On the eve of its fifth anniversary, Star Wars: The Old Republic has announced its latest expansion, Knights of the Eternal Throne. We sat down with lead producer Ben Irving and creative producer Charles Boyd to talk about the big picture for Knights of the Eternal Throne and what the latest expansion will add to the Old Republic universe .
Star Wars means a lot of things to different people, but to Boyd, Knights of the Eternal Throne zeroes in on one of Star Wars’ most powerful themes:
“Emotional connection between people, especially family,” Boyd said. “That’s the one kind of experience that anyone in the world can relate to… So when you see these characters having difficulties and troubles, yeah they’re swinging laser swords around and there’s robots and an Emperor and all that, but they’re still having these really relatable issues. Like, their daughter’s going down a dark path, and they’re deciding what to do about that. Or a child feeling like their parents are punishing or holding them back.”
While Knights of the Eternal Throne touches on the epic themes of family and connection that make Star Wars such a resounding story, it does so by honing in on specifics; the “Betrayal” trailer is all about one mother and one daughter’s story.
“It’s strange how it can be so epic and huge-scale, but still so personal and so relatable, just like the films are. To me that’s the core of it,” said Boyd.
While Knights of the Fallen Empire pitted brother against father, the new trailer centers around mother versus daughter. Irving said, “This is a really strong time for women in Star Wars, right? In The Force Awakens with Rey being a strong female heroine, and then also in Rogue One, there’s going to be another lead female role. So I think, while we didn’t do that intentionally, it fits in nicely with women in Star Wars.”
Boyd added, “Well it’s just a cool opportunity, right? To tell a different story than people are used to and explore different things.”
Boyd and Irving can be doubly sure that they’re being true to the heart and soul of Star Wars , because everything gets run by Disney/Lucasfilm before being finalized. To Boyd this is not only a blessing, but an opportunity to make sure they’re aligned with the canon feel of Star Wars as completely and accurately as possible.
“We interact with Lucasfilm and Disney all the time. They review everything we do, all of the dialogue, all of the gameplay, everything, and give us their feedback, which is really awesome because yeah, it keeps us on track with what they want Star Wars to feel like, and what they want it to be,” said Boyd. “They’re just as passionate of fans as any of us are. And it’s awesome to get to go straight to the source and be like, does this feel cool? Does this feel right? And they’re like ‘yeah, yeah, that’s awesome.’”
And what is it exactly that Knights of the Eternal Throne will deliver to players who’ve spent five years with Star Wars: The Old Republic ?
“We’re exploring a slightly different part of the family,” said Boyd. “In Fallen Empire , it was all about Arcann, the son, and his father, Valkorion, and how their relationship led to Arcann becoming who he was and killing his father or manipulating you into killing his father, depending on your choices, and ultimately conquering the galaxy, feeling like he had so much to prove. Yes, he went out in a giant spaceship and conquered whole planets, but it was all because his father never appreciated him, never thought that he was worth anything.”
By contrast, Knights of the Eternal Throne is about Valkorion’s influence on the rest of his family - and you, the Outlander.
“This year we really wanted to take the opportunity to explore the rest of the family and see how Valkorion’s influence and Senya as the mother and Vaylin as the daughter, how that shows the other side of things, and how they get to where they were gonna be and why they are the way they are,” Boyd said. By bringing the full details of their backstory to light, Boyd said the team can “really dive into those issues and how it has led to these people becoming who they are.”
Part of those issues are caused by you, of course.
“You may actually be causing a lot of that dissolution of the family,” said Boyd. “It’s probably not too surprising that none of the kids actually like their dad all that much. Now, because to them he’s in your mind, you’re really just a representation of him, and every time they’re lashing out at you, every time they’re coming after you, it's because they’re really coming after him. That’s who they’re really wanting to take down.”
Not only is the Outlander part of the family (after a twisted, psychic manner of speaking), Irving pointed out that the Outlander is “part of that destiny, because you’re so closely tied to the father who really started all of this.” Valkorion influences his family through the Outlander, which really drives the family’s attention to you, the player.
As for changes between Knights of the Eternal Throne and Knights of the Fallen Empire, a few major ones involve repeatable multiplayer content that enables players to stay in the Star Wars: The Old Republic world between story chapters. “That’s one of the lessons we learned last year – when people want story, they want huge amounts of story in one bundle, Netflix-style, that they can just binge out in whatever time that they want,” Irving said. “But in between those big bundles of story coming, people want repeatable multiplayer content, so that’s going to be a focus of ours after the expansion.”
In terms of narrative, Boyd and the creative team doubled down on creating impactful choices. “A lot of people felt like, you know, I got to make some choices but I really wanted to see some of these pay off, or I didn’t feel like they paid off enough,” said Boyd. “I was really passionate about making sure that the choices this year had a lot of conclusion, had a lot of payoff that you would see and feel, and feel that they had a big difference, like you actually created an impact… There’s as much of it as we could cram in.”
Irving hopes players will have experiences so starkly different, they’ll be driven to replay past content to achieve outcomes they didn’t even realize were possible.
“The dream for me is: you guys will play the expansion separately, and then talk to each other and be like, ‘Yeah, it was really powerful when you killed so-and-so,’” said Irving. “And you’ll be like, ‘I didn’t kill so-and-so.’ ‘What are you talking about? How do you not kill so-and-so? Sigh, I gotta go back and play the game because I don’t want to kill so-and-so.’ That’s the culmination of all those ideas and all the work that these guys have put into it, seeing players have that reaction and try to work out what branch of the story they need to go back and replay to get to the characters doing what they want to do.”
What does that mean? It means a lot of little variables may come back to haunt players. “There will be choices that people made in Chapters Eight, Nine, Ten even of Fallen Empire that lead to things here that other players might not get that option,” said Boyd. “For players who’ve been along for the whole ride, they’re going to see a lot of things pay off in sometimes very dramatic ways, sometimes very mortal ways, that I think players will be pleased by.”
“The greyness is more in the sum of all the choices,” Boyd added. “I think even in real life, you make good choices or bad choices and it’s kind of binary, your choice. But when you add up the sum of your life, like, am I a good person or a bad person? More so than ever before, I think with Fallen Empire and Eternal Throne, we’re seeing less ‘I’m a pure Dark Side, Dark all the way’ and we’re seeing people drift back and forth because they’re like, ‘I really don’t want that person to abandon me,’ or ‘You know what, i’m kind of bad, but I’m not kill ten thousand civilians bad just yet.’ I think that makes it really interesting that you can kind of play both sides a bit because it’s so emotional that you just do the things you feel are right for the character you’ve created. That can be really powerful.”
Ultimately, said Irving, Fallen Empire was about survival, while Eternal Throne is about control. “I feel like one’s very defensive and one’s very offensive,” said Irving. “And ultimately, still inside the machinations of all of these crazy characters. But I really think we’re setting you up this time to say: My goal is to seize control and rule the galaxy.”
For Boyd, Eternal Throne is about something slightly different. “This year it’s really more about taking charge and becoming a leader and relationships with people in and of themselves,” said Boyd. “Kind of like the cinematic this year, it’s about the relationship between a mother and her daughter, really diving into your relationship with all of these characters that you’ve been with all this time and paying them all off as you go through the chapters and seeing where everyone actually ends up. How did everything come together for all of these people and you as the Outlander?”
If you’re interested in finding out, Knights of the Eternal Throne launches Dec. 2. Will you be playing? Feel free to talk about Star Wars: The Old Republic’s latest expansion in our comments section below.
