This much was revealed by Ohlen during a discussion he had with Eurogamer about Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 and the sci-fi franchise as a whole. The creative director of BioWare Austin explained that the studio wanted to include a plot twist involving the protagonist’s trusted mentor actually being evil, with Yoda being thought of as the perfect tool for such a deception. However, since Yoda himself was untouchable canonically-speaking, developers thought about using a character from Yoda’s race instead, as fans would implicitly trust someone that looked like him.

Of course, this idea didn’t make its way beyond the conceptual phases of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 due to BioWare bosses Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk officially nixing the notion before it gained any traction. Ohlen even agreed with Muzyka and Zeschuk’s call on the issue, saying, “It was a very smart decision on their part. In order for a company to be successful and control its own destiny, you need to own your own IP, and we didn’t own Dungeons & Dragons or Star Wars. Mass Effect was something we decided we had to do instead of another Star Wars game.”

Following the choice to abandon the Yoda-related idea for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, everyone from the core KOTOR team moved over to Mass Effect, while James Ohlen worked on the concepts for the Dragon Age realm. As Ohlen said, “I was the only person who left to eventually start concepting on the Dragon Age universe and game. I was like, ‘We need to make a Baldur’s Gate! We can’t give up on it - we need to make something inspired by the Baldur’s Gate franchise!’”

All things considered, while the original idea involving a Yoda-like mentor eventually revealing themselves as the ultimate baddie in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 could have been a great moment in the sequel, it’s safe to say that most fans are happy with the game as it is. After all, it’s easily one of the best Star Wars games to date, so hopefully, the series will be revived at some point in the future for the trilogy to be completed.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 is available now for PC and Xbox.

Source: Eurogamer