Here at Holonet History, we're committed to bringing you, our viewers, the highest quality entertainment and education possible. Please enjoy this completed program, courtesy of the Dantooine Historical Society.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Fandom: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Bounty Hunter | Champion of the Great Hunt/Mako (Star Wars), Torian Cadera/Mako, Kira Carsen/Male Jedi Knight | Hero of Tython
Characters: Mako (Star Wars), Female Bounty Hunter | Champion of the Great Hunt (Star Wars), Kira Carsen, Male Jedi Knight | Hero of Tython (Star Wars)
Additional Tags: Canon-Typical Violence, Higher than Canon Sexual Situations, useless lesbian, sapphic pining, Fake seduction, In which a lesbian is cyranoed through seducing a man so she can kidnap him for credits
Summary:
Csilla Tabor, Bounty Hunter, faces the most dangerous situation any mercenary can find themselves in: a party, with no armor or weapons. At least Mako is there to help.
(It’s been, mercy, a decade and a half since SWTOR launched, and I haven’t exactly kept up with it. I was more of a KotOR fan - I even did a Let’s Play - but I still had fun making my own characters. This fic doesn’t take anything into consideration besides the original storyline, and that only loosely. Shout out to the Cult of Jan Ni!)
So, my main blog is NSFW, and I have no idea if it’ll get caught up in the purge. If this one goes down with it, here’s where to find at least some of my stuff:
Polished stuff is at the Homebrewery, user Kiiratam. Mostly 5E, but I’ll try to backport some of my 3.5 PrCs and revised base classes, at the least.
I’m active on RPG.net, also as Kiiratam. Mostly hanging around Other Games Open, posting in the monthly painting threads and WH40K threads.
Holonet History doesn’t have another location yet, but I’ve got it downloaded as an archive, so Holonet History will return. Can’t have the thing I did instead of an actual senior project vanish.
Stories are at Archive of Our Own, also, you guessed it, as Kiiratam.
Either way, hope to keep making content for y’all to enjoy.
Masterlist: KotOR 2 mods that allow female Exiles to get Brianna the Handmaiden as a companion
One of the flaws of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords (KotOR 2) I believe everyone, regardless of how much you like the game (or not), will agree on, is that the Handmaiden, real name Brianna, will only join your party if you play a male Exile.
However, the good news is, there are actually mods that allow female Exiles to get Brianna the Handmaiden as a party member! Unfortunately, despite the fact that such mods have already existed for a while, there are still KotOR 2 fans who do not know the existence of such mods, which is why I am making this masterlist. Brianna is an amazing character, so I highly recommend you to have at least one playthrough with Brianna as your companion regardless of your Exile’s gender.
Originally I made this list in a reblog, but now I am making a whole new post for this so hopefully this list can be found more easily, especially since the OP I reblogged had deactivated their blog.
Currently there are three mods that allow female Exiles to get Handmaiden as a companion:
Handmaiden 4 Females: Gives Female Exiles an option to recruit Handmaiden. However, the main flaw of this mod is that Handmaiden will still refer to a female Exile with “he/him” pronouns, which some people (myself included) would find very immersion-breaking. Also, the mod has not been updated to make fully compatible with the latest version of The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod.
PartySwap: Allows you to recruit both Handmaiden and Disciple at the same time. Obviously, this mod is not compatible with Handmaiden 4 Females. This mod fixes any potential gender/pronouns mix-up by adding gender checks to dialogues that references the Exile’s gender, though by doing so it also basically makes Handmaiden and Disciple straight, so if you also want to romance Handmaiden as a female Exile, I would suggest checking out the below mod as well.
Handmaiden and Female Exile - Disciple and Male Exile Romance: My mod. As the mod name suggests, this mod allows you to recruit and romance Handmaiden as a female Exile, ditto for Disciple as a male Exile. Obviously, my mod is not compatible with Handmaiden 4 Females either. However, my mod provides an installation option to make my mod compatible with PartySwap. As my mod description says, read my instructions carefully. My mod also fixes any potential gender/pronouns mix-up.
It’s important to note that all these mods require The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod (TSLRCM) to work, so you need to install TSLRCM first. In all seriousness, TSLRCM is an essential mod for KotOR 2 that I do not recommend playing KotOR 2 without it. I need to point out that despite what the download page says, if you use the Steam version of KotOR 2 I do NOT recommend using the Steam Workshop version of TSLRCM. Manual installation is way better since it gives you more control in installing mods, avoiding mod conflicts as much as possible.
Hi there! This is a finished Let’s Play of KotOR I, but it won’t make much sense if you just read it like a normal tumblr blog. I recommend clicking on the ‘Episode Index’ button above, and using that to start from the Introduction. At the bottom of each episode is a link to the commentary for that episode, as well as the previous and next episodes, to make navigating the LP a little easier. Happy reading!
If I change anything in the LP, I’ll note and date it here, so you can make sure you’ll experienced the most current version.
20.8.2015 - All episode/commentary links checked and/or added. Episode index updated.
1.4.2016 - Fixed a few typos in later episodes. Looks like the Legendary/Canon split of Wookieepedia may have done unkind things to my links. I suspect that with Ep. 7, they’re cracking down on related music, since I noticed one of the music links was broken.
11.3.2017 - Added some additional commentary regarding the ethics questions in Episode 39. I’d been reading about the Coventry Blitz, and lo and behold, the wikipedia entry had a mention of KotOR. I’d be remiss not to mention it back. Increased the W T Sherman quotes in the LP by 100%.
Meet Csilla Tabor, Republic’s Most Wanted (Pardoned under duress), Champion of the Great Hunt, Alderaani Duchess, and the only known woman with cybernetic cheekbones:
(Seriously, she’s technically a cyborg, but her augmentations are hid by her cheekbones.)
The Bounty Hunter storyline is not, as they say, the best. It definitely has its high points - all of the class missions on Alderaan is solid gold (you get to coerce nobles with physical violence!) - but by and large, it’s ‘I do the job, and then I get paid.’ That’s it, that’s the whole class story.
Okay, not quite, but pretty close. You’re a mercenary working for the Imperials - Act 1 is you competing in the Great Hunt, a big bounty hunter to-do, against the guy who killed your and your first companion’s mentor. ...They didn’t exactly strain any braincells writing that. Act 2 is Mandalorian nonsense. Act 3 has you framed for a horrific crime against the Republic. ...which would be a much larger concern if they were ever going to hire you. More problematically, it winds up with working for a stupid-evil Sith Lord, who attempts to intimidate you while you’re already working for him, via hurting your companion.
Which brings me to the best part of the Bounty Hunter - the companions. You have three amazing companions, one decent one, and that’s it. There’s certainly no fifth companion, because the fifth bounty hunter companion is forced into your party with all the grace and tact of the Sun Crusher exploding a solar system.
On the fifth companion (Skadge), we will not further speak, except that they are stupid evil of the highest caliber (trying to murder the informants you’re after), they join your crew by threatening to hurt you if you don’t help them leave the prison planet they’re on, and you apparently go along with all this, instead of throwing them into the handy lava pit (no, seriously) and getting on with your life.
The mediocre companion is a Mandalorian. And that’s about it. Torian is about as bland and safe as Kaiden or Carth, but he’s a Mandalorian, so he’s totally more badass and dangerous and stuff. I’m constitutionally opposed to Mandalorians, and all the warrior culture idolization that’s been build up around them. And I say all of this after you’ve seen me fanboy over Canderous for a good number of these commentaries. But Canderous has realized that his culture has failed, and it needs to change. Torian, and most Legendary canon Mandalorians, are too busy being parts of the most awesome culture EVAR to engage in any self-contemplation. Which, as an aside, was why I was tickled by Mandalore being a planet of pacifists in the Clone Wars series, and Death Watch being a bunch of war-seeking glory-hounds. Not that it stopped me from squeeing all over Bo-Katan, but that was at least in part because she reminded me of Csilla. More on Csilla in a second.
The three good companions were Blizz, Gault and Mako. Blizz, as a innocent, enthusiastic jawa, was adorable. Entirely too adorable. I couldn’t let him tank for me; it was too painful to watch him get hurt. But, I mean, he’s a jawa with a rocket launcher. What’s not to love?
Gault, the devaronian of the many alias, is also forced into your party. However, unlike Skadge, who blusters and threatens, you spend the whole planet trying to catch Gault for a bounty. And he keeps escaping through various ingenious, skin of his teeth, I-can’t-believe-that-worked methods. I mean, he had a clone made, that you can shoot (excessively, even), to turn in for the bounty. His reaction to you turning his clone-body into swiss cheese out of pent-up frustration is glorious. Basically, he’s a dashing rogue, and he brings enough to the table that having him join the party as a fixer and sniper makes sense. Plus, his dialogues are hilarious.
And then there’s Mako. No, not that one.
Or those ones.
This one.
Mako is with you from the start (though she only becomes a combat companion a little ways in). She’s your exterior conscience, asking both ‘is this the right thing to do?’ and ‘will we get paid?’ No, seriously, asking ‘will I get paid?’ will get you an affection gain from Mako, every time. She’s your girlfriend (either in the romantic sense, or in the BFF sense, or both), she’s your tech support, she’s your pocket healer, and she’s basically Alyx Vance in Star Wars. I am an enthusiastic supporter of all of these, so it’s little wonder that Mako is my favorite SWTOR companion.
All in all, I had the most attachment to Csilla as a character. She was a bit of a thug, but her heart was in the right place. She always did the job (unless they lied about the job, which merited reconsideration), and she always, always got paid. She was also my PVP main, which probably was a contributing factor to my attachment. Csilla had the same armor from level 20 on (shown above), which she just kept slotting new leveled mods into. It gave her a consistent look that my other characters lacked. Well, not entirely true: Tan’Shai and Judit were always shirtless, and Gabraal moved through a progression of outfits before finding the Imperial uniform his pictures shows him in.
I had a lot of fun in the grand old days of PVP, running a Pyrotech/Advanced Prototype hybrid, with lots of fire, rocket-pack assisted uppercuts and railshots. I just started drifting away again, and since this was before the first expansion, there’s only so much you can run through the same content before getting bored with it. Especially when over half of the PVP matches are Huttball (essentially capture the flag), since this was before they did the big expansion to PVP.
All in all - I had a lot of fun with SWTOR, but the story ultimately serves the MMO, not the other way round. I’d probably buy the class storylines if they were remastered as single-player campaigns, but as as MMO, there’s too much slog per story beat. But I am glad I played.
Thank you all for joining me on this remastering and releasing of Holonet History’s Knights of the Old Republic. This marks the end of new content on this tumblr for the foreseeable future. I still have to go back and get all the episode links working, but otherwise, this is it. There are links to my other tumblrs in the ‘Beta’s Blogs’ header above; my next long-term project is going to be a long-form campaign journal of the Savage Tide Adventure Path from Dungeon Magazine. I hope to see you there, or on another one of my tumblrs.
Thank you, and goodnight. This is Holonet History, signing off.
He was actually the last character I played to completion, mostly at the recommendation of one of my fellow SWTOR gamers. And I do have to agree with his assessment - this is the best writing in the game. It has the problem of KotOR II, though. Namely, that the genre that they're emulating isn't the same as Star Wars. However, the superspy genre is a lot closer, thematically, to Star Wars' western/republic serial/chanbara medley than noir. For the most part, it works. Most of the not-Star Wars bits are the emblematic Spy bits - shades of gray, questions of loyalty, technological gadgets. They can't very well discard those and still write a spy story.
For Your Eyes Only, Code: Spoiler Warning, after the cut.
A lot of the thematic miscarrying comes from the demands of the MMO game mechanics - 'So you're a superspy. Go bring me the heads of ten rodian bounty hunters.' With most of the class options, MMO bear buttock collection quests still work - Jedi are bound to help the Republic and its people, Republic Troopers are literally under orders, Sith get a chance to grow stronger, Bounty Hunters and Smugglers get paid- but the Imperial Agent, despite theoretically having the same motivation as the Republic Trooper - 'It's my job' - should be doing their job in a very different manner. On the plus side, the writers apparently realized this clash, and they actually addressed it in the narrative. It's more of a lampshade than anything, but the class writers can't be expected to fix the entire game - they have to work within their means. In act 3, Imperial Intelligence is dissolved the machinations of the act 3 enemy, and its operatives are assigned to positions in the Imperial Military.
Which, since the Imperial Military is full of slope-browed cavemen who don't understand the virtues of a scalpel, try to use you as a hammer. It's a wonderful contrast to your previous missions, which have played with the MMO mechanics as much as they can, emphasizing stealth and trickery in between the mandated 3-unit enemy groups. This one is... well, let me summarize.
It's not about stealth, or trickery, or finesse. It's about going in loud, and doing it with style.
And it's a beautiful contrast, even if you are essentially doing the same thing you've done a dozen times before. But the story surrounding it turns it from a spy mission to a commando mission, and they feel very different.
But I get ahead of myself. Why is the Imperial Agent storyline the best? It's not that it necessarily has the best missions (I'm sure I can find really fun missions in all of the storylines), but that it's better plotted. Remember how I said the Jedi Knight storyline was one of constant escalation, from one super-weapon, to a whole cache of them, to the immortal super Emperor? The Agent arcs start with a superweapon (of sorts), and switch to a molehunt in act 2. It's an entirely different sort of tension, but it isn't constantly upping the stakes, just changing them.
The act 3 story sees Imperial Intelligence dissolved, and the Agent forced to make do with limited resources and uncooperative superiors. The problem is that Imperial Intelligence has been dissolved by a vast conspiracy intent on playing the Republic and Empire against each other, and you were getting too close. The problem is that there are already half a dozen (or more) secret organizations behind the scenes, pulling all the strings. And there's no interconnectivity. It's like if you had the CIA, SIS, GRU, SPECTRE, AIM, HYDRA, S.H.I.E.L.D., Checkmate, X-COM, the MIB, UNIT, etc all active, and there was never any storylines about cross-organizational tiffs, or jurisdiction issues, or shadow wars, or Bond/Fury/J/Cpt. Jack OT4 fics. 'Powerful, far-reaching conspiracy' works in-genre, but it doesn't work in the larger context of the game. How much of that is disconnected writing teams, I don't know. But it certainly doesn't help that it's a well-worn trope at this point (Deus Ex and the Assassin's Creed catalogue, to name two), and the Agent storyline doesn't do anything new with it, or execute it with great technical skill.
All that said, the Agent storyline also has the highest concentration of innovative storytelling. This is mainly doing things other than constantly having talking heads and Bioware's ten standard emotes.
The best example of this is in act 2, where the Agent has a hallucination sequence on their ship. Which, considering it happened in-engine, during the standard conversation model, was very impressive. It's like they took all the amusing and confounding bugs, and did them in that conversation on purpose. They also did fun things like this:
Where they have you rappel into the scene. It's not huge; they probably just modified the falling animation, but it keeps things interesting. They also actually use the camera in cutscenes. To give you an example of how most games do it (including many 'cinematic ones'), here's a shot from Dragon Age: Origins, where my Warden was a dwarf.
I grant you that it's hilarious, but they clearly didn't intend to have that shot. Whereas this:
(Look at that framing!)
(Okay, so Gabraal blinked, but it's still a really dynamic shot)
(Dramatic close-up!)
(Different dramatic close-up, one Gabraal can't ruin by blinking!)
I've already mentioned how they tried to vary the action sequences. But the big one, in my mind, is the act 1 boss fight. You, as a level 20ish Agent, are having a boss fight against one of the members of the Sith Council (members of which are act 3 boss fights for the Sith characters). And since you can't win, it's a matter of staying alive long enough for your support team to come up with alternatives. Were the mechanics dramatically different? Not really, but a goal of 'stay alive' shifts how you play, even with cooldown-based toolbar abilities.
All in all, the Agent storyline did what the others didn't - it took risks. And,, fortunately for them, most of them paid off. Is it perfect? Oh, certainly not. But it's up there with my favorite Star Wars games, even if playing through it again would be a real hassle.
Next week, we'll be looking at the Bounty Hunter storyline, and finishing off both our examination of the Old Republic and the appendices as a whole. As a final note, I've actually managed to get TOR (sort of) running again on my computer, so the previous class storylines now have a few pictures to liven things up.
Appendix J - The Old Republic - The Sith Warrior Storyline
Undetered by the failure of Tan'Shai's concept, I took a more open-minded concept to the mirror class, the Sith Warrior. I decided that I would be a Light-Side Sith, and let the dialogues figure out the particulars. Roleplaying-wise, this was rather more successful. Not so much about feeling a particular attachment to Judit, Sith Warrior. Which, now that I consider it, is a very Jedi-like attitude. I was complicit in her force alignment treason, and I never even suspected it.
(Or, you know, I could actually turn the graphics settings up).
(There, much better. ...For screenshots, less playing the game).
If the Jedi Knight storyline is your classic lightsabers-and-doomsday-devices Legendary Canon, the Sith Warrior is a homage to the sword and sorcery genre. You reave, you slay, and you are content. But the writing lacks the raw lyricism that elevates the best examples of the genre - and, ignoring that entirely understandable failing - it doesn't mesh well with the planet- and side-quests. The tone goes from passionate and nearly mythic to 'Hey, monetarily-motivated individual! Want to kill a dozen battle droids and find their co-processors?' It really is a problem that plagues all the storylines - without the MMO padding, these could have been lovely short adventures. And I say short, but it could still easily reach fifteen hours per character, which is respectable by non-mega-open-world game standards.
And for acts 1 and 2, the Sith Warrior storyline is lovely. Not exactly award-winning - you're acting as the hatchetwoman for your master, the dreaded Darth Donut (Darth Baras, but he's about as intimidating as a frosted donut), and slowing building up your own powerbase. The Light Side path is basically being an Honorable Monster - you use Republic forces to help you destroy a mutual enemy, then let them go without callously murdering them all. You tell the truth to your opponents, and they assume you're lying, and leave themselves vulnerable. You have a protracted duel with a Jedi Knight over the same objective, then let him live as a worthy opponent. All in all, you generally confuse the living daylights out of everyone who's expecting your typical backstabbing Sith.
It's in act 3 that the real problems start. And, like the Jedi Knight, they relate to the Emperor. Your master betrays you (what a twist!), and you are left for dead. You are found by who are essentially the personal prophets of the Emperor, who hail you as the Emperor's Wrath and tell you to go revenge yourself on your master, because he's trying to seize power for himself, in order to overthrow the Emperor. Practically, very little has changed; you're just getting your marching orders from these prophets instead of Darth Donut. But when act 2 was all about you being more and more self-directing (within the limits of the game), act 3 hauls you up short and has you be hand-walked through everything.
And, more to the point, the Sith Warrior storyline is where you can really see the mechanics of 'balanced play' taking precedence over the story. You, see, at one point, you are betrayed by one of your companions, who has secretly been working for Darth Donut the entire time. It's entirely possible that they're your romantic interest, or even spouse, at this point. After you get back to them, you can a) forgive them, b) accept them back grudgingly, or 3) make angry noises at them, and accept them back. You can also break of the relationship, if you had one. There is not, in fact, a 'murder them for betraying you', 'murder them for getting one over you' or 'murder them for getting too close.' As a Sith. You can literally keep a shock collar on one of your other companions for the whole game, so slavery is a-okay. But murder? That's right out. If you didn't have all five companions, how would you have a melee tank, a ranged tank, a healer, a ranged DPS and a melee DPS? Balance must be maintained. Nevermind the fact that the rate at which the various classes gain companions is irregular, the order is irregular, the healer companions are the most useful in all but the most specific of circumstances... To say nothing of having a 'Imperial/Republic Soldier/Medic' as a generic companion without any lines except 'yes sir' and 'no sir,' maybe operating at 90% of the real companion's efficiency, if you want to actually punish killing party members. I'm not calling for an 'execute' button, but actually making party selection a choice, instead of 'I'm still in your party now, lol', would go a long way to smoothing over my immersion.
Appendix I: The Old Republic: The Jedi Knight Storyline
In order to offer commentary about the Jedi Knight storyline, you have to be appraised of the context in which I experienced it. In other words - let me tell you about my character.
Like I said earlier, there was a bit of a hullabaloo (that's the technical term) about Dark Side Jedi and Light Side Sith. I was curious about how they implemented it, but, depraved storygamer that I am, I wanted a good reason to be a Dark Side Jedi. Or, at least, something that resembled it. This was in advance of the game being released, so like I would with a tabletop character, I made a character concept.
Tan'Shai, Twi'lek Jedi Guardian - Born with a contrary streak, Tan'Shai has made a habit of questioning the decisions of the Jedi Council. Not necessarily because he disagrees with them, but because he feels that a dissenting voice can be useful in actually thinking about decisions, rather than having a rote response.
As you can see, I may have been slightly influenced by Jan's proverbial middle finger towards the Jedi Council. I was also inordinately proud of the name. Twi'lek naming convention dictates an apostrophe somewhere in the name, with Bib'Fortuna and Bib Fortuna having entirely different meanings. In other words, twi'lek is a ridiculously hard language to learn. So, I took the word shaitan, 'the adversary', (to complete the Angel (malak)/Genie (jinn)/Satan (shaitan/shaytan) triune), and mucked about with it, because I didn't want to be too obvious.
On Tython, the Jedi starting planet, I took my tunic off, because it was only giving me proverbial pennies on the dollar, and the galloping of my abs more than compensated for any statistical inferiority. Aaaaaaand I kind of didn't put a shirt on afterwards, because the story decided that my devil's advocate dark side jedi wasn't going to be a viable option. Remember the alternate ending, with rocket boosters strapped to the side of the Dark Side train, all due to run over Mission, tied to the train tracks? Yeah, that was 90% of the Dark Side options.
I mean, on one hand, that is a pretty far-out concept, and Bioware at their best (Jade Empire - storywise, not gameplay, but that's another potential LP) had serious trouble with the 'not actually evil in motive'. On the other, non-puppy kicking evil when half of the the player base is aligned with the Imperials? That might be a good idea to support. Which, to be fair, they did. Just not on the Republic side, where the Dark/Light divide is best expressed by 'Are you a Jerk Y/N?' It was especially noticeable when playing as a female Republic Trooper, where you were literally voiced by Jennifer Hale, AKA Fem!Shep [Only Shepard, but I Have Opinions, and my M!Shep was voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson anyway.] The Mass Effect Paragon/Renegade parallels were positively uncanny.
The real story problems in the Jedi Knight story-line start showing in act 2 (out of 3). Wherein it begins to resemble the dark times of the legendary canon, with EVERY SUPER-WEAPON EVER. No, seriously. On every planet in act 2, you're hunting down a different super-weapon. It is, to say, too much. It escalates way too much, way too quickly. Which leads to the problems of Act 3. Or, the act in which you kill the Emperor, because only one of these plot arcs are really relevant to the war between the Republic and Empire. (Which isn't entirely true. But the Trooper's Act 3 plot is a super-weapon, singular, and the Consuler's plot is uniting several smaller systems. Neither of which really have the punch of decapitating the opposition leadership.) They've mentioned that the Jedi Knight story-line would have been KotOR 3, to which I can only reply - thank all that is wookiee-ish that we never got KotOR 3, because this story-line is pants. KotOR managed to be iconic - to evoke elements of the original trilogy without repeating it, to tell a very familiar story with its own, interesting angle on it. This was the worst of the extended universe, in a mash-up of the Republic and Imperial eras, because we couldn't decide if the original or prequel trilogy was what we wanted to replicate.
The Act 3 story-line is the Jedi Knight killing the Sith Emperor. Sort of, because the Emperor is a body hopping immortal, because we all needed to be reminded of the magnificent piece of literature that was Dark Empire. The problem (apart from that) with the Jedi Knight's Act 3 story-line is that it's closely linked with the novel Revan, which deals with canonical Revan's attempt to assassinate the Sith Emperor. And, spoilers, his failure to do so. Largely because he's a fake Revan, and not actually who Revan was (prior to all that mind-wipey stuff). Look, we've danced this tune before. Establishing Anglo-Saxon male pure Light-side Revan (but now totally conflicted because KotOR 2 and stuff and we're totally edgy now, guys) as canon is hella problematic. Not the least because it means that there's now a 'right' way to roleplay Revan. WHICH KIND OF DEFEATS THE WHOLE POINT OF MAKING A ROLEPLAYING GAME. I mean, one could theoretically do something with the concept of a 'right' and 'wrong' way to portray a character - Assassin's Creed uses the concept as a crutch to explain why you died, for example. But KotOR is not that game, and ad hoc declaring that 'this is who Revan was' really limits your audience. But that's for a twelve year old game, who cares? But I rant.
The real connection to the novel Revan comes from a shared character, Darth Scourge. Scourge acts in an advisory role to both Revan and the Jedi Guardian (which is good, because he kind of sucks from a gameplay perspective). But he really serves to tie the Old Republic closer to the KotOR games, which, as I may have mentioned once or twice, is not a desireable result, at least how they did it. But he does serve to illustrate a problem with the companion system. Namely, there are too many, they do too little, and they showcase how many ideas Bioware failed to follow through on.
To address those in order: Each class (regardless of subclass) has five companions: one healer, a ranged DPS, a melee DPS, a ranged tank and a melee DPS. This is, as they say, too many. The companions rarely go beyond sketches, because you can only have one companion active at a time, and if you don't bring them, their relevant dialogue doesn't activate. Which is consistent with most of Bioware, but KotOR 2, at least, had Kreia comment even if she wasn't there. Which owing to her narrative powers, was annoying. But if the rest of the party was also watching your actions and commenting, it might have less the feel of 'OMG, leave me alone, you creeper' and more 'why don't you do the adventuring yourself?' ...Which, upon consideration may not be better, but would certainly give characters more facetime. But by tying characters to specific roles, they guarantee that depending on your role, you'll see more of a particular character via gameplay needs. Which, by and large, means that you'll be spending all your time with your healer, because pocket healers are the best way to go. ...Assuming you turn off all their non-healing abilities, so they don't pretend to be a DPS. Unless you're a dummy like me and go with the character who you find most interesting.
Which in my case, was the melee DPS, Kira Carsen. Who was a Jedi fascist. ...Not really. Sorta really. See, Kira was a rescue from the Sith, which meant she had some strange ideas. Namely, she has a conversation about how the Jedi should really be in charge, because they've got a Force connection, and can sense peril, are wiser, superior, etc, etc. Basically, she's not really a bad person, but she has ideas that will eventually lead to the Jedi takeover of the Republic, and resulting Jedi Barons, Dukes, and Counts of the Wars of Light and Darkness. She means well, but girl has some view that will result in problems down the line. Which is fine, because Tan'Shai wound up a shining beacon of Light-Sidedness because all the Dark Side options were so mean. Concept drift happens. And in the case of the Jedi Knight, the drifting of the story, and the attempt to marry the essential Star Warsiness of the first game with the nuance of the second led to a confused jumble, where there are obvious answers to everything, but no one ever takes them, because they are so very very dumb.
For instance, the first half of Act 3 was everyone telling you that you just couldn't stroll into the palace and murder the Emperor. What do you do in the second half, after all your mentors and advisers have been murdered, you've been captured by the Emperor, and treated to a lovely sequence where you mercilessly murder a droid and speak meanly to your love interest? Break your brainwashing, stroll into the palace and murder the Emperor. Who, because this is an MMO, isn't actually dead, but is dead enough to cause chaos while the Emperor finds a new body to hop into (probably the Sith Warrior). In better hands, it might have been beyond the impossible, where you manage it through sheer force of will and martial prowess. Here? It just sort of happens, because That's What The Story Says. It doesn't earn its ending, it leaches off of the Revan novel for its worldbuilding (especially bad because it already leans on the in-game codex), and it doesn't matter anyway, because the Emperor is Immortal, and Too Important to be killed in one character's story missions. Not that it stops them from bending the post-game content (at least, prior to the expansions) into THE EMPEROR IS DEAD, OH NOES without explaining that 'Yes, it was me, I killed the Emperor.' It's the sort of story where you need to play through all the story-lines simultaneously to get a full picture of what, exactly, is going on, because the game sure isn't going to tell you.
The Old Republic hadn't been released when I first wrote the Let's Play. However, I did play it when it came out, and thought it would make for interesting supplemental commentary. I will say that several expansions for the game have been released since I stopped playing, so the overall experience may have changed. As usual, this is a critique and analysis, not a review, so spoilers will follow.
The Old Republic (TOR) was my first MMO I played. It was not, however, the first MMO I had experience with, since I was living with a number of devout WoW players. And in that environment, one picks up a lot, even without playing. I played TOR with the same group of friends, who had variously played everything from Everquest (sans expansions) to Guild Wars to WoW. So, I may not have had any experience with MMOs, but I did have the benefit of substantial experience within my player group.
Gameplay-wise, I have serious problems. It's your standard cooldown-based WoW clone, without the polish of (at the time) four expansions. The talent trees, which are filled with +3% to this and +2% to those two things. Which (despite my 400+ hours in Borderlands 2, which has very similar talent trees) makes levels feel very insubstantial. Whereas WoW, at the time, had talent selections only at certain levels, but the talents are substantial enough to change how you play. Don't get me wrong, there are talents in TOR that completely change the feel of a character. But they're surround by all of this cruft that is barely noticeable from level to level (especially when there weren't damage/healing parsers during the first couple of months).
The classes are problematic. Don't take me wrong - class balance debates are at the heart of the eternal fires that power every MMO forum. And from a storytelling perspective, having eight classes and only having to write a story for four is a good decision. But when a Jedi can do more damage bopping someone with the hilt of their lightsaber than with the blade, I really start to question the tone of your mechanics.
As a newcomer to MMOs, I was interested (read: appalled) by how there were classes with drastically different levels of complexity and little in-game attestation of this fact. With one of my characters, I could play quite well with ten hotkeys. With another, I literally did not have access to enough hotkeys, given my non-gaming mouse and not wanting to use Shift/Alt + <key> hotkeys, to be anything but minimally competent. And there were more complex characters that I didn't blunder into. Varying levels of complexity in a system are fine - but a bounty hunter with a flamethrower, railgun and blaster is not intuitively less complex than a force-user with two lightsabers.
In terms of customization options, I was pleasantly surprised that they included various body phenotypes. I called them 'tiny stick child', 'default', 'ripped' and 'more to love.' The problem came in when the male 'more to love' looks like this:
>
and the female 'more to love' is this:
Holy male gaze, Mynockman!
One point of discussion prior to release was how you could have light-sided Sith and dark-sided Jedi. The result, I think, was the legacy of KotOR II - more shades of gray in our Star Wars media, rather than the more deterministic 'if you're dark-sided, you're a Sith' and vice versa that I used. Maybe it's just that the term 'Jedi Civil War' that I nicked from KotOR 2 is just loaded with so much potential, like 'Clone Wars' from Episode IV. Ultimately, I think the uncoupling of force alignment and allegiance mostly worked. We'll get into the particulars when I examine some of the class storylines in more detail.
But speaking of the story! Oh, I have issues. You had better believe that I have issues. Pitting the Galactic Republic and its Jedi (but not Jedi Generals necessarily) against the Galactic Sith Empire, with no expense spared slightly altering classic Star Wars designs? Okay, maybe there are also some artistic issues in there as well. Let me get those out of the way beforehand. Shamus Young had some nice commentary on the use of color in the game. Me? I'm wondering when during production the character models were shrunk to two-thirds of their actual size. The biggest character stands about two meters tall, give or take. The furniture is sized for humanoids at least another meter taller. It's like you're inhabiting a world constructed entirely by offscreen giants. Which could be a lovely metacommentary on how this game just can't live up to the expectations of everyone who has been waiting for a third KotOR game...
So, on the story. The premise is that the thing Revan was so terrified of (hinted at in 1, with him [ugh] rationing the Republic and Revanchist military strength, and out-right stated in 2) turns out not to have been some existential horror - no Cthulhus, no Yuuzhan Vong, no dark gods of the dark side - but just an endless well of more Sith, exactly like you've seen them before (which isn't entirely true, but it's mostly true, and the details are for the Jedi Knight appendix). So, that was a bit of a let-down. Especially since THE WARS OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS AND FEUDAL STAR WARS WERE RIGHT THERE.
And then, if piecing together iconic polities of the movies wasn't enough, they also had to return to Revan and the Exile. Not your Revan and Exile, and not mine. The Canon ones. Who, depending on how you played, may in fact, look a lot like yours, but I kind of doubt it, seeing as how the Canon Exile was female and had the Handmaiden for a companion, which is impossible without a modded game. It's impressive, really, in that it's both needlessly derivative of the original games and negating player choice from those games. They could have stuck to long-term fallout from the Jedi Civil War - how has the refounding of Jedi by Atton, Mira, Mical, Visas, Bao-Dur and Brianna influenced the current Jedi culture? Has Mandalorian culture revived from their crisis post Mandolorian Wars? Did Czerka Corporation learn anything from their losses at Kashyyyk, their bid at rebuilding Telos? These aren't, at first blush, points to hang a plot from. Except -
The SMUGGLER investigates someone who won a high-stakes game of pazaak from them, with a hugely improbable hand. Their search reveals that they've been scammed with the Force, and from there, they find a loose confederation of Force-sensitive gamblers, nudging the odds. But one nasty pirate has been kidnapping them, and is trying to use them to influence galatic affairs.
The BOUNTY HUNTER receives a contract for the Mandalore. Well, a Mandalore, at least. It turns out Mandalore's mask has been melted down, and everyone with a piece is calling themselves Mandalore. Is there a bonus for bringing in multiple Mandalores?
The SITH WARRIOR finds a worthy challenge in the bodyguard of one of their targets. The bodyguard is a Wookiee, filled with rage and marked with the Czerka brand. They seek out Czerka's slave pits, and must decide whether to exploit them to gain an army of furious freed slaves or leave it be and take advantage of the growing dark side nexus.
The JEDI CONSULAR finds themselves deep in the confidence of the Echani ambassador, thanks to them foiling an assassination attempt. They are asked to resolve a jurisdictional dispute, between the Jedi, the Echani, and an obscure Echani Force-using sect. The subject of the dispute? A gene-altered Echani, charged with treason against the state, and displaying powerful Force abilities.
All that aside, the main storyline, planet storyline and class storylines all suffer from the same problem - that interminable MMO grind. You spend two hours killing mobs just to get to your next story marker, and then the 'Wait, what am I doing?' starts. Some planets are much worse about this - I'd be surprised if I hadn't killed literally over a thousand of particular sort of mob over the course of a particular planet. But when you actually get to the story, some of it is really quite enjoyable. Other parts... less so. But I'll get into the particulars of those next week, when we take a closer look at class storylines and companions.
But overall? I liked it, I had fun, and I haven’t played it since 2012. There are some really good moments in the game, but they’re just nigh-inaccessible, they’re so surrounded by the MMO parts. Like most MMOs, it’s a mile wide and an inch deep - except when it isn’t, and the spirit of KotOR, the depth that inspired me to write this LP, shines through. Those moments were enough for me to play four characters to completion, and it’s immensely frustrating when you go back to ‘bring me six rakghoul midi-chlorian glands.’
Originally, I was going to do a Let's Play of KotOR II after finishing this one. That didn't happen, not the least because I wasn't sure how much I could really improve on Scorchy's Jedi Jesus playthrough. Additionally, KotOR II is very much more about personal growth and secrets, neither of which mesh particularly well with a historical format.
That said, I do still have things to say about KotOR II, and including it as a new appendix is as good a place as any. My comments fall largely into two categories: game mechanics and story analysis. Spoiler warnings apply, and you'll obviously get more out of my critiques if you've experienced the game already, either playing or reading an LP.
Game mechanics, by and large, were improved across the board. In part because they were building around KotOR's existing structure, which is dull but perfectly functional. What KotOR II did was greatly increase the amount of customization. Primarily, this is due to Obsidian greatly increasing the number of available item customization options, and making more than one or two non-melee weapons that could be customized. This is why Scorchy's Blaster Jedi is actually a functional concept, as opposed to the nigh-impossibility it was in KotOR. The other customization gribbly they added was a choice of three prestige classes. Well, technically six, but they're basically Light/Dark Side mirrors. Want more force powers on your lightsaber jedi? You can do that. Want more lightsabers (literally) on your force-using jedi? You can do that. I mean, the variety isn't incredible, the prestige classes don't fundamentally change how you play - but it is more options. All in all, Obsidian did a lot of incremental improvements to the system - more gear options (with more randomization of loot drops), more feats, more force powers - but nothing that was really revelatory. But that's okay. It's a definite improvement over the first game.
It's not just the behind-the-scenes rules either. There are more, and more interesting setpieces. The game has you split your party to tackle multiple threats at once - most RPGs still don't let you make any use of your inactive party members. There are arena fights where you're either at a massive disadvantage, or you can cry havoc and let slip the wookies of war, depending on light/dark side alignment. The environment still has consoles you can slice for advantages - turn turrets on your targets, disable droids, etc, but it feels like they come more often, and have a bit more variance between 'Would you like a fight, YES/NO?'
It's not all Alderaanian sunsets, though. The game has a serious pacing problem. There are really just too many 'here, fight these two-hundred enemies in a linear path' sections - Peragus Station, the surface of Telos, Malachor V and the Academy, notably. There's still not enough enemy variance for two fights with five blaster-and-vibroweapon-soldiers to feel at all different. It's especially bad early on, when you don't have the options in combat to make your own fun. The two hours of combat before the final bosses can at least be kind of fun if you experiment with your force powers - 'How fast can I kill them all without using area of effect powers?', 'Look at how pretty the effects for force storm are!', etc.
Now, it doesn't fix the gulf between Force-Users and Mundanes. It gives you the option, after some dialogue delving, to convert any non-droid companion (sans one) into a Force-User, if they aren't one already. So they achieve balance by removing the other side entirely. That's some 'He shall bring balance to the Force' silliness, right there. Mind, one of the characters (Mira) does actually lose an ability by becoming a Force-user. Give a bounty hunter force powers, and she forgets how to use her wrist-mounted grenade launcher, apparently. Grenades do scale better; combined with the improvements to blasters with regard to avoiding lightsaber deflection, it's possible to have Mira as a mundane on a team of Force-Users, able to hold her own with sufficient micro-management and clever character-building. It's just so much more work than giving her a lightsaber and Force Stun and standing back. The gulf between mundanes and force-users has narrowed in comparison to KotOR, but it's still very much present.
Unlike with the mechanics, KotOR II didn't try to iterate with their story. The KotOR II story is about as far from KotOR as it can be while sharing a quarter of the cast and locations. Where KotOR is a pulpy space opera romp, KotOR II is nihilistic noir. Which means that it has all the Star Wars trappings - lightsabers, blasters, Sith and Jedi, souped-up freighters - and very little of the tone. KotOR II is a deconstruction of the Force, destiny and RPGs. All of which is very interesting, but it kind of misses the free-wheeling style of pulp.
KotOR II is a story of self-discovery, as you, the player, find out who you, the character, really are. All while your character is rebuilding themselves after being lost. It's a lovely contrast to the usual amnesiac main character, or being told 'you're the queen's bodyguard and you think XYZ' (Which is a trifle unfair to Dishonored, because it's mostly an RPG in the stat-building and murder/don't-murder sense, not in the dialogue options). This leads to some very interesting design choices, with the climax of the first act is a massive conversation tree with someone who actually knew your character (and was attached to you in a very unjedi-like fashion). It's a masterful example of letting you express your character through what they say, instead of relying on 'as you know...' infodumps.
But one of the problems with KotOR II is the main villain. Who, spoilers, is in your party for most of the game as your anti-Obi-Wan (as an evil mentor figure) and nega-Jolee (as a hands-off meddler). On one hand, this gives Kreia an unprecedented amount of character development. She's one of the strongest characters in any RPG, not necessarily in terms of character growth, but because you can see where all that character growth happened, and the scars it left on her. That said, she has a serious problem in that she delivers a lot of the exposition in the game, and she lies at least as much as the Doctor ("Rule 1: The Doctor lies.").
And, more to the point, the narrative is on her side. It will conspire with her to prove a point - if you give money to a beggar, she says you've kept them weak, and they get mugged. If you don't give money to a beggar, the beggar mugs someone. And either way, she disapproves of your actions, and berates you for it. Mind, you can get her approval back up by asking the questions she wants you to ask. Which... okay, it was one of the first approval meters in a western CRPG. But it led to you the character being chameleon-like in their quest for approval (and more bonuses). Which Obsidian apparently realized, because they tried to address that chameleon approval-seeking in Alpha Protocol. Whereas Bioware mostly fixed the problem with the Friendship/Rivalry system in Dragon Age 2. I say mostly, because you could agree with say, Fenris, on everything apart from his anti-mage attitude, and wind up very neutral with him from the Friendship and Rivalry gains canceling each other out. Which suggests to me that they need to implement something more like ME3's Paragon/Renegade system, with an 'aligned to their views' measure and a 'feels strongly about them; measure. But I'm drifting.
The point is, Kreia is opposed to the Force. But moments where the narrative works with her to prove her points about how the Force (which we can understand as moral forces, narrative forces and psychic forces) should be destroyed... It's a sort of meta-irony. And it's fascinating.
But here's the compounding problem - the game isn't done. So there's all of this really interesting philosophy, meta discussion, deconstruction of the space opera and pulp genre and complex character arcs... and then it just sort of ends in a tangled mess of three hundred odd Sith corpses on Malachor V with nothing even approaching a satisfying conclusion. Even the restored content patch just provides a basic framework - a wireframe skeleton with 'insert-texture-here' slapped on top of it. So most analyses of KotOR II are doomed to end the same way the game did - 'And here's where I would put my analysis of these character arcs - if they were actually arcs and didn't terminate abruptly before entering the windy target area.' As analysts, we can make educated guesses about where everything was headed, but it's usually fuzzy and unsatisfying in the end.
Before I meander off into the mists of Malachor V, I did want to address a descriptor I first applied to KotOR II about a week before I wrote this. That that's 'noir.' You see, the more I think about it, the more the noir detective genre fits as an antecedent of KotOR II, just like tales of two-fisted adventure are the source of KotOR and Star Wars in general. Classic Star Wars shares elements of John Wayne Westerns (Sons of Katie Elder, or Stagecoach!, more than Red River or True Grit) in the mix. But KotOR II draws more from the Clint Eastwood Westerns, with their more cynical tone and damaged characters.
But let's go back to noir. In brief, the world has gone to the nek battle dogs, but Our Hero is capable of making the world around them a bit brighter or darker. They were brought into this by a woman in trouble (Kreia, though she doesn't really fit the mold of a noir dame), but she was never really on their side. Our Hero has a past full of trouble and violence, one they've rejected, but they still exist on the periphery of the old cultures, because that's all they know. And now, in order to do their job, they need to go back and mingle with all the people they'd rather never see again (from Atris to Mandalore to the Jedi Masters). None of their allies get along, so even if they're surrounded by people, they're still alone. About the only thing it's really missing is copious amounts of drug abuse, and really, that's just a way to show how the protagonist can't or isn't handling their past. The use of Force Bonds and Experience Point vampiring is an adequate substitution (and it doubles as a deconstruction of XP and leveling systems).
In short - what's there is a fantastic game. It successfully iterates on the mechanical side, and the narrative side is fascinating, if not precisely what most folks think of as Star Wars. It's a deconstruction that pauses before finishing to lay about with a sledgehammer. It's a game that is all about relationships between people, and with oneself, and it fills the cast with people who all hate each other, and multiple people who hate themselves so much they're literally becoming existential and meta-narrative problems. The romantic options range from 'jerk' to 'damaged', and are passionless, but have jealous fights to the death in cut content. It shamelessly copies Mara Jade four thousand years early, but that's okay, because there's only one other game with her in it, and she deserves more. I love it, I hate it, and I may have to do a Let's Play of it anyway. But not today.
Here's where I have an actual complaint, because the Council's brainwashing is a pretty big violation of morality and of Revan/Jan. Sure, it's just an extension of Force Persuade, but Force Persuade itself (like all enchantments) has some pretty major ethicial issues. Moreso than just reanimating dead tissue, which is more or less universally derided in fantasy.Now, the interesting thing is that mind control like this isn't really hammered in mainstream comics until DC's 2004 Identity Crisis. I do have to wonder if they were inspired by KotOR on this count, or if it's just working off the same ethical implications.
Canonically, Revan is a male who was shining with light-side goodness by the end of Taris, and kept on exploding with light throughout the rest of the game. Everyone that he could redeem, he did. Among others: Dustil Onasi, Ajunta Pall, Yuthura Ban and Bastila Shan (who he also romanced). And it's so boring. Where's the struggle? Is it just that the Jedi Council's identity was super-effective? That's a terrifying thought - the only reason that the canonical Revan is so light-sided is because the Jedi Council's brainwashing so completely reversed Revan's previous thought patterns. In that, it isn't a space opera, but a sort of existential horror. And a few generations later, we wind up with Satele Shan and The Old Republic. There's a nice thought to take into the [forthcoming in the past] MMORPG: the Jedi Council are a bunch of brain-washing jerks. What I hope this LP has shown is that the Jedi Council are not just that, but also patriarchal perverts. If that's the only thing you take away from this LP, I'll be content.
Aaaanyway, let's get to that delicious orthodoxy:
I prefer the beach party holoprints, honestly. They also stick Juhani and Bastila at the ends so if you wind up killing them, it won't affect the shots.
Strap yourself in, kids, because we're about to take a walk down the wild side of alternate history. This assumes Jan would have reclaimed the mantle of Revan, rather than being Dark Side-aligned with no particular need to reclaim that particular identity.
The first part of the confrontation on the top of the temple goes much the same, and we diverge in episode 66:
Even among Jedi, the confrontation between Shan and her former companions was brief. Bindo notes that Juhani attacked with the fury of the Council, while Ni was reluctant to strike. By sheer reflex, though, Ni forced Shan to parry high, letting Juhani make an attack to Shan's legs. Shan only just managed to avoid the blow, throwing all three of her opponents back with a hammer-blow of the Force.
Shan: "You are stronger than I would have thought possible, after what the Jedi Council did to you. Seems that Malak was wrong - the power of the dark side is not lost to you after all, Revan."
Ni: "You're drawing on my power, aren't you?"
Shan: "I used the Force to preserve your life on the bridge of your flagship. We are forever linked by my actions. The Council hoped to exploit our bond. They hoped your memories would lead me to the Star Forge. But in our bond I also tasted the power of the dark side within you!"
Ni: "How could I reclaim an identity I barely remember?"
Shan: "Your mind was too badly damaged to ever fully restore your memories, Revan. But your power, your strength of will, the essence of who and what you are: those things still remain! Once long ago you defied the Jedi Council, freeing yourself from their control. You claimed your rightful title of Dark Lord of the Sith. Together we can defeat Malak and take back what is yours!"
Juhani: "Bastila, it is not too late for you to be saved. The teachings of the Jedi can lead you from the dark side back into the light and a true understanding of the Force."
Shan: "You are beneath my contempt, Juhani. When you felt the power of the dark side you fled to a cave like some cowering animal! You know nothing of the Force or its potential! But you, Revan - the power of the dark side is yours to command! You can use it destroy Malak! With my help you could rule over the entire galaxy!"
Revan: "Commanding the greatest warriors in the galaxy, armed with the artifacts of a dead race, the Sith reborn with an invincible army, thanks to you."
Shan: "Yes! You see it!"
Bindo: "Don't do this, kid. I don't want to, but I'll fight you if I have to. Even if it costs me my life."
Revan: "You've never agreed with the Council, Jolee. Why fight their battles? Join with me."
Bindo: "...You're really good with that trick. But it won't work against me. Not when I know it's coming."
Revan: "Then leave. I won't stop you."
(If you went back and implemented an influence system for KotOR I, this would be a wonderful place for an influence check.)
Bindo: "I am a Jedi. I won't run."
Revan: "Juhani? My offer stands."
Juhani: "A true Jedi will never bow down to the Sith. If this is your decision I have no choice but to do battle against you."
Shan: "Then we will show you the fate of all who dare to stand against us. With your deaths, the rebirth of Darth Revan will be complete!"
(Bastila gives Jan a speech to remind her to shut down the temple deflector field and the disruptor field. She do so, and the pair return to the Hawk, after rebuilding their lightsabers to take advantage of the ridiculously powerful crystals that Juhani and Jolee were using).
Onasi: "Where are Juhani and Jolee? Are they okay? What happened inside that temple?"
Revan: "They didn't make it."
Onasi: "What... what are you talking about?"
Shan: "The Jedi Council has failed, Carth. Juhani and Jolee would not swear loyalty to Revan. You would be wise to offer your allegiance."
Onasi: "Wh...what? No! We serve the Republic! You're no better than Malak! We'll never swear allegiance to one who serves the dark side!"
Ni: "You speak only for yourself, Carth."
Ordo: "You're Revan and I'll follow you anywhere. It doesn't matter who you're fighting against, I'll be at your side. Light side, dark side - it doesn't make any difference to me, Revan. I'll stick by you no matter what comes."
Vao: "I saw what the Sith did to Taris - anyone who serves the dark side is evil! Big Z and I are with Carth on this one!"
Vao: "Zaalbar - Revan's a bad guy! Just like Malak! It's not a betrayal if you break your life deby now!"
Zaalbar: "If I go back on my vow I am betraying myself, my people and my ancestors. I cannot do that. Please, Mission - join us."
(And this is where we find out that Zaalbar has loyalty listed as a higher allegiance than Mission.)
Vao: "No, Zaalbar. I don't care! I won't help you against the Republic! Not for anything! Not even for you!"
(This is interesting, because Mission's never shown any particular loyalty to the Republic. She's a street rat from a Republic world, for crying out loud!)
Onasi: "I see now it was a mistake to let you go into that Temple. I of all people should have seen this coming. First Saul, and now you... I mean, I should be an expert on betrayal by now! But nothing you can say or do can make me betray the Republic. I won't join you, and I won't just stand aside and let you become the Darth Lord of the Sith!"
Revan: "Are you prepared to die for that?"
Onasi: "Run for it, Mission! Go! Go!"
Vao: "No - this isn't happening! It can't be happening!"
Revan: "Join me, Mission."
Vao: "Nnn...no! I'm not going to just stand aside and do nothing! You'll... you'll just have to kill me. But I don't think you will."
(Here's the limiter on Force Persuade: if their whole essence is opposed to you, then it's just not going to work, even if they're not Force sensitive. Jolee may have had his doubts, but he also had the Force to back him up.)
Revan: "You're right. I won't kill you. But Zaalbar will."
Zaalbar: "I have sworn a life debt to you, Revan. I will serve you as long as I draw breath. I will not break my vow. But you cannot ask me to turn on my best friend."
Vao: "Looks like you'll have to do your own dirty work, Revan - if you've got the guts!"
Revan: "I don't ask, Zaalbar - I command. Fulfill your life debt to me, and kill Mission."
Zaalbar: "I... I have no choice. The life debt is greater than any single life. It is a solemn vow of all my people. I cannot break it, not even for you. Forgive me, Mission."
Vao: "Zaalbar, what are you saying? Revan can't force you to do anything you don't want to! It's me, Big Z - Mission!"
Vao: "Please, Zaalbar - don't do this! Please! NO!!!"
...
Shan: "You are truly ruthless, Lord Revan. But we have to get to the Star Forge and destroy the usurper!"
(The Hawk is soon airborne, and makes contact with the Republic commander.)
Dodonna: "It is good to hear your voice, Bastila. We had thought you were lost to us."
Dodonna: "His loss is a great blow to the Republic. We could have used him in this battle. We were about to pull back. We're taking heavy losses against the Star Forge."
Shan: "Don't pull back, Admiral. You have to destroy the Star Forge now, unless you want to face an unending wave of reinforcements."
Dodonna: "I'll try to press the attack, but we can't hold out much longer. Not unless you can use your Battle Meditation to turn the tide."
(Master Vandar is introduced, and proposes the same plan as before, but with a different target: Malak. If the Republic can gain control of the Star Forge, then maybe the tide of battle can be turned.)
Tokare: "Bastila, you and... the Padawan.. should join us. We will need the combined strength of all of our Order to defeat Malak."
Shan: "As you wish, Master Vandar."
Tokare: "May the Force be with you."
(The transmitter shuts down.)
Shan: "The fools! Even Vandar did not realize you have reclaimed your identity as the Dark Lord."
Shan: "... and the power of the Star Forge to crush the Republic fleet. All our enemies will be destroyed in a single glorious day!"
(I may as well say it now, because this is my last opportunity. I'm really not a fan of the immediate physical effects you get from the extreme dark side alignment. Sure, Palpatine was ugly and wrickled, but he was also really old. I could go with just the eye color change, but it's still just too darn obvious. It means you can line up a bunch of Force Sensitives, and just shoot anyone with yellow eyes. Also, no sexy dark jedi, which is the real tragedy here.)
We continue on into the alternate episode 67:
(The landing goes as normal, except that just before Revan, Bastila and Zaalbar enter the Star Forge proper...)
(And that, folks, is how the party roster ends up looking like this:
Bloody, wasn't it? Revan replaces Zaalbar's slot with Canderous [of course].) After that there are the usual droids, apprentices, turrets and elite soldiers. However, Revan's going to use a computer console to use the power of the Star Forge to make herself some customized robes.
While Revan gets all swanked up, Malak has a last line of defense in place of where Bastila was.)
Apprentice: "You summoned us, Lord Malak?"
Malak: "Bastila has betrayed me. I must select a new successor to be my apprentice; one who will one day take the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith away from me."
Apprentice: "Tell me what I must do, Master! Anything!"
Malak: "Revan is on the Star Forge, looking to reclaim my title. Wait here for my old master. Whoever deals the killing blow to Revan will become my new apprentice."
Apprentice: "We will not fail you, Master!"
(After that, Malak does his whole 'Even if you fail, you'll buy me time, power of this fully operational battle station, yadda yadda yadda.' Revan, Bastila and Canderous finish hacking their way through the defenses, make it to the Red, Blue and Black and kill them. Not that they're easy, but easier than Jan fighting Bastila alone. In any case, while in the command center, the Glorious Strategist and the Perfect Bastion of Morale take a moment to look at how the battle is going.)
Revan: "Bastila, Dodonna is getting too close. The Star Forge can create new ships, but it can't give me more trained crews. I need you to use your Battle Meditation. Canderous, guard her."
Ordo: "Yes, Revan."
Shan: "You have to face Malak without me? But -"
Revan: "I'm more powerful than him, Bastila. Besides, I can't die yet. With the Council out of the way, you and I have a great deal to do."
Shan: "Come back to me, love."
And then, into alternate episode 68:
Tokare: "I have - but never from them. It's almost as if... No! Bastila is using her Battle Meditation against us!"
Dodonna: "What? Impossible! She's on our side!"
Tokare: "Not anymore, Admiral. I sensed something different about Bastila during her transmission, but I thought I was only feeling the evil presence of the Star Forge itself. I see now I was wrong. Bastila has turned to the dark side, Admiral. You have to give the order to retreat."
Dodonna: "I can't do that. This might be our only chance to destroy the Star Forge - we can't withdraw. We can't."
(Droid puzzle battle as normal, with slightly altered dialogue that doesn't change the actual meaning one whit. Then we get to the good stuff.)
Malak: "Well done, Revan. I was certain the defenses of the Star Forge would destroy you, but I see there is more of your old self in you than I expected. You are stronger than I thought; stronger than you ever were during your reign as the Dark Lord. I did not think that was possible."
Revan: "I was always stronger than you, Malak. That was why I was the Master."
Malak: "Once you were stronger than me, Revan. But as your apprentice I surpassed you. TheMaster must always be stronger than the apprentice... that was why I betrayed you."
Revan: "From afar. You were afraid to face me."
Malak: "The trap set by the Jedi only hastened my decision. If they had not attacked I would have challenged you for mastery of the Sith soon enough."
Revan: "You lie. You knew I was stronger. You still know it."
Malak: "I cannot deny your resilience. You survived my first betrayal, thanks to Bastila's interference. You escaped the destruction of Taris and you escaped me on the Leviathan. You even survived my attempt to destroy you with the Star Forge itself. Fate and destiny have conspired to keep you alive despite all my efforts. We have been inexorably pushed to this final confrontation, Revan. I see now that this can only be settled when one of us destroys the other. We shall face each other in single combat... and the victor will decide the fate of the galaxy!"
(Usual monologue about using Jedi as life-batteries. Unlike the light side fight, I let him use some, and I use others.)
Revan: "No, Malak. I am the Dark Lord of the Sith."
Malak: "Yes... I cannot deny it any longer. You are the one who deserves... who deserves to be the Dark Lord. You were the one who found the first Star Map on Dantooine. It was you who led us on our quest for the Star Forge. I only followed in your wake. I tried to usurp your rule, to steal the title of Sith Master from you. But now I understand... The destiny is yours, Revan. Not mine."
Revan: "The apprentice has learned his final lesson."
Malak: "And so it ends as I somehow always knew it must: in darkness."
...
Tokare: "There is no escape for us now."
Dodonna: "Then the Republic is doomed."
...
(Whew, those are some jagged textures.)
All: "All hail Lord Revan! All hail Lord Revan! All hail Lord Revan!"
Shan: "The might of the Republic fleet is broken. The Core Worlds are defenseless against us, and the Rakata flock to you."
Revan: "Summon Mandalore: the Star Forge will provide new ships, new Basilisks, new weapons for the Mandalorian clans. We have a great deal of work to do, my love..."
(Obviously, things turn out very different for the galaxy. As in, there's no way in heck KotOR 2 makes sense. In control of the Star Forge, with the Crusaders, Rakata and Mandalorians as soldiers, there is no way that Revan, with her strategic genius, would throw all of that away and let the Republic rebuild, regardless of what's lurking out in the blackness of space.)
Here's my big gripe with the dark side ending. There's no way to do it without reclaiming the mantle of Revan. In a way, it's the same complaint throughout the entire game: there's no allotment for the more subtle applications of the dark side. As a creature of the dark side, you have to be Revan the Conquerer. Jan can't learn from her mistakes as Revan. She can't decide that 'You know what? The Star Forge, while powerful, is imprecise. It gave me delusions of grandeur, and wound up weakening the Republic further when I know it needs to be stronger. I need to change my strategy. I should eliminate Malak and the Star Forge, but I can do it in such a way so as to appear to die in the process, giving me the opportunity to move about undetected.' The slaughter on the sands would still happen, but it would be Jan weeding out the ones she can't trust. Bastila would use her Battle Meditation against the Crusaders, but the escape of the Ebon Hawk would hopefully go unnoticed by the Republic forces. Maybe the Hawk itself woulf have to sacrificed, and Jan and her loyalists would have to escape on one of the Star Forge crafts. It's not as bombastic as the kitten-scarfing ending, but what is?
In the end, though, I can't really blame Bioware for not offering a manipulative evil ending, because this stuff is hard to write. Giving the player this much agency isn't exactly easy. What I can blame them for, however, is that there's no option to go against the Council.
Let me give you the basic run-down on Juhani. She's an alien who grew up under the weight of discrimination and the threat of slavers. Sound familiar? It should, because Juhani has a mish-mash of Mission's and Zaalbar's backstories. Her unique aspect is that she idolized the Jedi growing up, and that drove her to become one herself. I’d include the part where she was the first homosexual in Star Wars canon - but that was dummied out of the game, at least initially. So what's left for Juhani? Well, she's got more unsurprising surpises in her backstory than anyone else.
Turns out that the planet she grew up on was Taris.
Sometime during that rant, where she's yelling at Jan, she slips in this line:
Juhani: "But it is so hard to lose your entire past. You would not understand."
... Well, she's either not in on the Jedi Council's plot, or she's a better liar than everyone else in the game.
Remember how Bastila is talking about how she shouldn't be saying this, that the Jedi council, blah, blah blah? That's Juhani all the time. She's constantly whip-lashing between outbursts and apologizing for them.
She's got a bit of a connection to the Mandalorians, because they were the ones that forced the Cathar off their homeworld. And after that, it just goes completely down the drain. Father addicted to stims, gets cut down in a bar brawl. Mother starved to death after borrowing money from the Exchange. Juhani was enslaved to pay for her mother's debts. At which point, enter the Jedi Crusaders, stopping at Taris on their way to fight the Mandalorians.
After the escape from the Leviathan, we learn that it was specifically Revan that Juhani idolized.
So, by the end of the game: she's got the Tarisian background of Mission, the slave background of Zaalbar, the not-quite personal connection with Revan of HK-47 and the self-flagellation of Bastila. It’s like she was one of the first characters they made, they they kept latching on aspects of her and turning those into full characters. She's got a character arc - but that arc is resolved in recruiting her. Juhani may backslide a little in personal conversation (and in her personal quest, if I remember right), but she'll ultimately stay away from the dark side. Yes, she's had a miserable life, and she doesn't wallow in it, but the only thing that it's driving her towards is anger and her Jedi training. The only other detail is this:
Juhani is grateful to belong, which has the potential to set up all sorts of interesting dominance issues, especially considering that she was a slave. But the game never explores this. I mean, that would be asking a bit much from a Teen-rated game, but it’s a character hook that isn’t followed up on.
Of course, I’m as guilty as Bioware of not doing anything with Juhani. Partially, this was due to be modding in a new model for Juhani (original appearance here) and the negative reaction it received from the thread. And since I was already having stability issues, I didn’t want to risk uninstalling the mod and have my save games be incompatible. But it was also what to do with her. She’s unfocused as a character, either the source or borrower from all the other characters. Juhani provides a tiny snapshot of pre-Dark Side Revan, but it’s from a position of severe hero worship. Canderous is coming from approximately the same position, but he also shares a lot more, which means it’s possible to filter out more of his bias.
If nothing else, Juhani comes across as a cosmic chew toy. Not in a ‘ha ha’ way, either, but in a ‘kick the cat’ way. Which doesn’t really blend all that well with the space opera atmosphere.
Today I'm going to be focusing on the two characters that Holonet History, frankly, just didn't care about. Part of this was institutional, the first strivings of Imperial Human High Culture. But this 'institutional' bias also reflects my own thoughts on the characters, so I thought it might be interesting if I showcase those.
Here's my central problem with Mission: she's not Imoen. Let me put on my grognard hat, and apologize for coming relentlessly back to the Baldur's Gate series. But the sad part is that there's a fairly limited pool of non-Rogue-like RPGs, and most of those with developed NPC companions are Bioware games. Anyway, Mission has a lot of overlap with Imoen in Baldur's Gate 1: she's mainly around as a skill monkey, since her combat skills are, shall we say, 'undeveloped.' To put it another way, Imoen had a Strength of 9, and even with backstab, she couldn't do much more than irritate most bad-guys. But what Imoen and Mission are good at is being a thief. But there's a two-fold problem in there.
First of all, I pointed out in Appendix B that the 'thief' skills (Awareness, Demolitions, Security and Stealth) aren't all that useful. It's really hard to actually die from mines, Security just saves you a few seconds since bashing containers open always works and, well, Steath... there’s no XP from avoiding encounters and there's always an ending boss fight. What's the incentive? Getting sneak attack, maybe, but stun is a much more dependable way to get that, and it helps the whole party. Sure, it's hard to get stun effects on Taris, but it's hard to actually have an entertaining fight on Taris either. And those cases where Stealth might be helpful - say to steal back the prototype swoop engine - the guards will pull you out of Stealth to have a nice conversation.
Going back to Imoen: there were a bunch of thieves in BG, because a) traps were lethal, b)bashing locks open was a percentile chance based on Strength, not just ‘hit this chest for thirty seconds’, and some locks just couldn't be bashed, and c) sneaking was useful, because there was enough enemy variance that scouting actually told you something. Beyond that, Imoen in specific had a rocking Intelligence, so you could dual-class (it's like multiclassing, but more complicated) her into mage. Now, mages weren't as ridiculously over-powered in BG as in BG 2 (mainly because they stayed squishy), but it meant that Imoen could remain viable throughout the entire game. Imoen was added fairly late to the game because early playtests found that trying to take on the bears, wolves and gibberlings (diseased or otherwise) with a first level mage ended in death, death and more death. Imoen came with a bow and a wand of magic missile, so she was a pretty clear sign saying: 'It's dangerous to go into melee. Here, take this!'
What I'm getting at is that Mission really doesn't do any of that. Skills aside, it's almost impossible to make Mission a worthwhile character. She comes with sneak attack and critical strike, yes, but she also, for some unknowable reason, started down the dueling feat tree (+1 attack and damage has a really hard time competing with an extra attack). You get her earlier enough that you can correct her feat error, but she doesn't have the physical attributes to deal damage in, and survive melee combat, which leaves ranged. Remember that whole blaster deflection that lightsaber-users do? Sure, she'll do okay against mooks - but so will everyone. Well, maybe not T3-M4, but T3 also has all those nifty droid-expendables to use (the carbonite projector, flame-thrower, stunner; all the stuff that was used against us by droids that HK didn't stoop to use). Even Mission's role early on as your third party member is less significant than Imoen's, because that theoretical Scoundrel with a Constitution of 10 already has a meat-wall named Carth (who starts at 5th level, lest we forget).
The point I'm trying to make is that gameplay-wise, Mission is fairly insignificant. Sure, there's no harm in another blaster hand, but the problem is that only a few hours later, you get T3-M4. And T3 is indisputably better with skills, and at least has the potential to add some tactical variance with the droid items.
So if Mission doesn't hold up from the gameplay angle, how about the story? What does she do for the story? She gets you into the Vulkar base, gets Zaalbar into your party, has her own personal quest and then, oddly enough is one of the ones to support not-Revan against Carth's suspicions. What does Imoen do? In BG 1? You're joking, right? The BG 1 joinable NPCs are lucky if they get their own quest. Imoen, like I said, was added late. She's the childhood friend of the main character, and that's about it. In the first game. In the second game, though, her importance goes way up. The main character follows the main plot either to get Imoen back, or to get payback on the wizard that captured and tortured both of you (She still doesn't get a personal quest apart from the main plot. Poor Immy).
Here's another interpretation: Mission and Imoen are both fulfilling the Bioware mandated role of 'perky thief.' But the deal is that Imoen's character expands past that as soon as BG 2 starts. Mission's growth isn't quite that blatant.
In her introductory conversations, Mission goes off about how her brother, Griff, is awesome. He smuggled them to Taris inside a shipping crate, taught her all of her unsociable skills, and was, to hear Mission tell it, beguiled by hussy named Lena, at which point he ditched Mission and went off-planet. Flash-forward to Dantooine.
Mission: "Lena? What... what are you doing here? Where's Griff?"
Lena: "I'm just passing through. Griff and I broke up a few months after we left Taris together. Probably for the best. Your brother can be charming, Mission, but he's bad news."
Lena: "Wha- ?? Mission, what's wrong with you? Why are you acting this way?"
Jan: "Mission gets a little worked up when it comes to her brother."
Lena: "Yeah, I know how she feels. Griff can be pretty frustrating. I guess that's why Mission didn't want to come with us when we left Taris."
Mission: "You liar! Griff told me you didn't want his little sister tagging along - that's why he had to leave me behind!"
Lena: "But he told me you didn't want to leave Taris. I said we shouldn't even go then, but he said we'd come back and get you after we struck it rich on Tatooine - just another one of his lies!"
Mission: "No - you're the one who's lying! Griff wouldn't... he wouldn't try to leave me behind!"
Lena: "Think about it. If Griff wasn't trying to ditch you, Mission, then why didn't he tell you where we were going? After we left Taris he told me looking after you was holding him back - Griff's always looking to blame other people for his own problems. That's why he abandoned you."
Jan: "So where is Griff now?"
Lena: "Still on Tatooine, as far as I know. Not that I really care anymore. and if Mission was smart she'd forget about that no-good con artist!"
Mission: "But Griff is my brother! I can't just pretend he doesn't exist! If he was here to defend himself Lena wouldn't be saying all this bad stuff about him!"
Lena: "Hey, if you want to talk to Griff go ahead. Last I heard he was going to make a fortune working the Czerka Corp mines on Tantooine. But as far as I'm concerned he's out of my life forever!"
Lena: "*sigh* I guess that's my cue to leave, then. I didn't mean to upset you, Mission. But one day you'll see I'm right about your brother. I only hope it's not too late by then."
On Tatooine, you inquire after Griff at the Czerka office, and they tell you that he's been kidnapped by the Sand People. Asking the Sand People chieftain to let him go gives you a line something like: 'Please, take him. He's a horrible slacker and a disgrace as a slave. We shame ourselves by keeping him.' In any case, when he comes back to the Hawk (I have no idea why Mission isn't wearing armor; maybe she was in the 'fresher?)
Mission: "I... I have to ask you something, Griff. It's important. I ran into Lena. She said... she said it was your idea to leave me on Taris. It's not true, is it?"
Griff: "Ah, well... there's the truth and then there's the truth, you know? I always meant to go back to Taris, sis. Just as soon as I had the credits to pay off my debts. But credits have been hard to come by."
Mission: "You mean it's true? It was your idea to leave me there? I'm your sister - how could you abandon me like that?"
Mission: "That's it? That's all you have to say to me after all these years after deserting me on Taris?"
Griff: "That and... uh you look good, sis. Like you're doing well. Financially, I mean. Say... you think you could spare me a few ccredits to get back on my feet, do you? Um..."
Mission: "You... you're hitting me up for credits? I don't believe this! Lena was right about you, Griff! We should have just left you to the Sand People! Don't talk to me anymore - ever!" Mission runs back inside the Hawk.
Griff: "Huh... that didn't go well. Sis always was a little too fiery for her own good. She'll cool down in time."
Jan: "Don't be so sure."
Griff: "Ah, she'll be okay. We've had our fights before. Too bad, though. I really could have used a helping hand right now."
Jan: "You're joking, right?"
Griff: "Huh - I... uh... guess you've been talking to Lena, too. That's okay - I'll figure out a way to get by without your credits. I always do. Besides, I've already got a job lined up for me." At this point, he goes off on his job offer to you, which is to restart Tarisian ale. But to do that, he needs an initial investment and tach glands from Korriban. Scam-a-licious!
I don't think I've ever actually finished that quest (because killing tachs gets you dark side points and doesn’t that have some Fable 2-esque Purity implications). Apparently, there are some already-harvested tach glands in the hunter’s camp on Kashyyyk, and it fills me with shame that I’ve never made the connection.
In any event, even the conversation about the destruction of Taris only comes down to Mission saying 'I'm on your side, because I don't want anything like that to happen again.' But even after her run-in with Griff, there's no real turning point. It might be a bit unfair to expect significant character growth from a fourteen-year-old, but I didn't write her as a kid.
To expand on the age issue a bit. I'm aware the kid sidekicks show up a lot in adventure media. But when the Star Wars examples of it Anakin in Episode 1 and the kids in the Ewok Adventure films... maybe you ought to reconsider? It also presents a whole lot of ethical concerns - using children as combatants, for one - and no, there's absolutely no reason to think that twi'leks age at a different rate than humans. Especially because Mission acts like a fourteen year old and the 'female twi'leks are all enslaved dancers and sex workers' trope would make it Piers Anthony levels of creepy.
How could you make Mission work better? Well, one way to make her role significantly less troublesome is to make her into the ship's mechanic, as opposed to a combatant. Maybe have her be in the active party until the Taris endgame. She wouldn't be a combat character, but she'd reveal secret areas, be able to stun/reprogram droids, and provide commentary on the Undercity. After that, she mostly stays aboard the Hawk, but she has a few spots where she's out and about - with Zaalbar on Kashyyyk, or getting into shouting matches with the Czerka engineers if you don't let her go. Wandering around the landing platform, taking notes on what's wrong with the Hawk, and patching her back up. Chatting with the merchant on Dantooine, maybe playing pazaak with Suvam Tan on Yavin Station.
What really hampered Bioware here is they didn't do all that many interactions between their NPCs. This was in the awkward period where they were experimenting with new technology, and because the games became fully voice-acted (even if each alien language only had ten lines), it meant that the games shrunk. What's there is good (Mission telling Zaalbar he needs a bath and a comb, Carth trying to dad over Mission), but they're all two-part conversations, apart from the plot sequences. And in those, the banter is rightly set aside in favor of 'how can we all not die?' Fortunately, KotOR 2 added conversations on the Hawk. Unfortunately, they made all the characters noirish, as opposed to Republic serial . But more on that later.
I've been complaining about this from Episode One, so it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that I've still got more to say. Let me cut right to the chase: I think that the d20 system is a horrible way to represent the Star Wars Universe.
Let me put a caveat on this: I started role-playing games with Baldur's Gate. I’ve been playing in and DMing D&D games for a decade and a half. I like the d20 system. But it's really not the best for Star Wars. So far, there have been four major RPGs for Star Wars: West End Games’ d6 version, Wizards of the Coast’s d20 version and SAGA edition and Fantasy Flight Games’ Edge of the Empire and kin. But WEG had problems with Jedi, the original d20 was just clunky, and SAGA was brand new and we were poor college students (but is otherwise pretty darn good), and FFG’s offerings hadn’t even been written yet.. So when I ran a Star Wars game, which one did I use? Why, the Serenity RPG, of course! The Cortex system (as it later gained the name) is about as close to the d20 system as you can get and not be a d20 game. It does away for a class-based system in favor of the skill-based system, had assets and complications and so on (this was before Smallville's relationship rules, which would have been nice to have).
My real argument against the d20 system used in KotOR is rooted in the revelation that 'the Council is willing to train you as a Jedi.'
You know what that means? Mandatory class change, and your previous levels are pretty much wasted (except for maybe Scoundrel, in conjunction with stunning). Story-wise, there's no reason you shouldn't train as a Jedi. Power-wise, there's no reason not to switch from the fairly weak and boring Soldier/Scout/Scoundrel class to one of the Jedi classes. The problem is that on Taris, you were probably frantically trying to gain levels, because low level characters are much more vulnerable to being screwed over by the luck of the dice. What this eventually ends with is you, as the former Darth Revan, being weaker than Jolee or Juhani, with their full levels in Jedi classes (I don't count Bastila, because if you have her at level 20, you went dark side, and dark-side Bastila's force powers are dreadful). The best way to have a more powerful build is to not to level up on Taris, and have Carth haul your low level self around. Mind, this does make the arena fights difficult...
Only making this worse is the idiocy of the point buy. Neverwinter Nights was the first one to give you a set number of points to increase your ability scores, instead of letting you roll electronic dice until you got one you liked. Now, for Neverwinter Nights (and Icewind Dale II), I can understand this, because there was this vision of multiplayer worlds, and the multiplayer is all about being fair, right? So why, in the name of the slave pits of Kessel, do they feel the need to impose a point-buy on us in KotOR? There's no multiplayer capability. On one hand, I can see that it might be used as a way to balance gameplay. On the other hand, there's a difficulty slider for a reason. It could be that they're not as worried about high ability scores as they are with low ability scores. After all, not everyone playing this game knows the d20 systems. To which I reply: you remember how there's a button called something like 'create a character for me' and another called 'auto-level up?' Did they not trust their own designs?
Another problem with using the d20 system is that KotOR doesn't really take advantage of what it does do well: allow for complex builds. Look at the amount of multiclassing by the official characters in last week’s commentary - Darth Vader has five classes. With no prestige classes, not many feats, and a very-nearly predetermined list of equipment drops, it's darn near impossible to do something like a blaster-focused Jedi. Even the list of force powers is fairly skimpy (especially since you can only use the most powerful version you have; not important for the Force Lightning progression, but potentially allowing for some interesting combos with the Force Push progression). Again, I think this is because it was originally released as a game for the X-Box. Sure, it's got more customization options for a straight-up warrior than Baldur's Gate, but the warrior in Baldur's Gate actually has a few options for what his gear should be, with actual trade-offs (do I use the halberd with an instant-kill chance, or the sword with better overall stats?). KotOR, for the most part, has just... uninteresting equipment. About the only choice you have to make is what class of armor to wear, and that's more dependent on your Force Powers than anything (wearing armor blocks certain powers; if Darth Vader didn't use it, you probably can't use it in armor).
Jan was actually faced with an actual equipment choice in the late game: either to use two fully upgraded Baragwin Assault Blades at a lesser attack bonus and more damage, or to throw in a lightsaber for less damage and more accuracy. I was shocked, but that's more because I actually rolled stats, so Jan's Dexterity was high enough for her Dexterity modifier to attacks with lightsabers to be substantially higher than her Strength. Essentially, the only reason there was achoice was because I'd changed the game from what it was supposed to be. This is a bad thing.
Furthermore, it seems Bioware completely forgot to include heavy weapons other than the repeating blaster that Canderous comes with. They did include a few Baragwin models for the PC and X-Box DLC, but that just accentuates the fact that there aren't any good mid-game options. The choice of blaster rifles are fairly skimpy as well, if not quite so bad.
I've strayed somewhat, so let me come back to classes. What's the main feature of the Soldier and Scout classes? Bonus feats. Gee, thanks. The Scoundrel has the redeeming features of Sneak Attack and a class bonus to AC, which at least aren't feats. By contrast, the Jedi all get Force Powers, a class bonus to AC and another feature (Force Jump for Guardians, Immunity to Fear/Stun/Paralyis for Sentinels and a boost to the save DCs of their powers for Consulars. Only the Guardian jump is really an interesting class feature. The others are useful, but they don’t change how you play). I'm not saying that Jedi and non-Jedi should be equally powerful (though SAGA and the FFG version apparently did a pretty good job of it), but there probably should be an actual reason to take non-Jedi party members off the Hawk. KotOR 2 had an obvious (and flawed) way to fix this discrepancy: have the ability to turn almost everyone into a Jedi. It doesn’t actually fix the problems with non-Jedi.
Right now, there are five reasons to take a non-Jedi:
1) You want to hear their banter with other party members.
2) They're plot-relevant (Zaalbar for the first bit on Kashyyyk).
3) Ranged aptitude. Unfortunately, this doesn't count for much, since the engagement range is rarely more than 10 meters, and Guardian Jump allows Guardians to close to melee rapidly, and most damaging force powers are ranged.
4) Skills. Even Sentinels don't have enough skill points to cover everything. Okay, Jan did, but she had an Intelligence of 18 and started off as a Scoundrel. I think we can safely call her an aberration (especially since the only thing Intelligence is used for are some ranged feats, skill points and more skills, and the point-buy Revan generally has more important abilities to increase).
5) Better ability scores. Flat-out, Zaalbar has much higher Strength and Constitution scores than anyone else, and if he gets the right equipment, they'll stay higher than everyone else. Sure, he gets shredded like tissue paper, but the game throws healing kits at you anyway - may as well get some use out of them.
Unfortunately, the whole 'take non-Jedi for skills' doesn't pan out so well when most of the skills are trivial. Computer Use can be helpful, and you should probably have it in certain areas so you don't spend thousands of credits on buying more spikes (or getting spikes one at a time in a conversation option with T3). Demolitions and Awareness will save you some damage, but it's almost impossible to kill yourself on mines, unless you’re blundering forward and not healing yourself. Security is useless because you can just bash open containers without harm to the contents (a problem they fixed in KotOR 2). Repair is useful for droids because it restores health to them, and because it allows the PC to repair HK-47 for stories and game-boosts. For anyone else, it's useless. Treat Injury is moderately important until Bastila appears, with her regenerating mana force points and Cure power. You're the only one who can take Persuade, so it doesn't matter who you drag along. Stealth... well, you don't get XP for sneaking by opponents.
In contrast: notice how once I got Jolee, he pretty much didn't leave the party? That's how good Force Powers are. It’s also where all the interesting effects are - stun, push, scaling area-of-effect damage (in contrast to grenades, which are relevant for Taris and maybe a bit after), lifedrain, poison, save-or-die...
There’s also the weird focus on melee combat. Cortosis weave is a workable reason for why there are non-lightsaber swords in Star Wars, but it doesn’t answer the question of why there are non-lightsaber swords. Variety of enemies? They took the fantasy in spaaaaaaace aesthetic too literally? They watched too many samurai movies and not enough cowboy movies? Your guess is as good as mine.
All told, there were a bunch of 'historical sources' that I ended up using. I'd just like to go down the list and explain the why, what, etc of them, as well as what I thought the weak points were.
Onasi's after-action reports: Carth is compulsory for most of Taris, so there was no reason not to have him leave his own record. Second, as a report to his military superiors, it's the type of document that's likely to survive. One of the disadvantages of it was that because I wasn thinking of it as an after-action report, there wasn't much of Carth in them. The other disadvantage is that Carth wasn't used very much after Taris (aside from Manaan). I'd say that the best stuff from Carth would be in the Hkraet Rift Station. Ironically, that's also where I sort of drift away from the actual story. I'd imagine that it was also Carth who recorded most of the banter back and forth around the Hawk, which was always fun to write.
Shan's reports to the Jedi Council: Bastila is important enough to the plot that it's hard not to take her along. Like Carth's reports, her - let's be blunt and say 'spying' - on Jan/Revan is the kind of document that would be preserved. It wouldn't be released for decades, maybe centuries, but eventually the Jedi would crack their Archives open and decide, 'This can't do any harm' (*cough* Darth Bane's visit to Lehon *cough*). I do think I made the same mistake as I did with Carth, and was a bit too shy in putting in comments, snide or otherwise, from Bastila. Probably for the best that I didn't put in all of her self-imposed penances, though.
Vao's holorecorders: were pretty much my stop-gap measure for incidents like Shan and Ni in the port crew quarters, which Shan would probably beat herself up over and not actually mention in her reports. I'm mostly at a loss for how they would've survived the test of time, but like I said, this source was born out of me mostly panicking and choosing the first thing that sounded reasonable. And to be honest, I'm not sure how else I could have included certain scenes.
Bindo's Journal: Another character who's compulsory for a fairly substantial period of time. I actually indulged myself more in comments for Jolee, mainly because cranky old men are moderately easy to write. He also gave me a way to notice details that I'd otherwise have to mention in the commentary, or were minor enough that they could otherwise be ignored.
Unknown Source: Holonet History may have had to keep it secret, but I don't. I intended it to be fairly easy to figure out, but if I didn't quite manage that... The idea was for this 'unknown source' to be the reports of the Genoharadan agents trailing Jan. Originally, I was planning to never get inside Jan's head by having to use her journal as a source. That really broken down on Korriban. I'll accept that the Genoharadan are good, but when we're talking the Tomb of Naga Sadow, my disbelief is being stretched. Again, no commentary. Seeing a pattern in my mistakes yet?
Ni's Journal: Like I said, I wasn't planning on using this. But then I looked back over Korriban, and more importantly the Rakatan Prison, and I realized that there was no way I couldn't use it. However, I tried to minimze the impact by making the journal extremely fragmentary and all but devoid of commentary. The big problem with giving the player control over a character (and by extension, a forum control of a character), is that it limits that character in how much they can grow and develop. There are a few ways to limit this:
1) The JRPG Method: You only control the actions of a character in a very limited spectrum (usually combat and gross movement). Generally doesn't have any conversational choices. I call it the ‘JRPG Method’, but it really applies to most non-RPG characters as well. You witness their character growth, but you aren’t an active participant.
2) The Pre-Made Character Method: The game gives you a character, and lets you develop that character within a pre-set range of definitions. This is what the Witcher did: my Geralt may not be exactly the same as yours, but it's conceivable that they could have developed from the same starting point. Dragon Age II did this very well with Hawke and their conversation stacks, and the Telltale Walking Dead games did a similar thing with ‘<Character> will remember that.’
3) The Established Backstory Method: Building off of that, there are games that either hand you a particular backstory (Baldur's Gate series, Neverwinter Nights 2, Jade Empire) or allow you to select from a number of options (Dragon Age I, Mass Effect). Once there, though, it generally opens up a lot more. Generally.
4) The 'Write Your Own Fan-Fiction' Method: Gives you a starting location and pretty much does nothing else for you in terms of character development (The Elder Scrolls series, Diablo series, Icewind Dale series).
Knights of the Old Republic looks like it's going to be a number four, but the twist of it turns your poor innocent PC into Revan, who does have a clearly established backstory (and thus #3). I'm sure this came as an unpleasant surprise for some people, and it's why I was careful to never actually let Jan tell war stories of her own. I probably should have thrown in a line like, "It's classified. I'm not even allowed to remember without clearance."
Here's a huge looming question: if they wanted to make a massive-multiplayer-online-game with tons of Force-wielders, why not set it during the War of Light and Darkness, with the Brotherhood of Dark and the Army of Light? You could have instances racing against the Thought Bomb, there's a whole laundry list of big name commanders, you don't have to actually declare anything canonical about Revan or the Exile, it's still the Old Republic and there are still Knights. Heck, you could even open it up to range over the whole New Sith Wars. Encourage alt-itis with a whole bunch of different eras, and the possibility to carry through characters to later eras as descendants. Add more eras with expansion packs, preferably to the middle (to make the raiders grind all the way through again). But hey, I still finished this LP before the Old Republic released, so I'll call that a win. And then I finished the re-release after the Old Republic became basically irrelevant. Such is the circle of life. I’ll be commenting on the Old Republic in one of the appendices, though.
Soooo, after Bastila and before Darth Malak, there's this puzzle fight with the Star Forge droids. There are six generators, each of which can be shut down by a nearby computer console for the low low price of eight computer spikes. But like all hacking, you either need Computer Use, lots of spikes, or some combination thereof (Every +4 of Computer Use means you pay one less spike per command). Jan has nothing in Computer Use. In fact, it's the only skill she has nothing in.
That aside, with a Computer Use of +4 from raw intelligence only, it still costs seven spikes to shut off a droid generator, and there are six generators. Jan went in with thirty-four spikes. (Rakata: "No, not math!") So, finding herself eight spikes short, Jan has to rely on something else. When a droid is killed, it creates a spike in a container next to the computer console. Eight dead droids later, all the generators are shut off. It's a decent idea in theory, but what about the person who doesn't have anything in Computer Use and didn't come in with a large number of spikes (because I knew this puzzle was coming, and made preparations). Well, they wind up grinding droids until the plot door opens up. Keep in mind that earlier in the Star Forge, there's a console where you can create customized Jedi robes for yourself, costing around sixteen spikes with a Computer Use of +0. It's like they want you to have spent all your spikes earlier, and be forced to grind.
By the way, Jan isn't wearing that armor for a few reasons: one, the original Star Forge robes, while the best in the game stat-wise, look like your standard brown Jedi robes, which really don't look all that great on Jan. Blacks and grays go much better with her color. Second, those default robes are replaced by Revan's Robes because I had a mod installed. You'll see the (black) dark side robes in the Alternate History update later. The light side robe is the same thing in white. Only two problems: they actually require light/dark side alignment, which Jan doesn't have. She was sitting at 54-ish right before the final fight; I believe 40 and 60 are the thresholds. The other problem is that cloak isn't animated, so you get clipping through it all the time.
In any event, the droid fight is a moderately interesting puzzle fight - the first time. Maybe. Afterwards, it's a grind-fest. And more importantly, it's symbolic of the one great failing of KotOR - linear puzzle solving. With a good Computer Use, it's possible to turn the droids to your side. But the problem is that the droids just aren't a threat, especially in the face of Malak. And even if you do that, it's still a fairly brute force solution. There's no way to sneak away (like practically all the game; seriously, skill points in Stealth are a complete waste), there's not an opportunity for a dark side wielder to try to rip control of the Star Forge systems away from Malak, and so on.
Just to give you a last look at Jan, right before she heads into the final fight. Note that she's got +8 to all her physical abilities because she's hopped up on the best stims I could loot. I've already talked about her skills, so let's glance briefly at feats: Master Two Weapon Fighting (delicious extra attack), Master Critical Strike (improved critical can cause stun and stun means sneak attack. Where do I sign?), Implant Level 3 (hello, extra item slot!) and Advanced Toughness (sweet, sweet DR 2/-) are the big ones.
For Force Powers: Master Speed (which I completely forgot about in the final fight, durrrrr), Heal (utility), Dominate Mind (subplot!), Force Push (didn't get a chance to go higher), Statis Field (Stun + Sneak Attack = Love), Force Storm (AoE, though I didn't use it much; more for the evil ending) and Death Field (explicitly for the end battle).
Just to give you a vague idea of Malak's stats: I would throw up an energy shield that protected me from 100 points of damage. It would be gone in two rounds, three if I got lucky. I realize this is the final boss, and it's on the hardest difficulty mode, but still. Ouch. Plus, did you get the part where he's about a foot and a half taller than Jan or Bastila? The only way to get moderately comparable height is to be a male soldier, and he's still taller by a few inches. In any case, the only reason he's this powerful is that he's essentially being over-clocked by the Star Forge. I would say that Malak's actual level is what Jan fought on the Leviathan, around level 15.
Level comparisons via SAGA edition:
Darth Vader: Jedi 7/Jedi Knight 5/Ace Pilot 2/Sith Apprentice 2/Sith lord 3
Luke (VI): Scout 1/Jedi 7/Ace Pilot 2/Jedi Knight 1
Emperor Palpatine: Noble 6/Jedi 1/Sith Apprentice 8/Sith Lord 5
Bastila (Assumedly, this is at the end of it all): Jedi 10/Jedi Knight 7 (See? Even the bloody gamebook says that she's a Knight. But not the Jedi Council, ooooh nooo.)
Malak: Jedi 7/Jedi Knight 5/Sith Apprentice 4/Sith Lord 4. And Canonical (*shake fist*) Revan is the same, only with Apprentice 3/Lord 5. Jan would probably replace those Sith prestige class levels with Scoundrel or some Commando prestige class.
Also, you're not imagining things: every single one of Malak's captive Jedi has the exact same model. Looks like the Clone Wars started early. But you know what the really freaky thing is? That's also a possible model for Revan. Now that would have freaky implications: 'Oh, Revan, we tried to clone you a bunch of times, but none of them really worked out.' As if the council needed to be creepier.
Stay tuned for the appendices, covering alternate endings to the game, some comments on the game as a whole, various things I skipped and commentary on the Old Republic MMO.
