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What You Don't Know About Star Wars: Battlefront’s Newest Battlefield
Star Wars fans the world over are already intimately familiar with series hallmarks Endor, Hoth, and Tatooine, but the newest trailer for EA's revamping of the Star Wars: Battlefront franchise and its accompanying panel at the Star Wars Celebration revealed that a lesser known world will also play a big role.
Sullust, home to the droopy-faced Sullustans that have been a part of the Star Wars universe since the original trilogy, is one of the first worlds revealed for the game ahead of its November release. To help players prepare for their upcoming adventures, we’ve gathered some interesting info on the obscure Outer Rim planet.
If It Sounds Familiar, You’ve Probably Been There Before
If the name sounds familiar, it’s because DICE’s Battlefront isn’t the first appearance for the remote planet. Sullust played a large role in the story of Kyle Katarn, hero of the Star Wars Jedi Knight /Dark Forces series of games. The planet was also mentioned in The Old Republic and featured as a part of its Blood of the Empire comic tie-in. Its biggest roles came in Rogue Squadron, Star Wars: Rebellion, and Empire At War; particularly Rogue Squadron, which has players flying a mission to blow up a reactor on the surface. The latest entry in the Battlefront series also isn’t the first in the franchise to feature the isolated world, as PSP spin-off Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron set one of its battles there.
The Planet Is No Stranger To Conflict
Though it was relatively new to the Old Republic, only joining for roughly the last 5,000 years of the Republic’s 25,000 year reign, Sullust was involved in some of the galaxy’s most notorious conflicts. The Great Sith War, which fans of Knights of the Old Republic will recognize as the conflict prior to that series’ formative Mandalorian Wars, marked the first time the planet was involved in a major conflict. However, it was also involved in the New Sith Wars, the Galactic Civil War, the conflicts prior to the Clone Wars, and was even attacked by the Eriadu Authority – an imperial splinter group – shortly after the events of the original trilogy.
It Rarely Sticks To One Side
While Sullust originally joined the Republic willingly, the planet’s actual government was often weak in the face of its influential SoroSuub Corporation. The planet, which eventually fell under direct control of SoroSuub, eventually backed out of the Republic to join the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Following the Clone Wars, a SoroSuub controlled Sullust announced full support of the Empire. However, resistance fighters on the planet managed to wrest control away from SoroSuub shortly before the original trilogy’s pivotal Battle of Yavin, and the planet was eventually used as a staging point for the assault on the second Death Star. Sullust’s constant flip-flopping and the presence of an Empire-sympathetic mega-corporation could explain why Battlefront features a conflict there.
Games Have Had A Hard Time Getting Things Straight About Sullust
While a handful of Expanded Universe stories and resources incorrectly refer to Sullust as the place where Anakin was defeated and injured by Obi-Wan, it’s the planet’s video game appearances that have proven most confusing. In contrast to the new footage of the planet from DICE’s Battlefront, Rogue Squadron depicted Sullust as similar in appearance to the gas-darkened world of Mustafar, where Anakin was actually defeated. Star Wars: Rebellion mistakenly placed planet as part of the Core Worlds, as opposed to the Outer Rim, and its strategy guide misspelled the planet’s name as "Sulust." In the PSP’s Battlefront: Renegade Squadron, the planet is nearly unrecognizable – featuring a gassy green sky and almost no sign of its signature volcanic activity.
Don’t Expect A Lot Of Surface Combat
While the planet’s hazardous atmosphere would be difficult, but possible, for large forces to overcome, it’s the volcanic activity that would cause the biggest problems. Most of Sullust’s surface is molten, and the planet’s 18.5 billion inhabitants live underground. That doesn’t necessarily mean that combat on Sullust would be confined to the fighters seen in the newest Battlefront trailer, though. With such a large population, it’s hard to imagine there aren’t some interesting underground cities and fortresses to fight through. Plus, the planet also sports a pair of moons that could come into play – one of which is Sulon, the home of Kyle Katarn.
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