Spoiler Warning: The following article features full spoilers for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor including one of its major boss fights, taking place on Koboh during Cal’s fourth mainline visit there.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has a ton of over the top moments, headlined by major boss fights against immortal aliens, ancient Sith, and even Darth Vader. Yet, somehow, it’s a battle against Rick the Door Technician that’s the most intense of all.
“That’s the most unexpected boss in any video game I’ve played,” said one Reddit user. “I was utterly flabbergasted,” said another.
One of Jedi: Survivor’s toughest fights sees protagonist Cal Kestis take on hoards of enemies in an Imperial hangar. It’s gruelling, with players having to take down seemingly endless waves of Stormtroopers, droids, and anything else the Empire could muster. Even in victory players felt defeated: no life, no energy, and worst of all, no checkpoint.
They must therefore continue into the Imperial base with nothing, and upon turning into one last corridor, a boss health bar expands onto the screen; it’s devastating. “Players see this enemy charging down the hallway screaming at them, they hear boss music start to play, and see a boss bar pop up,” says Jonathan Wright, lead encounter designer at Respawn Entertainment. “It has all the ingredients for a surprise boss fight.”
The surprise within the surprise, however, is Rick the Door Technician. A humble employee, albeit one dressed in Scout Trooper armour, comes sprinting towards the player, takes one lightsaber slash to the chest, and falls to the ground, defeated. Queue checkpoint.
Rick became an instant hit in the Star Wars community, with players enthralled by the completely bizarre and unexpected fight, and its completely bizarre and unexpected conclusion. “I like to imagine that in an alternative universe, Rick is the main character in his little story and we are his final boss,” said one user on Reddit. “I want to know how he came to be,” demanded another.
“We thought it would be funny if there was one last guy left to fight, like a ‘last stand’ sort of enemy. He would come charging down the hallway towards the player, full of confidence, and die in one hit.”
“The original idea for Rick came about when I was looking at one of the earliest iterations of the level with the level design team,” explains Wright. “I knew there was going to be a big fight in the Imperial hangar near the end of the level, and saw that level design had made a really long hallway at the exit.
“We thought it would be funny if there was one last guy left to fight, like a ‘last stand’ sort of enemy. He would come charging down the hallway towards the player, full of confidence, and die in one hit. Everyone thought it was a great idea, and it just took off from there.”
The key to creating a moment like this is in tension and release, Wright says. “Too much tension causes a lot of stress and can really reduce the overall fun of the level. But lack of tension can result in boredom.
“Because of the amount of stress we just put players through with the fight before Rick, and purposefully extending that moment of stress by withholding a meditation point, we needed to create something that would be a release of all that built up tension.”
Respawn decided the best way to do this was by making the player laugh. Jedi: Survivor is often a serious game and isn’t afraid of gut wrenching, emotional moments or posing philosophical questions with no answers, but it can be quite silly too. The B1 Battle Droids pulled from the Prequel Trilogy are designed to be ridiculous, for example, but the developers had to find the balance between both sides.
“The seriousness of the rest of the game is what makes the more humorous moments land,” says Wright. “The contrast between funny and serious elevates both kinds of moments. We knew that the moment with Rick was important because of this.
“The moment with Rick allowed us to build up another moment of tension as players think they are in for another hard fight.”
“Players have just come from an extremely hard fight. Players are more than likely very low on health at this point, and are probably very stressed with finding the next meditation point so they can rest. The moment with Rick allowed us to build up another moment of tension as players think they are in for another hard fight, but then release all that built up stress when they fully realize the moment with Rick. It’s a good emotional reset to prepare players for what is to come.”
As for the fan reaction, Wright and the team at Respawn can hardly believe it. With Star Wars being such an expansive universe, with so many stories taking place within its canon (Lucasfilm was also “super supportive of Rick’s addition), having fans celebrate one of its characters is a little surreal.
“It’s indescribable to be honest,” Wright sa. “I knew that players would like him after seeing the team’s reaction towards him, but I never imagined he would explode in popularity to this extent.
“I’ve seen so many reaction videos for this moment and everyone in the comments always has their own little stories about Rick. I’ve seen the fan fiction that people have written, and have even seen Machinima style videos where people have created their own series of events for Rick that lead up to his heroic standoff with Cal. I’ve even seen videos where people have modded Rick into other games.
“I think they are all wonderful. To me, there is no greater achievement than something you had a hand in creating inspire other people to be creative. All the comments on videos from people describing their experience with Rick’s heroic last stand, all the jokes and the memes, the videos and stories, it’s all a spark of creativity that started with Rick and I think that is amazing.”
All of this love and support also has fans asking for more, but Wright isn’t convinced it’s coming. “Ultimately this isn’t my call, but I don’t think it’s needed,” he says. “Rick’s story already has a valiant ending. The explosion in popularity and fan creativity shows that we already did a good enough job with Rick. Let players have fun with it and let people be creative with Rick’s backstory in their own minds.”
Respawn did show his ending, of course, but Star Wars certainly isn’t afraid to go back in time as much as it goes forward. Perhaps Rick is due a prequel trilogy of his own.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
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