Exclusive: New Old Republic trailer outs possible ability to play as other faction's races with the Legacy System

The new video for Star Wars: The Old Republic shows off a bunch of upcoming additions to the game, but, at first, it looked light on actual new information. We knew there were going to be new Warzones, and they had already said that Guild Banks were coming. After watching through the video a few times, however, we discovered something that's actually a pretty big deal for fans of the game.

Above: The Force is strong in this one

It shows up during the "Legacy" system section, which actually didn't include any new information per se, but it did include what looked to us like a Miraluka (the blind, Republic-only race) Sith Warrior (a class that only the Sith Empire can play). Sure, it could, technically, have been a Jedi using a red lightsaber and wearing dark armor, but we didn't think BioWare would throw something like that in the video to confuse people.

Turns out we were right. After checking with BioWare's Daniel Erickson, we received confirmation that the guy in question was "definitely a Miraluka Sith." While that's not confirmation that it's tied into the Legacy system (and Erickson wasn't able to go into additional details), the fact that it showed up during that section of the video essentially confirms it anyway.

This is huge news for the game, and the first solid, non-cosmetic information we've gotten on the Legacy system. Being able to unlock different faction's races to play on either side was rumored in the past, but this is the first we've actually seen it in action. The ability to play as a Miraluka Sith, a Chiss Smuggler, or a Mirialan Bounty Hunter definitely adds some fun replayability to the game, and we're really excited to find out more.

Hollander Cooper

Hollander Cooper was the Lead Features Editor of GamesRadar+ between 2011 and 2014. After that lengthy stint managing GR's editorial calendar he moved behind the curtain and into the video game industry itself, working as social media manager for EA and as a communications lead at Riot Games. Hollander is currently stationed at Apple as an organic social lead for the App Store and Apple Arcade.