GhostofAnakin

Nope, I got that part. Which is why I figured the baby they were talking about was Dawn Star. I just never got the part where it was revealed who she was. I had Silver Fox with me the entire time I was in the Lotus Assassin stronghold.

Weird. Does she have to be your activated follower at that point or something? Because I never learned that about her. I think I got about as far as finding out that she was brought to the Three Rivers School as a baby, and that Sagacious Zu was tasked to kill Master Li's family. I guess I missed out on that one important link between the two stories.

Haha, well Volourn commented in his initial post that he'd be posting spoilers so people should beware. I figured if they've read this far, they were ready for spoilers.

Refresh my memory. I might have just not caught on to Dawn Star's background.

Considering Atton also looks about as old as Carth, that would make it very difficult. Not to mention if you had played the game (or paid attention to the dialogue) you'd know that Atton's backstory makes it impossible to even think he was Dustil.

Not sure the point of the poll, since you could get an idea what people thought of the game by browsing the various threads on this forum....but to answer the poll, yes I was satisfied.

I just finished playing through for the first time so I figured I'd add my own comments to this thread. For the most part, I agree with Vol's review. I don't know if I'd gush as much as he did. The first chapter was well done and set the tone, but I didn't feel it was extraordinary or anything. It did a very good job of giving "background" for the setting and for what was to come. The second chapter started giving the PC more quests to tackle and that's when the game picked up. I thought the quests were well done, but one minor complaint I had was it was relatively easy to figure out the "subtleties" of what was right and wrong. For instance, in the Forest section, they were a bit too obvious that the people in the Inn weren't "right" somehow and that the forrest fox goddess (I forget her name) was actually the "good" path. Overall, I thought it gave the player a good selection of choices where non-violent solutions could be used. The third chapter was by far the best and the least linear of the entire game. IMO, if it weren't for the third chapter, the story would have been way too linear. But the third chapter allowed you (for the most part) to do the quests you wanted to in the order you wanted to, and had massive areas to explore. I was hoping for a bit more behind the Black Leopard School section. The story itself for that section was interesting, but it was a bit short considering it had an entire "area" dedicated to it. Same with the Scholar section. But overall, chapter three was great. BioWare also expanded on the KOTOR dueling ring by implementing a deeper aspect with the Imperial Arena. It took the duels from KOTOR, but also added plots and subplots to those duels, which was a great addition. Chapter 4 to 7, IMO, were a let down. The story itself during these chapters was still interesting, but it felt like from Chapter 4 until the end, it was just a mad scramble to the end. You knew what was coming and it was just a matter of fighting your way there. The roleplaying and subquests pretty much end after Chapter 3, and then for the remainder of the game you're just wrapping up the story. It was more well done and fleshed out than the endings of KOTOR 1 and 2, but it still reminded me of from about the Unknown World (Rakatan world) until the end of KOTOR 1, and from about the Jedi Enclave meeting with the Jedi Masters until the end in KOTOR 2. Characters: I thought they were well done, but I don't think they were exactly memorable ones, mainly because you could only bring one along with you, so often times the rest weren't part of your party. I thought Silver Fox's character was great, since she had such a direct tie to the story, and up until his "sacrifice", Sagacious Zu's character was intriguing because he had a secret to tell. But, IMO, the others were just "there". I was especially disappointed with Dawn Star's role. The first couple of chapters built her up to be like the main sidekick for the PC, and built up her story to make her something important, but unless I missed something major, I never saw her background explained fully. There were hints (such as the chat between Sagacious Zu and that chick you meet at the Tea House in Tien's Landing), but her storyline was sort of dropped once Silver Fox joined the group. It almost felt like Bioware initially wanted Dawn Star to be the main love interest, but then said "nah, we like Silver Fox better so we'll use her". Villains: Very well done. Some of the deepest villains I've seen in a video game. Their stories were fleshed out, for the most part. For instance, Gao the Lesser wasn't just some "endboss" you had to go through for the sack of having someone to fight. He actually had a deep backstory that was told. Same with Death's Hand, and both Emperors. Even the minor villains like the Serpent guy (the arena endboss) was more fleshed out than most other game villains. Combat: I enjoyed it. I'm not a big fan of twitch gaming, but the controls weren't cumbersome and weren't tricky at all. I think why I liked the combat in JE and not in BL was because you could automatically "target" your enemy in JE. So as long as your enemy was targeted, it was near impossible to miss with a hit. In BL, it felt like you had to get the enemy lined up, which for someone like me, got annoying when they're swinging away and hitting and I'm struggling just to get the target recticle on them. Dislikes: -Linearity of the story after Chapter 3. As I stated above, even though the story didn't actually fall apart, rather it just kept going at a good pace, the game went from a roleplaying game to an adventure game where you basically spent most of the time fighting various enemies. -Projectile shooting enemies. Ugh! I know this is more my own flaw rather than a flaw of the game, but since I rarely used the block button, projectile enemies gave me more trouble than anyone else. To put it into context, I had more problem with those tainted spirits that shot that green fireball at me than I did with the final battle against Sun Li!! -NPC party members in combat. They were next to useless. The only purpose they served for me was distracting an enemy or two when there were large groups attacking me. That way I could finish off 3 or 4 enemies while they were busy getting killed by 1 or 2 of them. They were basically a diversionary tactic for me rather than actually helpful in combat. Except for Whirlwind. His axes were great against lesser foes. -Load times. Annoying. Although they gave me a chance to flip back to checking the baseball scores on TSN while I waited for the next area to load. -Game length. Yes, I felt it was too short. Even in comparison to the KOTOR series. Both KOTOR games took me over 30 hours on my first play thrus. My last save had me at 25 hours and 52 minutes, which was right before the final fight with Sun Li, so tack on maybe at most another 10 minutes and there's my playing time. I think if they maybe had dealt more with both Sky and Dawn Star's past, possibly even a side-quest for each, it could have increased game length. I think that's about it. Overall, it was a great game.

Agreed. We already know the story of Revan and the Exile. No sense in writing a novel about it. KOTOR era=yes KOTOR game story=no

Did you feel a gust of wind pass over your head just recently? "

I wouldn't mind the JE system used for KOTOR3. Maybe JE has softened my stance on that kind of combat in a RPG.

I don't think it's quick. I consider quick when someone rushes through everything, but I've taken my time and explored most of what is available. I might not have seen or done everything, but I've also not rushed through, doing all the sidequests so far.

Well I just landed in Imperial City (Chapt 3), and my last save was at 11 hours and 54 minutes. So, for those who have finished the game, that'll give you an exact idea of where I am and how long it's taken me thus far. And I'm like Jag. I go "exploring" and end up talking to everyone I can, plus chatting with my NPC followers every so often to see if they have anything new to say.

? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Weird thing is my roommate's copy is called "Special Edition" and has a bonus disc, but he didn't pre-order. He just bought it the other day.

Good. Because the story is just starting to fully flesh out so I was hoping that I wasn't already half way through it.

I believe Chapter 2 (or it might be Chapter 3). The part just after I "acquire" the Dragonfly, but am in the process of getting the world map from that tainted forest.

I'm about 10 hours in now. If this game is supposed to take about 20 hours, then that means I'm half way done. I hope that's not accurate, since the story is just starting to take off and flesh out.

We really need a :boohoo smiley for situations like this.

Out of curiosity, which RPG are known to be debuted at E3? Which are speculated to be announced? That's gotta be considered a bit of a positive for the RPG genre that they're popular enough to take up the second most percentage of games being shown.

The guys at Obsidian sound wacky. If this whole gaming biz thing doesn't work out, they can become a travelling group of comedians and acrobats.

I guess I'm just not in to the Asian look then. Although that can't be it, since there are a few Asian women in real life that I find attractive. *shrugs*

Why does that not surprise me?

I'm still early on in the game, but so far none of the female characters look "attractive", even by video game standards.

I think Dawn Star has dandruff. She's always scratching her head during cutscenes.

So, we will see it by the time NWN 2 is released? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> My guess is it'll be around the same time that KOTOR3 is half thru production. "

My roommate finally caved and bought the game. I haven't had a chance to play yet since he's been hogging his X-Box (the nerve of him, eh?), but he's gone now for the weekend so I guess I've got a couple of days to play it. (w00t)