Star Wars Star Wars Fighting Game, What'd Your Roster Be?

[Husky_Khan]

I know nothing will ever be able to eclipse Star Wars: Masters of Teras Kasi as released by Lucasarts in 1997 and the only reason they never continued with that legendary fighting game franchise is because they just didn't want to completely crush the competition in that genre but lets say there is some actual interest in making a top tier Star Wars fighting game and capitalize on the success of other recent fighting game series like SNK's KOF15 and with three Jedi showing up as guest characters in Soul Calibur IV.

Star Wars being such a big franchise (though thankfully largely contained in one universe instead of those pernicious multiverses everyone else has) with a large focus on close combat (typically with lightsabers) making a highly developed fighting game could have some serious potential.

If you were able to be the Game Director for the first Star Wars fighting game, who would you pick for the roster? What stages would there be? Would you have an Arcade or Versus or Story Mode? How would you reconcile bringing together a diverse cast of Star Wars fighters from across the Star Wars Galaxy and tens of thousands of years of history (as well as multiple versions of continuity). How would the various fighters and their playstyles go? What kind of neat DLC or extra content would you entice once your game launches into the top tiers of popularity? Etc etc

The main thing to discuss though I feel would be a roster. You'd want a big one, but not so much that characters are duplicative or derivative (can be tricky with all of the guys with laser swords running around). Plus you wouldn't want to crush your Game Devs with too much work. Also you'd want Star Wars characters iconic or striking enough to generate interest in the game and wanting to play.

 

[Bear Ribs]

Hmm, okay so assuming I have full pull here, I'd want to differentiate it significantly from other fighting games. The problem is it's been years since I played one so I'm not sure what the state of the art is in the first place.

I'm thinking an emphasis on level design. Not just a flat static floor the characters fight on, no. Lots of 3D buildings, opportunities for Parkour with room for Force Jumps, grapple guns, and other fun stuff to help the characters move around. Possibly destructible terrain to add some tactical fun in taking down buildings or platforms to deny them to a more mobile opponent.

No Fighting Game is worthwhile without a versus mode, I'd also include a story mode. Might include some weaker mooks in order to let it expand into a beat 'em up in story mode, add some stormtroopers, reskin them as rebel troopers, and some Gammoreans.

Character Roster:

We'll start with 8 playable characters, with five hidden characters that are antagonist-only in Story Mode. They will become playable in the first DLC. The reason for limiting the roster so much is so that we can spend more time on refining and balancing each of them, hopefully resulting in better initial gameplay. Later DLCs can add more fan favorites.

Darksiders:
Darth Maul
Darth Vader
TR-8R
Asajj Ventress

Boss Enemies:
Emperor Palpatine
Darth Talon
Sith Rey

Lightsiders:
Luke Skywalker
Ezra Bridger
Ahsoka Tano
Chewbacca

Boss Enemies:
Yoda
Bultar Swan
Lightside Rey

The Reys are just recolors to save on design, but allow us to use her on both tracks so no matter what you play, you get a chance to kill Rey, not that I'm putting it that way in the board meetings.

This roster is designed to give a decent mix of styles. On the darkside roster we have a dual-wielder, a lightstaff user, a single-blade user, and one non-Sith mundane. Honestly could probably do better but TR-8R is pretty memetic at this point. The lightsider roster similarly has a single-wielder, a dual-wielder, Ezra has a lightsaber that's also a gun so ranged, and Chewbacca for our mundane, equipped with Rykk blades and a Bowcaster. Bosses were similarly chosen to be different, Yoda's super small and fast, Palpatine is a sorcerer type, Rey has her weird jack knife saber, Darth Talon is very acrobatic without being as small as Yoda, and Bultar Swan is a barehanded Jedi.

Bultar Swan is possibly an iffy choice. She's notable for being a Jedi who eschewed a lightsaber in favor of beating all her problems to death with her bare fists but she hasn't really been in that much media so may not have the star power for this roster. I'd prefer another lightside female for cheesecake DEI purposes but nobody's really coming to mind. Ayla Secura would work but there's not much mechanically to make her anything but a reskin of Darth Talon.

We'll include a limited number of levels for the same reason, extra detail on making them shine rather than going for quantity. One level will need to be boring and flat for tournament purposes, the rest can be interesting.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Yay a response!

Hmm, okay so assuming I have full pull here, I'd want to differentiate it significantly from other fighting games. The problem is it's been years since I played one so I'm not sure what the state of the art is in the first place.

I'm thinking an emphasis on level design. Not just a flat static floor the characters fight on, no. Lots of 3D buildings, opportunities for Parkour with room for Force Jumps, grapple guns, and other fun stuff to help the characters move around. Possibly destructible terrain to add some tactical fun in taking down buildings or platforms to deny them to a more mobile opponent.

No Fighting Game is worthwhile without a versus mode, I'd also include a story mode. Might include some weaker mooks in order to let it expand into a beat 'em up in story mode, add some stormtroopers, reskin them as rebel troopers, and some Gammoreans.

That's actually a good idea for the story mode. It's a very arcade way of doing things as well, harkens back to the classic arcade games where you'd dispatch of large numbers of mooks across various levels, before fighting a boss battle.

Character Roster:

We'll start with 8 playable characters, with five hidden characters that are antagonist-only in Story Mode. They will become playable in the first DLC. The reason for limiting the roster so much is so that we can spend more time on refining and balancing each of them, hopefully resulting in better initial gameplay. Later DLCs can add more fan favorites.

The size of the roster is right in line with old school fighting games like the original early Mortal Kombats and Street Fighters etc. Even Super Smash Bros. only have a roster of a dozen characters. Nowadays, fighting games really do depend on fighters as content, which is understandable but there is a very real issue, as you note, with derivative characters. Especially in a first run and especially with a verse where the power sets for many characters is very familiar.

Sustaining interest through paid DLC would be a legitimate way of sustaining the game over years though as the gameplay is hopefully improved and growing pains eventually hopefully falling aside.

Darksiders:
Darth Maul
Darth Vader
TR-8R
Asajj Ventress

Boss Enemies:
Emperor Palpatine
Darth Talon
Sith Rey

Lightsiders:
Luke Skywalker
Ezra Bridger
Ahsoka Tano
Chewbacca

Boss Enemies:
Yoda
Bultar Swan
Lightside Rey

The Reys are just recolors to save on design, but allow us to use her on both tracks so no matter what you play, you get a chance to kill Rey, not that I'm putting it that way in the board meetings.

This roster is designed to give a decent mix of styles. On the darkside roster we have a dual-wielder, a lightstaff user, a single-blade user, and one non-Sith mundane. Honestly could probably do better but TR-8R is pretty memetic at this point. The lightsider roster similarly has a single-wielder, a dual-wielder, Ezra has a lightsaber that's also a gun so ranged, and Chewbacca for our mundane, equipped with Rykk blades and a Bowcaster. Bosses were similarly chosen to be different, Yoda's super small and fast, Palpatine is a sorcerer type, Rey has her weird jack knife saber, Darth Talon is very acrobatic without being as small as Yoda, and Bultar Swan is a barehanded Jedi.

Bultar Swan is possibly an iffy choice. She's notable for being a Jedi who eschewed a lightsaber in favor of beating all her problems to death with her bare fists but she hasn't really been in that much media so may not have the star power for this roster. I'd prefer another lightside female for cheesecake DEI purposes but nobody's really coming to mind. Ayla Secura would work but there's not much mechanically to make her anything but a reskin of Darth Talon.

We'll include a limited number of levels for the same reason, extra detail on making them shine rather than going for quantity. One level will need to be boring and flat for tournament purposes, the rest can be interesting.

I was legitimately surprised at who the picks were but as you lay it out, it definitely makes sense. I had to look up Bultar Swan as it's one of those characters who you think you might know by name but your not sure. But why you added her makes perfect sense. Also despite the small roster, you managed to get all of the important and iconic characters mentioned like Luke, Vader, the Emperor, Rey, Ahsoka, Maul etc so it should generate enough fan interest.

When you brought up Aayla Secura and Darth Talon, there is a concept in fighting games called 'Echo Fighters' which is actually used to a considerable amount of success. Games as different as Super Smash Brothers and Netherrealm's Injustice use it, which is where you have characters with pretty similar movesets and appearances, but you still change other things like stats and even hit boxes and the like, as well as completely redone reskins, voice lines, story modes etc so they are still fairly different characters. They might even have different summons or final combos or other ancillary powers. It's how Super Smash Bros can have regular Mario, Feline Mario and Dr. Mario... or how Captain Falcon and Ganondorf were initially echo fighters but eventually became their own rather different characters as the game series evolved.

Same with Injustice and characters like Supergirl and Power Girl or how they managed to get all four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles into the latest game despite them having different weapons.

Something similar could happen with common Star Wars 'template' characters like Jedi... maybe with different movesets based on their 'lightsaber style' so in theory you could have a Ki-Adi Mundi and a Count Dooku, both supposedly skilled in 'Makashi' and thus would have similar precise fencing style movesets for their lightsaber combat, but obviously different stats, and different uses of the force since one is a Jedi and the other a Dark Jedi/Sith. Someone like Asajj Ventress meanwhile might have a smaller hit box (and smaller reach but quicker base stats) while someone like the Grand Inquisitor could have less force power or abilities but some extra abilities based on the spinniness of his lightsaber design. They'd all be "echos" of the base Makashi fighter who hypothetically using your game, would be Asajj Ventress.

 

[Bear Ribs]

Thinking it over, I should probably pull TR-8R and put in Boba Fett. He's more popular and with the plan for a highly platformed arena with a lot of mobility, Boba Fett's jetpack would be a unique and viable strategic element.

TR-8R could be a hidden character you unlock. In Story Mode, there's a small % chance any random Stormtrooper will have an additional moveset and pulls out his shock baton on you. Defeating that Stormtrooper unlocks a playable TR-8R. I'd need to balance it out with a random unlockable lightsider too. I could have a level massacring Ewoks with a chance to unlock Wicket. More than that and I'm probably getting too many characters for the initial offering, got to keep reserves to milk the whales with DLC.

When you brought up Aayla Secura and Darth Talon, there is a concept in fighting games called 'Echo Fighters' which is actually used to a considerable amount of success.

Hmm, yeah that would probably work and Ayla Secura has way, way more star power than Bultar Swan does so that's probably a reasonable swap.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Thinking it over, I should probably pull TR-8R and put in Boba Fett. He's more popular and with the plan for a highly platformed arena with a lot of mobility, Boba Fett's jetpack would be a unique and viable strategic element.

TR-8R could be a hidden character you unlock. In Story Mode, there's a small % chance any random Stormtrooper will have an additional moveset and pulls out his shock baton on you. Defeating that Stormtrooper unlocks a playable TR-8R. I'd need to balance it out with a random unlockable lightsider too. I could have a level massacring Ewoks with a chance to unlock Wicket. More than that and I'm probably getting too many characters for the initial offering, got to keep reserves to milk the whales with DLC.

Hmm, yeah that would probably work and Ayla Secura has way, way more star power than Bultar Swan does so that's probably a reasonable swap.

I think both TR-8R and Bultar Swan are inspired picks and if they're rolled out competently, they could easily become fan favorites. There's some precedent. Street Fighter really hit the ball out of the park when they created a traditional Japanese karate fighter who was a tomboy named Makoto to represent Karate since Ryu and Ken (who were Karate fighters already) were getting too big and popular and their movesets more and more superhuman that they were losing their core karate inspiration. And despite the humble design and grounded moveset Makoto was super well received.

A Jedi who fights with her fists would be pretty wild IMHO and almost a shoe in for popularity if represented even slightly well.

Delightful.

But yeah it is really hard to vote against including a Mandalorian. They're probably the most recognizable warriors after Jedi/Sith and not having one could cause quite a bit of fandom nerdrage.

Bultar Swan could be a neat DLC. Maybe part of a lineup of melee fighters who use non-lightsabers in close combat. I barely recall in the Knights of the Old Republic media of a lore blurb of Sith who used actual blades because, and I quote "Though most favor lightsabers, some Sith prefer the more visceral feel of metal cutting flesh" And there were a lot of physical blades that could be used in the KOTOR games, especially early on.

Plus there's folks who use Force Pikes and other vibroblades out there as well as various Echani and Gamorrean and Gand melee weapons etc.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Been pondering this for a moment. One of the neat things in fighting games, even though I suck at it personally, is the idea of having team based fighting games which is pretty common with some franchises where you battle as teams of two (or more characters) and it can be done just as well in single player as well. For me, my favorite experience of that genre was Tekken Tag Tournament of course but you see it with other games as well, including a lot of crossover style fighting games such as Street Fighter X Tekken.

Here I think it'd be a neat concept for the games 'single player' mode and especially a 'story mode' to have a 'tag team' of fighters based on the Master-Apprentice relationship since the core competitors in this type of game would be Jedi and Sith. Along with the single and tag team multiplayer for versus mode, I think single player or cooperative play options such including a tower or round robin style single player mode would be neat.

Star Wars as a setting is a pretty narrative focused game after all. There should be some sort of in all likelihood very non-canon storyline at the very least.

So a non-canon story mode campaign could be as follows, in a rough chronological order. Like with most fighting games, I see maybe three or so levels and a Boss battle of some sort at the end of them.

First Chapter:

Qui Gonn Jinn
Obi Wan Kenobi (young)
Level One: Fighting Mandalorians on Galidraan. Fights Jango Fett as a Boss Battle.
Level Two: Escape from Naboo fighting Battledroids. Dueling a Droid Tank as a Boss Battle.
Level Three: Battle of Naboo. Same as above but dueling Darth Maul as a Boss Battle.
- Covering Events Leading Up to The Phantom Menace. Unlocks Darth Maul.

Second Chapter:

Count Dooku
General Grievous
Level One: Training for the Clone Wars. Battles Asajj Ventress/Jango Fett.
Level Two: Battle of Geonosis. Fights Clonetroopers. Battles Yoda as a Boss Battle.
Level Three: Battle of Muunilist. More clonetroopers. Battles Ki-Adi-Mundi/Shaak Ti as a Boss Battle.
- Covering the Leadup and Early Clone Wars. Unlocks Jango Fett.

Third Chapter:

Anakin Skywalker
Ahsoka Tano
Level One: Battle on Teth. Fighting Battledroids. Asajj Ventress as a Boss Battle.
Level Two: Battle Mandalorian Death Watch. "not" Jango Fett/Darth Maul as a Boss Battle.
Level Three: Battle on the Malevolence. Fighting more battledroids. Count Dooku/General Grievous as a Boss Battle.
- Covers Tail End of the Clone Wars and Fall of Republic. Unlocks Mace Windu.

Fourth Chapter:

Darth Vader
Galen Marek
Level One: Hunting down Jedi. Fights Shaak Ti as a Boss Battle.
Level Two: Hunting down Jedi on Tatooine. Obi Wan Kenobi as a Boss Battle.
Level Three: Founding the Republic. Battles filthy Imperials. Battles Darth Vader.
- Rise of the Empire and Founding of the Republic. Unlocks Leia Organa

Fifth Chapter:

Obi Wan Kenobi (older)
Luke Skywalker
Level One: Battle on the Death Star. Fights Darth Vader as a Boss Battle.
Level Two: Training on Dagobah. Fights Yoda/Darth Vader.
Level Three: Battle of Endor. Fights Emperor Palpatine/Darth Vader.
- Galactic Civil War Era. Unlocks Yoda.

Sixth Chapter:
Snoke
Kylo Ren
Level One: Destruction of the Jedi Temple. Fights Luke Skywalker as a Boss Battle.
Level Two: Trial on Dagobah. Fights Darth Vader/Luke Skywalker as a Boss Battle.

Rey
Finn
Level One: Escape from Jakku. Fights Han Solo/Chewbacca as a Boss Battle.
Level Two: Battle at Starkiller Base. Fights Kylo Ren as a Boss Battle.
- Interim leading up to Sequel Trilogy. Unlocks Master Luke Skywalker.

Seventh Chapter:
Kylo Ren & Rey
Level One: Battle on Board the Supremacy. Fights Snoke as Boss Battle.
Level Two: Battle on Endor. Mirror Match fighting Ben Solo/Darth Rey
Level Three: Battle of Exegol. Fights Emperor Palpatine as a Boss Battle.
- Sequel Trilogy Nonsense. Unlocks Emperor Palpatine & Master Luke Skywalker

Twenty One Characters in the main run. The storyline would be grossly non-canon I reckon. Snoke and Han Solo might be odd picks as well and Snoke is the only one I have reservations on to be honest considering how nerfed he was after an interesting debut. Might actually explore Finn more as having force potential as well.

Boss Battle Characters from the Campaign... either later unlockables for DLC or for the main game. I dunno yet.
Shaak Ti
Ki-Adi-Mundi
Han Solo
Chewbacca
Asajj Ventress
Jango Fett
Boba Fett
Darth Maul