Ubisoft’s creative director, Julian Gerighty, has responded to the online criticism about the aesthetic appearance of Star Wars Outlaws’ main character, Kay Vess, which has been talked about a lot due to certain grifters and other types of fanbases.
Star Wars Outlaws is the next big Star Wars game. Developed by Ubisoft Massive, it is set to release later this month on the 30th of August and has been in the sights recently due to an IGN gameplay demo that looked and felt pretty incomplete.
Star Wars Outlaws’ Creative Director Talks About the Game
Gerighty shared his thoughts in an interview with The Washington Post, emphasizing the nostalgic elements that inspired the game. He also stated that engaging in “bad-faith” debates regarding Kay’s appearance is simply not worth it to him. He further shared:
Kay is meant to be approachable, a petty thief who ends up barreling through this story, making bad decisions and centered with a lot of humor, humility, and toughness. That’s what’s important to me.
He also added,
And she’s beautiful, come on. It makes no sense to me, and it’s not worth engaging with. If you engage with bad-faith people, there’s no nuance and no possibility of real dialogue. So all we can do is make the best game possible.
In the rest of the interview, he shared that he and his team aimed to reconnect with the core essence of Star Wars when developing Star Wars Outlaws. They drew inspiration from the feeling of watching the original Star Wars trilogy on VHS and playing with the Kenner toys.
Gerighty reminisced about the time before the internet and streaming services, where his imagination was deeply in love with the galaxy of Star Wars, a place where everything seemed possible. All of this is apparently a big inspiration for the narrative and design aspects of the game.
Star Wars Outlaws Goes All in on the Open-World Aspect
In the game, players get to ride Kay’s speeder bike across the sands of Tatooine, experiencing a sense of freedom and agency. Unlike the recent Electronic Arts Star Wars Jedi games, which are linear narrative adventures in smaller areas, Outlaws aims to immerse players in a living world with plenty of freedom, according to Gerighty.
The game’s spaceship travel, which allows customizable spaceships to travel from the planet’s surface to the stars seamlessly, enhances this illusion of immersion. This concept was learned from Ubisoft’s 2018 game, Starlink: Battle for Atlas. The spaceship sequences were also inspired by games like Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, as shared by Gerighty.
Kay serves as a relatable character for the audience, navigating through the open world and allowing players to form and break alliances. Her design, including her facial appearance, was designed accordingly for Star Wars Outlaws.
Recently, Ubisoft also faced another controversy with Assassin’s Creed Shadows. The company issued an apology for elements in the game’s promotional materials that had caused concern among certain fans. This statement was widely interpreted as addressing the backlash against the inclusion of Yasuke as a Black samurai.
Are you looking forward to the game when it releases later this month? Let us know in the comments.
