Chris Avellone has been responsible for some of the most highly regarded writing in RPGs in gaming history. He’s credited with classics like Planescape: Torment, the Fallout series, the criminally underrated Alpha Protocol and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords. That last one might be iffy in terms of gameplay, but fans unanimously praise the layered and complex way it approached morality in the Star Wars universe. That’s why when it was announced that Avellone would be working on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, people sat up and took note.
The game will follow a young Jedi in hiding after the events of Revenge of the Sith, with the trailer showing how difficult it is for him to keep a low profile. It’s the first dedicated single-player adventure that EA has delivered since they acquired the license and understandably, expectations are high.
So, with that in mind, fans will be pleased that Avellone has explained that he’s been inspired by watching The Clone Wars and Rebels, saying the following in a recent interview:
“Both of those were a joy to research. I didn’t like the pilots for each one, and I never had a chance to watch them [all the way through], but actually they’re pretty great. I actually really liked Clone Wars, and surprisingly I liked Rebels. I don’t think I’d have watched Rebels if I didn’t have to do research on it, but I was like ‘Wow, this is a great show.”
He also added that the shows are surprisingly mature, saying:
“Not in the sense that there’s sex and gory violence, but more about the fact they really deep-dive some of the characters in ways like how relationships can go sour, or here’s the potential danger of drug addiction but the metaphor is the Dark Side. All this stuff they introduced they did in really clever ways, and the voice actors did an amazing job with it. So it seems like it’s aimed at kids but I think the storylines end up being surprisingly rich for supposedly family-oriented shows. They don’t shy away from some topics.
One thing Rebels was doing was looking at new ways other cultures interpret the force. That was very much part of that series, so seeing them being willing to explore the force outside of Jedi and Sith and how those philosophies come in was really interesting. That surprised me.”
I really hope some of this philosophy makes it into the finished product. Despite the great trailer and developer Respawn Entertainment being on a winning streak after Apex Legends, there’s still the fact that this is a Star Wars game published by EA, and some stains don’t scrub off so easily. Still, they’ve assured fans that Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order won’t have shoehorned in multiplayer, microtransactions or lootboxes, so fingers tentatively crossed.
