Bioware's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is widely celebrated as a classic by many RPG fans for many reasons, from its dark and light side morality system to its lovable companions and its iconic villains like Darth Revan. The position of the KOTOR remake is currently unknown after development paused. However, fans may be able to look to popular modern titles like Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Bioware's previous and lesser-known RPG titles like Jade Empire to get an idea of what the KOTOR remake's gameplay could potentially be like, as it can learn a lot from these games.
The KOTOR remake delay may be for the best as it may give the current developers more time to modernize and recreate the much-loved RPG in a way that stays true to the game but also brings the gameplay up to speed with more modern titles. Perhaps the most significant area to address is KOTOR's round or turn-based combat system, as it's showing its age compared to the slick lightsaber 3rd person combat of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. It's also rumored the original combat system may be replaced with modern action RPG combat. A closer look at Jade Empire's fighting may help give fans an idea of what the KOTOR remake's combat could include, so it keeps one foot in the past and another in a modernized present.
What the KOTOR remake can learn from Jade Empire's Combat System
Jade Empire is sometimes considered one of Bioware's more underrated RPG titles following KOTOR and KOTOR 2's release, but has many fans and is often considered one of the best games for Mass Effect fans due to its strong story and combat system. Jade Empire moved away from KOTOR's turn-based combat, which puts players in a passive role, as it instead let players take the fighting reigns with hand-to-hand combat and melee weaponry. Players can even learn and fully customize different fighting styles for their character to freely select during combat, such as Leaping Tiger and Legendary Strike, along with magical abilities like Dire Flame and Ice Shard.
There's a case for a Jade Empire remake, as its fluid combat system still works today. These mechanics could transfer to the KOTOR remake if turn-based controls change to action-based Jedi fighting techniques. For instance, rather than queue attacks, players could quickly switch between different styles or weapons during combat, like switching from single-blade to double-ended lightsabers, or swapping force abilities to capitalize on a Jedi's fighting capabilities in battle. Jade Empire also had a self-healing Chi system that the KOTOR remake could easily replicate using Force powers, just as players can self-heal in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
What the KOTOR remake can learn from Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order's Combat System
The KOTOR remake could improve combat skills by looking to Fallen Order's combat for inspiration, especially its focus on blocking and parry maneuvers for success. Deflecting blaster shots with a lightsaber always looks and feels impressive. However, instead of leaving deflection and blocking success to turn-based calculation rolls or as an automatic passive action like in the original KOTOR, the remake could give players control of these abilities. This could also help increase immersion, particularly as the character's power increases toward the light or dark side. It could also reduce potential vulnerability to ranged weapon attacks if players can deflect attacks using their lightsaber.
Fallen Order's challenging combat also does a great job of enabling players to utilize the environment to their advantage for enemy kills, such as pushing enemies off the edge with force attacks. Although this is perhaps more easily done in platforming third-person adventure games and traversal abilities like Fallen Order, it's something that the KOTOR remake could still incorporate into its roster of Force abilities. For instance, KOTOR's Force Push or Force Wave is used to push large groups of enemies away and could also be used to slam enemies into objects like walls so they take additional rather than even damage.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has new combat and traversal features, so it will be interesting to see what these will be and whether they could further inspire the KOTOR remake's combat, especially when KOTOR has so many cool Force power options to choose from like lightsaber throws and fan-favorite dark side powers such as Force Lightning and Force Storm. A combination of Jade Empire's combat with modern Fallen Order action RPG fighting mechanics could be an effective way of modernizing the game while staying true to Bioware's roots.
The Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake may still be in development.