KotOR - Celebrating 20th Anniversary

[HiddenX]

Mobilesyrup looks back at 20 years of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic:

Celebrating 20 years of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic with the iconic RPG's Canadian creators

How a group of Canadians helped change both gaming and Star Wars forever

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic Canada
To say Star Wars is a media giant is an understatement.

Over the course of nine mainline films and three spin-offs, four live-action series, and, give or take, a dozen animated TV projects, not to mention well over 100 games and countless books and comics, Star Wars has dominated pop culture for well over 40 years. It's the quintessential Hollywood success story, with the series creator, George Lucas, starting off with experimental independent films before making some of the biggest and most influential blockbusters to date.

Clearly, Star Wars has an almost mind-blowingly large legacy, but something many people don't fully appreciate is the role Canadians played in that. In the late '90s to early 2000s, BioWare, a well-respected but relatively lesser-known studio in Edmonton, released a string of successful games based on the Dungeons & Dragon tabletop franchise. It's that RPG experience that attracted Star Wars games publisher LucasArts to BioWare, giving the now EA-owned studio -- which started as a medical software project from doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip -- the keys to pretty much the biggest kingdom imaginable.

Enter Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the first-ever -- and, to this day, a still-rare -- Star Wars RPG video game. In the early 2000s, the prospect of creating your own soldier, training to become a Jedi, and assembling your own ragtag party of Force users, Republic soldiers, droids, and scoundrels to fight the evil Darth Malak -- or become your own Sith Lord -- was novel. Even now, the fact that it's set 4,000 years before the Skywalker Saga that continues to dominate so much of Star Wars media feels practically revolutionary. KOTOR was big, bold, and fresh, perfectly capturing that magical feeling of going on a grand adventure with Luke Skywalker and friends in the Millennium Falcon, except this time, you were in the pilot seat.

[...]

"Really, Knights of the Old Republic was just this sweet bunch of Canadian nerds getting their hands on the Star Wars IP." -- Steve Gilmour

[...]

Thanks Couchpotato!

More information.

 

[Couchpotato]

Canadian websites waxing priase on a Canadian developer news at 11. Joking aside it's a nice interview and shows how the first game was made with passion.

By nerds who wanted to make one of the best StarWars RPGs, and succeeded.

 

[Redglyph]

Canadian websites waxing priase on a Canadian developer news at 11.

Fair enough, I'd say.

 

[Couchpotato]

I was joking it was a jest on the articles priase in the beginning.

They should be proud of BioWare not so much of Ubisoft.

 

[Thiraury]

The big plot twist blew my mind back then. Did not see it coming at all, which was great!

 

[JDR13]

The big plot twist blew my mind back then. Did not see it coming at all, which was great!

It was the only really cool thing about KotOR tbh. Other than the story, I thought the game was very average for the most part. Yet people continue to talk about it as if it's some landmark RPG.

 

[Couchpotato]

Well in the games defense it's one of only few StarWars RPG ever developed. Sure we get action games, and open world games with RPG elements, but not the same.

The remake sounds like it's infinitely stalled and no other RPG is in development.

 

[Redglyph]

It was a nice game, but again, I wouldn't say that it 'changed both gaming and Star Wars forever' or other overstatement.

 

[Thiraury]

It was the only really cool thing about KotOR tbh. Other than the story, I thought the game was very average for the most part. Yet people continue to talk about it as if it's some landmark RPG.

Yes, I agree with this. I only played it through that one time. Have tried to get into it again a couple of times and I get bored real quick.

 

[JDR13]

Yes, I agree with this. I only played it through that one time. Have tried to get into it again a couple of times and I get bored real quick.

It hasn't aged well. I've tried to replay it myself but gave up within a couple of hours.

It probably would have aged a lot more gracefully had it been developed for PC first and not the original Xbox.

 

[Couchpotato]

Download the texture, video, and audio mods for both games. It won't change the gameplay but will make them better. KoToR 2 even had a few fan expansions.

 

[txa1265]

It was a nice game, but again, I wouldn't say that it 'changed both gaming and Star Wars forever' or other overstatement.

Personally I disagree - and there are reasons why most people feel that way and this little corner of hardcore PC gamers is about the only voice of opposition. One quote from an article "Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (2002) and BioWare's Knights Of The Old Republic (2003) modernized RPGs' technology, expanded the audience, and created the two most popular models for the genre moving forward."

Name a western RPG with appeal outside of PC prior to KotOR ... exactly. There were none - just spiky haired whiny teens with oversized swords. Star Wars was in the midst of a revival with the prequels which made the entire property more popular than ever - and KotOR captured that imagination.

People continue playing it either on repeat or for the first time - and loving it. As I mentioned with Risen, on Switch and Steam Deck (as well as iOS gaming) subreddits, people absolutely adore the game.

It hasn't aged well. I've tried to replay it myself but gave up within a couple of hours.

That isn't surprising because you have ALWAYS been negative in every single thread about KotOR and regularly rag on the game as mediocre. And the 'I tried to replay it myself' line is also your common refrain ... what was that, in 2006 or something? Do you actually reinstall and replay a couple of hours of a game you have said zero purely positive things about the entire time I have known you just to be able to say "I have given it a fair shot but it failed again"? Really? I mean hey, you do you - but isn't your energy better spent than coming into EVERY SINGLE KOTOR THREAD with the exact negative same story for the last 17 years?!?

 

[Redglyph]

Name a western RPG with appeal outside of PC prior to KotOR ... exactly. There were none - just spiky haired whiny teens with oversized swords. Star Wars was in the midst of a revival with the prequels which made the entire property more popular than ever - and KotOR captured that imagination.

Off the top of my head in the early 2000s there were Morrowind and Arx Fatalis, but RPG is only a part of the gaming industry and it was in decline at the time. Also, the console games were generating more revenue than the PC, so I don't think they were lacking in games.

Did that push the RPG genre for the consoles? I don't know. What I saw was a regression in BioWare's games, since when they started to make games for consoles both with KotOR (after the PC release) and Jade (before the PC release), they were progressively focusing on the action genre and reducing the game complexity. KotOR seemed to be a transition in what they were doing, but like many others, I still enjoyed it.

After that, we saw a sequel in 2004 and nothing else until 2011. But if I look at the Star Wars action games, I see that there was apparently many games before and after from Lucas Art, on episodes I, II, and III (for consoles and PC).

So I don't really see any impact, on either front, but it's hard to tell for that period since the gaming industry was changing quite dramatically.

 

[bkrueger]

I loved KotoR but loved KotoR 2 even more. Like in other Bioware/obsidian combinations the base game was very good and technically competent, the sequel was more ambitious but had flaws. Obsidian is notorious for rough gems like this. I like the grey Jedi in Kotor 2 and the moral grey zone implied by her actions. The community restoration patches were also fun, in particular the one restoring the HK47 quests.

I found KotoR an important step in modernizing RPGs. In my view it was the first real 3D-RPG by Bioware after the graphically disappointing Neverwinter Nights, which (for me) looked older than Baldurs Gate.

 

[JDR13]

That isn't surprising because you have ALWAYS been negative in every single thread about KotOR and regularly rag on the game as mediocre. And the 'I tried to replay it myself' line is also your common refrain ... what was that, in 2006 or something? Do you actually reinstall and replay a couple of hours of a game you have said zero purely positive things about the entire time I have known you just to be able to say "I have given it a fair shot but it failed again"? Really? I mean hey, you do you - but isn't your energy better spent than coming into EVERY SINGLE KOTOR THREAD with the exact negative same story for the last 17 years?!?

Uh oh...I said something naughty about Darth txa's favorite game.

I played KotOR from beginning to end when it was released. Is there an unwritten rule that states I must complete a full replay in order to voice my opinion about it now?

I know, maybe I should Force myself to play through this overrated fanboy gem again to see the true light.

 

[bkrueger]

@txa1265 and @JDR13 : As long as nobody has made a scientific analysis of the impact of KotoR, this is all subjective. But please go on with your argument, I'll get some popcorn in the meantime...

 

[Couchpotato]

Well one thing I learned on this site is to ignore certain posters.

Believe me it'll save you many headache's and lower your stress. Moving on it might be time for a replay of both games, but with all the new releases probably not.

 

[bkrueger]

Well one thing I learned on this site is to ignore certain posters.

Believe me it'll save you many headache's and lower your stress. Moving on it might be time for a replay of both games, but with all the new releases probably not.

For me it is very relaxing to watch others argue about nothing, so why ignore them? I don't even ignore you!

 

[Couchpotato]

For me it is very relaxing to watch others argue about nothing, so why ignore them? I don't even ignore you!

I'm shocked man you should as I pissed off quite a few older members. What I meant though it's easier to just not post any reply and move on, but it's hard sometimes.

Checking my list though it only has five members on it. So not that bad.

 

[JDR13]

@txa1265 and @JDR13 : As long as nobody has made a scientific analysis of the impact of KotoR, this is all subjective. But please go on with your argument, I'll get some popcorn in the meantime...

Hey, that was a scientific analysis.