Star Wars Deserves The Baldur’s Gate 3 Treatment

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home January 12, 2025 2 Views 8 Min Read
Star Wars Deserves The Baldur's Gate 3 Treatment

The RPG genre has been incredibly popular since the 1970s and 80s, rising to prominence with the inception of tabletop games like Dungeons and Dragons, and finding a much wider audience with the introduction of video game RPGs like early Final Fantasy entries and The Elder Scrolls. Naturally, the RPG genre has evolved a great deal in the last four or five decades, often being pushed forward in key ways by groundbreaking games. Games like Baldur’s Gate 3.

The winner of multiple Game of the Year awards, Baldur’s Gate 3 is widely considered to be one of the best video games of all time, and a groundbreaking entry in the RPG genre. With an extensive character-builder, a sprawling choice system, and a bevy of in-game abilities and actions, Baldur’s Gate 3 offers an unprecedented amount of player-freedom. Baldur’s Gate 3 has become the gold standard for Western RPGs, and it’d be amazing to see a Star Wars game live up to those standards.

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Star Wars Deserves an RPG on the Same Level as Baldur’s Gate 3

Baldur’s Gate 3 Elevated the Franchise to New Heights

Baldur’s Gate has always been a groundbreaking RPG series, with the sales numbers to match its critical acclaim. BioWare’s second video game release, 1998’s Baldur’s Gate is believed to have almost single-handedly “saved” the computer RPG genre, with its scale, writing, and high level of player-freedom pushing the genre into a new age. The first Baldur’s Gate is believed to have sold around 2.8 million copies in its lifetime.

Released just two years later, Baldur’s Gate 2: Shadows of Amn also received universal acclaim, essentially improving upon every aspect of BioWare’s revolutionary first entry. Just like the first game, Baldur’s Gate 2 was seen as another groundbreaking entry in the Western RPG genre, elevating the entire genre to new heights. In five years, Baldur’s Gate 2 had sold over 2 million copies.

Flash forward over two decades later, and Baldur’s Gate 3 finally hits store shelves. No longer helmed by BioWare but instead Divinity: Original Sin‘s Larian Studios, Bladur’s Gate 3 lived up to the lofty legacy of its predecessors, earning universal acclaim in its own right. But in terms of sales and widespread renown, Baldur’s Gate 3 surpassed its predecessors quickly. As of November 2024, Baldur’s Gate 3 had sold over 15 million copies, becoming the highest-selling entry in series history by a long shot.

Baldur’s Gate 3 became a phenomenon, in a way that previous entries in the series just didn’t. With so many copies sold, so many awards won, and so many groundbreaking new features implemented, Baldur’s Gate 3 truly elevated the series to new heights, and in the process made Baldur’s Gate a household name.

It’s Been a Long, Long Time Since Star Wars Got a Proper RPG

Though Star Wars is already a household name, it’s been a long time since it was a name associated with a groundbreaking RPG. While Star Wars: The Old Republic is still putting out fairly well-received expansions, it’s been over a decade since the last Star Wars singleplayer RPG was released, with Obisidian’s Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 being the last in 2004.

It’s about time Star Wars was given a new RPG experience, one that elevates the series to new heights and sets a new gold standard for not just Star Wars games but the RPG genre as a whole, just as Knights of the Old Republic did back in the early 2000s. It’s time Star Wars was given the Baldur’s Gate 3 treatment.

It’s The Perfect Time for a New Star Wars RPG

Though Respawn’s Star Wars Jedi series has been received well, Star Wars Outlaws had some decent mechanics and ideas, and EA’s Star Wars Battlefront series has gained a loyal following, the Star Wars franchise could use a change of pace, a game that doesn’t focus primarily on fast-paced action. This is where a new Star Wars RPG could come in, offering an array of complex companions, a sprawling choice system, and a level of player-freedom that’s unprecedented for the franchise.

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