Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is apparently putting a big focus on NPC allies in combat, with what Respawn is calling the "Character-in-Gameplay" system.
NPC allies in action games are certainly nothing new, and the interplay between Kratos and Atreus in the modern God of War series is probably the most robust example of it. Like in God of War, your allies will find natural ways to aid you based on your actions. One of those allies here is Bode Akuna, a new character who's appeared in the game's trailers.
"When you see a good opportunity," narrative technical designer Joanna Robb tells IGN, "you can give Bode the signal to perform the attack, and he’ll use his jetpack to ram the enemy with a brutal dropkick, and then he quickly follows it up by slamming down a shock grenade to stun other nearby enemies. It’s a great way to send a tough enemy flying, taking them out of the fight briefly, or you could run them down with a sprint attack to get a quick hit in."
In another example, you'll be able to Force grab and toss a probe droid into a crowd of enemies - Bode will then automatically shoot the droid to cause a big explosion that'll take out the whole group. Respawn says there'll be plenty of other NPC interactions to discover in battle, too, but they won't be called out for you. The system's built to give you the same sort of surprising bits of tandem fight choreography you might see in the movies.
Jedi: Fallen Order already gave you help for one big encounter - where Nightsister Merrin assists you in a boss battle - but while these NPC allies are still tied to the story, they'll be much more robust this time around. Companions will follow you around for multiple fights through large chunks of the story, but they won't necessarily stick with you while you're backtracking to pick up all those healing stims you missed.
Respawn won't call out who else is going to be part of the Character-in-Gameplay system, so it seems that'll be a surprise for launch. Hopefully we won't be surprised by something akin to God of War Ragnarok's annoying, puzzle-spoiling NPCs - especially since Fallen Order had a much better solution with opt-in puzzle hints.
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