Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

• 1. A Hero Without a Past

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  Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic begins with a character waking aboard a doomed Republic capital ship, with no memory of who they are. The setting lies four thousand years before the Star Wars films. This one amnesiac premise launched a franchise of role-playing games, comics, novels and an online world, all built inside George Lucas's universe. Who is this forgotten hero, and what did they do before the memory vanished? How did rules borrowed from tabletop dice games come to measure a player's conscience? And why did the second game pass to a different studio, while a third was cancelled with much of its story and worlds already designed?

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• 2. Rules of the Force

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  Wizards of the Coast's Star Wars Roleplaying Game supplies the mechanical skeleton of the series. That system rests on the d20 framework, which itself descends from the Third Edition rules of Dungeons & Dragons. Combat is divided into rounds, and every combatant attacks and reacts at the same moment. Each round lasts a short, fixed stretch of real time, and the actions allowed per round are limited. Players can set the game to pause at chosen events or at the end of every round.

  Everything the player says or does, from a simple choice of words to a major plot decision, is tracked by the alignment system. That running tally places the character on the light or dark side of the Force. In the first game, the choices have no effect on teammates. In The Sith Lords, they do, and the player's actions shape which side the companions join as well. The influence can be small, such as turning a character from the dark side to the light. It can also be large, such as teaching a companion the ways of the Jedi. Influence can be lost if the player acts against earlier decisions, so every reaction deserves close attention. The series also features Gray Jedi, who walk their own path with the Force instead of obeying either side.

  Orange and yellow lightsabers sit beside the familiar blue and green in these games. The developers "fought" to expand the number of lightsaber colors, and the crystals and blade styles can be extensively customized. Danny Paez, writing for Inverse, commented that "KOTORs spectrum of lightsaber crystals led to gamers obsessing over collecting them all to design the lightsaber of their dreams." He added that "This led to fans going out of their way to explore every nook and cranny of the games." Those explorers were searching a galaxy whose crisis begins with a single fallen apprentice.

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• 3. Malak and the Star Forge

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  Darth Malak, the apprentice of Darth Revan, has sent a Sith armada against the Republic. Jedi scattered by his aggression are left vulnerable. Many die in battle, and others swear loyalty to Malak. After escaping, the hero crash-lands on Taris. There the hero begins gathering companions and slowly pieces together a lost past. To stop Malak's forces, the party hunts for Star Maps. Together, the maps reveal the location of the Star Forge, an ancient space station that produces massive amounts of material for Malak.

  The Star Forge waits at the end of two very different roads. A light-side hero arrives to defeat the Sith. A dark-side hero arrives to seize control of the Sith from Malak. The rewards differ as well. A light-aligned character and their companions are hailed as saviors and heroes. A dark-side character instead stands before the remaining Sith forces as the new Sith Lord.

  Dantooine and Korriban give the series its two academies, one for the Jedi and one for the Sith. The Star Forge itself is the stage for the final battle between master and apprentice. Telos, a war-ravaged planet, is paired with its orbiting Citadel Station. The freighter Ebon Hawk carries the party between worlds and doubles as a place to explore. No combat happens aboard, with three exceptions in the second game. Those fights involve Sith attackers, the character Visas Marr, and members of the Red Eclipse slavers. A space station near Yavin is also playable in the PC version, and Xbox players could obtain it by download from Xbox Live.

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• 4. The Exile

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  Five years after the first game, The Sith Lords finds the Jedi nearly exterminated by the Sith. The player controls a former Jedi Knight known as the Exile, cast out of the Jedi Order. During the Mandalorian Wars, the Exile served under Revan. Revan ordered the activation of the Mass Shadow Generator, a devastating gravitational superweapon. The resulting deaths were so great that the Exile unconsciously severed every connection to the Force to survive, and was removed from the Order.

  The Exile spends the game restoring that connection while new companions help in the fight against the Sith. Unlike the first game, the player's choices here do not decide the fate of the galaxy. They affect only the planets the player visits, where the Republic is trying to rebuild. The player may help or hinder that effort. A light-aligned ending activates the Mass Shadow Generator, destroys Malachor V, and sends the Exile into unknown space to find Revan. A dark-aligned ending has the Exile take over the Sith academy on Malachor V, and the Mass Shadow Generator is destroyed.

  Obsidian Entertainment built this sequel at LucasArts' request. BioWare, the original developer, handed over the job so it could deal with other matters. The Xbox version arrived in North America on the 6th of December 2004. The PC version followed there on the 8th of February 2005. Beyond technical changes such as more combat animation and interface scaling, the game offered more variety in upgrading items. Players could even build certain items themselves, including computer spikes and explosives.

  Gender shapes the companions too. Choosing a female character pairs the player with Mical the Disciple, while a male character is paired with Brianna the Handmaiden. Critics and fans generally welcomed the sequel, and it collected over thirty-five Game of the Year awards. GameSpot gave it 8.5 out of 10, Gamespy gave 4.5 out of 5, and IGN gave 93 percent. Metacritic averaged 30 professional reviews to 85 out of 100, against 93 for the first game. The main complaint was that it felt incomplete because of a rushed deadline.

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• 5. The Game That Never Shipped

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  In 2003, LucasArts cancelled a console online game called Proteus during its design phase. Proteus was meant to be an in-house sibling to Star Wars Galaxies. When it ended, its team and elements of its designs were applied to a third Knights of the Old Republic game. Designer John Stafford later said the team "wrote a story, designed most of the environments/worlds, and many of the quests, characters, and items."

  The cancellation came as part of cuts that began in 2004, aimed at positioning LucasArts for future success. Only a glimpse of the work survives in print. Concept art from the project appeared in the book Rogue Leaders: The Story of LucasArts, published in 2008. It shows Taloraan, Rodia, a Mandalorian city, and a Coruscant vehicle. It also introduces a new character named Naresha. A different kind of Old Republic game would reach players years later.

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• 6. Three Centuries Later

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  Star Wars: The Old Republic reached Windows players on the 13th of December 2011 in North America and Europe, and Australia on the 1st of March 2012. Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello had first confirmed it at E3 2008. BioWare, the studio behind the first Knights of the Old Republic, developed it. The story unfolds 300 years after the first two games, soon after a tenuous peace between the re-emergent Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic. The Jedi are blamed for the Sith's success, so they leave Coruscant for Tython, where their order was founded, seeking guidance from the Force. The Sith control Korriban and have re-established an academy there. Players live through a period called the Cold War, which follows the First Great Galactic War and leads toward the Second.

  Six storyline expansions and two smaller add-ons followed. Rise of the Hutt Cartel arrived on the 14th of April 2013, raising the level cap to 55 and centering late leveling on the new planet Makeb. Shadow of Revan came on the 9th of December 2014. It follows the Order of Revan, led by the reborn Revan, who is shown as a canonical male character. It raised the cap to 60 and added Rishi, a tropical pirate haven, and Yavin 4, home of the ancient Massassi Sith sect.

  Knights of the Fallen Empire, released on the 27th of October 2015, is the largest expansion. It leans on cinematic storytelling and choices that change the story. At level 60, the player's character is frozen in carbonite and wakes five years later to find the Eternal Empire dominant. The player becomes the Outlander and builds an alliance to fight it. Knights of the Eternal Throne followed on the 2nd of December 2016, pitting the Outlander against the forces of Empress Vaylin. Onslaught on the 22nd of October 2019 reignited the war between Republic and Sith Empire and made the Nautolans a playable species. Legacy of the Sith arrived on the 15th of February 2022, marking the tenth anniversary and bringing back Darth Malgus. Two mechanics updates added 12v12 space combat on the 4th of February 2014 and guild housing with flagships on the 14th of October 2014.

  Critics generally gave the online game positive reviews, with a Metacritic score of 85 and 83.87 percent on GameRankings. G4TV gave it 5 out of 5, and PC Gamer gave 93 out of 100. Gamespy gave 4 out of 5, praising the storylines and companion system but criticizing the "standard kill and fetch" quests. IGN gave it 9.0 out of 10. GameSpot scored it 8.0 out of 10 and wrote that it "isn't the next step in online role-playing games. Instead, it's a highly entertaining refinement of what has come before it."

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• 7. Pages and Pictures

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  Dark Horse Comics first published the Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi series in 1993, long before any of the games. Its Knights of the Old Republic strand formed the basis of the game setting and inspired its characters and story. A second comic series, also titled Knights of the Old Republic, takes place around 3964 BBY, roughly eight years before the games. It follows Zayne Carrick, a Padawan framed for murdering his fellow Padawans. His masters, members of a mysterious Jedi Covenant, are behind the frame. John Jackson Miller wrote it with art by Brian Ching, and it ran monthly from the 1st of March 2006 to the 17th of February 2010.

  Robert Chestney, a game developer, wrote the webcomic The Old Republic: Threat of Peace, with art by Alex Sanchez. It covers ten years from the signing of the Treaty of Coruscant to the events that start the online game. It ran bi-monthly from the 27th of February 2009 to March 2010, in three acts. Alexander Freed wrote Blood of the Empire with art by David Ross. It follows a Sith apprentice on a dangerous secret mission 25 years before the Treaty of Coruscant. It ran weekly from the 23rd of April to the 13th of August 2010. Both webcomics were printed from the 7th of July to the 2nd of December 2010. Freed and Ross then made The Lost Suns, printed monthly from the 8th of June to the 12th of October 2011, following Satele Shan's son Theron Shan.

  Novels expanded the online game's story. Paul S. Kemp wrote Deceived, a 256-page book from Del Rey released on the 22nd of March 2011. It centers on Darth Malgus, the Sith Lord responsible for the sacking of Coruscant. Sean Williams wrote Fatal Alliance, published on the 21st of July 2010. Drew Karpyshyn wrote Revan, released on the 15th of November 2011, which reveals Revan's fate after the first game. Karpyshyn's Annihilation followed on the 13th of November 2012. BioWare also released six short films as cinematic trailers for the online game and its expansions.

  In April 2019, producer Kathleen Kennedy told MTV News, "Yes, we are developing something to look at. Right now, I have no idea where things might fall." The next month, BuzzFeed News reported that Laeta Kalogridis had been hired in the spring of 2018 to write a film based on the 2003 game. She was reportedly close to finishing the first script of a potential trilogy. Representatives declined to comment, and nothing has been reported since. Meanwhile, select characters appear, outside canon, in the mobile game Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, released on iOS and Android in November 2015. Electronic Arts publishes it and was also responsible for the Knights of the Old Republic series by then.

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• 8. Awards and Remakes

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  The Xbox version of the original game reached North America on the 15th of July 2003 and Europe on the 12th of September 2003. The PC version arrived on the 19th of November 2003 in North America and the 5th of December 2003 in Europe. The iOS version followed on the 30th of May 2013, Android on the 28th of December 2014, and Nintendo Switch on the 11th of November 2021.

  Critical response to the first game was overwhelmingly positive. It won the Game Developers Choice Awards' game of the year and the BAFTA Games Awards' best Xbox game of the year. It also took Interactive Achievement Awards for best console RPG, best computer RPG, best story and best character development. IGN named it Overall Game of the Year 2003 across all platforms. The show X-Play on G4TV picked it as the second best game ever since the show began. Sales passed one million units, earning a place in the Xbox Platinum Series. In 2007, one of its story twists ranked number two on Game Informer's list of the top ten video game twists of all time.

  In September 2021, a graphically updated remake of the original game was announced. Aspyr was building it with Sony Interactive Entertainment, first for PlayStation 5 as a timed console exclusive. Lead producer Ryan Treadwell wrote, "We're rebuilding it from the ground up with the latest tech to match the groundbreaking standard of innovation established by the original, all while staying true to its revered story." Jennifer Hale was set to reprise Bastila. Tom Kane, however, has retired for medical reasons.

  In July 2022, Bloomberg reported the remake was "delayed indefinitely" after Aspyr abruptly fired its art director and design director. In August 2022, Aspyr was reportedly replaced by Saber Interactive, and both studios belong to Embracer Group. In September 2023, Kotaku reported that the 2021 teaser trailer had been hidden on the official YouTube channel. Sony responded that a music license had expired. By February 2024, Embracer planned to sell Saber in a US$500 million deal. Saber is expected to keep developing the remake as a privately owned firm, with Mad Head Games, known for Hellraiser: Revival, working on it.

  In December 2025, Lucasfilm Games announced Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic, an action role-playing game from Arcanaut Studios. The studio calls it a spiritual successor rather than a direct sequel, aiming to "honor that legacy" with a narrative-focused, decision-based game. Casey Hudson is its game director.

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