14 Years Later, Disney Nonetheless Hasn’t Solved Its Star Wars Gaming Downside

Since audiences had been first launched to Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, and the remainder of George Lucas’ galaxy virtually 50 years in the past, it’s turn into probably the most expansive works of science fiction ever made. Before Disney purchased the franchise in 2012, it amassed a humongous universe of novels, comedian books, TV reveals, and video games, and after rebranding the “Extended Universe” because the non-canon Legends banner, Disney started working changing it with its personal sprawling canon.

Every Star Wars period has benefited from having its lore expanded by a bigger media ecosystem, and an enormous a part of that has at all times been video video games. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, based mostly partly on Dark Horse’s Tales of the Jedi comedian e book collection, is without doubt one of the most consequential expansions of the franchise ever made. But whereas that was set within the distant previous, Disney’s video games have centered extra on acquainted moments from the timeline, corresponding to the unique trilogy’s battle or the rise of the Empire within the aftermath of the prequels. Many of the up to date video games have been good, however most share a standard flaw, one much less reflective of their particular person high quality than of the cohesion of Star Wars as a model proper now: none of those video games have felt consequential to the bigger franchise.

One of the good issues about Star Wars is that, in contrast to the Insomniac Spider-Man video games or one thing like Hogwarts Legacy, its video video games happen in the very same canon as every little thing else. Theoretically, there’s no division between what occurs in video games and what occurs in movies and TV reveals, and there’s one thing significant and reassuring about the concept that the tales you interact with in a special medium are unfolding inside the similar overarching narrative that started again in 1977.

Some video games don’t rock the boat an excessive amount of — the Star Wars Battlefront video games, as an example, are all about recreating large battles from the movies within the type of large-scale multiplayer fight arenas. But within the case of video games like Star Wars Outlaws or the Star Wars Jedi collection, it feels a bit of bewildering that these characters and tales haven’t been famous in canon.

Back when the Legends imprint was nonetheless canon, the reveal that the primary character of Knights of the Old Republic was an amnesic Darth Revan grew to become a defining a part of the prolonged universe. He was an essential comedian e book determine and was even slated to appear as a Force ghost in The Clone Wars. Compare that to Order 66 survivor Cal Kestis, the star of two profitable video games and a guerrilla antagonist to the Empire.

Despite encountering Darth Vader himself, he’s but to look on-screen, solely receiving a point out within the Anakin and Obi-Wan-centric e book Star Wars: Brotherhood. Not each sport’s story necessitates ripple results in different media, and an absence of references in different media doesn’t negate the standard of the video games, however you’d suppose {that a} character who’s battled a number of Inquisitors, survived an encounter with Darth Vader, and is branded a felony by the Empire can be essential sufficient to get a shout-out someplace.

The subsequent Star Wars video games on the discharge schedule are Zero Company, a turn-based techniques sport set throughout the Clone Wars, and Fate of the Old Republic, a religious successor to KOTOR. Only time will inform how profitable these video games are and the way related their tales might be to the overarching canon, however in some unspecified time in the future, it might be thrilling to see some actual crossover between this period of video games and mainstream Star Wars media. Interconnected universes include their very own issues, however what’s the purpose of getting such a tightly linked galaxy if we all know that some characters gained’t ever get to go away their small quadrant?