Star Wars: The Old Republic – Rediscovering A Lost Love

As you have heard on previous episodes of Players Club or seen on the VGUTV YouTube channel, I am back into Star Wars: The Old Republic. Simply saying I am having fun is a very large understatement as I am, in my eyes, living my Star Wars story as these various characters.

My love of the source material goes all the way back to 1999 and the release of The Phantom Menace and I unfortunately had the pleasure of seeing Attack of the Clones in theaters back in 2002. I have fond memories of playing Star Wars: Obi-Wan and the first Knights of the Old Republic game in 2005.

My love of Star Wars: The Old Republic specifically, goes all the way back to its reveal in 2008. For the next three years, I would stay updated on the game and get very salty that I didn’t get into the beta in 2011. What didn’t make me salty were the galactic timeline lore videos that informed those who didn’t have the greatest knowledge of the extensive Expanded Universe of everything big that had happened prior to the Battle of Yavin. That all changed in December of that year when the game would ultimately release and boy did I fall in love. It was also a great motivator for me to get out of bed in the morning as I was not feeling that great coming off the heels of two spinal fusions.

As I’m sure most of you reading who played the game at some point did I immediately went with a Jedi Knight as my first character and I gave him the dumbest name that I didn’t even think was that bad at the time: Mortificus. Yes, it is very goofy but I was a teenager and didn’t know better. Nowadays when I name a character in an MMO I try to make it something that could be a reality in the world of said MMO.

Around this time last year, I wasn’t in the best place and I would start freaking out after the sun would set and there was really nothing I could do about it. I then went back to Star Wars: The Old Republic actively as opposed to the once in a while experiences I had from 2015 to around 2018. If there was something I could point to as “pushing me” back into The Old Republic, it is without a doubt last year’s Star Wars Celebration. When I am playing a favorite on PC such as Star Trek Online, Fallout 4, or Dragon Age: Inquisition I try to put something on in the background that is somewhat close to the game I am playing. When it came to the four-day live stream it was as if the stars had aligned.

Whether I am playing as my Smuggler Eyrndack, my Jedi Consular Casdu Varrat, or my Bounty Hunter Malis Cole I feel like I am shaping their stories with my decisions. With Malis Cole, I am finally free to be a scumbag. But not just any scumbag but one who has a code of things he will and will not do. Some examples off the top of my head are lying to a client that wanted her son sent to Korriban and be trained as a Sith. The job was to kill the father and bring back the boy. Instead of killing the father who mentioned that sending his son to be trained in the dark side would end with the boy’s death. Malis is not the kind of character who would harm a child or indirectly let a child be harmed. When playing as my Jedi Shadow Casdu Varrat, I am the ultimate goody-two-shoes that is dedicated solely to achieving peace from within. This is what makes him stand apart from the sith he faced in the ruins of the Jedi temple on Coruscant before he temporarily cured his Master of a mysterious sith illness. As for Captain Eyrndack, he and Corso Riggs are currently on both the run and a treasure hunt. After Skavak had betrayed Eyrndack and caused him to get stuck with a death-mark, Eyrndack responded by stealing Skavak’s ship. The only downside I’ve had from playing as my characters are the fact that they and the entire universe ultimately do not matter as Star Wars: The Old Republic and all of its history are now Legends material (non-canonical).

Despite the game looking dated as it was originally released nearly a decade ago, the rich universe that has been built through Knights of the Old Republic and its sequel makes up for any graphical hiccups. The one thing I learned from my time going back to Star Wars: The Old Republic is that you must grind as if your life depends on it. When I first played the game at launch I chose not to do every quest and I then proceeded to lose many of the boss fights. I also realized that I was not playing effectively so you know what that means! #AllanIsBadAtGames In all seriousness though, I do know what I am doing this time around so from here on out I am playing the game the way it was meant to be played.

What does matter, however, is the happiness and joy the game has brought me from that first day in late 2011 to nearly a decade later. In these worrisome times Star Wars: The Old Republic has not only kept me sane during all that is wrong currently but also the equivalent of video game comfort food.