20 Years Later: Knights of the Old Republic Remains One of the Greatest Stories in Star Wars

There’s another reason to remember the legacy of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. The 2003 CRPG classic originally released for the Xbox has received renewed interest thanks to a number of developments to the Star Wars brand. This past July marks the 20th anniversary of KOTOR’s original release. The landmark motivated a Noisy Pixel contributor to create a long-form retrospective video essay on Knights of the Old Republic:

What about the Knights of the Old Republic remake?

The video references increased interest in Knights of the Old Republic after Sony announced a remake of the game back in 2021. This is in addition to the popularity of the Dinsey+ show The Mandalorian and rumors of a Knights of the Old Republic film trilogy following the conclusion of the Star Wars sequel film trilogy.

Of course, all of those promising developments have disappointing conclusions. The remake has had a turbulent development with some news reporters suggesting it will never be released. Meanwhile, the rumored KOTOR film trilogy has been discredited as just a rumor.

Unlike many other popular games from past eras, there is no remaster of Knights of the Old Republic. The most modern rejuvenation available is the Switch port released in 2021, which up-res’d textures to HD and provided in-game cheats (such as increasing movement speed) but nothing close to the “remakes” that have been popularized in the past few years. That was the dream of the Sony project.

Why release a Knights of the Old Republic retrospective now?

The creator of the video says the lack of modernization for KOTOR makes it difficult to recommend to new players who get stuck on the old design and janky mechanics. The video is meant to act as “virtual tourism” for a game people have not played. Much of the video focuses on analysis of design decisions — similar to other video essays on YouTube — but also includes descriptions of environments, character conflicts, and major plot developments. This was done to give “the KOTOR experience” for “a game you’re never going to play.” The 3-hour video is split into multiple 30-minute segments to replicate the experience of watching a television series.

Knights of the Old Republic continues to be available on digital platforms, including Steam, Nintendo eStore, and Xbox Marketplace.