With Star Wars: Force Awakens coming closer with every passing minute and with it breathing new life into the Star Wars series with a new trilogy and at least one spin-off movie, it can be said that Star Wars is back and looking to make an impact, and with this return to glory I must ask, is a new Star Wars RPG needed? I would say yes. Star wars games have always been greeted with mostly good feedback. The Knights of the Old Republic games and the Battlefront games both are well known and well-loved games. Battlefront 3 is in the works and is quoted to be released around next November, so should a new RPG be also needed. The RPG genre is one of the best and most loved genres in gaming, it allows you to be whomever you would like to be and you can choose to live that characters life however you see fit thanks to most RPG’s non-linear style of gameplay. But most RPG games these days seem to be set in medieval times, games such as Dragon Age, Elder Scrolls and Dark Souls. These are all great games but they can all sometimes feel very similar. The Space RPG genre is something that is slowing growing with games like Destiny and the highly anticipated No Man’s Sky, but the market for these games still feel lacking, some people may consider Mass Effect a Space RPG but it still feels too much like and Action-Adventure/Shooter. This is why I believe that a new Star Wars RPG is badly needed and would thrive within the market.
The Star Wars universe is one of the broadest and expanded in Fiction, to even try and read through all the books or even the aptly named Wookiepedia would take someone an age, so a game built in this universe would be vast and thriving. Before Star Wars games only ever really gave you two choices become a Jedi/Sith or become a soldier and that seemed to be it, even KOTOR gave you three character classes but eventually it ended the same way with you becoming a Jedi, so a game which allowed you to choose whatever path you wanted, Soldier, Pilot, Thief, Jedi, Sith, Bounty Hunter, Warrior or another, and how you wanted to walk that path would be a very rewarding game indeed. This would also be the same for the character races, Star Wars has a countless amount of races and being able to choose one of them would be a frustrating but great decision to be granted, play as a Wookie and use your brute strength as an advantage against your enemies, play as a Rodian and be the one who shoots first, play as a Mandalorian and use your ancestors vast knowledge of war to rule the galaxy. These are all mouth-watering ideas but they are only ideas, to see them come to life would be a real treat, being able to play as a Bounty Hunter working any contract the more dangerous the more credits, being able to save the galaxy as one of the greatest Jedi Knights or rule it as a feared and powerful Sith Lord! Or choose both sides of the force and walk your own path as a Dark Jedi, a Star Wars RPG would have endless possibilities of how to play it.
Of course many Star Wars games in the past have found it hard to find a balance in the weapons/powers, some games had amazing combat but lacked in the Force and with guns while others shared the opposite problem but a game that could mix the KOTOR or Revenge of the Siths combat, Force Unleashed force powers and even a hint of Battlefronts shooting would find a perfect balance but those things are easier said than done. A Star Wars RPG would be ideal and greeted with open arms but sadly I or you have no power over this…unless of course you work for Disney/Bioware then you have lots of power over this, but for the rest of us we are just fans with a hope…a new hope that the force will awaken on our gaming systems and desktops in the near future.
