'Knights of the Old Republic II' at 20: The key to Star Wars' future is found in its past

Image from the game Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. Concept art depicting a person in black clothing with a red lightsaber fighting a person in white clothing with a blue lightsaber. In the foreground there is a heavily scared person (with one red eye and one normal eye) holding a red lightsaber, ready to strike.

Knights of the Old Republic II (KOTOR 2), one of the best Star Wars games of all time, turns 20 this year and, against all expectations, remains profoundly relevant. What could both Star Wars as a whole and RPG video games learn from Obsidian Entertainment and LucasArts' classic?

The Old Republic era, which (inexplicably) hasn't been explored in live-action yet, continues to be one of the Star Wars fandom's favorite bits of galactic history, mainly due to the all-out wars that – at least in the Legends continuity – broke out between the Jedi Order and the Sith Empire. KOTOR 2, however, chose to put the Jedi Knights on the back foot again because that's how you create an engaging conflict from the get-go. It starts with a five-year jump that sees the Order almost completely wiped out by the Sith and the player embodying The Exile, a Jedi that, you guessed it, was exiled from the Order.