Knights of the Old Republic)
 * 4) Durge (Voiced by Daran Noris) (Clone Wars)
 * 5) Han Solo (Voiced by Ross Marquand)
 * 6) HK-47 (Voiced by Kristoffer Tabori) (Knights of the Old Republic)
 * 7) Mandalore the Ultimate (Voiced by Steve Blum) (Knights of the Old Republic)
 * 8) Nico Okarr (Voiced by John DiMaggio) (The Old Republic)
 * 9) Shae Vizla (Voiced by Sumalee Montano) (The Old Republic) (Pre-Order bonus)
 * -|Training Characters =
 * 1) IG-103 (IG-100 MagnaGuard)
 * 2) Pharro (Sith Trooper)
 * 3) Ninth Guard (Elite Praetorian Guard)
 * 4) SG-1698 (Imperial Shadow Guard)
 * -|Secret Characters =
 * 1) Ben Kenobi (Voiced by Stephen Stanton) (Original Trilogy)
 * 2) Master Luke (Voiced by Mark Hamill) (Sequel Trilogy)
 * 3) PROXY (Voiced by David W. Collins) (The Force Unleashed)
 * -|Unplayable Characters =
 * 1) Abeloth (Voiced by Liya Akhedzhakova) (Legends)
 * 2) Armitage Hux (Voiced by Domhnall Gleeson) (Sequel Trilogy)
 * 3) BD-1 (Jedi: Fallen Order)
 * 4) Bib Fortuna (Voiced by Trevor Devall) (Original Trilogy)
 * 5) C-3P0 (Voiced by Anthony Daniels)
 * 6) Cere Junda (Voiced by Debra Wilson) (Jedi: Fallen Order)
 * 7) Finn (Voiced by John Boyega) (Sequel Trilogy)
 * 8) Greez Dritus (Voiced by Daniel Roebuck) (Jedi Fallen Order)
 * 9) Huyang (Voiced by David Tennant) (The Clone Wars)
 * 10) Doctor Aphra (Voiced by January LaVoy) (Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith)
 * 11) Jabba the Hutt (Voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson) (Original Trilogy)
 * 12) Juno Eclipse (Voiced by Nathalie Cox) (The Force Unleashed)
 * 13) Leia Organa (Voiced by Lisa Fuson and Carolyn Hennesy)
 * 14) Merrin (Voiced by Tina Ivlev) (Jedi Fallen Order)
 * 15) Poe Dameron (Voiced by Oscar Isaac) (Sequel Trilogy)
 * 16) R2-D2
 * 17) Snoke (Voiced by Andy Serkis) (Sequel Trilogy)
 * 18) T7-01 (The Old Republic)
 * 19) Thrawn (Voiced by Lars Mikkelsen)

Stages

 * -|Bracca =
 * 1) Shipbreaking Yards
 * -|Coruscant =
 * 1) CoCo Town
 * 2) High Council Chamber
 * 3) The Underworld
 * -|Crait =
 * 1) Abandoned Rebel Base
 * 2) Salt Plains
 * -|Endor =
 * 1) Bright Tree Village
 * -|Exegol =
 * 1) The Emperor's Judgment
 * -|Geonosis =
 * 1) Droid Factory
 * -|Hoth =
 * 1) Echoing Ruins
 * -|Ilum =

Prequel Trilogy

 * 1) Cave of Gathering

Sequel Trilogy

 * 1) Starkiller Base
 * -|Kamino =
 * 1) Cloning Facility
 * -|Kashyyyk =
 * 1) Imperial Refinery
 * 2) Shadowlands
 * -|Kef Bir =
 * 1) Remnants of the Death Star
 * -|Korriban / Moraband =
 * 1) Sith Academy
 * 2) Valley of the Dark Lords
 * -|Mimban =
 * 1) Temple of Pomojema
 * -|Mustafar =
 * 1) Vader's Castle
 * -|Naboo =
 * 1) Hangar Bay
 * -|Supremacy Mega-class Star Destroyer=
 * 1) Snoke's Throne
 * -|Tatooine =
 * 1) Jabba's Palace
 * 2) Mos Eisley
 * -|Yavin 4 =
 * 1) Jedi Praxeum

Soundtrack
The game's soundtrack will be composed by Stephen Barton, a renowned British film and video game composer who has composed the music for the likes of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Apex Legends and Titanfall, as well as Star Wars Battlefront II, where he collaborated with Gordy Haab. Samples and remixes of John Williams' famous scores are present within the game, as do the game's original theme and some themes from other Star Wars-related audio-visual media to primarily represent some of the game's characters who originate from previously-released video games.

Trivia

 * The game was supposed to have an intricate Lightsaber customization system which allows players to create their own lightsabers to replace the lightsabers of their users, similar to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Due to time constraints, this feature was omitted from the main game. There are still some data for many lightsaber parts within the code, however, and some of them can actually be seen in-game as background items.
 * In the game's early development, the Yuuzhan-Vong were supposed to be the Campaign's main antagonist, being led by a wielder of the 'Anti-Force' named Darklight.