A retrospective analysis of Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 and Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 มิ.ย. 2024
- Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, and Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith are known as the first fully 3D first person shooters to feature force powers and lightsabers. They were much more than that, heralding the gaming charge the Star Wars zeitgeist. Find out why these games are classics.
#DarkForces2 #JediKnight #gaming #MotS
0:00 - Intro
Jedi Knight
6:56 - Anticipation
13:42 - Gameplay
54:29 - Story
1:21:35 - Remaster and Remake
1:27:32 - Conclusion
Mysteries of the Sith
1:30:29 - Intro
1:35:25 - Gameplay
2:06:12 - Story
2:18:46 - Skip the final fight spoiler
2:22:25 - Conclusion
2:26:52 - Tribute to Jason Court
2:30:14 - Outro
Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II and Mysteries of the Sith on GOG: www.gog.com/en/game/star_wars...
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DF2 is such a deeply important game to me. My first video game, first action game, first shooter, first Star Wars game... The front cover box art of nothing but Kyle's hands holding the green lightsaber is just so iconic to me. I've beaten this game hundreds of times, it's filled with so much joy for me. The music, sound effects, level design, all of it, just so important to me. And this is among one of the best retrospectives I've seen on it, nice work, and good job!
It holds a special place for many people. One day it will get the remaster it deserves.
Totally agree about your bit on Jason Court. Kyle in later games doesn't feel like himself. To me this version of Kyle will always be the right one
True, Kyle may sound different than Jason Court, but that is because the developers didn’t reach out to the actor for the voice acting role. I still think, though that the voice actors for Kyle did a reasonably good job at keeping the familiarity of the character on the same page.
I don’t fault the replacement voice talent, he did a fine job with high expectations. Jason may have been unavailable at the time, or possibly refusing work because he was done with acting. It’ll be interesting to see if I can dig up what happened when I analyze Outcast.
@@HeyBlondieGamer There's one slight error on your part, though. The Dark Forces stories' events did not happen as they were presented in the games. That's because they're not the canon depictions of these stories, rather, it's the Dark Forces trilogy of novellas that's the canon version of events in the EU. Within the novellas, Kyle did not spontaneously develop force powers out of nowhere. However, there were various parts within the 1st novella, that being Soldier for the Empire, where Kyle gets to improve his senses and speed with the force, but that makes sense since he was a soldier in the galactic empire and part of his training would surely entail him needing to hone his senses, physicality, agility, speed, strength, and reflexes.
This whole thing is one big, unnecessary "☝️🤓".
@@spaceman9396 It is necessary, because the events as presented in the game isn't canon to the EU in the slightest.
This game was my introduction to the Star Wars EU. It still holds a dear place in my heart to this day. The Seven Dark Jedi in particular, Neome's portrayal of Jerec made such an impression on me that I spent years researching the characters and getting them recreated through models and costumes.
I don’t know why some drag Neame so hard, I think he does a fantastic job in that role. I couldn’t imagine Kyle or Jerec being played by anyone else.
@@HeyBlondieGamer I quite agree. Neome is clearly having the time of his life with the role and that enjoyment is a large part of why Jerec remains so memorable. Most of the performances are that way, the game's cutscenes to me are a time capsule. I just wish that the Darkside path had more fleshed out cutscenes.
@grandadmiralzaarin4962 Neame in Jedi Knight is like Raul Julia in Streetfighter, Jeremy Irons in DnD, or Tim Curry in... Well, anything. Truly a master of acting his heart out.
The FMVs were all on bluescreen because Neame utterly devoured the original scenery. It was amazing.
They used blue screen because he devoured the scenery…
That made my day 😂
A fun note! This game shared models with X-Wing alliance released around the same time! For the TIEs, the huge freighter parked in Nar Shadaa and in the cutscenes, and for the gangster's starfighter in MotS
That doesn’t surprise me. The team would have had access to a lot of Lucasarts property, other game assets included.
I absolutely love the FMV‘s on Dark Forces 2. And Jason will always be Kyle Katarn for me. thank you very much for this retrospective. :)
Kyle katarn makes wine now. Classic Space Jesus
Guess he became a content old man after all.
@@HeyBlondieGamer not what his bae thinks ha! But I got the joke xD
Neame is up there with Raul Julia, Tim Curry, and Jeremy Irons. He's truly amazing.
His filmography is extensive. I was surprised at how many things he’s been in.
@@HeyBlondieGamer I mroe meant his ability to know when scenery absolutely MUST be chewed.
And then some 😂
It's criminal that you don't get the views you deserve, this is good content.
Thank you 🙏
Jedi Knight has always been my favorite video game series. Granted I started with both Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy, but Dark Forces II and MOTS have become some of my favorite games thanks to both their level design, atmosphere, and the amount of stuff you can do, plus I love their stories.
I remember playing this game before I could really even read because my brother had it. The heights always spooked me
I loved this video. I played this game 3 years ago, after playing a lot of jedi academy and jedy outcast, and I just simply loved it. I specially liked how you could play with lightsaber in first person, and the cutscenes, the story, the music, it felt like a star wars story that I was really missing at the time.
The story is perhaps the most underrated thing about DF2. It feels more like Star Wars than anything produced in recent memory, and the DF2 cast have infinitely more charisma.
The Force power that Jerec uses in intro is Force Stasis. Basically, it “paralyzes” the intended target. When you look at the Force power in question, you realize just how scary and brutal it must be for the target.
Well spotted!
I think the novel Children of the Jedi was the first to feature this power. I wonder why they ditched the ‘concussive blast’. Given Rahn’s aptitude it still seems strange that Jerec could effortlessly immobilize him, and that Jerec never uses the power against Kyle after augmenting his power in the Valley.
If anyone wants to play DF2, I strongly recommend you to use the Jedi Knight Remastered mod available on Nexus
That was super awesome. Thank for taking the time to put it all together. 🐾
Thank you, thanks for taking the time to watch it.
I never thought much about Kyle's line to Mara about having taught her all he can, but thinking about it, it actually DOES make sense... since Kyle was never properly trained either. Dude literally picked up a lightsaber he found in his dad's old house, swung it a few times and discovered he just so happened to be a Jedi. A few days later he's killing Jerec in the Valley of the Jedi while leaping through the air and healing himself with space-magic.
Point being: Kyle can't teach Mara, because he doesn't know HOW to teach her, since he wasn't TAUGHT himself. He really doesn't have anything else to teach her anymore, he probably only spent like a week going over the basics before he ran out of stuff to say.
We don’t know the timeframe which Jedi Knight runs across, there could have been more time to learn than we’re led to believe. Someone also mentioned in the comments that Rahn trains Kyle (as a ghost) behind the scenes which makes narrative sense but is never shown to the player. The implication of Kyle’s defeat of Jerec and his initial force powers in MotS is that he has learned a great deal, both in power and about being a jedi.
I’m not discrediting your theory though I do feel that everything the player understands and is shown about Kyle suggests otherwise. If it’s true that Kyle has nothing to teach Mara then that should be elaborated a little more, especially following the canonical events of Jedi Knight.
I absolutely love this game and I’m so happy I finally found another that did a retrospective! Great work!
Thank you 😄
MotS force power unlock system really was the GOAT imo.
Great video mate 👍
Cheers 🍻
Amazing! I just know this is another video I'll be rewatching for years from now.
Thank you 🙏
I remember playing this game as a young kid. Couldn't really get past lvl 2-3 so I'd just relay the beginning over and over again.
Always wished the lightsaber combat had been better. Even at the time it felt clumsy and random.. but the universe was very immersive
Some of puzzles and traversal are downright obscure, but those opening levels are a tonne of fun.
Absolutely, the lightsaber combat is arguably its weakest element, but still satisfying as hell against regular enemies.
It'd be so awesome if Dark Forces 2 and MotS got remastered. I played the daylights out of these games in high school!
We can only hope 😅
Phenomenal video man! As a kid, we never had a computer with games until my brother and I were much older. We were N64 kids so my go-to was Shadows of the Empire. Didn't play JK until I was an adult and regret not experiencing it as a kid. Its definitely in my top 5 favorite games of all time. Time to boot up the Remake for another overdue playthrough! All the best mate! looking forward to your Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy retrospectives 😎
Shadows was my gaming intro too. I loved the short snippets from the Williams soundtrack, even though they did get repetitive after a while. Shame that Dash never returned as a character.
Cheers for the comment. More JK coming!
57:35 I figured it WAS Force Destruction and Rahn was actively trying to stop it from destroying him, but that took all his concentration and left him vulnerable to the followup.
That sounds plausible, though it isn’t conveyed well (at all) in the scene.
Me and my brother loved these games way back in the day. We still quote DF2 to this day. I think we quote "Dark side? I've been there. Do your worst" every month or two. I enjoyed the other Jedi games, but Jason Court slayed this role. It's too bad that he doesn't feel that way. Thank you for making such a great video of these two gems! I wish these were more popular in mainstream Star Wars today; a simpler time with excellent storytelling and epic beards!
Cheers man!
Haha, that’s awesome! I think my most used quote was:
“Morgan Katarn. This dead man holds the Valley’s location. Very intriguing.”
I have a feeling that people will rediscover these games when Nightdive release the Dark Forces remaster. There will always be people like us who remember who special and treasured they were.
This channel deserves more subs. Great work.
Cheers! 🤘
I hope someday to see a sequel, no doubt titled Star Wars: Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast 2
the game that taught me wasd. at the time shooters barely had cut scenes, let alone fully acted movies produced with the might of lucasfilm. the level design was awe inspiring, and almost felt organic at times, totally unique at the time.
Too right. Jedi Knight was a marked step up in production value for games at the time.
Thanks for the video.
I hope Jedi outcast & Jedi academy will get retrospectives as well.
Cheers
Absolutely, they’re on the list.
1:43:17 Fun fact this hutt, Ka'paa is actually the source of one of the random bounties in Star Wars Bounty Hunter!
I’ve never seen the equal in Dark Forces 2’s level design, never
1:06:22 The Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be ...Unnatural.
Including piloting school!
Dark Forces II was one of the first "real" video games I ever played, often with my little brother watching. Good memories!
Did you do much multiplayer or was it mainly the campaign?
@@HeyBlondieGamer Strictly campaign, I was very young so that was difficult enough for me. The first game in the series I played any multiplayer at all was Jedi Outcast.
@pakkazull8370 A good time to dip into multiplayer. Outcast was incredible fun.
awesome retrospective! you deserve defenetly more subscribers.
Cheers!
Barely 20 mins in, but I'm loving the retrospective. Jedi Knight is my favourite game of all time, and Mysteries of the Sith's aesthetic remains unparalleled to this day imo.
Quick aside: has anyone ever told you that you sound like an Australian Obi-Wan Kenobi?
Cheers mate 🍻
‘Ere, lookit this! The Darth Vader is an evasive creature, only appearing when it senses weakness. Let’s go closer for a better look. Ooooh, ‘ee’s not likin’ that, I think I pissed ‘im orf. I’m gonna have ta jam my lightsaber right up ‘is-
I have to say...these analysis videos are getting better and better. Editing is on point, the writing is amazing and the enthusiasm for Star Wars in your voice is infectious. I had some of the comics but none of the books (sadly). I never played the video games, but I built Jabba's palace under my bed. Built entirely of bogroll tubes and cardboard, it had 3 levels, many traps and was my secret for most of my childhood. Every night I counted all the models I had, just to make sure none had gone missing. I would have sold my parents for the Firespray. Thank you for reminding me of a more innocent and carefree time of my life. Thank you for the video.
Cheers mate, that’s really appreciated 🙏
I remember those days where imagination was king. Sounds like you had an incredible childhood. Which models did you have? I used to love making fortresses out of cardboard too. Or Lego, since we had a lot of that when I was growing up.
If you decide to check out the novels (it sounds like you’d enjoy them so I strongly encourage it) then I would start with Heir to the Empire and see where it takes you. Or any of the ‘Tales From..’ short story novels, those are also incredible. Tales From Jabba’s Palace or Tales Of the Bounty Hunters are among my favorites.
I spent most of my childhood in my own head. Thats why Star Wars has such a special place in my heart. The only ship models I had growing up were the Falcon (rather sadly, it was a swapsie and missing everything) and the Rebel transporter (same condition). I had quite a few figures though. I gained more ship models in my late teens when I moved back to England. Over 3 yrs, every Sat and Sun, I trawled every car boot sale and second hand market I managed to get the AT-AT, AT-ST, Slave-1, X,Y and B wings, the Snowspeeder and managed to collect the ENTIRE figure collection. It ended up being quite valuable, since I had a lot of original figures unopened. At the time, in the 90's, it was worth over 1200 quid. Then I joined the army, and when I got out, a family member had sold everything. Never told me and I never got a penny for it. All that time, money and effort, wasted because of someone's immediate greed. Oh well, halcyon days...
@davidohalloran1311 Oh man, all that work just to have someone throw it away, that sucks. I’d be pissed, especially considering how valuable and sentimental they all were. Good work on finding so many figures and models, they would have been impossible to get commercially.
@@HeyBlondieGamer I'm not going to lie, it really did turn me off people for a long long time. What's worse is the fact that the person made 3 grand for all of it and spent the money on pets.... yes...f%^#ing pets (I learned that fact later). No apologies, no remorse, not even a word about it.
@davidohalloran1311 It’s a shitty thing to do. I’m willing to bet they knew how much you loved the collection.
I’m glad that Jedi Knight was able to invoke fonder memories.
As somebody who eagerly anticipated this game before it's release in my teens, it's great to see people revisit this game from another generation and offer some analysis on it.
A couple of things though in retrospect, I don't think Katarn becoming a light side Jedi is the best or my personal head canon ending.
It makes so much more sense for Katarn to become a Sith, albeit I always envisioned him being a rogue sith, the problems he'd cause for everyone in doing so would be in line with what a mercenary would do with such power. Not only that, but look at the exposition at the beginning of the story, Katarn was already on that path as was described in his exchange with 8T-88.
Katarn losing his father to Jerec and his particular faction of the imperials is perfectly in concurrence with the should-be-canon arc of Katarn becoming a sith, a mercenary being a practical sort would be of the cynical mind that Katarn was portrayed to have would see that the balance of power in the universe overwhelmingly favored the empire.
What does such a man do when faced with that power when it is used against him? He takes that power and uses it for himself, that what destroyed his father now serves him. That's how certain people see things, idealism can be ruined upon the practical realization of what is tenable and what is not, and a mercenary must be practical if nothing else.
Despite realizing that Katarn being a sith basically invalidates many other subsequent iterations in the series, it's the most reasonable when you think about it.
An EC universe Katarn as a man who harnessed his force powers late in life to avenge himself, his friend, his father, and find freedom meant for him, a mercenary to take command of that power by force. I always envisioned him as a wildcard after that, the rebels being too idealistic, and the empire being a great cosmic bludgeon that did much damage to his former life.
A guy like Katarn as we saw in the cutscenes doesn't follow anyone's lead, he's the sort of guy if you motivate him enough will take what he wants (including sariss) and use it for his own ends.
I don't think he hates his father in the sith end sequence, but I do think he found his father's idealism impractical and the source of much suffering for himself and others. Kyle's solution of course is to do the opposite of what got his father killed.
That’s an interesting perspective. If Katarn were written as a new character today, he might have tread that path. Some points which justify/explain the light side ending:
1. His father. Katarn’s bond with his father is the thread which tethers Kyle in rough times. It’s clear from the early cutscenes that Kyle misses his father, and holds him in high regard. Ignoring that connection without a strong external force to knock him from its orbit makes no sense and invalidates the early cutscene exposition.
2. The Lucas Legacy. Lucas has a running theme of redemption throughout the original trilogy. The team wanted to stay as close to that ethos as possible.
3. Player satisfaction. Ties in to point 2. Lucasarts wanted a big seller. A lot rode on Jedi Knight, and the team wanted to satisfy as many players as possible. Running the story to a sith conclusion would have left a sour taste in many mouths, and the series could have died there.
4. Modernity bias. Antiheroes and villains as protagonists hadn’t gained the mainstream popularity they do now. This is linked to point 3. It was a far safer bet to play Kyle as Jedi.
This was an interesting perspective, thanks for taking the time to comment.
Using the double swing while running past them was my go to strategy when fighting the Dark Jedi. Cheers
Yeah in the multiplayer, before the SbX mod Added nuance to the saber combat... The trick was to jump at them and try to catch themn on the tail end of the double swing, Which looking back on thinking about how that works, kind of means that it had some sort of raycast Melee Like chivalry, which is super advanced by comparison to modern consolitous standards.
LOL proper jedi combat, means that 99% of your death is done in the air...
This is one of my top all time games. I was 12 at the time the game came out and i have many fond memories of playing multiplayer on the internet gaming zone (later MSN gaming zone). Lots of great custom maps and mods for the game too!
Love your channel too! Great in depth reviews!
It had a magic that’s hard to find these days. Glad you enjoyed the video!
Not usually one for watching videos this long but this one really captivated me. Some say this game is cheesy or simplistic but I think that's a good thing, playing to the strengths of what made the original Star Wars trilogy so great; it was a simple tale with powerful underlying messages, and just endearing, upbeat and maybe even "cheesy" enough for everyone to have a good time. Really refreshing to hear someone with such an understanding and appreciation of this game.
Played the sequel, JKII: Jedi Outcast a lot back in the day, good times :)
Outcast was the good stuff too. Saber mechanics at their best.
@@HeyBlondieGamer Saber mechanics went up, but the gunplay is so much worse.
Excellent work mate, great video, love the deep SW game lore. Keep it up and your channel will pop
Cheers, much appreciated 👍
2:12:24 Well there's actually an interesting reason for all of this. The very first levels take place in the opening stages of what would become the offensive that retakes Coruscant for the Empire at the beginning of Dark Empire, and the rest of the game is either during Dark Empire or during the rebuilding right after it. So the New Republic desperately needs Mara's help and keeps her very busy (She actually has one other appearance during this time in the short story "Evacuation from Coruscant."
These are cool details, but I’d be happier if she were pursuing a standalone adventure. As a piece of narrative art, MotS does little with the protagonist and the core premise. You can argue that the player fills the blanks with their individual experiences along the way, but they could have done so much more with Mara, Kyle, and the Sith influence.
Now I want a Dark Empire game😂
@@Rschr101 If you like a RTS there's mods for EaW.
That was superb. I recently relapsed and found myself indulging in a playthrough of all five games from Dark Forces to Dark Forces IV: Jedi Knight III: Jedi Academy and this is precisely the sort of content I was looking for to accompany a couple of afternoon cigars.
DF2 in particular was among the first wave of media, including KotOR II, that really ignited my interest in the SW EU, which remains strong to this very day. Like you (I think), Kyle is one of my absolute favorite characters in the entire setting for many of the reasons you’ve touched upon.
Emotional rambling aside, I’m impressed by how well researched, contextualized, and eloquently presented this was. Nice work.
Thank you so much!
Kyle is my favourite of the EU, amongst many great characters introduced during that era. It truly was Jason’s performance which sold him.
DF2 was a case of ‘right place, right time’, and spearheaded the EU into mainstream gaming. I do wonder how many new fans we picked up riding that wave of popularity.
It makes me happy that so many have shared similar sentiments about DF2 and Kyle in the comments of this video. I knew you were out there, and I’m glad we connected 🤘❤️
@@HeyBlondieGamer
Likewise, mate.
I wouldn’t presume to supplement your analysis but I feel as though DF2, more than the first title and more than any SW game until that point was a perfect storm of aesthetic and feeling at a time when fans craved both. It looked and sounded like SW and by jove it played like it too (until outcast came out). Jason tied it together by not only evoking the on-screen journeys we’d come to love but convincingly being his own character.
I think that and the fact that he continued to be his own character and had a mostly satisfying arc that stretched well past this series into the NJO, LotF and FotJ novels is what made Kyle a fan favorite.
But idk, SW is a lot of things to a lot of people. That’s the beauty of it. Or, was.
Unrelated: I have a total weakness for Neame’s Jerec.
First star wars book i ever read was Bounty Hunter tales. Thats why i love the underground and crime lord stuff in star wars
The “Tales From” series were awesome, it’s a shame there are so few of those books.
I absolutely love the cut scenes from this game.
Glad I’m not the only one. 🍻
I think the title "Mysteries of The Sith" is quite fitting since we have no idea what turned Kyle to the dark side or what made him go to Dromund Kaas in the first place. It's a mystery lmao.
Geez it’d be hilarious if it was intentionally done as an inside joke. 😂
True. Seems like they focused on the locations and forgot to add a story....
You could probably attribute the lack of story to a compressed development timeline and overbearing lore restrictions. Just a shame that they weren’t able to do more with the source material, MotS could have left an amazing narrative legacy, all the pieces were there.
@@HeyBlondieGamer MotS is the peak of the series gunplay wise. The Raven games had absolutely atrocious shooting.
Because MOTS outcome is what happens if Kyle Fails to save Jan and embraces the dark side
Really enjoyed this video mate
Cheers! 🍻
1:20:25 It's half "Because it's a videogame, gameplay has its own rules for gaining experience" and partly the Novela does have Rahn's ghost train Kyle. (And also Yun!)
And I’m perfectly happy with that, especially with a story from the late 90’s.
Haha, that’s cool, I always had it in my head as personal canon that Kyle was trained by ghost Rahn 😂
Interesting that he also trained Yun.
This was a great video, I played Dark Forces a lot, and when I heard about Jedi Knight I went to the Lucasarts website for updates almost every day. It was great to have a lightsaber and force powers, and Mysteries of the Sith, and that was after I read Heir to the Empire so I knew who Mara Jade was, but some of the levels I could not complete. In my personal opinion I liked Jedi Outcast a bit more because of the better lightsaber combat and easier to use force powers. But I will always be nostalgic for the Dark Forces series and Kyle Katarn remains my favorite character from the expanded universe.
Outcast’s lightsaber combat was/is second-to-none, although I prefer Sith’s approach to force power assignment. And yeah, Jason Court’s Kyle Katarn is damn nostalgic.
Excellent content, Blondie. Gotta play these now. Cheers. o7
Cheers!
May the Force be with you.
jedi knight has been my favorite game since it came out, and I still play through it at least once a year, but now at 4k with texture packs and everything it looks a million times better. i remember when it came out I played through it the first time on a pentium 90 laptop with a 1mb videocard 320x240 in software mode, and it ran fine... this game got me through not having a good enough computer to run quake, plus it was star wars.
The texture pack is a new lease on life, it looks incredible!
I couldn’t think of a better ‘fallback’ game that JK, even on software rendering it was still a fantastic experience.
Great retrospective
Thanks! 🙏
Bro this video was so good
No, YOU’RE breathtaking!
Cheers my dude 🙏
I grew up in a coastal rural surfer town in Australia and star wars was seen as super cool. This was through the 90s and early 2000s
You lived in an awesome place. 👍
Thank you for this great analysis, It's the best I've seen so far on youtube, great work.
Cheers, much appreciated 🙏
I will always regret giving up on this game early on. It just didn't feel like the first one, and that put me off of it enough that I never played it after messing around with the demo version on and off for a few days/weeks. Seeing the different levels on this video makes me realize that this game does not feel like vintage star wars the way the original did, but rather more like the extended universe I was not familiar with.
There are certainly vintage Star Wars moments in there but they’re more oblique and usually involve things like scale, scene composition, texturing etc. Sith is very much in the EU camp, but JK feels closer to the Star Wars roots.
more of this please
I can understand how you feel with Jason. From what I’ve seen , I like his acting however I my first one was Jedi knight 2. I hope to eventually be able to play these games. I bought a steam deck but having issues playing them and don’t have normal computer. Hopefully one day I’ll get to play these games.
We all hope for a Nightdive remaster 🤞
Well done Sir! Well Done!
Cheers 🤘
I’m thankful that my older brothers were all Star Wars fans to some extent so I got to play a lot of games and read a lot of books and comics growing up, I probably wouldn’t have ended up loving the franchise (before Disney at least) if it wasn’t for them.
I was lucky to find all these titles including jedi knight 2 and its sequel jedi knight academy in a pawn shop, was a great day as i had only played dark forces before this...which felt controlled. At first i couldnt stand kyle, and seeing him pop up in that N64 title pissed me off. I wanted original characters, but after coming back to these games a few times over the years, mixed with the downfall of the star wars franchise ive come to love ole kyle. These games will always be my go to when in need of a real star wars nostalgia fix (excluding the original trilogy movies). Thank you for a very detailed review of these two titles and all the links, insta subbed!
They did a fantastic job of capturing the essence of Star Wars outside of the ‘official’ movie franchise. The story and cutscenes highlight how far Star Wars has fallen recently. That a single game managed to do a better job at characterizing Star Wars than a corporate team of professional writers and directors is an indictment on the state of the franchise. Behind closed doors George Lucas must be livid at what they’ve done to his baby.
Requiem is a super jank game but lives in my mind rent free. There is something about the game that works, its a gritty 90s cyberpunk ( best cyberpunk era probably) with paradise lost graffiti quotes on the walls that just gives it a magic surreal vibe, not dissimilar to those shakespeare modern adaptations, like the 90s romeo and juliet with dicraprio and titus andronicus etc. Its unsettling and jank at the same time. Its a shame it got overlooked or never got a decent sequel.
That sounds like a decent endorsement, I’ll have to critique this sometime soon.
Sweet, something to watch over dinner
Jason Court really looked at his acting career and said "There's gotta be a better way to make a living"
🤣
2:23:22 Academy kinda does a hybrid of JK and MotS, but you can't over-buy and rush the mandatory powers to max either.
It’ll be interesting to play Outcast and Academy and run comparisons. The unrealized immsim possibilities make me cry 😭
@@HeyBlondieGamer I mean if it had gone IMSIM it would just die, getting labled an Imsim is the kiss of death.,
@DIEGhostfish Haha, it’s hard to dispute that. It certainly isn’t as popular as some genres. Still, the sneaky use of choice here or there would have been cool.
Rather fittingly, I'd say that Jason Court now living his life as a winemaker looks like "a content old man".
Oh! And I almost forgot to echo what a lot of people seem to be saying here. For me, the FMV incarnations of both Kyle and Jan are THE definitive versions of those characters. The actors did a fantastic job. I loved the cutscenes back then, and I still love them now.
He’s certainly done a good job of dropping off the radar, his online presence is low these days which is a shame for fans and a boon for his sanity 😅
Requiem analysis? Yesss!
Interest noted 😉
@@HeyBlondieGamer I haven't played that game yet (it's in my Steam library), but I'd also be interested. In general I'm interested in any games of that period.
Some truly terrible keybindings that make it hard to use all the powers but an interesting lil game.
This one slipped off my radar, I’d love to check it out, particularly given the potential influences.
I smell another collaboration…
45:38 You will note the imperial forces are using proxies outside. Presumably because Sulon is literally orbiting the New Republic's second largest shipyard, that's why ALL the stormtroopers are holed up in the old governor's mansion. where they can plausibly pretend to be a mercenary group merely using salvaged stormtrooper gear.
I always assumed that thugs and other proxies were used because they’re cheap fodder. It’s kinda hard to keep knowledge of the imperials on Sulon a secret when they’re flying around and making their presence overtly known. Jerec isn’t subtle.
@@HeyBlondieGamer I mean the TIEs don't show up till they're trying to get Kyle out of the base, and the Shuttles ended up getting produced for civilians almost immediately after endor. Sienar and Cygnus just started churning them out.
What about the Vengeance? That’d stick out like a sore thumb. Kyle also presumably told the rebel ship which he received healing on about a dark Jedi called Jerec trying to rebuild the Empire.
I won’t fight you on these points, though there are holes in this train of thought.
I get the feeling that the locations and plot devices are more inspiration than a deliberate hard tie-in to the expanded canon. JK is self-contained and I think that works perfectly well for it.
@HeyBlondieGamer I figured the Vengeance never entered the Sullust System. Hence the use of the Sulon Star.
1:37:25 and let's face it, those three weapons were basically perfect as they were already. (Other than the bowcaster's awful projectile speed)
great retrospective. I wonder why very few games uses this sense of scale which is so intense here. It reminds me of the original Tron movie, beside Star Wars. Also another game with a wonderful sense of scale i Cybercon3
Many modern games do but it’s lost its intensity because it’s no longer the technical feat it once was. The lack of visual clutter also enhances the feeling scale in older games, whereas newer games are heavily cluttered and compete for attention.
Thanks for dropping a comment! 😁
@@HeyBlondieGamer I totally agree with you..our brain gets distracted and loses the focus, that I think is innate in us to recognize basic geometrical form..that's why I like minimal number of objects that are needed just to characterise an environment...pity game designers have lost this important concept.. also repeated textures create a sense of wonder and feeling of infinite, like in this game, Carmageddon dos and many other game from the past...it's a pity this game is a bit lost in time..I also like sotfwere renderer, not acccelerated ones..
1:47:30 oh hey, it's the same Pagliarulo that's lead writer on most BGS games now lol
That’s correct. Humble beginnings.
DFII & MotS were the games that persuaded me to get a PC back in the game! DFII has always been the best story since The Empire Strikes Back, and MotS has quite a few cool features.
Please mention Dark Kyle's saber color as "orange" as it obviously visually is. I love orange as a saber color! No, I am thankfully not Dutch. I've spoken to Jason Court on facebook like 15 years ago. He was a nice guy! I hope DFII and MotS get a remaster-remake hybrid project. And definitely a NON-WOKE one like Dark Forces 1 and Tomb Raider 1-2-3!
DFII could use all the extra features from MotS and the latter could get new Mara levels that deal with Kyle's expedition or even new Kyle levels at Dromund Kaas before his odd fall.
Or better yet, cameos from Lord Cronal and Desann! Maybe even new, much more story-woven saber duels.
Maybe implement the Outcast melee system into these older games!
Possibly an interchangeable mix of how you'd want your in-game model to look like, how bright your shirt color you'd want and how much beard you'd sport. Also saber color!
And some touches I'd personally LOVE would be Kyle fixing Rahn's saber to store it away repaired and intact, and restoring the Moldy Crow after the crash with some upgrades to have a second ship so he wouldn't always use the later way less cooler Raven's Claw. Perhaps even once seeing the Moldy Crow and the Shrike side by side.
Oh and maybe give more force stars to Mara. She always felt held back compared to Kyle, even if it was logical.
I’m with you, and many people were requesting a DF2/MotS remaster/remake after Nightdive released their DF remaster. I’m positive it’s on their radar, it’ll come down to rights and licensing issues.
It doesn’t surprise me that Jason was a cool guy to talk to. He strikes me as one of those ‘beer at a bar’ conversationalists.
The DF2 and MotS mods are great and would serve as a great jump-off point for a remaster. Fingers crossed that it happens one day.
If you think about it, DFI was the game that really needed the remaster, but DFII&MotS are the ones that could really shine with such an endeavor.
The modding community have done a phenomenal job with DF2/MotS, so I wouldn’t be hugely disappointed if it never got a remake.
Yeah kinda. Saw some stuff on youtube. But I like it much more when some studio updates my graphics for me.
Love it when a frachise is cared for, not destroyed.
Big hurray for Dark Forces 1!
Though I'd love a remake more.
Although recently I took the effort to look into the DFIIJK UnrealEngine5 remake and it is breathtaking!!!
It just still needs a LONG way to go but absolutely deserves a HUGE endorsement. I'm actually planning to advertise them whereever I go free-of-charge.
its funny my intro to the game was my dad downloaded the demo of the game when the game first came out and showed it to me and i was instantly hooked.( also i think right before he downloaded the demo i saw tv show actually talking about the game and showing clips from the game)
It was damn cool seeing functional lightsabers and force powers in a game.
Or to have a lightsaber fight but I rarely found myself using froce powers lol@@HeyBlondieGamer
The most used powers in my runs are typically pull, jump, speed, and healing, roughly in that order.
47:26
1:46:06
2:05:42
masterpiece.
REMEMBER
Comments like yours are the reasons I sprinkle detail like that in. It makes my day when people notice them. ❤️
@@HeyBlondieGamer sorry for my english, im not native.
But while you here, may i ask you, do you have plans (maybe in distant future) on doing video like this about Jedi Outcast and academy?
It would be top tier content
@user-ny8gk8yo3f Your English is great, don’t worry 👍
Absolutely, Outcast and Academy are on the list, although I can’t promise I’ll get to them soon.
1:44:15 Though one ship, (The villain;'s ship, an r41 Starchaser you have to keep from escaping) will only be familiar if you played TiE Fighter, XvT, or XWA, the last of which is where the model was borrowed from!
That's awesome work! One constructive criticism: the chapter's titles being ever present are annoying af.
Cheers, and thanks for the feedback. I normally make the chapter bar smaller and more transparent, I think my perception of how big and prominent it is was played down a little in the editing software.
Having to totally give up on heal to get Deadly Sight feels like such a bad deal.
Couldn’t agree more. Cherry-picking from both trees without penalty feels more organic and in keeping with Kyle’s personality. It’d also create a much more consistent character throughout the JK series. Kyle isn’t a white knight.
Yay!
Any plans to do outcast and academy? Great work
Absolutely, though not in the immediate future.
For what it is worth, you didn't need hardware acceleration back in the day... I was able to run this On a pentium 2 That couldn't even play putt putt... And looking back at how low resolution console games were back then it would have beenA much higher resolution than anything the end 64 ever did
Yeah, software rendering would be a viable alternative for years more until hardware acceleration became commonplace. There was a certain charm to it, too.
It was the fastest 3d game made in it's time, you could play it on a Pentium 1.
The remaster's concussion rifle blasts are a little too purple for me. I lean into the more blue white for it. Same for how I dislike prequel lightning vs RotS original lightning.
I didn’t notice that but now I won’t be able to unsee it 😝
I like the blue colour better too.
@@HeyBlondieGamer Yeah it's been a longrunning issue I've had with a lot of SW related stuff. Palaptine's lightning just looked plain better in RotS and the conc rifle looks best blue. The 3d model for it's amazing though, even Rupurtle's Unreal one isn't as good. (Because instead of the wide rounded part running down either side being the barrel it's just a pair of odd cheeks)
1:46:45 Interesting that he falls it a "Corvette" it may LOOK like a CR90 Corvette but the level is FAR too massive for it to be a CR90 with the size of its hangar.
Lol I had dark forces 2 on PC. I actually found the discs a cpl years ago when cleaning out my basement. It won't run on a stock modern computer unfortunately and I don't have the know how or the desire to figure out how to make it possible. My memory of the game was a nonsensical mess where I wandered around levels that were enormous , I mean just freaking bonkers HUGE. Getting lost and turning it off. The only clear memory I have of the game is walking into a room and a few bars of the cantina band song plays on loop. And some really bad cutscenes that were hilariously bad even to my child self
I still have the original discs, even though I know they won’t work on a modern OS without intervention.
Oh yeah, the levels were insanely huge. I can see how they’d be easy to get lost in.
1:47:35 This was not a place I expected to find Emil.
If you're gonna run it in 16 by 9, you need to set the FO about a 105 to get the 4 by 3 experience.. As it stands you're cutting off the view modelAlmost in half for most of your footage...
Remember, 105 It's 90 at 16 by 9.
Good point.
one thing i will comment on is after seeing what custom levels and stuff have come out over the years with jedi knight i honestly get an impression that the devs did not use the engine to its full potential i think mysteries of the sith did a better a job of using the engine but like idk if it was budget issues, time issues or experience issues or because of comparing this game to todays standards of gaming. but again i get the impression this game could have been so much more not to say it was not amazing for the time it was. but again seeing what the engine is capable of i just feel like they could have done more and almost feels more like a tech demo to show off what could be done with this engine(and impressive tech demo for the time but still a tech demo) and this is not to say its a bad game even by todays standards i just think again more could have been done with this game and the engine it uses and i feel like mysteries of sith did show that and i wish more games like this came out in the late 90s
I’m fairly sympathetic to Sith’s development and did mention some of the reasons in the video. It was a confluence of factors:
- A tight deadline.
- A tight budget.
- Technological limitations (look at what’s possible with the original Doom engine now).
Consider that they were also upgrading the engine, creating new levels, creating a tonne of new assets, and revamping force abilities. Play testing and tweaking all the new stuff would have already been an effort with less than a year until launch. Pretty crazy accomplishment when you think about it.
@@HeyBlondieGamer yup I mean I am sympathetic towards the games because of the time and like I said at the time I had an amazing experience that I loved.
Did you check out the unreal 5 port of this? It’s nothing short of spectacular.
I did, it looks amazing.
2:15:36 I gotta disagree, she seemed rather proud of having "Short-circuited" the programming Palpatine left in her to kill Luke by the end of the Novels.
I mean the Thief sequel dropped and its called black parade lmao
Truth
Great retrospective and awesome love letter to Dark Force 2 and Mysteries of the Sith for the awesome memories it gave us. I loved when you talked about the environmental set pieces that Dark Forces 2 gives us. My introduction to Star Wars wasn't actually the movies but playing Dark Force 2 at a friend's house in elementary school. Seeing the huge urban structures and endless pits of Nar Shaddaa and the large enclosed valleys/water reservoirs of Sulon with the the Clout City theme playing (th-cam.com/video/kG4nNBMtTMY/w-d-xo.htmlsi=fI5-AVLZMcR8Ax3A&t=134), plus the live action cut scenes are what first peak my interest in Star Wars (and what a deep love and interest it has become). Definitely a lot of upfront but also subtle worldbuilding this game did to the universe!
I’d wager that this was an introduction to Star Wars for many. Thanks for sharing your experience 😁
@@HeyBlondieGamer would love to see a video on Jedi Outcast and Academy. Great series of games (both gameplay and story-wise)!
They’re on the list, don’t you worry. I wouldn’t mind getting to Outcast this year.
I finished this game at about 10 fps on a 486 with no mouse look. Come at me...
👑
started playing this again with texture pack.
Having fun but I recommend patching it...old engine is hard on the eyes :S
It wasn’t the prettiest, even back then.
@@HeyBlondieGamer :P
Holy sh!t! A legends in deapth look ar jedi knight🙏🏼 U mind having a legends look at some other sw games mate?
Like Outcast and Academy? 😉
I wouldn’t mind doing Fallen Order and Survivor too.
@@HeyBlondieGamer Yes pls :3
Pretty pls
you can literally hold down mouse 1 in jedi knight and win any fight.
It’s not that bad, it still requires not trying to swallow a lightsaber whole.
Lol but now imagine if you didn't have unlimited re loads. Now try that lol dummy.
2:19:09 But he can't even bring himself to kill ONE unresisting person, is it really "Falling to the darkside" so completely if it's just a little use of darkside powers and brooding alone in a swamp?
4:08 Those were…. words?
???
Slave 1
Damn right
Still my favorite Star Wars game of all time. Disney should do some homework. And Katarn will always be canon to me.
Is it really better than academy or outcast though?
Why does it have to be ‘better’? All JK games brought something exceptional to the series. That’s a discussion for another video though.
@@HeyBlondieGamer just a few fans claim they were and trying to get to the bottom of it
What were their arguments?
@@HeyBlondieGamer greatest jedi games of all time and better than academy and outcast i wish i could pull up the exact comment but they were a while ago claiming outcast and academies saber gameplay was just clunky and random which is wild
Where all my zone friends at in the comments?
If you’re talking about the Exclusion Zone…
I’m your huckleberry 🤘
The Microsoft Gaming Zone of course!@@HeyBlondieGamer
I think I used to be AdmKoronis
Jedi High School with the Spork mod was pure bliss.
@@GenerateSilence I made a mod for patch commander that took the grappling hook from spork and added a second one so you could Spiderman around maps. Had to time it just right but fuck if it wasn't a blast!
well i mean 2 years before this game came out there was rebel assault 2 but i mean all darth vader did in that game was stand around yelling at a guy and then froce choke him at the end so yeah not much jedi action in that game but still full motion video of everything else star wars.
Not quite the same as jedi on jedi combat. Those games were still breaking ground though and very popular from what I remember.
Boba Fett's what?