The last time Star Wars: The Old Republic got a fancy cinematic trailer was 5 years ago, to celebrate the release of Knights of the Eternal Throne. The Star Wars MMO’s cinematics have a fandom of their own, and now BioWare has released a new one to usher in 7.0 and Legacy of the Sith.
Launching today after a delay that pushed the new expansion two months out from its initially planned release coinciding with the game’s tenth anniversary last December, Legacy of the Sith kicks off a new update cycle and a year’s worth of anniversary updates for the MMO. Many of the changes in the new expansion have been controversial, but the new cinematic has almost single handedly changed doom and gloom to hype again.
Premiering shortly before the servers were planned to go live – maintenance was extended, but since then the game has gone online, meaning Legacy of the Sith is well and truly out – the trailer renders the galaxy far far away 3,000 years before the movies in exquisite detail. We meet characters new and old laying the foundations of the new storyline.
Padawan Sa’har Kateen, who previously appeared in the Legacy of the Sith key art and the brief cinematic tease in an earlier trailer, is shown to have been torn away from her brother by a Jedi master that sensed the force in her. The two eventually wound up on Elom, a planet which is the stage of a new Flashpoint in 7.0.
Here they battle an unnamed Sith over control of an ancient machine, to be interrupted by Darth Malgus, the rogue lord who has turned on both factions of the galaxy. During the confrontation, Sa’har activates the machine and has a vision of her brother also being force sensitive, but ultimately enslaved due to not being picked by the master.
There’s a lot of fancy lightsaber dueling going on, and the machine – which Malgus reveals can apparently locate force sensitive individuals across the galaxy – is destroyed. However, it spits out a holocron, almost like a gumball machine, that apparently has plans for building another, which Malgus escapes with – presumably, we’ll spend 7.0 hunting down the rogue Sith, again, to take his shiny cube.
No matter what fans’ thought of the controversial changes coming with 7.0, the reactions to the trailer across comments, social media, and r/SWTOR are resoundingly positive. It really just takes a well rendered and edited cinematic to put fire in the veins of gamers, it seems.
The real question though, which has been left hanging since False Emperor years ago – can we finally side with Malgus? Sure, he’s been a villain for much of the game, but he keeps making legitimately compelling arguments.
As for what Legacy of the Sith is actually like? Well, you’ll have to stay tuned for our upcoming coverage and guides to learn more – or jump in yourself, as the expansion is now live.
