BioWare’s Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic helped make the studio a household name among RPG fans. The game's story took players deep into the past, 4,000 years before the events of A New Hope, to a time when Sith Lord Darth Malak had the Republic under siege. A sequel was developed by Obsidian Entertainment and released in 2004, but since then fans have been waiting a long time for another single-player installment in the series.
While Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was never officially made a part of the same canon as the movies, the removal of the Expanded Universe from the canon could make it even less likely that the games will ever be considered canon in the future, and may even be directly contradicted by new lore. However, there is another part of the Star Wars timeline which could be a great setting for a new BioWare Star Wars RPG.
The High Republic
The High Republic is a new part of the official Star Wars canon. Described as an “all-new era,” the High Republic will be the setting of a series of books, comics, and other media which will start being released in 2021. The High Republic is an era in the Star Wars timeline when the Jedi were more prolific across the galaxy than any other time fans have been shown so far in the main series. During this 200-year period, the Galactic Republic was at the height of its expansion. The Jedi explored and even built temples in the Outer Rim, and the furthest edges of the Galaxy.
While the High Republic saw the Republic and the Jedi spread throughout the stars, the galaxy was also less mapped and more dangerous. One event already established in this new pocket of the Star Wars canon is the Great Disaster of 232 BBY. The Great Disaster, the cause of which has yet to be fully explained, saw all of the star ships across the galaxy launching back out of hyperspace to realspace at the same time, causing several moons to be destroyed and further untold damage. There were hope spots too, however. The High Republic also saw projects like the construction of the Starlight Beacon, a space station at the edge of the Outer Rim placed in the center of the “dark zones” to act as a lighthouse for ships in dangerous regions.
In other words, there's plenty of new canon to work with, but also plenty of freedom. The opportunity to tell a story at a time when the Jedi's numbers are high strikes a nice balance with other recent Star Wars video games. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order took place after the fall of the republic to Darth Sidious, leaving the Jedi protagonist, Cal Kestis, in hiding until he blows his cover to save a life.
The dynamics of a Star Wars story where the Jedi aren't at risk of extinction is ripe with possibilities. It could be a great setting for the sort of morally complicated Star Wars stories BioWare began telling in games like Knights of the Old Republic, with less of a focus on the Sith and Jedi conflict and more on the differing beliefs of the Jedi, with some Jedi even being the villains if the story calls for it, rather than having the black and white morality seen in some Star Wars media.
It would also be a great opportunity to tell stories which aren't of galaxy-wide importance, but have their own stakes on a smaller scale. There are plenty of stories which could be told in the Outer Rim and which is would make sense for future Jedi never to have heard of, with these stories being lost when the Republic's reach rescinded and the temples were abandoned. This could give players a lot of freedom to play as whoever they wanted and to define the arc of their own story. It could also give BioWare fare more storytelling freedom than is often afforded writers working within a large pre-established canon like the Star Wars universe.
Star Wars and Storytelling Freedom
The Knights of the Old Republic games took place deep in the past of the Star Wars timeline so that Darth Revan's story could be told with sufficient space to breathe, and without fear of contradicting other Star Wars stories. The High Republic may be closer to the “present day” of the original Star Wars movies, but the 200 year period not only gives plenty of time for new stories to be told, but the Jedi expansion across the galaxy and its eventual contraction gives the storytellers the freedom to create new locations which do not feature in later works.
Not only would the new era be flexible to BioWare’s needs as a storyteller, but since the focus of the High Republic appears to be telling new stories through a variety of non-movie media, BioWare would make a lot of sense as the choice to develop a Knights of the High Republic RPG. While BioWare’s other RPG franchises are left dealing with hanging story threads like the dangling plotlines of Dragon Age: Inquisition, the High Republic era could allow the studio a degree of storytelling freedom which it hasn’t had since it started its last new RPG IP.
One of BioWare’s recent big challenges has been dealing with inflexible, pre-established canon. Mass Effect: Andromeda, for example, had to take place hundreds of years after Mass Effect 3 and in a new galaxy to avoid contradicting the original trilogy’s multiple endings. Knights of the High Republic would not only avoid that problem by taking players to a fresh new setting, but would also remain closer to home than Andromeda could, providing the same kind of experience fans can to love from KOTOR years ago.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is available now on PC and Xbox.