Star Wars Zero Company writer wants its cast to have real friction: 'It's not a personal fantasy game'
If you've played an RPG before, I'm sure you're familiar with the associated plot clichés: golden boy protagonist takes on a death-defying quest, and along the road picks up several total strangers who become his best friends in record time (bonus points if one or a few of them fall in love with the player character).
Star Wars Zero Company bears some resemblance to BioWare's classics, but this is where narrative director Aaron Contreras hopes the two diverge.
Contreras said as much in a recent interview with PC Gamer associate editor Ted Litchfield. "This is a game about a team, a team of operators who come from all over, and it's not a personal fantasy game," Contreras said. "Hawks isn't the lone chosen one who's going to step out and do all the things with the swing of their mighty, mighty saber or whatnot. Hawks is a leader, negotiator, has to be cunning, strategic.
"It's a tactical strategy fantasy. So it had to be about how you manage and lead this team, and how you deal with these different personalities and their strengths and weaknesses."
You might think of Star Wars as a classic tale of good vs. evil, but Contreras is eager to shake some more moral ambiguity out of the Clone Wars setting—the time before everything was so cut-and-dry as it seems in the original film trilogy.
"We know the way that these ideologies will shake out," said Contreras. "The dust will settle into an era of Rebels and Empire, of very light and dark, good and evil. But things aren't so clear during the Clone Wars era, and that makes for a really interesting opportunity."
In-game, that means you'll have to consider interpersonal conflicts and different characters' worldviews as you make the tough calls; Contreras reckons it's all "part of the fantasy of being a leader."
That materializes in the bond system, wherein squadmates form relationships and grow closer the more missions they go on together. While this doesn't mean you can go around making everyone love you, Contreras did say certain characters could catch feelings for each other.
"You're gonna have people with really strong opinions about some questions, and you can't make everybody happy. So finding that as a feature was really key for us as a way to force setbacks in otherwise-upward movement in the bond system."
You can read more about Zero Company in Ted's full feature on the upcoming game, which has commentary from Contreras and other developers at Bit Reactor. You can also check out our explainer which gives you everything you need to know.
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