Star Wars: 6 ideas from the new KotOR book



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Knights Of The Old Republic is arguably the most memorable video games of the history of Star Wars. When you play in the Star Wars sandbox, the ultimate goal is to create a job that fans will remember and love for a long time. And few games have reached the peaks of this BioWare RPG, which captures both the feeling of sitting and watching a movie. Star wars film for the first time while giving fans a completely different and unexpected view of the galaxy.

Set thousands of years before the Skywalker saga, Knights of the old republic (or KotOR, tells the story of a group of heroes who must prevent a Sith invasion force from gaining control of the galaxy. Along the way, the heroes visit seedy criminal underworlds and ancient Sith temples, go through Jedi trials and burn their own names. Star wars l & # 39; history. There has never been such a complete Star wars video game experience since.

And if you are looking for pleasure KotOR facts, you are in the right place. The journalist Alex Kane explores the development stories behind KotOR in the new book Star Wars: The Knights of the Old Republic, published by Boss Fight Books, available for purchase for a great price on Amazon.

Kane's book is a fascinating look at the development of the game that has deeply marked BioWare and Star wars. It also comes at a particularly interesting time for BioWare, including the latest version, the loot shooter Anthem, stands out from the story and relationship-based RPG gameplay for which the studio is best known. Kane returns to the production of KotOR is an excellent breath of the past for the studio's fans.

Here are six important things we learned about the game in Kane's book …

6. The big turning point was there from the beginning

Knights of the old republicThe main character is a powerful Sith lord named Dark Revan, whose memory was erased by the Jedi – was essential to the game from the beginning.

Thinking of the iconic touch of The Empire Strikes Back, BioWare needed something similar to capture this Star wars Magic. James Ohlen, the game's lead designer, also knew that he wanted an epic space battle in the end, as Rebel vs. Imperial smashed in Return Of The Jedi.

Ohlen was inspired by films like The Sixth Sense and Fight Club at the time of the revelation. He knew that clues had to be placed throughout the match. The twist should not be obvious but should come from times sown in history. "Ten percent of the audience must understand your approach before it happens" to make it seem natural, he said in the book.

5. LucasArts loved Baldur's Gate

LucasArts was working on many Star Wars games in the early 2000s and wanted to partner with a third-party developer to create a "scan" Star wars story. Some LucasArts developers were big fans of BioWare, thanks to Baldur's Gate's isometric and fantastic RPG.

Simon Jeffrey, then president of LucasArts, contacted Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk of BioWare to propose a Star Wars RPG in the BioWare mold. The three of them were responsible for drawing the basic ideas of the game.

In the end, though, they decided to do KotOR a third-person game, instead of an isometric game like Baldur Gate. The work already done by BioWare in the third person NeverWind Nights The game, which had not been published yet, proved very useful during the development of KotOR.

4. KotOR asked for a tightening

It is difficult – perhaps impossible, perhaps irresponsible – to consult the BioWare culture book sections without referring to the many problems the studio faces today. Recent reports, which deal with the development of Bioware's anthem, have sparked a discussion on the burnout of game developers. In interviews with Alex Kane, BioWare executives remember a rather joyous experience of the tightness needed to put KotOR on the front burner:

"I had almost no life outside of work," Mike Gallo, a former LucasArts producer, told Kane. "I remember that my friends were angry at me because I had to constantly cancel them or just not accept plans. I'm just like, "I do not know what to say to you, we make a game!" And at that time I did not care, I could work twelve or sixteen hours a day without even thinking about it. "

Gallo explained in detail how long the hours were: "Towards the end of the PC version, we were working several sleepless nights. I was in a meeting with all of our operations staff at LucasArts, and at one point one of the guys whispered to me, "Mike. You spoke, but you disappeared for five or ten seconds, then you started again. "I say to myself, 'Dude, I have not slept for forty-eight hours. He says, "What are you doing? "I said," Well, you know, that's what we do. "" After work, the team would drink and dance together, united by the project. Kane said that there had been conflict, but that it was rather to make sure that the work was the best possible.

Voiceover director Darragh O'Farrell and voice coordinator Jennifer Sloan would also work 16 hours a day, six months before the deadline.

3. Some characters have surprising origins

Some of the main characters in the game – Carth, Bastila, Zaalbar and Mission – are vaguely inspired by the characters created by Ohlen for a table. Star wars RPG, he ran with his friends: "I had done it with the Baldur Gate also because it sometimes takes a lot of time to create characters. "

One character, in particular, evolved during development. HK-47, who was named in honor of the billiard team of Drew Karpyshyn's senior scriptwriter, originally had such a dreadful voice. Actor Kristoffer Tabori did not feel he had found the voice and opted for a more comical tone than expected in the script, which displeased many people in the studio. But the director of voiceover, O'Farrell, believed it. Finally, the rest of the team came.

The identity of Revan has been integrated into the game from the beginning. Kane points out that having a character without memory or history is often "a narrative requirement of form", which is why it is essential to give Revan a hidden story that he had been forced to do. # 39; forget. The fact that Revan was a Jedi was an integral part of the fantasy of the game and aimed to offer a very different experience of Star Wars galaxies, a MMORPG in which the Jedi were rare.

The look of Revan's armor was designed quite quickly and was inspired by Boba Fett's armor. Leather elements, not often seen in Star wars, makes it look old. The mask was supposed to look old and tribal.

2. Lost a planet, KotOR has

The planets of the game can be visited in any order (with a few exceptions, where the main points of the plot must be experienced in the correct order). The variety of places is one of KotORThe assets of many planets and planets like Taris and Manaan have become memorable elements of the Star Wars universe.

Unfortunately, all of BioWare's ideas on planets did not succeed in the final product. A planet was cut off the game because of the imminent shipping date. This planet, named Sleheyron, would have focused on Planet HulkGladiator-style combat overseen by the Hutts. "But it was too much to do in the time we had," Ohlen said.

BioWare would come back to the idea of ​​gladiatorial combat for its fantastic RPG Jade Empire, released in 2005 and also used Knights of the old republicOdyssey Engine's. Phoenix Gate, the capital of the Jade Empire, is home to a battle arena where masters of the martial art of the game can climb the ladder and follow the story. Although it is not clear if this section of Jade Empire He proved that the studio was able to make his gladiatorial idea playable a few years later.

1. BioWare had an idea for a sequel

There has never really been a BioWare version of KotOR II. In an interview with Mike Gallo, Kane revealed that the BioWare team did not want to embark on a sequel and had felt that it would be difficult to track the great game that they had already product. That's why Obsidian took over from afterwards, after taking advice from BioWare. But, in the book, Ohlen talks about an idea from BioWare.

In order to twist KotOR, Ohlen and his team have developed an idea where the player would be framed by a character of the kind of Yoda. This mentor would prove to be the bad guy, with the coming shock, says Ohlen, of "Shit fucking, Yoda's hurt?" This twist is now locked in the big safe of Star wars ideas, as well as the unused tone of Obsidian for KotOR 3.

If you are looking for more KotOR ideas, you can buy the entire book at this link. This is an absolute treat for fans of the game, and its price is currently a little over five …

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