The Star Wars franchise has firmly established itself as among the vastest pop-culture media franchises in terms of lore. The more-immediate past was explored with the prequels and the future beyond the original trilogy followed with the sequels, leaving the farther past as another option. The gaming space tackled this back in the early 2000s with the acclaimed Knights of the Old Republic RPGs, followed by The Old Republic MMORPG.
It proved a beloved, fan-favorite timeline with new grand scopes, pitting armies of Jedi and Sith against each other in an era ripe for creative liberties due to being so far away from the films. The High Republic publishing campaign has been revealed this year acting as a canon alternative to the Old Republic pre-Disney materials, though books seem to be what it’s strictly confined to for the time being. With Lucasfilm looking for what’s next after the Skywalkers, the High Republic would make a great new setting for a video game.
10 Spiritual Successor To The Old Republic
Going off the biggest point made, the High Republic era in a video game could serve as a more direct spiritual successor of sorts to the Old Republic as the latter has since been de-canonized by the Disney acquisition. It’s certainly a bummer for many fans since the Old Republic brought some great new lore, stories, and characters on either side of the Force, and the two Xbox games were heavily praised in particular.
But if the Old Republic will not see a canon reboot, the High Republic could potentially be a great alternative in the video game medium specifically. Writers/directors/developers would just need to take the same creative approaches taken with the two aforementioned games to craft compelling stories, characters, and environments – without coming off as a pale imitation.
9 RPG
Piggybacking off the Old Republic games again, it would be fantastic for fans to see another rich Star Wars RPG set in a vast, high-quality, narrative-filled world. The Knights of the Old Republic games were especially renowned for not just being among the best all-around games made, but two of the best RPGs ever made.
Fans have yet to see a game tackle this since Disney’s buyout, which is a shame considering it’s a sci-fi, fantasy universe with a gargantuan scale and seemingly endless narrative possibilities. With today’s technology – and next-gen around the corner – this is a tantalizing proposition for a future game.
8 A Potential Series
Like with all high-profile games, should they see great success on the critical and commercial fronts, the next question becomes whether a sequel (or sequels) is on the cards. If fans get a Star Wars game with the High Republic as the main backdrop, RPG or not, it could be the start of a great series.
Given the High Republic takes place around 200 years before the beginning of the Skywalker saga – The Phantom Menace – there’s more than enough room to play with grand stories taking place over the course of many years without contradicting any established lore.
7 Perfect Timing
With the Skywalker saga done and Lucasfilm needing to decide on what to cover next in the expansive Star Wars universe, the timing couldn’t be better for this. While Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order proved a critical success for EA, the next bold approach could easily be a game (or game series) taking place in a largely unexplored era of the canon.
Nothing will fix the faults of the Skywalker saga, but this would present an exciting new setting to move onto and on an exciting medium in the form of gaming.
6 Sticking Strictly To Books Would Be A Wasted Opportunity
Before the reveal of what Project Luminous was, speculation ran wild on the Internet that it would be a collection of live-action films that would be set during the High Republic. While a wide array of books will likely prove to be good in their own right, Star Wars is primarily a visual franchise on screens.
As of now, it looks like novels, kids’ books, YA novels, and comics are all fans are getting. If live-action TV and films aren’t on the cards, video games would be the next best bet, especially with PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on the way.
5 Covering Fresh Ground
It has been made clear already, but the biggest point in favor of the High Republic being the next major Star Wars setting, and at least in part presenting it in video games, is that this era is entirely new. The endless possibilities in terms of creative liberties with Star Wars would generate great hype among franchise fans and video game fans.
Particularly since, while there are plenty of great examples, pushing out post-RotS, pre-ANH and the like content is becoming overdone. This would inject a sense of freshness that the franchise as a whole desperately needs.
4 Multiple Loosely-Connected Games
Should a hypothetical, initial High Republic-set game prove successful, it could become a catalyst for – in addition to sequels – other standalone or series of High Republic games. They could be all loosely connected since they would explore aspects of the same era.
If effective creative teams are attached to these potential games, fans could get several games of different genres exploring different corners of the Star Wars universe during this fresh, upcoming backdrop and setting.
3 Lead-Up To The ‘Great Disaster’
With the announcement of this new era of Star Wars to explore, there’s unsurprisingly, and appropriately, a major collective event that forms the basis for what some stories in the High Republic will revolve around. The “Great Disaster” is described as a horrific event that caused starships all around the galaxy to be spontaneously launched out of hyperspace.
Charles Soule’s novel The High Republic: Light of the Jedi will directly touch on this, but it presents a hypothetical video game with another interesting narrative angle to play with. A game could use this opportunity to bridge the actual event with a prelude story that leads up to the Great Disaster itself.
2 Crossover
While not necessarily calling for a long-running, constantly-connected “video game universe” akin to the MCU, a successful game and subsequent titles– whether part of a series or standalone titles – could be a catalyst for a project that ties multiple together for one story.
Given that Star Wars is a massive galaxy, a game could have a plot that sees several characters from different High Republic titles deal with a conflict together. A story centering on the lead-up to the Great Disaster, during, or right after it could be a good excuse to bring such characters together for a crossover game/event.
1 Jump-Off Point To TV/Film
This is in part related to a game, but a potential byproduct of a successful High Republic title(s) would be incentive and motive to push the High Republic even further onto other mediums. Fans could beloved characters from some well-done games be adapted into live-action TV or film, with the latter being Star Wars’ primary/ grandest stage to begin with.
This could be in a similar fashion to how The Clone Wars characters will soon see live-action adaptations on The Mandalorian thanks to the great success Dave Filoni brought to those animated works, and Star Wars in general.
NEXT: 10 Star Wars Games To Remake After KOTOR
