Bioware’s classic Star Wars game, Knights of The Old Republic, is, arguably, one of the greatest Star Wars games ever made, if not the greatest. Bioware delivered an, at the time, great looking game filled to the brim with amazing writing, fantastic characters, wonderful worlds to explore and thrilling plot twists that, even if you had seen them coming, hit hard and got everyone talking.
Now developer Aspyr has brought Bioware’s seminal RPG to Nintendo’s handheld. Does it still stand the test of time or should it be dropped into a Sarlac pit?
Set about 4000 years before Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope, KoToR places you in the shoes of an amnesiac character during a war between the Sith and The Republic. Darth Malak is laying waste to the Republic and the Jedi and it’s up to you to either save the galaxy or become its new iron fist. Of course, it’s not entirely that simple, as your journey will take you to many planets to find parts of a Star Map that will lead you to Darth Malak’s hidden fortress. It will also bring you back to your past where some things are best left hidden.
The storytelling mechanics that Bioware have honed over the years, specifically in the dialogue mechanics, remains relatively unchanged since the days of Neverwinter Nights. So you know that you’re going to get in-depth conversations based around your choices, with companion conversations that delve deep into their history and backstory. What you choose in a conversation can make you friends or enemies based upon the Light and Dark Side paths, with compassionate choices and helping people out pushing points into the Light Side of the force while evil choices take you to the Dark Side.
But if your experience with Bioware games is tied only to their modern catalogue such as Mass Effect, then the actual gameplay may come as a bit of a shock. Hot off the heels of their previous RPG’s such as Neverwinter Nights, KoToR plays with the same behind the scenes Dungeons & Dragons rule sets that powered their previous Forgotten Realms titles, so much so that at times KoToR can feel like Neverwinter Nights with a SW skin. You have full control over your character to explore the world and can switch between party members with the press of a bumper.
What powers everything, from choices in conversations to disarming traps to combat, is a series of dice rolls in the background based upon skill checks. Combat is of the more traditional isometric RPG style. You lock onto an enemy and your party members automatically attack them with you able to choose specific attacks or if you need to heal. The visceral thrill of combat is removed somewhat from this style of design, but each encounter can be pretty tough so you have to pay attention to what’s going on. There’s an ability stacking bar but, as with the original Xbox version, it only seems to stack one attack making the PC version the only one I’ve played where it’s worked correctly.
Every time you level up your character you can place points into various skills or feats that can help you pass Persuasion checks in conversations to new combat skills and attacks. You can let the system automatically assign skills for you but it’s no substitute for taking the time to specifically spec your build for the games various hazards. You can’t have access to it all though, which is where your party members come in as they can possess skills you don’t. Party members can be equipped with items you pick up or buy as well but if they leave the party, what they’re equipped with goes with them as well.
If you’re expecting KoToR to be a remastered version of the classic game, you’re going to be disappointed. Yes, there’s a higher resolution at play and some work has been put into the game, mainly in the textures and UI elements but this is still a nearly straight port of the classic game. Visually there are higher resolution textures on display to go along with the games higher resolution. The Switch Lite’s smaller screen makes the game look rather nice for an eighteen-year-old title and there’s just enough shimmer to the environment and textures.
A special shout out has to go to the game’s soundtrack which stands up extraordinarily well. The music is as Star Wars as you can get.
There are some niggles to the presentation though, specifically some incorrect spelling in dialogue strings at times and a strange choice to make a UI information box just too large so that it obscures parts of the top of the screen when around.
One really noticeable gameplay issue tends to be with the games lock-on system for objects and enemies. This is where KoToR shows its designed-for-a-PC layout more than anywhere else. When items are close together, it can be a problem to highlight the specific one you want without having to move around a lot before the lock on targets specifically what you want. It’s a more specific problem if you need to target a trap that is, say, close to enemy remains you may have yet to search and one puzzle close to the beginning of the game presented an issue when I had to highlight things in a specific order but because they were too close together it was finicky trying to highlight the correct one instead of the item next to it. At least in combat, you can cycle between enemies with the shoulder buttons but it’s not as smooth a system as it should be.
For the most part, the game runs well on the Switch as well. There is a noticeable slowdown when explosions occur and particle effects fly around, but these are the same issues that are around in the original versions as well, therefore a consequence of the games engine rather than a porting issue.
These are, however, small issues in what is otherwise an excellent port of a classic game. Knights of The Old Republic is still a fantastic RPG today. The complex story and fantastic dialogue along with the choice system that rewards replays stand up as well today as they did all those years ago. It looks great on the Switch Lite’s smaller screen and having it portable is, for me, the best way to experience it again.
Reviewed on Switch
Available on multiple platforms
Grab your copy here https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/STAR-WARS-Knights-of-the-Old-Republic–2045655.html
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