About the first sentance: right and thats all signs of polish. Seriously tho, think how much those "misc" aspects of the game helped K1. About the second: I disagree with the story part. I'd say their about even. I'm not going to give K2 credit for the story they were trying to tell, only the story that they told.
IMO, the game was carried by the dialogue and characters.
all of that would have been VERY nice.
if only they had 6 more months, give or take.
As for ending openly, they didn't mind killing off most characters in K1. I think they just ran out of time.
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Who knows, but KotOR II feels only half-finished after reading the contents of dialogs.tlk. Sure KotOR 1 had one ending cut from the final product, but it didn't affect the overall feel, unlike KotOR II.