Just one week after the ancient Sith Lord Darth Revan began randomly trending on Twitter, news broke downright confirming a full-on remake of the best Star Wars game ever: Knights of the Old Republic.
Rumors had been swirling for months, even years, but now that the legacy of KOTOR will be fully canonized in Disney’s comparatively new Star Wars galaxy, here’s everything you need to know about the remake.
Is a Knights of the Old Republic remake really happening?
Yes! Since at least January 2021, Star Wars insider Bespin Bulletin claimed that some kind of KOTOR game was in development separate from EA and BioWare, the publisher and developer of the original.
“Amongst my digging, I heard there is a Knights of the Old Republic project in development somewhere,” Bespin Bulletin said. “I talked to a couple of people, and I also found out that Jason Schreier said that it’s not with EA, and we’ll ‘never guess’ who the studio is that’s making this game.”
Schreier confirmed on an episode of the MinnMax podcast published April 20, 2021 that the “project” was actually a remake of the original game rather than a new title in the saga (which some earlier rumors had suggested).
Who is the Knights of the Old Republic remake developer?
Journalist Jason Schreier confirmed on the MinnMax podcast that Aspyr is working on the game: “This is public at this point, I've basically confirmed Aspyr - which is the company that's ported a bunch of KOTOR games - is working on the remake,” he said.
Aspyr was originally founded in 2005 to focus on porting top gaming titles to macOS, but has since branched out into other platforms. Ports represent a bulk of their business, including an iOS port of the original KOTOR released in 2015 for Apple mobile devices. "While the developer is known for often releasing straight ports, work is currently underway to make the project more of a remake instead,” Eurogamer reported shortly after the news broke.
What is Knights of the Old Republic?
BioWare’s Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003) focuses on a Jedi turned Sith turned whatever-you-want who lived about 4,000 years before the events of the core Star Wars movie trilogies. It plays similarly to BioWare’s older Dragon Age games except in the ancient times of Star Wars, except instead of magic, you build up your skills with the Force and choose to follow either the Dark or Light Side.
The cast of characters is as interesting and varied as any Star Wars story, but the sprawling scope and depth to the narrative are only made better by dialogue trees that allow you to influence so much of the story. It was an engaging model that went on to become a key facet of many future BioWare games, including the Mass Effect trilogy.
Who is Darth Revan?
In many ways, Revan is a bit of a blank slate as the protagonist of KOTOR, but his rich, complex history in the extended universe of Star Wars has made him a fan favorite. Like Anakin Skywalker, he was something of a Lancelot-type figure within the Jedi Order, lauded as a hero and champion who fell to darkness.
In the non-canon KOTOR continuity, he rebelled against the Jedi Council to join a war against Mandalore to bring peace to the galaxy. But after committing his fair share of atrocities, he fell to the Dark Side. Eventually, the Jedi Master Bastila Shan was able to subdue Revan, wipe his memory, and provide him with the fresh start he needed to become the player surrogate in KOTOR. He’s got some further storylines in the Star Wars: The Old Republic massively multiplayer online game
When is the Knights of the Old Republic remake release date?
We’re still in the very early days of the KOTOR remake being confirmed, so there’s no official word yet as to when it might be released.
Is there a Knights of the Old Republic remake trailer?
No. We’ll update this post when a trailer is released.
A Knights of the Old Republic remake is currently in development.
