Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic holds a rare honor as a cornerstone of classic video games, RPGs, and Star Wars stories. The KotOR series is a hallmark of all three of these mediums and is still remembered fondly by many gamers today. Its sequel, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords, remains one of the best sequels to a Star Wars game, and, despite its many flaws due to a rushed release with cut content, its characters, themes, and writing remain some of the best in the franchise.
Unfortunately, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic‘s overarching plot was abandoned nearly a decade after the events of The Sith Lords, ultimately leaving KotOR unfinished. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was created as a standalone game, but its success justified Obsidian Entertainment’s development of a sequel. It was in The Sith Lords that the threads of a new, larger plot were introduced.
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The Star Wars Story That Was Abandoned
In The Sith Lords, it was established that Revan had left the known galaxy to confront an unknown threat and, at the end of The Sith Lords, the Jedi Exile followed them, with the game ending on a cliffhanger. Rather than a third Knights of the Old Republic game concluding this story and wrapping up the mystery in the Unknown Regions and the fates of Revan and the Jedi Exile, there was instead silence from LucasArts, who published the Star Wars games at the time. Years later in 2011, Knights of the Old Republic would once again be handled by BioWare.
Rather than a threequel to conclude the story of Revan and the Jedi Exile, the game would take place hundreds of years in the future, ensuring all the characters from the original games aside from one would be long dead. In addition, rather than a single-player game, Star Wars: The Old Republic would be an MMORPG. To give fans—some of whom had been waiting nearly a decade—their closure, a tie-in novel was released. The novel Star Wars: Revan received mixed reviews as some claimed it ruined the characters they had come to know and love, and that the book merely served to establish a canon for the upcoming BioWare MMO.
Giving Fans the Conclusion to KotOR That They Deserve
Star Wars: The Old Republic is a great MMORPG with engaging storylines, fun dialogue, and memorable characters. However, it isn’t the conclusion to the story that many Knights of the Old Republic fans were hoping for. Problems that some players had with Star Wars: The Old Republic as the conclusion to KotOR was that it took place in a period completely removed from KotOR, where Revan and the Jedi Exile Meetra Surik, Bastila, Canderous, Atton, and other beloved characters were long dead and forgotten.
Rather than a direct threequel, Star Wars: The Old Republic is merely another game set within the same world as KotOR. Although it wraps up Revan’s arc and ultimately solves the mystery posed earlier in the series, players never experience the events following The Sith Lords. Considering they’ve long been considered some of the best in the franchise on multiple levels, the Knights of the Old Republic games deserve a worthy follow-up.
- Released
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December 6, 2004
- ESRB
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T For Teen due to Mild Blood, Mild Suggestive Themes, Violence