I was just looking at some dev. interviews at Gamespot. Everything seemed okay... the devs. seemed pleased with their work, Chris was talking about all the research they did... but then something got me. He said something to the effect of: "we saw what had been done before [with Star Wars] and we wanted to do something different".
Okay, that's the problem right there. If I were making a game for a series I hate, like Ultima for example; I wouldn't try and change the Ultima universe so I'd enjoy the game more. I would make a game that fans of Ultima would enjoy. This is really the responsiblity of developers to please fans of the series, not themselves. Most of the people who liked KOTOR II, didn't like the first one: i.e: they were not fans of the series. In fact most of them aren't Star Wars fans at all, they're Black Isle fans. I think this is such a typical show of arrogance, overconfidence and ambition when developers take a well known series and "innovate" to the point where the feel of the series is lost. (looks like a Star Wars game, but certainly doesn't feel like it)
With that said however, Lucasarts should have done a better job reigning them in. I guess it just goes to show Star Wars fans what a diamond in the rough the original KOTOR was. The way Bioware captured the feel of Star Wars effortlessly and completely is amazing... and Lucasarts was obviously a VERY small part in it.