One of the greatest Star Wars video games ever created – and one of the most significant RPGs ever made – is being remade!
It’s been long requested and long rumored, but today at Playstation Showcase 2021 it was announced that at long last, Knights of the Old Republic is being remade and will relaunch on Playstation 5 and PC.
An announcement trailer was released and, though it didn’t really show much besides some glimpses of Darth Revan (who looks great!), it certainly accomplishes its purpose of announcing and building hype for this heavily anticipated project.
StarWars.com also featured an interview with the developers that gave us some more information. The game has been in the works for a while and is being developed by Aspyr (a studio that is no stranger to Star Wars), with collaboration from Lucasfilm Games and Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE). The article confirmed that yes, this project will be “rebuilding the game from the ground-up.”
With that said, however, it sounds like this game isn’t going to be re-creating a brand new story but staying faithful to the original, just with updated graphics and gameplay and other things like that. I’m very interested in seeing just how different this is, but I am glad that the overall story strokes and characters will apparently be staying. That’s the right call. And the opportunity to bring this game up-to-date with modern graphics and technology, allowing a new generation of fans to experience the game alongside longtime fans, is thrilling!
“We know that KOTOR is one of the most beloved Star Wars stories ever told,” said Orion Kellogg, the executive producer at Lucasfilm Games. “We really appreciate the stature it has with all of the fans out there. As hardware advances and as our game-making prowess advances and as storytelling [techniques] advance, what better time to allow players to re-experience this great story with all of those lessons learned, and bring it back to modern platforms using modern methods? That’s something I’ve wanted to do personally for a very long time, and I think everybody involved with Star Wars games has wanted to do for a very long time.”
Since this game will be following the same story as the original, I don’t want to give away too many spoilerly details here in case readers haven’t played the game yet. But it’s a terrific Star Wars story that has stood the test of time, and the StarWars.com article included a description of what it’s about:
KOTOR, which is part of Legends storytelling, dials the Star Wars clock back to over 4,000 years before the Skywalker saga. The Galactic Republic is at its height and has just been through a major war. Jedi are plentiful, but so are the Sith, and the evil Darth Malak leads a growing legion of dark warriors. Players will go on an epic adventure and, along the way, visit different worlds, amass a party of memorable beings, and uncover their own mysterious past.
Of course, the big question this raises is whether the news will make the story canon again. Revan is already mentioned in canon, but the story isn’t. And if you’re familiar with the story, which allows you to create your own character and customize things a bit, it leads to some tricky decisions regarding canon. There was a “canon” version of KOTOR in Legends, but it remains to be seen what will happen in the current canon. I’ll say this: it doesn’t really matter, since this game will be really fun to play no matter what, and while I don’t think this implies that the story will be canon, I think it’s the best indication yet that at least some of the Old Republic storyline will be brought back to canon at one point. I’m just not sure this is the proof of that.
But it’s something fans have been waiting for many years to see, and it’s finally happening! KOTOR is back!
Star Wars Thoughts 