Tags
Drew Karpyshyn, George Lucas, Knights of the Old Republic, Lucasarts, Old Republic, Revan, Star Wars, Star Wars: Battlefront III, Star Wars: The Old Republic, StarWars
For years, gamers have been clamoring for a third and final chapter in the Knights of the Old Republic saga. We all want to know what has happened to our beloved characters. Where did Revan go? Did the Exile find him? What did Revan find out in the Unknown Regions that turned him to the dark side? What did he leave out there that he needed to go back and fight while abandoning all of his friends?
There actually were plans to produce a second sequel to Knights of the Old Republic, but KOTOR3 was cancelled when LucasArts hit a pretty rough patch in the latter part of the decade. Why it hasn’t been picked back up mystifies me. Per game designer John Stafford “we wrote a story, designed most of the environments/worlds, and many of the quests, characters, and items.” Why not just pick up where they left off now that they are back on their feet? If nothing else, the early success of The Old Republic should be a sign that gamers love Star Wars RPG. There are handfuls of online petitions begging LucasArts to produce KOTOR3, yet it still hasn’t happened yet.
There is slightly good news, however, depending on your point of view. If you are just dying to know the fate of Revan, that wait is over. No, there are no plans (that I know of) for KOTOR3, but there is now a novel written by Drew Karpyshyn titled The Old Republic: Revan. This novel details Revan’s exploits after the end of the first KOTOR game.
While I’m eager to read this book to find what happened to Revan, and perhaps the Exile, at the same time I have a sense that because Revan’s story has already been told, there will be no third KOTOR game. And that angers me.
LucasArts has been steadily declining in quality over the last decade, and I wonder if mismanagement has anything to do with it. They’ve reportedly had many layoffs. But I wonder how something as massive as The Old Republic can get the green-light but KOTOR3 can’t? LucasArts has put out a steady string of failures in recent years. The failures have outweighed the successes. They did great with The Force Unleashed, then release a sequel that offered nothing really new, and a game that I completed in 6 hours. I could go on and on about other disappointments, but then I’d be here all day.
They bottom line is this: LucasArts is not listening to the consumer. We want a KOTOR3. Many others want a Battlefront 3 (another successful franchise that they abandoned). Others want another addition to the Jedi Knight series. I personally would like to see a sequel to Bounty Hunter, featuring Boba Fett instead of Jango Fett. There are all kinds of possibilities for LucasArts out there, but they seem to be focused solely on making Clone Wars games, which leads me to believe they are getting their direction from Lucas himself, who somehow went from a genius in the 70′s to a senile old idiot in the 90′s who forgot how to create a compelling story.
Please, LucasArts, give the customer what they want. Starting with KOTOR3.
This is the last book of the Darth Bane trilogy by Drew Karpyshyn. I was actually kind of disappointed with it. It was a good book, but nowhere near as good as the first two. 
