Gamespot got a scoop on the latest Star Wars: the Old Republic news with the release of a Companion Q&A article and the above Star Wars: the Old Republic — Developers Dispatch video yesterday. As with every recent video release, this one left me anxious to find out more and get into the game and start customizing my character experience. It will definitely be interesting to see how one’s actions will influence the companion’s affection levels and resulting behaviors and story.

This video gave us a nice look at how Inquisitors will be making the best use of their companions in battle– letting them run on in ahead of us and take a beating, as we stand in the back, looking cool and shooting purpley lightning at our enemies. Mwahahahaha.

Ahem.

Their Q&A was with Game Director James Ohlen, who gave some insight into how players will be able to customize their companions:

Players are able to customize the appearance of their companions in two ways. Because companions are full characters with inventory slots, players can change the equipment their companions are wearing. You can give your tough-as-nails Mandalorian warrior companion some badass Mandalorian armor. Or you can put her in clothes reminiscent of Princess Leia’s famous gold bikini. Players can also change the skin color, hair, and facial features of their companion characters.

Ohlen went on to confirm that companions will have their own class, and will level up as players do, and will gain additional skills as they progress. However, players will not be able to choose advanced professions for their companions.

Today’s SWTOR.com community updates also focused on companions, with a Developer blog on Companions as well. I appreciated the examples they showed of how we will be able to customize the appearance of our companions, as often *my* idea of customization doesn’t mesh with the limited amount of options available in many games for customization. The Mako example had a pretty wide range. Unfortunately, I don’t think there will be a ton of variation available for the Khem Val, but I think I can live with it.

After this big Companion update, I hope this means we’ll soon have a Jawa addition to the Companion pages on SWTOR.com…