By Chris Snellgrove
| Updated
Recently, Knights of the Old Republic fans got a shock when Tim Willits, the COO of Saber Interactive, confirmed that the game’s remake is still in development. There haven’t really been any updates since 2022, so most KOTOR fans assumed that the remake had been quietly scuttled like so many Star Wars games before it (pouring one out for you, 1313). However, the announcement is arguably moot because, at this point, Knights of the Old Republic is destined to be a bomb because it simply cannot live up to the weight of fan expectations.
The Knights Of The Old Republic Remake Can’t Win
Now, if you’ve never played Knights of the Old Republic, you may need some context about why the remake is doomed: for starters, the original game was a groundbreaking RPG that adapted Wizards of the Coast’s old tabletop system into a fully original tale set many thousands of years before the Original Trilogy. The game startled fans with its high quality, weaving together an original Star Wars story right at the time when the prequels had fans questioning if there were any good stories left to tell in a galaxy far, far away. But the Knights of the Old Republic remake is guaranteed to disappoint because this story will no longer feel so original…it will instead feel like the franchise making yet another disappointing return to the past rather than creating something refreshing and innovative.
You see, the Knights of the Old Republic remake is going to remind Star Wars fans of the failed Sequel Trilogy which was more or less a lame rehash of the original films. Those movies serve as a bitter lesson to Disney that fans don’t want “new” characters if their adventures feel like self-insert fanfiction written with better characters in mind. The KOTOR remake will by necessity involve the same characters from the original game, and while they are admittedly very captivating characters, fans being unimpressed by the sequels’ not-so-new characters may spell bad news for a game that is a literal rehash of what we played before.
If you still don’t think the Knights of the Old Republic remake is dead on arrival, consider this: while it had a handful of returning characters in the form of glorified cameos, KOTOR 2 notably built a brand-new tale around a completely different character. In other words, original publisher had the good sense to know that they couldn’t really follow up on the earlier game and that it should stand alone as a singular story. Now, a new publisher is going back to the well rather than trying to create their own original story, and it’s doubtful that fans already skeptical of the franchise’s ability to innovate will exactly flock to this game.
As a gamer, I’d be remiss not to compare Saber’s upcoming Knights of the Old Republic with another remake title: Square Enix’s Final Fantasy 7. However, that latter game’s immense success is due largely to creative risks, including developing an entirely new combat system and splitting that game’s sprawling story across multiple titles. Considering the lack of updates on the KOTOR remake since 2022, it seems unlikely they are taking similar creative risks, and unless the studio takes big swings, fans are unlikely to plunk over $70 for a game that is just a prettier version of what they already own.
For the record, I’d like to state how much I long to be proven wrong…as a fan of Knights of the Old Republic from the beginning, I’d love nothing more than to be stuck with years of angry comments because the remake kicks so much butt. Star Wars is a franchise that clearly needs a win right now, and Disney is learning hard lessons that fans want more than lukewarm sequel films and TV shows about boring characters. Unfortunately, it’s not nearly as clear whether this remake will fare any better than The Acolyte, The Rise of Skywalker, or other warmed-over failures.
It’s time for the franchise to do something new, and I’ve got the infamous “bad feeling” that a remake of a decades-old game just won’t energize a fanbase sick of Star Wars doing nothing but recycling its better films and games until there’s absolutely nothing left.
Source: Video Gamer
