Kyle Katarn and Dark Forces – The Aftermath

After the capture of the Death Star Plans, the discovery of The Valley of the Jedi, and a near slip to the dark side, what was next for Kyle Katarn?

The Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series was a high point in both Star Wars gaming and in helping to lay foundation stones for the EU, particularly with lore surrounding the ancient Jedi and the Sith.  Jedi Knight and Mysteries of the Sith had come and gone, and audiences waited with bated breath for what would come next.

The wait would take four long years, with at least one serious detour.

Turmoil

Despite the number of hits that came out of LucasArts throughout the 90’s, the studio had leadership troubles throughout much of the publishers existence.  Acting as both a creator and a publisher, sometimes it was difficult to tell what the overall direction for the studio was.

Originally conceived as a venue to push computing technology into cinematic storytelling without leaning on Lucasfilm IP, a number of successful  Star Wars games (and the impending launch of the Star Wars prequels) caused a shift in focus.  The studio began cranking out both its own original Star Wars titles, and publishing titles for licensed third parties.  As quantity increased, quality suffered.

Worse, the advent of 3d graphics cards was rapidly causing a rapid decline in the traditional 2d adventure game market.  LucasArts hoped to push the genre into the future with their GrimE engine, to decidedly mixed results. Grim Fandango and Escape from Monkey Island were the only two titles published using this engine, but several others were mocked up for production and cancelled (including a couple of different Sam & Max sequels and a couple of different Full Throttle sequels!).  The waste and miscommunication inside the studio and anger and cancelled projects eventually led to the formation of Telltale Studios (Where Sam & Max and Monkey Island would eventually land), and to a revolving door in management that led to even more waste and bloat.

But where did this leave Kyle Katarn?

A False Start

As the gaming landscape looked bleak at the beginning of the millennium, one rumor from PC Gamer took hold – that a new entry in the lightsaber and force-combat genre would be forthcoming.  Fans could hardly wait to see what Kyle was up to – and on May 13th, 1999 the announcement was made:

This – was unexpected.  The Phantom Menace was set to debut in six days from the Obi-Wan announcement.  In some ways, this should have been expected.  Even so, the announcement was like letting the air out of a balloon.  Those who had waited to see the next chapter in the Kyle Katarn saga were angry, and community managers worked overtime to soothe hurt feelings.

However, in November of 2000, production shifted the game to an exclusive Xbox release, supposedly due to performance issues on the PC.  Intended features were cut, and the game was ultimately released in 2001, without making much of a splash.

Return of the Jedi

LucasArts corrected their mistake by announcing Jedi Outcasts development on May 17, 2001.  The development of the game would this time by handled by Raven software – the first time an external publisher was involved in the franchise.   The game ran on the Quake 3 Arena engine, and featured much higher poly-count models, high-res (for the time) textures, decals in the environment, and a much upgraded lightsaber combat engine which is still spoken of highly today.

Lore-wise, the game introduced a replacement ship for Kyle Katarn and Jan Ors – The Raven’s Claw (named for the developer), a Modified Corellian Engineering Corporation CRF-156T Fast Courier ship, an upgrade to the old Moldy Crow.  The story followed Kyle and Jan, with Kyle having returned to his mercenary ways after brushing a little too close to the dark side in Mysteries of the Sith.

While investigating strange transmissions from the planet Kejim, Kyle and Jan stumble across a plot to populate a reborn Empire with troopers infused with the Force (through specially infused crystals) and trained in lightsaber combat, at the behest of Imperial Admiral Galak Fyar and the Dark Jedi Desann, accompanied by his apprentice Tavion.

When Kyle apparently sees Jan Ors death, he returns to the Valley of the Jedi to retrieve his lightsaber and regain his Force powers, ultimately agreeing to finally by taught by Luke Skywalker at the Yavin IV Jedi Academy.  The adventure takes him far and wide, meeting a cast of familiar Star Wars characters (including Lando!), with the lightsaber combat being far-and away the most praiseworthy aspect of the outing.

Recent ports by Aspyr onto the switch, and an in-progress VR mod adaptation for the game have kept it alive long after its release date.

Jedi Academy

Capitalizing on the success of the release, Jedi Academy was released was released the following year.  While not a direct sequel, it does follow a new protaganist, Jaden Korr, who is accepted to train at the Jedi Academy.  There, he must unravel a mystery surrounding an ancient artifact tied back to the days of the Ancient Sith and Marka Ragnos.

This game allowed more customization of the character model, and a more free-form playstyle, in that there were choices to be made by the player with mission-branching.

While Katarns story wasn’t advanced much in this release, his relationship with Luke Skywalker had strengthened, and he had accepted a teaching position at the Academy.

New Jedi Order and Beyond

This concluded Kyles appearances in the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight games, though he continued to appear in comics and novels afterwards.  Kyle became an active Battlemaster at Lukes Jedi Praxeum, and took an active part in the Yuuzhan Vong War, eventually becoming a member of the new Jedi Council.

His exploits in the remaining EU are too vast to be summarized here, but an excellent summary can be found here:

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Kyle_Katarn#The_Empire_Reborn

Gaming Legacy

In the wake of the birth of the First Person Shooter Genre, Dark Forces/Jedi Knight made many contributions – echoes of both the game and the protaganist can still be felt in newer titles, such as the Jedi: Fallen Order series.  While not directly related, the influence of Kyle can be strongly felt in Kyle Kestis, and while the lightsaber action isn’t as frenetic as in those older games, the focus certainly is  – and likely will be more similar with the pending release of Jedi: Survivor.

The Lion in Winter

Could Kyle return in the Disney-EU?  Unfortunately, I find it unlikely.  Most of the traits of Kyle have been pirated by other “new” characters.  However, current Star Wars owes a debt of gratitude to new-era Jedi who helped lay the foundations for a new era of Jedi, before we even knew what the old ones looked like.

My advice to Disney?  If you want to gain some goodwill, consider canonizing Kyle.  You don’t have to bring everything back, but you have gold in the Valley of the Jedi and could use him against the Inquisitors.  Yes, you’ve made Cal the go-to for this in the Rise of the Empire era, but who’s to say Cal couldn’t come looking for Kyle after hearing of the Valley of the Jedi Incident?  Maybe they could head off in search of the Zeffo.

Oh – and one more thing.  At least give Kyle credit for an infiltration at Danuta, and place him on-scene (preferably in the air) during the Battle of Scarif.  The dude has earned it.

Catch up on my previous articles in this series, and let me know your Dark Forces/Jedi Knight memories down below!

https://thatparkplace.com/kyle-katarn-a-cornerstone-of-star-wars-eu/

https://thatparkplace.com/star-wars-dark-forces-the-impact-and-legacy/

https://thatparkplace.com/dark-forces-2-jedi-knight-retrospective-return-of-the-jedi-part-deux/

https://thatparkplace.com/kanan-jarrus-replacement-cowboy-jedi-and-ronin/

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