Darth Malak, the main villain of the first Knights of the Old Republic, as featured on KOTOR box art. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Nick Hughes
Managing Editor
A long time ago, the year 2003, a game was released that changed the direction of the western role-playing game forever. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) was released on July 15th, 2003, and was raved by the majority of who played it as a masterpiece in video games. Now, in the year 2021, KOTOR is coming back and coming back better than ever.
The original KOTOR captivated me a lot later than 2003, I played it first in 2009, right after a run through Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I am an avid Star Wars fan and have gone as far as memorizing the scripts of the entire saga, that is until the sequels came out. College takes up so much brainpower. Still, KOTOR was a story I became familiar with before playing the game itself. In the Star Wars book, “Darth Bane: Path of Destruction,” a Sith Lord named Darth Bane finds an ancient relic that a Sith Lord named Darth Revan made. This relic is a Holocron, one of these can be seen in the final fight of the sequel movie, Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Bane used the Holocron to develop a way of teaching in the Sith order called the rule of two, “One to embody the power, the other to crave it.” In the book, a visage of Revan teaching Bane through the Holocron influenced the Star Wars universe all the way until the defeat of the Jedi Order in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of Sith.
All this continuity is in question, however, due to the Disney-backed project known as the High Republic. The High Republic is a great piece of fiction, but it puts the older books out of official continuity. These books about Bane fall under that umbrella. Regardless, the announcement of KOTOR getting a remake has made a lot of Star Wars fans happy, as it tells the story of the Sith Lord Darth Revan, his fall and potential, rise to power.
I do not want to spoil KOTOR, but to put it plainly, I loved this game when I played it in 2009 and it was a joy to go through. The remake announcement came to us during a Playstation previews event. Even though God of War, Spiderman, and Wolverine were all present, I could not think about them in earnest without thinking more about the KOTOR game remake. KOTOR gave me so much in terms of a perfect game. I re-bought the game, alongside its sequel, KOTOR II, on Steam in 2016. I may only have a few hours logged on, but I am going to replay it one more time I think before the remake come out.
One of the annoying facets of this, however, is the fact that the game is a PS5 exclusive and, as many gamers know, it is hard to find PS5s for sale or even around. I hope this will not be an issue in the years to come. Hopefully, PS5’s will be easier to obtain, and I can play on launch. I will be buying the game day one.
