Obsidian absolutely still has the writing talent to do a KOTOR game. Like 2's unhinged nihilism isn't a high bar lmao
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Jeff Grubb: Knights of the Old Republic Remake is not being worked on right now
- Thread starter TheUnsungHero26
- Start date
- Rumor
It depends on who does it I would say, Carrie Patel or Josh Sawyer as leads ? Why not.
I was half joking but I do think it would be worth it from a financial point of view. I mentioned Obsidian because they have been developing as many as 3 titles at the same time with honestly quite decent results for the most part. After they're done with either Avowed or TOW2 it would be well within their capacities to do KOTOR. Just get them some animation experts to make sure the presentation is top notch and they can handle the rest.
On the other hand: yeah, screw Disney. Making a game with these idiots would be a total waste of precious WRPG developer time.
Honestly most of their writing staff would be fine and it's not they have a lack of experience in RPGs.
The Obsidian style of RPG's still has a lot of BioWare DNA in it, they'd be fine
However I'd rather then do High Republic rather than Old Republic
I dont necessarily agree. Avellone's voice, for better or worse, made a lot of those characters compelling and I feel it would be hard to emulate it.
Edit: Sawyer would be different but he would bring a strong sense of character for sure
Idk pal, in a way it hurts even more with Sui Generis because you can check the dev diaries and after like 8 years of releasing the demo they are still putting whole months of work into making sure animations work just right when you attack an enemy from a higher position :') RIP.
IMO the issue with Obsidian writing in some of their games is they are clearly limited by higher-ups or main designers enforcing a particular vision of good-vs-evil high fantasy/sci-fi. POE and POE2 had overall decent writing but yikes it was pretty obvious that most of what Avellone and Ziets came up with wasn't super intended to be central to the plot and went through an editor to make it fit with the overall theme, and that's not to mention how awful things were in NWN2. Ofc this does not mean that the characters they wrote for POE/POE2 didn't fit the games, it's just that the writing would probably have been far better if the game hadn't been pitched as a modern successor of Baldur's Gate with all the genericness that entails.
In contrast, look at KOTOR2, MOTB and Pentiment, all games where the main goal was to deliver something different and deliver they did. Whenever they set out with the goal of breaking the mold, they excel at it. Of course, that means the writing of games like Avowed and TOW2 will likely be among the worst by Obsidian so we'll probably have to wait a while to see them shine again.
Last edited:
Yes their writing staff is good when led correctly, I was implictly refering to The Outer Worlds honestly. Beyond that I don't know if they are still interested into working on licensed IPs.
Idk I feel his writing's pretty overrated. One of the setting it really worked in was Planescape but not Star Wars tbh
The only IP I can maybe see them doing is Fallout but they seem pretty content about doing their own stuff which I would much rather them do
So much of KotOR 2's praise is in the characterization of Kreia and I feel that was all him though
Hopefully this ends up turning into a Dead Island 2 situation, where it starts and stops over and over as they find new studios until the right one powers their way to a solid unexpected hit. It's nice to dream right?
It was all him. Avellone inserts all of his ideology into his characters
It was all him. Avellone inserts all of his ideology into his characters
Tbh even if Avellone isn't all that good*, the vast majority of Star Wars media is so laughably poorly written and banal that it's no wonder KOTOR2 ended up getting that much praise.
*imo, he is a great writer, but becoming stretch goal man was a huge mistake not to mention the more recent controversy.
Hard agree, sadly I'm pretty much convinced by now TOW2 and Avowed will amount to more TOW1-quality writing. Praying for Sawyer to do another small project so we can get the good stuff.
I'm not convinced Avowed will be of the same vein, its game director is Carrie Patel, co-lead narrative designer of POE2. And nothing from the trailer indicates a tone ala TOW, too early to judge the writing imo.
Good point, although I wasn't quite fond of POE2's writing. Loved the game and the overall low-key tone compared to POE1 but something was missing. I would put it well below MOTB/Pentiment, close to NV and way above NWN2 and TOW. My main issue is that they are going for the mainstream crowd with a first person title (they literally pitched it to save the studio from bankruptcy by getting a greedy publisher to fund them) and it would be wishful thinking to expect them to deviate ever so slightly from typical fantasy storytelling as they did in POE2. Anyway, time will tell. I love them and seriously hope the game surprises me and ends up being great.
I don't think it looking bad is what caused MS to pass on it. MS don't like to work on IP if they don't own it. Indy is an exception since it was in the works before they acquired Bethesda I would guess.
That's probably true. But it also makes me wonder what Sony balked at...
I want to see this footage!
I don't think The Outer Worlds was outright bad, but it didn't really have much of interest to say about the capitalist hellscape satirical setting they were trying to use. Like the writing wasn't bad, just rote.
It's also just really damn hard to write a funny game. From the outset they were trying to portray it as space fallout with a focus on humor. Humor is so damn hard to do well in games, and they didn't pull it off well. Part of why Fallout works is that the goofiness of that world is woven into its DNA but it's not overbearing. It can take itself seriously alongside the funny parts.
I think TOW leaned so much on the humor that it hurt its ability to tell serious stories, like the game almost felt compelled to force jokes which would undercut its own writing. The best parts of the games were when it let characters like Parvati breathe, and not when it was trying to be funny about human workers being turned into food or something.
But considering PoE1, PoE2, Pentiment all had some great writing in them, I don't think Obsidian has lost their touch or anything.
It's very good. PoE2 is "Almost as good as BG2 tier" though, which is the highest tier attainable.
This will sound odd but is it generic fantasy or does it have enough uniqueness to be interesting?
Yes, it does have enough uniqueness to be interesting. Not only the lore is very interesting in itself, but it also has a late-medieval early-modern feel to it that makes it stand out from other fantasy games. The second one in particular has a very unique setting.
OP
OP
PoE is a pretty good game. I bounced off it a few time, but once I stuck with it I enjoyed it. The game is well written, but could have used a few edits to make it tighter (there's also an issue where they gave certain Kickstarter backers dialogue). I'm mixed on the first game's setting. There is some really cool and unique stuff, but there is also some "generic fantasy". There are few standout party members, but the majority of them didn't click with me.
PoE2 is one of my favourite RPGs of all time. It fixes every issue I had with the first. The setting—the deadfire archipelago—is very unique. The game's tone is much lighter, while still taking itself seriously. It brings back my favourite party members from the first, while introducing some great new ones. Everything is voice acted now, and the game just looks great. I highly recommend it.
Pillars 2 is a direct sequel, and allows you to import your character (and your choices) from the first.
OP
OP
PoE1 is a pretty generic affair all things considered, don't go in expecting something like MOTB. Sawyer spent a lot of time building a believable world but was not brave enough* to break free from typical generic fantasy tropes like having elves, dwarves, dragons and other creatures. Still laughing whenever I remember they put in vampires and just called them "fampyrs" lmao. Tyranny was a much more creative effort but the development didn't go very well and feels somewhat unfinished sadly.
PoE2 shares the same setting but they actually go into the non-generic parts of it that are mentioned in lore entries during the first game. The main quest is still a bit generic but the side-content is great and the companions are better overall. Sadly, the 'pirate' vibes weren't that attractive for most, and the game sold poorly (on top of that Feargus forced Sawyer to waste money on full voice acting RIP) which is why I'm expecting Avowed to play it much safer.
Imo, I'd play PoE1 in a normal or easy setting just to get through it at a somewhat fast pace and then I'd play PoE2 right after. There is one really well-writen companion (Durance) whose background pretty much sets the stage for the sequel.
*hard to blame him since that's what the Kickstarter pitch was... I really wish he had gotten to do the Torment spiritual successor. inXile really wasn't ready at the time :((
Very well put. I also think these games + Tyranny show that the team still has the talent, they just really need to be assigned to projects where they can shine without having to cater to awful and generic fantasy tropes. Honestly high fantasy by now it's one of these settings where you need to subvert a lot of shit or it will be extremely banal and unappealing for anybody who has read actual literature. BG3 suffers a lot from this too but the presentation elevates the writing and in some cases you can notice they made an effort to put wacky stuff into the mix, even if it risked making the game a bit of a theme park.
TOW is a bit special in that they didn't really need to do the typical high fantasy shtick and it still didn't click very well. Maybe I should have better hopes for TOW2 since the stuff that didn't work there seems somewhat easier to fix. Sci-fi fans are used to much better writing and are more open to deviations from the generic formula. That and Fallout 2's writing was mostly cringeworthy yet the Fallout veterans at Obsidian managed to do New Vegas, so maybe we will see a similar jump in quality.
Last edited:
OP
OP
Not a sequel, just a standalone game set in the same universe.
Back on the topic of KotOR Remake, I really hope we get an in-depth article from someone explaining how it all fell apart.
I want to see footage. I know Project Ragtag has gameplay out there too.
I want to see the vertical slice that allegedly made the entire development collapse.
Either it was an absolute turd or it played like an actual RPG with too many numbers and tactical pausing for Sony's liking. Would be interested in it, too.
Technically yes, it's set post-Deadfire and characters from Deadfire appear in Avowed
I desperately want to see the game. Something it in had to salvageable but Sony didn't wanna play ball with I guess
Not terribly surprised to hear. I'm pretty fine with it. I think both it and KOTOR 2 still hold up just fine, and with mod support that can fix a lot of the issues with it.
Jason Schreier has heard from two people at Saber that are still working on it
"Is it alive?" and "Will it ever actually come out?" are two very different questions. A third is "If it does ever come out, what will it actually look like?"
That said, I've talked to two people at Saber who both say they're still currently working on it, so I don't believe that the comment that it isn't being worked on "in any way" right now is true.
Shrodingers KOTOR Remake - its both in an alive and dead state at the same time.