Report: Cancelled Star Wars KOTOR Remake Version Surfaces With Opening Cinematic
We hear news about Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake time and time again, but it has been either bad or bittersweet. The ever-elusive remake, announced in 2021, has been on a rocky path with its development. Following the cancellation of its first iteration, developed by Aspyr and originally planned as a PlayStation exclusive, the project now has a second iteration on the way at the hands of Saber Interactive’s Mad Head Games.
Sadly, this means that the time to finally peek at the game is still further ahead. But as a consolation, development materials from Aspyr’s version still surface every now and then, such as concept art, assets, or early screenshots. This time, we have come across a piece of a work-in-progress cinematic, which gives an interesting, albeit brief, look at their take on the story.
Cinematic from Aspyr’s KOTOR Shows 2 Familiar Characters
The cinematic that we found posted on an animator’s portfolio who worked at Aspyr, shows us a piece of work-in-progress made with placeholder voice acting and almost no textures. Still, it provides an early look at what seems to be the opening story of the title, introducing two characters accompanying the player that KOTOR fans will find familiar: Captain Carth Onasi and Trask Ulgo, the tutorial character from the original game who serves as a guide inside the Endar Spire ship.
The footage shows the player character and Trask in the aftermath of a battle in a hallway, when they receive a call from Carth. Suddenly, an explosion rips through the corridor, sucking both characters into the space vacuum, before Trask saves the situation by hitting a button to close an emergency bulkhead door. This sequence ends with the objective to find Onasi, which appears to transition directly into gameplay.
An interesting detail is that the player’s character is fully voiced, a radical departure from the original 2003 title, where the protagonist was entirely silent and relied solely on text boxes for dialogue choices. This aligns with a previous report from the YouTube channel “100% Star Wars”, which originally claimed the remake featured a voiced protagonist, alongside other juicy details like combat gameplay similar to Final Fantasy 7 Remake.
Curiously, most of the materials that have surfaced about the game tend to be about its very beginning, which seems to be the part that got the most work done during Aspyr’s tenure.
This version would ultimately be canned, reportedly following the delivery of a vertical slice that disappointed Sony, leading to the company pivoting away from the project. Rumors at the time claimed Sony felt the demo wasn’t “cinematic enough”. Comments from alleged former developers also stated that studio management was severely failing to meet internal expectations, ultimately leading to the project being taken out of Aspyr’s hands.
Luckily for Star Wars fans, the franchise has several projects on the way besides this remake. The next big thing KOTOR fans can look forward to is Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic, a brand-new single-player RPG helmed by original KOTOR and Mass Effect director Casey Hudson.
Contrary to rumors regarding long production cycles, Hudson reaffirmed that players can expect the game to release before 2030, emphasizing a desire to keep its scope focused rather than over-inflated. As Hudson directly put it: “Bigger isn’t necessarily better.” Hopefully, we will get to see a proper look at it in the near future.
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God no kotor doesn’t need a fucking remake, it needs another game in its catalogue
Loved it, but I rarely enjoy remakes even if they’re done well if I played the original and know the story. Another spot where I guess I’m different from most is I care very little about graphics. Don’t get me wrong, I love a beautiful game but if RT and high FPS makes the game too expensive or too long to develop, skip it. I just read an interview about Dead Space 4, I guess it’s been written for years and years but sales for 3 back then and the recent remake weren’t high enough to justify a AAA production. I wouldn’t care if it still ran on the XB360 if that meant we actually got the game. With the tools we have now development costs would be closer to an indie and maybe make this stuff a profitable venture.
It needs both, a remake of the originals and Kotor 3.
Can’t say I agree nor disagree but what I will say is, I didn’t have faith that the official “remake” would have met expectations…..
I won’t expect Bioware or Obsidian to make a fourth old republic game especially with that mmo still up
This is partly false as the KOTOR remake is still in development. The aspyr remake isn’t in development but a saber interactive game is and I’m excited for saber to do it as well as a remake in general because as much as I love the old games and I really do. The game just isn’t all that optimized on console and modern devices. And the combat feels vary outdated and not as engaging as the later BioWare games like mass effect. If I am right there is a new game similar to it coming called Fate of the old republic which it seems like a continuation of KOTOR. I would vary much like to see more old republic era games and story’s and even a battlefront 3 to have that era or a battlefront like game to be set in the old republic. I love KOTOR and I love Star Wars and I think a remake would open up the game to a new generation and audience of people who would be turned away from the outdated systems especially to people like me… and we need more old republic stuff… “FOR THE REPUBLIC”
It was never a Playstation exclusive. It was always coming to the only gaming platform that has ever mattered, PC.