Spoiler Alert: This article contains major spoilers for Star Wars Jedi: SurvivorThe developers at Respawn Entertainment had their work cut out for them when it came time to designStar Wars Jedi: Survivor’s final boss, an encounter that needed to do justice to the deeply emotional narrative moments leading up to Cal Kestis' final confrontation withex-friend and ex-Jedi Bode Akuna. Like any good final boss, the fight needed to test every skill that players picked up throughout their playthrough while standing out from an already memorable cast of unique opponents like the one-armed Arkanian Dagan Gera or the practically immortal Gen’Dai warrior Rayvis.
In an interview with Game Rant,Star Wars Jedi: Survivorgame director Jason De Heras went in-depth on how the team approached every aspect of the final boss fight. He spoke about how Bode’s equipment and move set mirror Cal’s in many ways, how Bode’s fighting style evolves over the various phases, and how the fight needed to stand out from any of Cal’s previous encounters in the game.
Bode Akuna Knows All of Cal’s Moves
In some ways, Bode is a mirror match for Cal: they’re bothpowerful Force usersand lightsaber duelists who also know their way around a blaster. Throughout the fight, Bode can even be seen using a few abilities that are nearly identical to moves that Cal has such as his controlled lightsaber throws, blaster shots, and Bode’s running kick which is reminiscent of Cal’s kick when he performs a running attack in crossguard stance. Because of this, Bode seemingly has a counter for each of Cal’s strategies and vice versa, leading to a rock-paper-scissors duel between similarly matched combatants.
For Bode, we wanted to give him some special stuff and how he behaved if you shot him, for instance. If you use the pistol, he’ll ping pong the blaster bolt back to you, so that’s a unique behavior we gave him to show that he knows your tricks. He could have an answer for whatever Cal has in his bag. It’s the same thing for heavy saber. If you swung with the heavy, sometimes he would evade it or he would always evade after the first block. We purposely spent more time there.
Even though we spent plenty of time on the rest of the cast honing in Cal’s stances, we made sure that Bode had an answer to most of Cal’s attacks, no matter what stance you’re in. Some of that can be a slap on the wrist with how he responds to you, or some could really punish you to say, “Don’t do that again.”
As De Heras mentioned, Bode seems to “know Cal’s tricks,” and he has no qualms about deflectingCal’s blaster boltsback at him and even parrying Cal’s saber attacks—something that can easily catch players by surprise. Bode is still fairly vulnerable to some Force attacks particularly when he’s charging up an unblockable move, but he makes up for this by bringing plenty of his own Force powers to the table. Cal’s time-slowing ultimate ability is of little help in this fight, either, which forces players to rely more on carefully navigating Bode’s move set.
Bode Akuna’s Three Phases Are Increasingly Emotional and Challenging
Bode transitions through three distinct phases during the fight, and De Heras points out that this serves as a way to mix up the mechanics of the encounter while also highlighting Bode’s increasing desperation. Respawn dubbed these phases “pirate stance” for his initial blaster-and-saber phase, “telekinesis stance” for his second phase introducing more underhanded tactics and Force powers, and his final form “traditional stance” where he unleashes his full furyas a fallen Jedi.
We called it the “pirate stance” for his first stance where he had the saber and the pistol, and then we would name things to get the juices flowing. The next stance, I think, was called TK stance internally – telekinesis – where he’s floating the guns, and the final stance we called “traditional stance.” We use a combination of the character to showcase the personality and their power level, being conscious of what other enemies do in the game and making sure he stays in his own area.
Bode Akuna is appropriately one of the mostchallenging boss fights inStar Wars Jedi: Survivor,with its difficulty compounded by the fact that players are probably holding back tears as they struggle against a lovable friend who has been by their side through the entire game.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
WHERE TO PLAY
The story of Cal Kestis continues in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor™, a third person galaxy-spanning action-adventure game from Respawn Entertainment, developed in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games. This narratively-driven, single player title picks up five years after the events of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order™ and follows Cal’s increasingly desperate fight as the galaxy descends further into darkness. Pushed to the edges of the galaxy by the Empire, Cal will find himself surrounded by threats new and familiar. As one of the last surviving Jedi Knights, Cal is driven to make a stand during the galaxy’s darkest times - but how far is he willing to go to protect himself, his crew, and the legacy of the Jedi Order?Explore an Untamed Galaxy – Discover new planets and familiar frontiers in the Star Wars galaxy, each with unique biomes, challenges, and enemies. Master new skills, equipment, and abilities that will augment the ways you explore, fight, and roam. With larger areas to explore and more to discover off the beaten path, players who adventure beyond the horizon will find hidden rewards.
