Star Wars Jedi: Survivor – Get a Little Help From Your (AI) Friends | IGN First

ign.com:

While Cal Kestis was part of a crew in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order – exploring the galaxy in the Stinger Mantis ship with his mentor, Cere Junda; its captain, Greez, and (eventually) his former bitter enemy turned bestie, Nightsister Merrin – once he was boots on the ground planetside, it was largely a fairly lonely adventure. Outside, of course, of the companionship of the ever adorable BD-1.

That changes in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor thanks to the addition of Bode Akuna, a new character in Jedi Survivor, played by Noshir Dalal, who can be seen in the reveal trailer lending a hand to Cal both in a cutscene and in gameplay where he executes a cool tandem finisher on a Scout Trooper. But Bode’s presence as a companion character goes far beyond just cool finishing moves. It’s actually part of a system that Respawn has dubbed “Character-in-Gameplay.”

Characters-in-Gameplay is a term used internally at Respawn to differentiate between NPCs that accompany Cal in actual gameplay segments from characters that stayed behind at specific narrative hubs. As Senior Game Designer Jason Zhu explains it: “There was a desire for NPCs to be used as guides in the levels, and while talking it through, one thing led to another until people started wondering, ‘Why don't we have NPC's travel and fight alongside Cal?’”

The team then evaluated whether implementing such a system was feasible with the tech they had, and ultimately decided that it was worth the time and effort to create a system that allowed for companions to join Cal in battle. There was even a precedent already set back in Fallen Order – the boss battle against Malicos where Merrin supports you throughout the battle. That served as the jumping off point, and the