Knight of the Old Republic: Rumors Swirling

 Don't do that. Don't give me hope.

MrMattyPlays got something to tell the world, does he? And it's not related to Fallout? Why then, that only leaves- no, it couldn't be. I can't get myself excited like this, not to be let down once more; what point is there in persisting if reality springs back to knock the wind out of you time and time again? What's the point in any of it anymore? But then if we don't have hope, then why do we continue at all? Damn it all, I may actually be giving into the rumours, the welling of the chorus, the whispers on the nape of the wind, all telling tales of an incoming game which is the second best news that Star Wars fans like myself could hear right now. That after all these years of missteps and failures, with the mess of the modern Star Wars world before us, hope will lie in an upcoming remake of the classic game: Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. (But still no word on that actual threequel which we've all been asking for. Stepping stones- I guess)

Now I certainly haven't said this nearly enough on this blog (though right now I'm actually wondering if I've said it at all) but Knights of the Old Republic is quiet literally one of my favourite games of all time. I place it third on my top list, in fact, as easily the best RPG out of the dozens that I've played and loved, pretty much making me a prime member of the target audience for this prospective remake. I rate Kotor above Dragon Age, FF7, Fallout, Wasteland, all of those formative roleplaying games of the genre, and to be honest a good chunk of that adoration arrives merely from the property in question and how Bioware-of-the-day managed to grab ahold of Star Wars and make something that felt deeply personal and cleverly crafted from it. These were in the blessed years before Disney, because everyone knows this sort of game would never have been made under their stifling grasp; it's just antithetical to the whole 'make everything boring' model they've got going over there. As a a relic to how better Star Wars was as a free agent, Disney would never allow anyone to touch back upon the Kotor days, would they? And yet-

We're far away from an official announcement, Disney's Star Wars is still well aboard delivering us that awful looking 'High republic' era of storytelling which looks to just retell the Old Republic in a manner lacking the ambiguity which makes those stories so interesting. What made The Old Republic great was the fact it was an era ushered in with a fantastic comic book story and a fantastic game at practically the same time. Both were darker in tone, but rekindled that adventurous spirit of old school Star Wars; and even going back to revisit either of them would signal a Star Wars landscape that's got a bit more legs to it then we originally thought. And whilst that may seem impossible, leakers and in-the-know commentators seem to be telling us that gears are moving somewhere in the background, willing to prove all of us naysayers wrong that Disney will in fact go the distance and- hire someone else to do the work for them because they're still personally clueless when it comes to Star Wars.

In fact, one such commentator, this MrMattyPlays who I've mentioned, seems to believe he's narrowed down the actual studio that has been hired to covertly make this Kotor remake. And given that he's an even bigger fan of Kotor than I am, (I think I recall him saying that he replays it every year) I'm willing to concede that he likely has a more ready finger on the pulse of this franchise. MrMatty has in the past signalled out Aspyr Media as having worked on improvements and a complete mobile port of Knights of the Old Republic 2. In fact an actual reporter, Jason Schreier, seems to be convinced that this is definitive, and pretty much public, news at this point; pointing out that Aspyr has ported "A bunch of Kotor Games". (I'm assuming that's a misquote. There's only 2 Kotor games as I recall. Can 2 be considered a 'bunch'?)

And yet there's no word on the remake. Why? Why not celebrate this and raise a flag of glory to let the Star Wars fandom know that there's an actual future in the series that they know and love? Is it because things aren't quite so straightforward? Perhaps. I've also seen news, though without any publicly available announcement it's hard to say where these specifics come from short of just saying Aspyr is the leakiest ship in the industry right now, that Knights of the Old Republic is going to see a complete reworking of it's gameplay to move away from the turn-based-but-actually-free-action hybrid gameplay of the original and into something more action adventure. I'm not sure what that entails, but I honestly do like the idea of changing up the gameplay to the point where this isn't just a supplanting of the original game. If this is true then both games can coexist with differing merits instead of one just becoming the definitive, and I like that.

What I don't like is reports that elements of Kotor 1 and 2 are being rewritten in order to fit into the new Disney canon. Good lord no, forget that idea; scrap and burn it to the ground alongside the rest of the Star Wars universe. Disney's new canon is directionless trash, no one should have to disform themselves in order to fit into that narrow-minded scope. If anything, Disney's canon should be morphing to fit around the more interesting and less rigid concepts of Kotor, opening the way for less predictable stories to be told as we go forward. Why not let us explore a world where Jedi's can't always be relied upon, or where the people that you trust can be more than they appear to be? I don't think that's much to ask from a storytelling standpoint but Disney certainly don't seem willing to embrace it if any of their works is an indication of what to expect. 

But even in the Disney cabal of mediocrity, there has sparked some more promising tidbits to get all excited over. In particular I saw one tweet by director James Gunn, noting the trending of Kotor and commending it; calling Kotor the best game ever made and his favourite Star Wars product. (Never through I'd be of such similar minds with James Gunn.) Now of course, Mr Gunn knows about as much regarding the inner workings of Aspyr and Disney's game licencing department as anyone else, but as far as signal-boosting goes you can't get bigger than someone on the verge of releasing a hyped up superhero movie. At this point, even if Kotor wasn't being remade, the suits in charge would have to get on it else risk wasting the plethora of free press literally lined up outside their door.

All this has me in the mood to give good old Kotor another run through, as it truly is that Star Wars adeventure that never gets old. Even as the elements which founded it steadily fall to ruin, Star Wars becomes lame and Bioware falls off the wagon, the original product glimmers with potential, and if something truly is due to come from that then consider me beside myself. And for anyone who needs that fix right away, I direct you to Unreal Cinema on Youtube who are currently creating short movies on Unreal Engine 4 that tell the events of Kotor in a fantastically updated visual style. (And apparently they've got permission to do so from LucasFilm, so that's exciting!) I may be of two minds in the world of remakes and reboots, but even I have to stop and appreciate it when something with remake potential enters the crosshairs. Just, you know, don't fudge it up.