1993-2007 for me, starting with X-Wing (although that game is easily eclipsed by 1995's TIE Fighter) and ending with Empire at War. 'Course, if we count The Force Unleashed on the PS2/Wii/PSP, then then the golden age ended at 2008.
@@michaelandreipalon359 TFU physics and npc AI trump modern games of today. Like for real, I'm not even overstating, play the game right now, you'll see. So yeah. We're counting it.
Shadows of the Empire was amazing. And what's makes it special is that you aren't a Jedi. You're a Han Solo type character. It's his story and while some events and characters from the OT overlap with the game, it's really a totally different storyline. And they pulled it off brilliantly.
The most underrated part of the this game is the fact that people online will literally take you under their wing like a Jedi master and train you how to reach the boundaries of the mechanics in order to be a better player which, in my opinion completely immerses me as being in a Jedi game
I had so many cool experiences playing this game, entering a server where everyone was chatting roleplaying and dueling was a very cool experience!! It was a unique game experience!!
@@HikaraItheos I remember RPing in the Jedi Temple (modded map) as a sith lord, also being trained as part of a clan using the strong saber stance, we all had the mod with the hook as well I think it was called JKA+ where you could challenge people to duels and would become invulnerable to the rest of the players. Truly this was such a fun experience especially RPing with a bunch of fellow other players. One guy taught me different tricks, if you rebound your keys in a specific way to spin fast you could make your lightsaber orbit you. Good times!
You can do some crazy sweet moves in this game, I did a backwards twist flip while swatting my saber and beheaded my opponent as he force jumped, still one of the coolest things I ever saw.
Well, there's a very beautiful mod for Jedi Academy called Movie Duels out there, frequently being kept up to date and is very rich in versatile combat abilities and lightsaber battle system, Jedi Academy since then is technically upgraded to the next level of lightsaber and force using fights.
Ultimately, the question we have to ask ourselves is, "why should someone as weak as Tavion have the scepter? If anything, it should belong to me!" It's overwhelming ham, but a rare instance of the main character actually realizing how strong they are in universe.
Honestly, I kind of prefer the Dark Side ending of Jedi Academy. It feels more satisfying to kill Roche, the whole final stage feels more epic, and the duel with Kyle feels more climactic. Plus the ending leaves it open as to what the future could hold for the characters. Sure it's a bit hammy and Jaden goes all in on being pure evil at that point, but it feels like the bigger finale to me.
Jedi Academy's lightsaber and force combat is the best. The control you have over your powers feels incredible, something I have not been able to experience with the newer titles.
What I like about Academy is that lightsaber can dismember enemies, *unlike* later games. Imagine *if* KOTOR had dismemberment *outside* of Kreia’s scripted hand loss.
Yeah it seems like the best lightsaber combat I’ve seen in any Star Wars game. The force power seems pretty good too but I do really like the force power system in KOTOR 2 also
@@KingEdwardMMVIII First, I haven't played any of the EA Star Wars games, not even Battlefront series. I have both the original PC disk for Jedi Academy, and the physical Switch bundle cartridge. All that said, I was rather surprised that the lightsaber was a blunt weapon for so long, and was surprised that - via sites like IGN - it was kind of selective when it came to dismemberment in Fallen Order.
Hilariously, Kyle getting blasted with an energy beam from the staff, then being crushed by a massive pile of rocks is only his second most ridiculous survival of a lethal incident in this game. I think it’s in Vader’s fortress when he’s standing right next to you at the top of a tall shaft and the ground he’s standing on explodes, causing him to fall for what feels like several minutes, screaming the whole time, then landing with an audible thud at the bottom. Immediately after suffering this undeniably fatal fall, he nonchalantly radios in and tells you that you’ve got to split up or something. Quite uncanny, very hilarious.
I remember this one haha. if i remember correctly the first time i played the campaign and he fell all the way down with the debris and i thought he is dead. then he just calls in and asked "jaden, are you ok?" i was like "Me? I should have been asking you that!!!"
This has aged so well. I just recently played through JKA once again, and I realized how crazy good its mission design is. There are no repeats, almost all of the missions have a unique gimmick that makes sense and doesn't overstay its welcome, and many of them allow for pretty creative approaches. The one thing that's a shame is stealth is completely impossible, even with the mind trick power. I tried my best to be as much of a Jedi as possible when I last played it, avoiding killing and drawing attention, and realized the enemies all have a detection range rather than a cone of vision. Still, force pulling weapons out of the hands of stormtroopers to make them flee was kind of a fun challenge in and of itself. Honestly, all of the Dark Forces-Jedi Knight games have aged surprisingly well, Jedi Knight 1 looks horrible but is just a really good game, Dark Forces 1 is actually probably the best "Doom clone" of all time, possibly even a better game than Doom itself, and JKO and JKA are just stupidly fun. Funnily enough, as much as I love JKO, I feel it's the worst aged one out of them all... The pacing and much of the level design is weird, a lot of the time you are forced into annoying pixel hunting, and not being able to freely choose your Force powers like in all of the others makes it less fun to replay.
The big problem with the march towards photo realism is that we lose A LOT of freedom for mechanic design when you have to consider realism, and much of the console/PC's "budget" being "spent" on graphics, instead of complexity.
I love Jedi Outcast's level design, ESPECIALLY in the first few levels before you get a lightsaber. I much prefer it over boring linear levels that have been standard since the time when every game tried to copy Call of Duty 4. Imho, playing these levels is really immersive, because they actual feel like real facilities, where each room has a purpose. You don't just go from A to B without thinking, you have to actually look at the environment and therefore immerse yourself in it to find out where to go. It's hard to explain what I mean, but it's like a miniature version of finding your way in Morrowind vs. following a quest marker in Skyrim. Imho, Jedi Academy's levels were already too linear. To me, Academy always felt like an action focused expansion pack to Outcast, where the levels themselves aren't that important as long as there's action. I still love it! Especially the connections to Tales of the Jedi and other EU stuff. When it comes to the other games, I agree. I, too, think Dark Forces 1 is a better Doom than Doom. Edit: Imho, the only level in Jedi Outcast that outright sucks is the first Yavin 4 level with the AT-STs and swamp troopers. I still get lost in this level, lol.
@@RDR911 I agree. I also think photorealistic graphics aren't that important if you're not playing a game like Red Dead Redemption 2 or something similar. I actually like early 3D graphics, they have their charm. They also allow for more creative level design, because since the graphics don't look realistic anyway, the stuff they portray doesn't always have to make sense. Also, simpler graphics allow less handholding, beceause if graphics are photorealistic, it's often hard to see what's actually important and what not, so in modern games, important stuff is often highlighted, which feels cheap. In old games, you often had to find stuff yourself, which was easier with simpler graphics. I hope you know what I mean.
I actually recently replayed both Outcast & Academy on PS4 & PC. I couldn’t believe how much better Academy aged. Both are fantastic, but Academy truly is a pure Jedi action adventure. Plus, its concept of being a Jedi in training is fantastic & I hope one day we get a new canon game that tries it, either in Luke’s Jedi or High Republic or early prequels.
@@denarte6986 For real dude, Fallen order is like you are just watching some long movie that shows all the boring in between scenes like walking to the different scenes where things take place. It looks very realistic visually with thee graphics but that doesn't make it a great game. I prefer when the games had better action and worse graphics because it makes it more fun if you are playing a video game that has cartoonish graphics, it doesn't matter to me it's a game it's not supposed to look like real life, it's just supposed to be fun. Jedi academy is more immersive even though the graphics are a lot more outdated and even it's simple basic story is better than jedi fallen orders story (and I liked fallen order) The lightsaber combat for jedi academy makes me feel like I am actually a powerful jedi slicing through stormtroopers and sith/dark jedi. I can control which way the blade swings and I can clash blades with my opponent. The lightsabers in fallen order and survivor don't slice through enemies instantly like a lightsaber should so it really makes it feel like ur lightsaber isn't that powerful We need a new jedi academy game with average graphics so they don't waste so many years developing the graphics and they just make a really fun game with an immersive story
@@icravedeath.1200 they could have the enemies block the sabers then and make it actually difficult to slash them but once it does, it cuts them in pieces
They're different but I enjoyed both. The original one gives you much more freedom and just feels great. MB's more tactical imo. Wish BF2 would've copied that same lightsaber combat system.
MB2 definitely does it the best, better than Mordhau mods, any Battlefront, and Vertex. I wouldn't say perfected but it is damn close. Apparently, long ago, before I played MB2, they had a different saber combat system and some say it was better, but idk tbh MB2 is still pretty active, prime time has players in most regions, ddos'ing is an annoyance that happens if you try to host your own server though.
IMO Academy and Outcast still have the best lightsaber combat which has yet to be topped. On top of that, the Jedi Knight series will always be my Sequel Trilogy.
They were an amazing system that honestly had more depth than people gave it credit for. But I think the 2005 Revenge of the Sith game had some really good lightsaber combat too. At least when it came to smooth combos. JKA and Outcast win when it comes to realistic lightsabers though, for sure!
@@-CrimsoN- Yep, like there was so much advanced stuff you could do through button input combinations; Academy added even more to this system when it introduced the quick, balanced, and power stances/techniques.
I think fallen order is better lightsaber mechanics but all the other things this game is better. I can still remember some of the missions so vividly like that Train or Hutts base and so much more. Even side levels were so well done
You forget that these games were made by what would be considered indie companies by todays standards. Lucasarts gave anyone with an idea a chance thats why there was so many star wars games, both good and bad. It was a wild west age really
First time I played this, I remember a spot on the Chandrilla map I believe, where you are running down a path that begins to crumble beneath you into a chasm, and so I forced jump towards the platform below, where there was a bad guy waiting for me...but while in the air, I ignited my two lightsabers, hit the ground into a roll, and stabbed the baddie with the slow-mo death cam...It felt like I played that right out of a movie! Always go back to this game every few years.
It truly is my favourite multiplayer game of all time, I played it for so many years and it allowed me to meet my wife who I've known since 2005 from meeting on a server. I'll always have a big place in my heart for Jedi Academy. Awesome review! ❤
It was such a mad multiplayer experience. I only really watched my friends play it, but I remember them going into servers where players where training other players, and then explaining how honourably everyone played and dueling etc. it really captured my imagination, I’ve always wondered if someone could make a CZcams video on the multiplayer that would do it justice. Alas, you probably had to just be there.
@@greg6191100%. I was obsessing with the multiplayer and have always wanted a video essay about it and how deep the combat was but no videos do it justice.
and so many good custom maps from the community of filefront, i still remember being so excited every time a new "Jedi Home"? (i think it was called) map would come out with all the secret rooms and such, so much fun.
Oh God, I remember we only had a demo disc of this game for the longest time. And we played the shit out of the two available missions. I didn't even know English back then, but the line "The tractor beam is down Chewbacca, I'm on my way" from the Tatooine mission was just burnt into my mind. Thank you for bringing back these memories :)
There are so many English words I learned from Star Wars that they still make me think of Star Wars, lol. Even words that don't have anything to do with Star Wars specifically, like symbiosis for example.
@@wilhufftarkin8543 Same, I used to play Red Alert 1 on PS1 and, while the text was translated, the voices were not, so stuff like "acknowledged" and "unable to comply, building in progress" live rent free in my mind
I remember the first time I experienced the game was from a demo too i was 8 years old it was at target on the gamecube I remember it so vividly because my entire childhood i pretty much hated every game with sabers in it because sabers never really felt right it was just goofy to me in other games then i finally picked up this demo and the game just burned into my memory because i didnt even get to play it again till i was like 16 or 17
For those interested, Jedi Outcast 2 and Jedi Academy both have VR mods available on Pico 4 and Quest 2 headsets, courtesy of Team Beef; all you need is the original game on PC. An excellent way of replaying an old classic. Force pushing guys off cliffs never gets old.
I love how each tier of your main powers feels like such a huge increase. You start by needing to point directly at the one one you want to block fire from, and making one guy need to readjust his footing, to being able to walk into a room deflecting everything and wrenching the weapons out of a squad of enemies.
Can't believe that this and KOTOR have existed for 2 decades... Also sort of surprised that Jaden Korr didn't appear in many other post RotJ content, as far as I know, I think he only has a major role in a novel duology.
Should've also mentioned those are the ONLY two Star Wars games that has a mechanic where you can lose your saber from grip or throwing it on purpose, but being able to recall it whenever you want. Which....I find surprising, but still without pretty much any competition is the BEST Lightsaber gameplay.
Movie battles 2 is hands down the best starwars game I have ever played. All these years later, not a single triple AAA game can come close to how amazing the game is. Honestly, there is always something new that happens every round. Never the same, best saber combat hands down. Every class has its counter and has a huge skill ceiling. I highly recommend! There are videos teaching how to duel that you can watch or special movies to use. The role playing in this game is the best I have ever seen as well. One cool thing is that in starwars lore, every jedi and sith has their own fighting style. Well in this game you can make your own. with what stance you use and style, its insane. This game will truly never die, loads of people come to play every year and we are a community that does not stop playing. I can go on and on about MB2. But please if you call yourself a "star wars fan" then you owe it to yourself to give mb2 a try. I haven't stopped playing since I first started in 2013. With characters from every book, movie, game etc. Constant updates and new maps and modes. Its a blast! Great video! and thanks for shining some light on this
Sometimes the community is similar to 4 chan but it's pretty self-moderated these days, so you don't really see an acceptance for that kind of behavior much. The community is pretty tolerant, even with some of the most controversial things. People mostly only care about playing the game, and that's all.
This game was made shortly before I was born and I didn’t try it until last year, so I went in very unbiased and had a blast the entire way through. I love everything about this game and it definitely still holds up, although a remaster would be cool.
One other thing I thought was really innovative about Jedi Academy that I’ve not seen much in other Jedi games is the acrobatics. The closest is probably Jedi Survivor, but you don’t really have attacks off of walls or flipping over opponents. The saber combat was just so varied and interesting in Jedi Academy. My one hope with the newer Jedi games is that someday they’ll have multiplayer to rival Jedi Academy. That was definitely the best part of that game. So glad it’s still alive.
agreed, no other star wars games, at least that i can think of, give you that much freedom with combat, i mean the two recent ones are souls clones anyways so they wouldn't include that, i'd like to see them come back to this series honestly with a modern reboot or even remake
One of my favourites games ever, I remember spending years just with a single player mod called Knights if the force, dueling the best characters over and over again
i'm currently playing a Jedi Academy mod that allows you to use any character from any era (legends and canon), you can chose any saber with whatever color you want (white, black, light blue, etc), adds 4 more force powers and even let you play the Jedi Outcast campaing with the new mechanics, and they even added a Game Plus option where they change some enemies and replace them for stronger ones that belongs to the canon, like Death Troopers. I really love what the community did with this game!
oh wow someone went all out sounds like, i bet its super fun, sadly i only own a weak laptop so i can't play steam or any of that stuff but i hope someday i can play games like KOTOR 2 with the mods and that it sounds like as well
If movie battles isn't your kind of thing, the vanilla game is still alive too! There's a clan called JoF who have 200+ members and their server is full for a couple of hours every day, with decent activity the rest of the time too. The clan is constantly working on mods, maps, gamemodes, and events to keep the game alive and thriving. Within the clan there are also co-op missions on new custom maps that are fully functional, so not only can you get the old single player vibes, but you can do it with friends too. Definitely check them out!
If you're getting back into JKA and love multi-player I recommend the JoF(Jedi of Freedom) server. Biggest active community with awesome and helpful members and lots of events and challenges. Been a member for some months now and I had so much fun it's amazing. Come have fun with us.
Though aged, its Free Lightsaber Combat approach feels more true to how we feel an all-powerful Jedi should fight. Fallen Order's and Survivor's combat feels far more limited and grounded, but still powerful. Given a choice between the two, I like Academy's sandbox style combat more.
What makes the mission where you get captured truly special is that you have to make your way through the imperial base WITHOUT your lightsaber. You're disarmed upon being captured and your lightsaber is on the head officer so you have to fight your way through the whole facility using force powers and the various ranged weapons (and kungfu if you use cheats xD)
When this mission happens I usually already have 3rd rank in both Force Healing and Force Lightning and also some points in Force Protection. It makes whole mission piece of cake (except for the boss).
Flandrew, I just wanted to tell you thank you for all of the great video game content. I look forward to watching them every Sunday as I prepare dinner for my family. It is truly a highlight of my week. Thank you and keep it up!!! ❤
I liked playing as a rodian and freak out those guys who were mocking their rodian allies on Tatooine. Continuity with the rest of the pre Disney Expanded Universe is great here. The whole castle at Vjun, even the fallen statue of Vader is in book sand comics. They even mention the names of his Jedi students from books are now Jedi instructors. And of course the spirit 'villain' is from Tales of the Jedi comics. For me it made it very immersive.
Yes, I loved all the connections, too. Also, the Valley of the Sith Lords on Korriban and Marka Ragnos' tomb (and also Ragnos himself) look EXACTLY like in the Tales of the Jedi comics. It was so cool to walk around in a place I saw in a comic before! I don't like how KotOR's Korriban looks totally different. Edit: I mean Outcast and Academy came out during the prequels but they felt so much like 90s era EU. I really loved that. 90s era Star Wars will always have a special place in my heart.
Back in the days a friend of mine got so frustrated about getting eaten by those space worms, he never touched that mission again in any playthrough. He is (and already has been at this point) one of the smartest people I ever knew so when he told me about that I looked at him in total disbelief and said: "Dude, just use the force speed and you outrun those worms, they won't get you." He couldn't believe he missed that, I couldn't believe he missed that and seeing you getting eaten by that space worm I realized, maybe there are still people out there who are missing this and have a frustrating struggle with this mission. So yeah guys... use force speed to avoid getting eaten by the space worms. Nice video by the way. Was the first one I saw from you and it fed my nostalgia. Have a nice day
Beyond the fact that they patched out a lot of the dismemberment options; yes, I would say it still is pretty freaking good. The mission variety is excellent, the game is surprisingly well balanced on "normal" difficulty, the story is fun and filled with great characters, and the choice of powers and equipment before each mission provide a really cool sense of building your character. I also love how many of us have stories about playing this game back when it came out. I personally remember playing online and being completely immersed while wearing headphones, only for my grandfather to sneak upon me and pretend to do a judo chop on my back emulating -what he thought to be-, a lightsaber; I just remember crying and going for a hug with my grandma.
There's a stupid workaround to get the dismemberment code to work but it's easier to go get Jedi Academy Enhanced. I think that unlocks that code (I have a couple other mods) but also enabled some of the multiplayer stuff so that you can adjust force regen time. Does that make it easier to spam lightning at people? Yes. Is that more fun? Yes. Is it balanced? No, but who cares?
I also remember that if you kept the single saber when you became a Jedi Knight you were able to access the light and heavy stances. I think early Jayden only had medium stance. My memories of this game were also the multiplayer and the enormous amount of mods for characters, maps, and game modes! There was even a tool to build your own NPCs. Many hours setting up massive NPC battles in the canyon/ swoop map. I’m glad they out a similar NPC battle arena in Jedi Fallen Order and Jedi Survivor.
Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast is the far superior story and game to me. It’s my 3rd favorite SW game just behind KOTOR II and KOTOR. With that being said, Jedi Academy was amazing. I spent hundreds of hours playing both Outcast and Academy on PC. I think one thing that’s not talked about as much is the modding community. I remember downloading maps of Utapau, Mustafar, Coruscant, Naboo etc along with all of the Prequel and OT skins. They were so detailed and had sound bites from the films. There was this program you could download where you could assign each of the NPC’s their own lightsaber that you downloaded too. So in essence, all of the characters from the films had their correct hilts and skins. I remember in open maps I would line up all the Jedi and Sith and then unfreeze them and have all out warfare. Great memories. The parents definitely didn’t love me tying up the phone line downloading mods on dial up haha.
I completely agree with you that Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast was a way better game and story overall. The fact that you got the lightsaber far into the game made it feel waaaay more rewarding and special. However, Jedi Academy to me was nothing but disappointing back in the day. The only good thing that was going for it was dual and double bladed lightsabers. Cameos were forced, the story and new characters were cringe, regular weapons served no purpose, and overall I feel like the game was shorter and meaningless in terms of stakes. I've replayed it a couple of years ago and yeah, I still didn't enjoy it, sadly.
Good points man! Agree with you on all fronts. Man, I wish George never sold to Disney and LucasArts was never shutdown. It seems the number 3 is bad luck. If only we got Jedi Knight III, KOTOR III, The Force Unleashed III, and Battlefront III (OG Battlefront)…..
I absolutely love Jedi Academy. Have been playing through it countless times, played the multiplayer, played a lot of mods and custom maps for it (for some reason a Christmas-themed map and a map of a JKJA multiplayer clan hideout are the ones I remember the most). I "recently" started again to play through JKJA, but this time with the Star Wars: Galactic Legacy mod, which makes it more difficult, but also gives new enemy types and force powers (well I'm at the Vjun part, so not that recent).
Outcast and Academy were my brother and I’s most played games as a kid. We played through Academy so many times I’ve still got all the voice lines basically memorized 🥰
This games lightsaber combat is great but so many don’t realize how great. It’s easy to use but hard to master. One problem is side strafes isn’t keybound on default but is key to combos Id love to see a review from someone where figured out how you can use red stance and pause swings with flips and wall runs while linking swings into combos and reduce your hit ox by crouching…plus increase damage by spinning pov while hitting a target… the lightsaber opens up into this great system where you look like badass.
I arrived to the multiplayer scene so late because I didn't have internet for my Xbox and didn't get into PC gaming until mid-2008 but I played the single player endlessly, one of my favorite games of all time next to Kotor
Great video! I couldn't wait any longer for it. JKA still holds up today and it's so great to hear that Multiplayer is still a thing. Time to get shredded by Ben Swolo
Man, I wish I could go back in time... I have friends I have met on this game, that are still my friends to this day. The amount of hours I poured into this game in both online and single player modes is something I wont be able to even begin to guess. No game, for me, has captured the way this game (and all the Star Wars games from the late 90's to early 2000's for that matter) make me feel. Cherished memories for sure, thanks for this
I am glad, somebody finnaly say something good about academy in comparrision to Outcast. Many people have higher opinions about outcast, for its more storyfocussed campain and the thing, that you have to gain your lightsaber. I in the other hand, got stuck in the maze-like levels and prever academy for its lighter cost.
I played both recently. IMO despite changes in gameplay look minor at first, lighterber combat in JA is radiaclly improved. Special moves give player a better control and they make duels look epic.
Dare I say, Yes? The lightsaber combat is actually amazing and there's still lightsaber combos that I learn with each new playthrough. I only hope that we get to see either a remake or an addition to the jedi outcast/ knight series with these upcoming games
Play it again 2 weeks ago as a 20 years celebration and man, it was still good. The lightsaber duels are the best ever, I mean, the best. The double lightsaber is still my favourite and force chocking people off the clifs is a hoot.
@@sylamy7457 The game was never designed around console controllers, so there's no aim assist while using the guns and no target lock-on when using the saber. Even as an experienced player I'd struggle under those circumstances too.
This game is one of the best SW games out there, no other game came close to the frenzy combat of this, also mods like Movie Battles 2 are still pretty active
Brings back a ton of memories. Great video! I remember still having dial up internet when I first hopped into multiplayer and joined a clan. I eventually got DSL and became the clan {SoTFK}'s jedi master teaching people on the custom Academy level lightsaber sparring. We had lot's of clan battles vs other clans and I really enjoyed the 1v1 dueling aspect as everyone watched on. Winning or losing the duel didn't matter, everyone was very kind and typed Goodfight and good sports all around. Looking back it's very corny all the roleplaying that went on, but I wouldn't change a thing! hahaha. You'd be surprised at how many cool people came and went and all the drama in between. Not to mention back then you could all flex your music library in game with a custom program called JAM's music player for everyone to see what current new black eyed peas hit you were jamming out to :)
wtf is jof? Journal of Finance? Joy of Food? Journey of Faith? Junior Officer Forum? Joy of Fitness? Jokes on Friday? Journal of Fashion? Justice of the Future?
This is by far the best star wars game ever made, the abilty to mod it was always a big plus for me. I have put so many hours in this game, there has never been anything like it eversince
Fun fact: According to the old canon timeline, Jaden was just around ~13-14 years old during the events of Jedi Academy. They put a lot of responsibility on those kids those days.
@@whitewolf3051 I'm pretty sure Raven Software indeed meant Jaden to be like ~18-20, it is latter Expanded Universe stuff that implies he (canon Jaden was a dude) must have been super young during the events of Jedi Academy and it might be just an oversight. Still amusing.
@@current9300 That's rather awkward, but since some of EU is non canon, I think the early teen age can be discounted. That and the gender also, prefer female Jaden better.
Either way, gotta hate the fact that they made Jaden Korr stay a Light Sided male. They really should have kept their identity and morals ambiguous, alongside Revan and the KotOR II Jedi Exile.
JK/JA series had the best lightsaber combat mechanics ever. Allowing you to choreograph your own moves, and mash different lightsaber forms. Not forgetting JA has 2 hidden sith forms (incl. a reverse grip style - basically a single bladed variant of the saberstaff) when you use cheat mode 😁
Thanks for this video. I can’t help but cringe looking back at our work 20 years later (the ugly models, low-res textures, animation jank), but it’s a product of its time. I’m glad people have fond memories of it, Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy will always hold a special place in my heart as a game developer, and I’m so happy the community has kept these games alive, improved on them and keep playing them. Thanks again for the trip down memory lane!
From what I recall when I first played it ten or twelve years ago, the gameplay was excellent and lightsaber combat turned out exciting. I just remember the number of force powers being kind of tricky to use during the fights as I needed to put my fingers away from the move or attack controls to press their designated numeric keys Other than that, it was awesome, and recently I've been having a burning desire to get down to it once again
I just played this for my first time only a few months ago! I had a blast. I remember maxing out Force Speed, only to realize it doesn't actually make you faster; it just increases your FOV and slows down enemies and their attacks. Still very useful though! Also, I was so pleased that the game has functioning AI for local multiplayer. I'm not too much of an online person, so I was beaming when I found that out.
It definetly is! Gameplay wise this is certaintly one of the best related to star wars. Too bad the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series never got finished. Edit: forgot to say: the mods based on this game are FREAKING AMAZING!
I agree with everything you say! I replayed this game a couple of years ago (during the pandemic) and was blown away by how well it aged. It plays perfectly! I even made a Steam controller layout for it and played it with my laptop connected to the TV as a console and my Xbox controller. I had a blast back in the 2000s with Jedi Academy and my friends, but reliving its story and taking my time to notice little details I didn't back in the day as a kid was a great experience and made me appreciate this amazing game even more. Best Star Wars Jedi game ever... Here's hoping for a worthy and improved remake of the entire Jedi Knight series. Those were the days! P.S. I played as a sexy Twi'Lek (my favorite race) this last time.
Over the last few years this one has become my favorite Star Wars game. It used to be Tie Fighter but I can't even run it anymore nor do I still have a flight stick to play it properly so it's just going to have to live on in my memories. Jedi Academy still runs pretty well and isn't as frustrating (to me) as Jedi Outcast. I just have to remember to quicksave before every saber duel because for some reason I lose a lot of them.
I don't know, the GOG port for it is polished enough to run well on modern systems, while one can actually play it with mouse+keyboard with some help. (Can recommend the guidance of X-Wings series playthrough maker LPhoenix for that too.)
Such a shame later Star Wars games don't allow or expand on the variety of aliens you can pick for the PC's appearance. Only Swtor comes close. But even then that's still restricted to human looking ones. No Rodians or Kel Dor. :(
In this era Luke taught his student to embrace the dark and light sides of the force and also encouraged them to embrace their emotions and to love and fall in love, the Jedi of the clone wars and before were too arrogant and ignorant which led to the fall of the jedi eventually. A Jedi can use dark side powers without fully committing themselves to the dark side. In laments terms Luke pretty much taught everyone to be a little bit of gray jedis
@@isaiahblackmon2418 Yep, Kyle basically tells you the same in this game. What matters is where you draw your power from/how you decide to use it. If you kill 5000 dudes in cold blood then it doesn't really matter whether it was a force push or lightning
I played sooo much of this game in the late 2000s. I borrowed it from a friend and had a blast going through the single player. Didn't have internet growing up, so I never got to try out the multiplayer, but I did download a bunch of mods from the old JediKnight3 file front site. Spent a lot of time just fighting bots, or exploring cool maps. My favorite were the mods that tried to make the game more like The Force Unleashed, since It would be a few months before I got my own copy of it.
this game offers more variety of game play (and of better quality) than Fallen Order/Jedi Survivor games it aged surprisingly well, and is still THE BEST star wars game (its only rival is KotoR)
this and X-Wing Alliance were the peak Star Wars games for me at the time. I've played a lot of Jedi Academy back then, I think it was the first game where I've enjoyed both single player missions and multiplayer. Having the lighsaber from mission 1, multiple styles, lot of customization, so many multiplayer skins, and the mods! OMG such good times. To think that 20 years ago was normal to have good SP, MP, customizations and mods (just think about this one, Halo CE, Quake 3, Need for Speed) and today AAA games can barely pull-off just one of this aspects after 6 months of post-releas patches....
Helps that JA and X-Wing Alliance were filled with lore fanservice galore! Good if not great picks on the non-SW titles, but which Need for Speed titles did you play back then?
A fantastic game that I will hold close to my heart for the rest of my life. Movie Battles II is also amazing, making the already brilliant lightsaber combat near perfect.
I honestly think Jedi Academy hasn't really been surpassed at least not by many games with regards to its combat. Sure it can be kind of clunky at times and not quite as refined as some more modern soulslikes but nevertheless the variety of force powers and overall lightsaber gameplay still feels pretty dope
Just found your channel first video was Republic commando... one of the top star wars games for me... but outcast is very close to it as well... love your videos
ahh movie battles 2.. some of the fondest video game memories from my childhood. getting oneshot at the beginning of the round on the dual of the fates map
Loved the multiplayer. I still remember one of the LAN parties with friends that had this game front and center. We played it for 2 days. Good memories.
Used to play both, JK2 and JKA every day as a kid. Had a clan with my brother and friends. Regular trainings, clan matches/duels. Worked on custom maps using "Radiant" software. Remember working on jedi temple map (from the prequels). Movie battles as a mod to JK2 (V1.4) was also great. Great times and great community. Glad this game is still alive!
This game was amazing. The dueling as well in multi-player was a great community of people sharing skills and sparring with each other to get better. 😊
I remember for dual sabers and staff saber to do a really strong attack was to hold crouch and push forward and attack at the same time. You'd be spinning the blades or staff making it impossible to block.
It was my first encounter to SW games and it blew me away when played at the first time. I still love it to death, despite the campaign shortcomings. It oozes the best SW vibe ever and it is very much enough for me.
More then 15 years ago and I still remember absolute peak fun i had with friends in LAN in Jedi Outcast 2. From that mind trick (invisibility) to Vaders famous force choke. Battlefront and all that garbage that came after never even touched that LAN plays I had,
Back in those days the modding communities also have been extraordinary, and sometimes nuts. From small mods like real swords that even get stuck on walls or the floor, to full gameplay mods, additional powers and weapons, full conversion mods from every other franchise, the movies... and well up to the famous Movie Battles Mod for multiplayer, which was loved.
I have nothing but fond memories for this game, beyond having the best lightsaber combat this was my first online experience via XBL. Made several friendships that lasted many years because of this one.
1996-2006 was the golden age of star wars games. So many classics across so many genres.
1993-2007 for me, starting with X-Wing (although that game is easily eclipsed by 1995's TIE Fighter) and ending with Empire at War.
'Course, if we count The Force Unleashed on the PS2/Wii/PSP, then then the golden age ended at 2008.
@@michaelandreipalon359 TFU physics and npc AI trump modern games of today. Like for real, I'm not even overstating, play the game right now, you'll see. So yeah. We're counting it.
@@rooxon7344 Already did years back, though I lost access nowadays, since I'm more into PC games for practicality and stuff.
Before the dark times, before Kathleen Kennedy.
Shadows of the Empire was amazing. And what's makes it special is that you aren't a Jedi. You're a Han Solo type character. It's his story and while some events and characters from the OT overlap with the game, it's really a totally different storyline. And they pulled it off brilliantly.
The most underrated part of the this game is the fact that people online will literally take you under their wing like a Jedi master and train you how to reach the boundaries of the mechanics in order to be a better player which, in my opinion completely immerses me as being in a Jedi game
I had so many cool experiences playing this game, entering a server where everyone was chatting roleplaying and dueling was a very cool experience!! It was a unique game experience!!
@@HikaraItheos I remember RPing in the Jedi Temple (modded map) as a sith lord, also being trained as part of a clan using the strong saber stance, we all had the mod with the hook as well I think it was called JKA+ where you could challenge people to duels and would become invulnerable to the rest of the players. Truly this was such a fun experience especially RPing with a bunch of fellow other players. One guy taught me different tricks, if you rebound your keys in a specific way to spin fast you could make your lightsaber orbit you. Good times!
Been it all. Even roleplayed good old times miss it alot.
@@prezthebutton8876 JA+ everyone playing this mod :)
You can do some crazy sweet moves in this game, I did a backwards twist flip while swatting my saber and beheaded my opponent as he force jumped, still one of the coolest things I ever saw.
Still the best lightsaber experience in existence. It's shocking how nobody tried to replicate it in 20 years.
Pretty awesome gane
Well, there's a very beautiful mod for Jedi Academy called Movie Duels out there, frequently being kept up to date and is very rich in versatile combat abilities and lightsaber battle system, Jedi Academy since then is technically upgraded to the next level of lightsaber and force using fights.
Other melee games have (Mount & Blade, Chivalry, Vector), but not other Star Wars games.
Fallen Order?
@@JeanBaptisteEmanuelZorg Not even close.
Ultimately, the question we have to ask ourselves is, "why should someone as weak as Tavion have the scepter? If anything, it should belong to me!" It's overwhelming ham, but a rare instance of the main character actually realizing how strong they are in universe.
Weak Being who Seek Power and are Unnoticed have their Whole lives for getting Powerful Artifacts.
Honestly, I kind of prefer the Dark Side ending of Jedi Academy. It feels more satisfying to kill Roche, the whole final stage feels more epic, and the duel with Kyle feels more climactic. Plus the ending leaves it open as to what the future could hold for the characters. Sure it's a bit hammy and Jaden goes all in on being pure evil at that point, but it feels like the bigger finale to me.
Jedi Academy's lightsaber and force combat is the best. The control you have over your powers feels incredible, something I have not been able to experience with the newer titles.
What I like about Academy is that lightsaber can dismember enemies, *unlike* later games. Imagine *if* KOTOR had dismemberment *outside* of Kreia’s scripted hand loss.
Yeah it seems like the best lightsaber combat I’ve seen in any Star Wars game. The force power seems pretty good too but I do really like the force power system in KOTOR 2 also
@@whitewolf3051 If I remember correctly, Kreia's hand didn't even fall off, it just disappeared, lol
@@whitewolf3051 Recently got back into Star Wars and was surprised that the new game Jedi Survivor brought back dismemberment. I was really happy
@@KingEdwardMMVIII First, I haven't played any of the EA Star Wars games, not even Battlefront series.
I have both the original PC disk for Jedi Academy, and the physical Switch bundle cartridge.
All that said, I was rather surprised that the lightsaber was a blunt weapon for so long, and was surprised that - via sites like IGN - it was kind of selective when it came to dismemberment in Fallen Order.
Even after 20 years, there are features I’ve missed so much from this game when playing Jedi Survivor.
I finished it liked 6 times when I was a kid
missing features like likable characters?
@@Dicktopus Nope, like having more force skills or feeling the lightsaber is more than a baton
You finished Jedi Survivor 6 times when you were a kid? 🤔
🤷♂️
@@Robert-tl2vg Yes. Don’t tell anyone, please.
@@Dicktopus come on, cal is alright.
Imagine the KOTOR games with Jedi Academy gameplay mechanics...
Hilariously, Kyle getting blasted with an energy beam from the staff, then being crushed by a massive pile of rocks is only his second most ridiculous survival of a lethal incident in this game.
I think it’s in Vader’s fortress when he’s standing right next to you at the top of a tall shaft and the ground he’s standing on explodes, causing him to fall for what feels like several minutes, screaming the whole time, then landing with an audible thud at the bottom. Immediately after suffering this undeniably fatal fall, he nonchalantly radios in and tells you that you’ve got to split up or something. Quite uncanny, very hilarious.
I remember this one haha. if i remember correctly the first time i played the campaign and he fell all the way down with the debris and i thought he is dead. then he just calls in and asked "jaden, are you ok?" i was like "Me? I should have been asking you that!!!"
This has aged so well. I just recently played through JKA once again, and I realized how crazy good its mission design is. There are no repeats, almost all of the missions have a unique gimmick that makes sense and doesn't overstay its welcome, and many of them allow for pretty creative approaches. The one thing that's a shame is stealth is completely impossible, even with the mind trick power. I tried my best to be as much of a Jedi as possible when I last played it, avoiding killing and drawing attention, and realized the enemies all have a detection range rather than a cone of vision. Still, force pulling weapons out of the hands of stormtroopers to make them flee was kind of a fun challenge in and of itself.
Honestly, all of the Dark Forces-Jedi Knight games have aged surprisingly well, Jedi Knight 1 looks horrible but is just a really good game, Dark Forces 1 is actually probably the best "Doom clone" of all time, possibly even a better game than Doom itself, and JKO and JKA are just stupidly fun.
Funnily enough, as much as I love JKO, I feel it's the worst aged one out of them all... The pacing and much of the level design is weird, a lot of the time you are forced into annoying pixel hunting, and not being able to freely choose your Force powers like in all of the others makes it less fun to replay.
The big problem with the march towards photo realism is that we lose A LOT of freedom for mechanic design when you have to consider realism, and much of the console/PC's "budget" being "spent" on graphics, instead of complexity.
what I really liked is when you disarm a stormtrooper and put him somewhere where he can't flee, he yields and puts his hands in the air
I love Jedi Outcast's level design, ESPECIALLY in the first few levels before you get a lightsaber. I much prefer it over boring linear levels that have been standard since the time when every game tried to copy Call of Duty 4. Imho, playing these levels is really immersive, because they actual feel like real facilities, where each room has a purpose. You don't just go from A to B without thinking, you have to actually look at the environment and therefore immerse yourself in it to find out where to go. It's hard to explain what I mean, but it's like a miniature version of finding your way in Morrowind vs. following a quest marker in Skyrim.
Imho, Jedi Academy's levels were already too linear. To me, Academy always felt like an action focused expansion pack to Outcast, where the levels themselves aren't that important as long as there's action. I still love it! Especially the connections to Tales of the Jedi and other EU stuff.
When it comes to the other games, I agree. I, too, think Dark Forces 1 is a better Doom than Doom.
Edit: Imho, the only level in Jedi Outcast that outright sucks is the first Yavin 4 level with the AT-STs and swamp troopers. I still get lost in this level, lol.
@@RDR911 I agree. I also think photorealistic graphics aren't that important if you're not playing a game like Red Dead Redemption 2 or something similar. I actually like early 3D graphics, they have their charm. They also allow for more creative level design, because since the graphics don't look realistic anyway, the stuff they portray doesn't always have to make sense. Also, simpler graphics allow less handholding, beceause if graphics are photorealistic, it's often hard to see what's actually important and what not, so in modern games, important stuff is often highlighted, which feels cheap. In old games, you often had to find stuff yourself, which was easier with simpler graphics. I hope you know what I mean.
This game is available to play at new and modded levels dude u gotta see what they've done to the game now
Don't tell my kids but this video is a far better father's day gift.
😂😂
Oof
You are a special father 😂
💀
Im dead man 😂😂
I actually recently replayed both Outcast & Academy on PS4 & PC. I couldn’t believe how much better Academy aged. Both are fantastic, but Academy truly is a pure Jedi action adventure. Plus, its concept of being a Jedi in training is fantastic & I hope one day we get a new canon game that tries it, either in Luke’s Jedi or High Republic or early prequels.
Amazing how fallen order has nothing on this game so many years after
@@denarte6986 For real dude, Fallen order is like you are just watching some long movie that shows all the boring in between scenes like walking to the different scenes where things take place. It looks very realistic visually with thee graphics but that doesn't make it a great game. I prefer when the games had better action and worse graphics because it makes it more fun if you are playing a video game that has cartoonish graphics, it doesn't matter to me it's a game it's not supposed to look like real life, it's just supposed to be fun.
Jedi academy is more immersive even though the graphics are a lot more outdated and even it's simple basic story is better than jedi fallen orders story (and I liked fallen order) The lightsaber combat for jedi academy makes me feel like I am actually a powerful jedi slicing through stormtroopers and sith/dark jedi. I can control which way the blade swings and I can clash blades with my opponent.
The lightsabers in fallen order and survivor don't slice through enemies instantly like a lightsaber should so it really makes it feel like ur lightsaber isn't that powerful We need a new jedi academy game with average graphics so they don't waste so many years developing the graphics and they just make a really fun game with an immersive story
@@denarte6986🧢
@@blake7065bro survivor is a soulslike, making it cut through enemies like butter would make the game far too easy.
@@icravedeath.1200 they could have the enemies block the sabers then and make it actually difficult to slash them but once it does, it cuts them in pieces
The Movie Battles II mod really improves the lightsaber combat even further. I dare say perfected it
They're different but I enjoyed both. The original one gives you much more freedom and just feels great. MB's more tactical imo. Wish BF2 would've copied that same lightsaber combat system.
MB2 definitely does it the best, better than Mordhau mods, any Battlefront, and Vertex. I wouldn't say perfected but it is damn close. Apparently, long ago, before I played MB2, they had a different saber combat system and some say it was better, but idk tbh
MB2 is still pretty active, prime time has players in most regions, ddos'ing is an annoyance that happens if you try to host your own server though.
Oh I have tried additional sabre and style mods but somehow always skipped this. Nowadays seem like a good time to try it out
Jedi Academy + OpenJK for vanilla experience
Jedi Academy + Movie Battles II for enhanced online experience
IMO Academy and Outcast still have the best lightsaber combat which has yet to be topped. On top of that, the Jedi Knight series will always be my Sequel Trilogy.
They were an amazing system that honestly had more depth than people gave it credit for. But I think the 2005 Revenge of the Sith game had some really good lightsaber combat too. At least when it came to smooth combos. JKA and Outcast win when it comes to realistic lightsabers though, for sure!
@@-CrimsoN- Yep, like there was so much advanced stuff you could do through button input combinations; Academy added even more to this system when it introduced the quick, balanced, and power stances/techniques.
Former, we can mostly agree on.
Latter, that depends, since novels like the Thrawn trilogy exist.
This. The thrawn books or the jedi knight games.
I think fallen order is better lightsaber mechanics but all the other things this game is better. I can still remember some of the missions so vividly like that Train or Hutts base and so much more. Even side levels were so well done
Of course it is! Absolute classic.
I dunno. It always felt… kinda low budget. A lot of the Quake III Star Wars games felt that way.
@@TheArtkaw So?
You forget that these games were made by what would be considered indie companies by todays standards. Lucasarts gave anyone with an idea a chance thats why there was so many star wars games, both good and bad. It was a wild west age really
First time I played this, I remember a spot on the Chandrilla map I believe, where you are running down a path that begins to crumble beneath you into a chasm, and so I forced jump towards the platform below, where there was a bad guy waiting for me...but while in the air, I ignited my two lightsabers, hit the ground into a roll, and stabbed the baddie with the slow-mo death cam...It felt like I played that right out of a movie! Always go back to this game every few years.
Awesome! I love it when the mechanics come together to give people moments like that.
I liked when i could run on the wall and deflecting blasts, so many move alike scenes!
It truly is my favourite multiplayer game of all time, I played it for so many years and it allowed me to meet my wife who I've known since 2005 from meeting on a server. I'll always have a big place in my heart for Jedi Academy. Awesome review! ❤
Whoa that’s awesome the game helped you meet your wife, guess it was special in more ways than 1!
@@aamirrazak3467 I made a video on my channel about it 🙂 it's a huge part of my life
It was such a mad multiplayer experience. I only really watched my friends play it, but I remember them going into servers where players where training other players, and then explaining how honourably everyone played and dueling etc. it really captured my imagination, I’ve always wondered if someone could make a CZcams video on the multiplayer that would do it justice. Alas, you probably had to just be there.
@@greg6191100%. I was obsessing with the multiplayer and have always wanted a video essay about it and how deep the combat was but no videos do it justice.
and so many good custom maps from the community of filefront, i still remember being so excited every time a new "Jedi Home"? (i think it was called) map would come out with all the secret rooms and such, so much fun.
Oh God, I remember we only had a demo disc of this game for the longest time. And we played the shit out of the two available missions. I didn't even know English back then, but the line "The tractor beam is down Chewbacca, I'm on my way" from the Tatooine mission was just burnt into my mind.
Thank you for bringing back these memories :)
There are so many English words I learned from Star Wars that they still make me think of Star Wars, lol. Even words that don't have anything to do with Star Wars specifically, like symbiosis for example.
Was your demo disc also for the original Xbox?
@@wilhufftarkin8543
Same, I used to play Red Alert 1 on PS1 and, while the text was translated, the voices were not, so stuff like "acknowledged" and "unable to comply, building in progress" live rent free in my mind
I remember the first time I experienced the game was from a demo too i was 8 years old it was at target on the gamecube I remember it so vividly because my entire childhood i pretty much hated every game with sabers in it because sabers never really felt right it was just goofy to me in other games then i finally picked up this demo and the game just burned into my memory because i didnt even get to play it again till i was like 16 or 17
For those interested, Jedi Outcast 2 and Jedi Academy both have VR mods available on Pico 4 and Quest 2 headsets, courtesy of Team Beef; all you need is the original game on PC.
An excellent way of replaying an old classic. Force pushing guys off cliffs never gets old.
Usable with Rift S?
I love how each tier of your main powers feels like such a huge increase. You start by needing to point directly at the one one you want to block fire from, and making one guy need to readjust his footing, to being able to walk into a room deflecting everything and wrenching the weapons out of a squad of enemies.
Can't believe that this and KOTOR have existed for 2 decades...
Also sort of surprised that Jaden Korr didn't appear in many other post RotJ content, as far as I know, I think he only has a major role in a novel duology.
Should've also mentioned those are the ONLY two Star Wars games that has a mechanic where you can lose your saber from grip or throwing it on purpose, but being able to recall it whenever you want. Which....I find surprising, but still without pretty much any competition is the BEST Lightsaber gameplay.
Movie battles 2 is hands down the best starwars game I have ever played. All these years later, not a single triple AAA game can come close to how amazing the game is. Honestly, there is always something new that happens every round. Never the same, best saber combat hands down. Every class has its counter and has a huge skill ceiling. I highly recommend! There are videos teaching how to duel that you can watch or special movies to use. The role playing in this game is the best I have ever seen as well. One cool thing is that in starwars lore, every jedi and sith has their own fighting style. Well in this game you can make your own. with what stance you use and style, its insane. This game will truly never die, loads of people come to play every year and we are a community that does not stop playing. I can go on and on about MB2. But please if you call yourself a "star wars fan" then you owe it to yourself to give mb2 a try. I haven't stopped playing since I first started in 2013. With characters from every book, movie, game etc. Constant updates and new maps and modes. Its a blast! Great video! and thanks for shining some light on this
Came here for this comment, praying the small community we have will stay for many more years.
I can't git gud lmao
last time i tried to play it the servers were filled with actual neo nazis is that still a problem lmfao
@@BidoofSquad you get idiots here and there but you can simply /ignore
Sometimes the community is similar to 4 chan but it's pretty self-moderated these days, so you don't really see an acceptance for that kind of behavior much. The community is pretty tolerant, even with some of the most controversial things. People mostly only care about playing the game, and that's all.
This game was made shortly before I was born and I didn’t try it until last year, so I went in very unbiased and had a blast the entire way through. I love everything about this game and it definitely still holds up, although a remaster would be cool.
I would do a remake (or better yet: a sequel) in UE5 in a heartbeat if asked.
One other thing I thought was really innovative about Jedi Academy that I’ve not seen much in other Jedi games is the acrobatics. The closest is probably Jedi Survivor, but you don’t really have attacks off of walls or flipping over opponents. The saber combat was just so varied and interesting in Jedi Academy. My one hope with the newer Jedi games is that someday they’ll have multiplayer to rival Jedi Academy. That was definitely the best part of that game. So glad it’s still alive.
I do prefer saber combat and movement in Academy, not in Survivor. It's more fluid, imho.
agreed, no other star wars games, at least that i can think of, give you that much freedom with combat, i mean the two recent ones are souls clones anyways so they wouldn't include that, i'd like to see them come back to this series honestly with a modern reboot or even remake
One of my favourites games ever, I remember spending years just with a single player mod called Knights if the force, dueling the best characters over and over again
That mod takes me back. An old family friend introduced that to me back in the day. Got me back into Jedi Academy I'd say.
They have a new mod called galactic legacy its basically a major upgraded version of knight of the force its worth it
i'm currently playing a Jedi Academy mod that allows you to use any character from any era (legends and canon), you can chose any saber with whatever color you want (white, black, light blue, etc), adds 4 more force powers and even let you play the Jedi Outcast campaing with the new mechanics, and they even added a Game Plus option where they change some enemies and replace them for stronger ones that belongs to the canon, like Death Troopers.
I really love what the community did with this game!
Whats the mod called?
oh wow someone went all out sounds like, i bet its super fun, sadly i only own a weak laptop so i can't play steam or any of that stuff but i hope someday i can play games like KOTOR 2 with the mods and that it sounds like as well
@@liamlthomasWe may never know.
I can finally play as Rey Palpatine! Yes!
@@liamlthomasMovie Duels
If movie battles isn't your kind of thing, the vanilla game is still alive too! There's a clan called JoF who have 200+ members and their server is full for a couple of hours every day, with decent activity the rest of the time too. The clan is constantly working on mods, maps, gamemodes, and events to keep the game alive and thriving. Within the clan there are also co-op missions on new custom maps that are fully functional, so not only can you get the old single player vibes, but you can do it with friends too. Definitely check them out!
hmm I wonder what clan you are talking about
If you're getting back into JKA and love multi-player I recommend the JoF(Jedi of Freedom) server. Biggest active community with awesome and helpful members and lots of events and challenges. Been a member for some months now and I had so much fun it's amazing. Come have fun with us.
Though aged, its Free Lightsaber Combat approach feels more true to how we feel an all-powerful Jedi should fight. Fallen Order's and Survivor's combat feels far more limited and grounded, but still powerful. Given a choice between the two, I like Academy's sandbox style combat more.
Definitely a classic. Played it when i was about 14 Years old, loved the Game and actually met my (to this day) best friend in the Multiplayer part.
aaw😊
What makes the mission where you get captured truly special is that you have to make your way through the imperial base WITHOUT your lightsaber. You're disarmed upon being captured and your lightsaber is on the head officer so you have to fight your way through the whole facility using force powers and the various ranged weapons (and kungfu if you use cheats xD)
When this mission happens I usually already have 3rd rank in both Force Healing and Force Lightning and also some points in Force Protection. It makes whole mission piece of cake (except for the boss).
Flandrew, I just wanted to tell you thank you for all of the great video game content. I look forward to watching them every Sunday as I prepare dinner for my family. It is truly a highlight of my week. Thank you and keep it up!!! ❤
The mods for this game are amazing especially Star Wars Movie Duels 😁
I liked playing as a rodian and freak out those guys who were mocking their rodian allies on Tatooine.
Continuity with the rest of the pre Disney Expanded Universe is great here. The whole castle at Vjun, even the fallen statue of Vader is in book sand comics. They even mention the names of his Jedi students from books are now Jedi instructors. And of course the spirit 'villain' is from Tales of the Jedi comics. For me it made it very immersive.
Yes, I loved all the connections, too. Also, the Valley of the Sith Lords on Korriban and Marka Ragnos' tomb (and also Ragnos himself) look EXACTLY like in the Tales of the Jedi comics. It was so cool to walk around in a place I saw in a comic before! I don't like how KotOR's Korriban looks totally different.
Edit: I mean Outcast and Academy came out during the prequels but they felt so much like 90s era EU. I really loved that. 90s era Star Wars will always have a special place in my heart.
Yeah it’s really cool how it connects so seamlessly w the old eu
The old EU was so good at making connections to other stories without feeling out of place. A lot of it was very straight forward.
The lore fanservice truly reminds me of X-Wing Alliance and Empire at War, I would add.
I played it a bit as a kid but didn't finish the campaign till last year, and I had a great time. Still the best lightsaber combat to this day.
"the best lightsaber combat to this day." - this is sadly true. Since 2003 I've been waiting for a game with that fluid lightsaber and force combat.
Back in the days a friend of mine got so frustrated about getting eaten by those space worms, he never touched that mission again in any playthrough. He is (and already has been at this point) one of the smartest people I ever knew so when he told me about that I looked at him in total disbelief and said: "Dude, just use the force speed and you outrun those worms, they won't get you." He couldn't believe he missed that, I couldn't believe he missed that and seeing you getting eaten by that space worm I realized, maybe there are still people out there who are missing this and have a frustrating struggle with this mission. So yeah guys... use force speed to avoid getting eaten by the space worms.
Nice video by the way. Was the first one I saw from you and it fed my nostalgia. Have a nice day
with good movement you dont even need speed :)
@@michalwamp You can also use the basic blaster to lure them away for more time.
@@VelaiciaCreator that I didn't know, I always was just good at speed jumping
You can also kill them all if you have enough thermal detonators
I always used thermal detonators to play fetch with them.
Beyond the fact that they patched out a lot of the dismemberment options; yes, I would say it still is pretty freaking good. The mission variety is excellent, the game is surprisingly well balanced on "normal" difficulty, the story is fun and filled with great characters, and the choice of powers and equipment before each mission provide a really cool sense of building your character. I also love how many of us have stories about playing this game back when it came out.
I personally remember playing online and being completely immersed while wearing headphones, only for my grandfather to sneak upon me and pretend to do a judo chop on my back emulating -what he thought to be-, a lightsaber; I just remember crying and going for a hug with my grandma.
There's a stupid workaround to get the dismemberment code to work but it's easier to go get Jedi Academy Enhanced. I think that unlocks that code (I have a couple other mods) but also enabled some of the multiplayer stuff so that you can adjust force regen time. Does that make it easier to spam lightning at people? Yes. Is that more fun? Yes. Is it balanced? No, but who cares?
Remember to always put realistic combat and lightsaber dismemberment on in the ini.
I also remember that if you kept the single saber when you became a Jedi Knight you were able to access the light and heavy stances. I think early Jayden only had medium stance.
My memories of this game were also the multiplayer and the enormous amount of mods for characters, maps, and game modes! There was even a tool to build your own NPCs. Many hours setting up massive NPC battles in the canyon/ swoop map. I’m glad they out a similar NPC battle arena in Jedi Fallen Order and Jedi Survivor.
correct. i always went staff though cause that kick is super OP against the more annoying enemies.
Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast is the far superior story and game to me. It’s my 3rd favorite SW game just behind KOTOR II and KOTOR. With that being said, Jedi Academy was amazing. I spent hundreds of hours playing both Outcast and Academy on PC. I think one thing that’s not talked about as much is the modding community. I remember downloading maps of Utapau, Mustafar, Coruscant, Naboo etc along with all of the Prequel and OT skins. They were so detailed and had sound bites from the films. There was this program you could download where you could assign each of the NPC’s their own lightsaber that you downloaded too. So in essence, all of the characters from the films had their correct hilts and skins. I remember in open maps I would line up all the Jedi and Sith and then unfreeze them and have all out warfare. Great memories. The parents definitely didn’t love me tying up the phone line downloading mods on dial up haha.
I completely agree with you that Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast was a way better game and story overall. The fact that you got the lightsaber far into the game made it feel waaaay more rewarding and special.
However, Jedi Academy to me was nothing but disappointing back in the day. The only good thing that was going for it was dual and double bladed lightsabers.
Cameos were forced, the story and new characters were cringe, regular weapons served no purpose, and overall I feel like the game was shorter and meaningless in terms of stakes.
I've replayed it a couple of years ago and yeah, I still didn't enjoy it, sadly.
Good points man! Agree with you on all fronts. Man, I wish George never sold to Disney and LucasArts was never shutdown. It seems the number 3 is bad luck. If only we got Jedi Knight III, KOTOR III, The Force Unleashed III, and Battlefront III (OG Battlefront)…..
@@adam72788Hopefully we'll get the third game of the modern Jedi series
I absolutely love Jedi Academy. Have been playing through it countless times, played the multiplayer, played a lot of mods and custom maps for it (for some reason a Christmas-themed map and a map of a JKJA multiplayer clan hideout are the ones I remember the most). I "recently" started again to play through JKJA, but this time with the Star Wars: Galactic Legacy mod, which makes it more difficult, but also gives new enemy types and force powers (well I'm at the Vjun part, so not that recent).
Outcast and Academy were my brother and I’s most played games as a kid. We played through Academy so many times I’ve still got all the voice lines basically memorized 🥰
Since 2003 I've been waiting for a game like that. This fluid lightsaber and force combat hasn't been seen in any game since then.
I just love the open level design, Every level feels very open and big for it's time. Wish I played multiplayer as a kid.
This games lightsaber combat is great but so many don’t realize how great. It’s easy to use but hard to master. One problem is side strafes isn’t keybound on default but is key to combos Id love to see a review from someone where figured out how you can use red stance and pause swings with flips and wall runs while linking swings into combos and reduce your hit ox by crouching…plus increase damage by spinning pov while hitting a target… the lightsaber opens up into this great system where you look like badass.
I still play this game now. I'd reccommend the Enhanced edition mod. It adds so much more to the experience
Like what?
@@beneficent2557 wide screen support, more weapons, updated graphics, more force powers, built in cheat engine, massive lightsaber customisation
@@thrillathakilla sounds rad bro. may the force be with you.
@@beneficent2557 And may the force be with you :) Always
I arrived to the multiplayer scene so late because I didn't have internet for my Xbox and didn't get into PC gaming until mid-2008 but I played the single player endlessly, one of my favorite games of all time next to Kotor
One of my all time favorites. Love this so much!
Great video! I couldn't wait any longer for it.
JKA still holds up today and it's so great to hear that Multiplayer is still a thing. Time to get shredded by Ben Swolo
Wish they would make a game like this again
Man, I wish I could go back in time... I have friends I have met on this game, that are still my friends to this day. The amount of hours I poured into this game in both online and single player modes is something I wont be able to even begin to guess. No game, for me, has captured the way this game (and all the Star Wars games from the late 90's to early 2000's for that matter) make me feel. Cherished memories for sure, thanks for this
I am glad, somebody finnaly say something good about academy in comparrision to Outcast.
Many people have higher opinions about outcast, for its more storyfocussed campain and the thing, that you have to gain your lightsaber.
I in the other hand, got stuck in the maze-like levels and prever academy for its lighter cost.
I played both recently. IMO despite changes in gameplay look minor at first, lighterber combat in JA is radiaclly improved. Special moves give player a better control and they make duels look epic.
Dare I say, Yes? The lightsaber combat is actually amazing and there's still lightsaber combos that I learn with each new playthrough. I only hope that we get to see either a remake or an addition to the jedi outcast/ knight series with these upcoming games
Play it again 2 weeks ago as a 20 years celebration and man, it was still good.
The lightsaber duels are the best ever, I mean, the best.
The double lightsaber is still my favourite and force chocking people off the clifs is a hoot.
I remember modding Jedi academy like crazy. It really had a nice modding community to make it better looking.
In the duel lobbies it was so much fun having an audience while watching each other's battles
Outcast suffered tremendously from the difficulty of old 3D platformers. They really improved everything in Academy.
I really struggled with outcast on ps4, don’t know why the game is so damn hard, or I’m just bad lol
@@sylamy7457 ur bad xd
@@sylamy7457 The game was never designed around console controllers, so there's no aim assist while using the guns and no target lock-on when using the saber. Even as an experienced player I'd struggle under those circumstances too.
This game is one of the best SW games out there, no other game came close to the frenzy combat of this, also mods like Movie Battles 2 are still pretty active
Yes the lightsaber combat seems great in this
The lightsabre combat and physics seems to be lightyears from nowadays gaming. I regret that SWJK franchise came to an end.
Brings back a ton of memories. Great video! I remember still having dial up internet when I first hopped into multiplayer and joined a clan. I eventually got DSL and became the clan {SoTFK}'s jedi master teaching people on the custom Academy level lightsaber sparring. We had lot's of clan battles vs other clans and I really enjoyed the 1v1 dueling aspect as everyone watched on. Winning or losing the duel didn't matter, everyone was very kind and typed Goodfight and good sports all around. Looking back it's very corny all the roleplaying that went on, but I wouldn't change a thing! hahaha. You'd be surprised at how many cool people came and went and all the drama in between. Not to mention back then you could all flex your music library in game with a custom program called JAM's music player for everyone to see what current new black eyed peas hit you were jamming out to :)
I absolutely loved this game. And I always chose to play as a Kel Dor with an orange lightsaber. Fantastic game.
Thank you for covering our beloved game! The community is more alive then ever!! JoF and other clans are keeping the game strong on its feet!
wtf is jof? Journal of Finance? Joy of Food? Journey of Faith? Junior Officer Forum? Joy of Fitness? Jokes on Friday? Journal of Fashion? Justice of the Future?
@creosjediacademyguides7103 all of those sound great!
This is by far the best star wars game ever made, the abilty to mod it was always a big plus for me.
I have put so many hours in this game, there has never been anything like it eversince
Fun fact: According to the old canon timeline, Jaden was just around ~13-14 years old during the events of Jedi Academy.
They put a lot of responsibility on those kids those days.
Wait what?! Jaden looks 17 - 20 and sounds 18 - 25. A 13 - 14 *would* be and scrawnier.
@@whitewolf3051 I'm pretty sure Raven Software indeed meant Jaden to be like ~18-20, it is latter Expanded Universe stuff that implies he (canon Jaden was a dude) must have been super young during the events of Jedi Academy and it might be just an oversight.
Still amusing.
@@current9300 That's rather awkward, but since some of EU is non canon, I think the early teen age can be discounted. That and the gender also, prefer female Jaden better.
Either way, gotta hate the fact that they made Jaden Korr stay a Light Sided male. They really should have kept their identity and morals ambiguous, alongside Revan and the KotOR II Jedi Exile.
JK/JA series had the best lightsaber combat mechanics ever. Allowing you to choreograph your own moves, and mash different lightsaber forms.
Not forgetting JA has 2 hidden sith forms (incl. a reverse grip style - basically a single bladed variant of the saberstaff) when you use cheat mode 😁
IT HAS WHAT?
Thanks for this video. I can’t help but cringe looking back at our work 20 years later (the ugly models, low-res textures, animation jank), but it’s a product of its time. I’m glad people have fond memories of it, Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy will always hold a special place in my heart as a game developer, and I’m so happy the community has kept these games alive, improved on them and keep playing them. Thanks again for the trip down memory lane!
Thank you for your work on these great games, Michael!
It's sad no one has picked up the gauntlet and challenged this game for supremacy in Jedi simulator. All other games have lightsaber baseball bats...
If you were a developer on this thank you. I still play the jedi Knight games to this day my favourite star wars games.
From what I recall when I first played it ten or twelve years ago,
the gameplay was excellent and lightsaber combat turned out exciting.
I just remember the number of force powers being kind of tricky
to use during the fights as I needed to put my fingers away from the
move or attack controls to press their designated numeric keys
Other than that, it was awesome, and recently I've been having
a burning desire to get down to it once again
I just played this for my first time only a few months ago! I had a blast.
I remember maxing out Force Speed, only to realize it doesn't actually make you faster; it just increases your FOV and slows down enemies and their attacks. Still very useful though!
Also, I was so pleased that the game has functioning AI for local multiplayer. I'm not too much of an online person, so I was beaming when I found that out.
It definetly is! Gameplay wise this is certaintly one of the best related to star wars. Too bad the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series never got finished. Edit: forgot to say: the mods based on this game are FREAKING AMAZING!
Honestly this game aged amazingly in my opinion. It’s still just as fun as I remember as a kid
Thank you so much for the video!
I was hoping you'll get to Jedi Academy at some point!
The hunt for the entrance to Echo Base nearly broke me.
It honestly still has the best lightsaber combat in any Star Wars game ever, to this day.
I agree with everything you say!
I replayed this game a couple of years ago (during the pandemic) and was blown away by how well it aged. It plays perfectly! I even made a Steam controller layout for it and played it with my laptop connected to the TV as a console and my Xbox controller. I had a blast back in the 2000s with Jedi Academy and my friends, but reliving its story and taking my time to notice little details I didn't back in the day as a kid was a great experience and made me appreciate this amazing game even more. Best Star Wars Jedi game ever... Here's hoping for a worthy and improved remake of the entire Jedi Knight series. Those were the days! P.S. I played as a sexy Twi'Lek (my favorite race) this last time.
Over the last few years this one has become my favorite Star Wars game. It used to be Tie Fighter but I can't even run it anymore nor do I still have a flight stick to play it properly so it's just going to have to live on in my memories. Jedi Academy still runs pretty well and isn't as frustrating (to me) as Jedi Outcast. I just have to remember to quicksave before every saber duel because for some reason I lose a lot of them.
I don't know, the GOG port for it is polished enough to run well on modern systems, while one can actually play it with mouse+keyboard with some help. (Can recommend the guidance of X-Wings series playthrough maker LPhoenix for that too.)
Such a shame later Star Wars games don't allow or expand on the variety of aliens you can pick for the PC's appearance.
Only Swtor comes close. But even then that's still restricted to human looking ones. No Rodians or Kel Dor. :(
I absolutely love Jedi Academy. I wish we would get more like this rather than the Jedi Fallen Order Games.
I loved this game as a kid but I always thought it was weird gaining dark side powers with no repercussions.
In this era Luke taught his student to embrace the dark and light sides of the force and also encouraged them to embrace their emotions and to love and fall in love, the Jedi of the clone wars and before were too arrogant and ignorant which led to the fall of the jedi eventually. A Jedi can use dark side powers without fully committing themselves to the dark side. In laments terms Luke pretty much taught everyone to be a little bit of gray jedis
@@isaiahblackmon2418 Yep, Kyle basically tells you the same in this game. What matters is where you draw your power from/how you decide to use it. If you kill 5000 dudes in cold blood then it doesn't really matter whether it was a force push or lightning
I played sooo much of this game in the late 2000s. I borrowed it from a friend and had a blast going through the single player. Didn't have internet growing up, so I never got to try out the multiplayer, but I did download a bunch of mods from the old JediKnight3 file front site. Spent a lot of time just fighting bots, or exploring cool maps. My favorite were the mods that tried to make the game more like The Force Unleashed, since It would be a few months before I got my own copy of it.
this game offers more variety of game play (and of better quality) than Fallen Order/Jedi Survivor games
it aged surprisingly well, and is still THE BEST star wars game (its only rival is KotoR)
it's so sad how the future is dark souls like combat instead of far better combat like jedi academy's
And to think a 3rd one was in development until Disney shut down Lucas Arts. Disney really is the worst thing that could have happened to Star Wars.
I'm still waiting for a new Jedi Knight.
I hadn’t heard that. If it was, it had nothing to do with us at Raven and wouldn’t have had our gameplay.
this and X-Wing Alliance were the peak Star Wars games for me at the time. I've played a lot of Jedi Academy back then, I think it was the first game where I've enjoyed both single player missions and multiplayer. Having the lighsaber from mission 1, multiple styles, lot of customization, so many multiplayer skins, and the mods! OMG such good times. To think that 20 years ago was normal to have good SP, MP, customizations and mods (just think about this one, Halo CE, Quake 3, Need for Speed) and today AAA games can barely pull-off just one of this aspects after 6 months of post-releas patches....
Helps that JA and X-Wing Alliance were filled with lore fanservice galore!
Good if not great picks on the non-SW titles, but which Need for Speed titles did you play back then?
A fantastic game that I will hold close to my heart for the rest of my life. Movie Battles II is also amazing, making the already brilliant lightsaber combat near perfect.
I honestly think Jedi Academy hasn't really been surpassed at least not by many games with regards to its combat. Sure it can be kind of clunky at times and not quite as refined as some more modern soulslikes but nevertheless the variety of force powers and overall lightsaber gameplay still feels pretty dope
I generally really liked the fact that a lightsaber kills after one blow mostly; it really feels like a lightsaber
Great video I'm glad you mentioned Movie Battles 2!
Just found your channel first video was Republic commando... one of the top star wars games for me... but outcast is very close to it as well... love your videos
ahh movie battles 2.. some of the fondest video game memories from my childhood. getting oneshot at the beginning of the round on the dual of the fates map
Replaying this rekindled my admiration for what Star Wars use to be. Simply amazing.
Great video keep up the good work
Loved the multiplayer. I still remember one of the LAN parties with friends that had this game front and center. We played it for 2 days. Good memories.
Such good memories. Thank you
I love this game to the core! I cannot event count how many times I finished it with all different kind of builds and ways.
Used to play both, JK2 and JKA every day as a kid. Had a clan with my brother and friends. Regular trainings, clan matches/duels. Worked on custom maps using "Radiant" software. Remember working on jedi temple map (from the prequels). Movie battles as a mod to JK2 (V1.4) was also great. Great times and great community. Glad this game is still alive!
This game was amazing. The dueling as well in multi-player was a great community of people sharing skills and sparring with each other to get better. 😊
I remember for dual sabers and staff saber to do a really strong attack was to hold crouch and push forward and attack at the same time. You'd be spinning the blades or staff making it impossible to block.
It was my first encounter to SW games and it blew me away when played at the first time. I still love it to death, despite the campaign shortcomings. It oozes the best SW vibe ever and it is very much enough for me.
More then 15 years ago and I still remember absolute peak fun i had with friends in LAN in Jedi Outcast 2. From that mind trick (invisibility) to Vaders famous force choke. Battlefront and all that garbage that came after never even touched that LAN plays I had,
I keep coming back to this game for that great lightsaber feel
The face you chose for Jaden was actually the one I chose when I first played Jedi Academy.I stuck to his canon appearence for later runs though.
Back in those days the modding communities also have been extraordinary, and sometimes nuts.
From small mods like real swords that even get stuck on walls or the floor, to full gameplay mods, additional powers and weapons, full conversion mods from every other franchise, the movies... and well up to the famous Movie Battles Mod for multiplayer, which was loved.
What are the best mods for single player?
I have nothing but fond memories for this game, beyond having the best lightsaber combat this was my first online experience via XBL. Made several friendships that lasted many years because of this one.