Thoughts after finishing

[Euripides]

First of all it was a very good game. Congradulations to the developers and producers.

 

Having said that i would like to state that the reason i bought KOTOR II was that i was utterly thrilled by KOTOR I. Assuming there will be a KOTOR III, i will be very restrained to buy it outright and the reason is KOTOR II. Maybe i will do at the end but i think the franshise has suffered a bit.

 

The story had TREMENDOUS potential but then it falls apart. It does not use the clever bits and pieces to make a comprehensive tale. It turns from very ambitious to just chaotic. And I beg to differ that for this the blame is not with the producer. The blame is with the scriptwriter. If they wanted to leave questions open for a next sequel, I would have no problems with that. But I think they even failed to structure an ending with unanswered questions. Just confusion. Empire Strikes back is a good example of a story which leaves open questions. But the questions in ESB are clear. You want to see the next film to get some answers. I have no anticipation for a KOTOR III because I just ont have open questions. Just confusion.

 

The story of KOTOR I was more simple if you think about it. But it had a mangificent twist which provided clear motivation for all actions of the main character until the very end (i.e. revenge, redemption depending if you played DS or LS). And it was ingenious in its simplicity.

 

And that is my main "structural" objection to this game. The tale. What is the character

[SteveThaiBinh]

Immediately on completing the game, after the disappointing ending, I also felt unmotivated to replay the game. If you're not heading towards a satisfying conclusion, what's the point?

 

Then I started playing, and was hooked again within ten minutes. Do it, you'll really enjoy it. The main body of the game is really excellent.

 

But LucasArts/Obsidian, please take note. A weak ending can be more damaging than you think.

[PjotrGushin]

Above comments do certainly hold truth's but I didn't feel it was too damaging.

 

The game has great play value and I was really hooked just a few minutes into the game. But as mentioned, the questions that was behind my curiousity was never completely answered.

 

Another thing that I found a bit disappointing was that it was too easy. I played a consular and later a jedi master with astonishing wisdom and I just blasted my way through every enemy that came near. Using the stun series and the wave series on top of the defenseive measuers and the likes of speed and enlightment made my character to powerful.

 

Next one I hope will be tougher!

[SteveThaiBinh]

I have a few ideas about the motivation, although it's quite subjective as the game doesn't spell it out. But it might be better if you post the question in the spoilers forum, and I can reply to it there.

[ken007]

I feel exactly like you!!

 

 

Though, I'm looking forward to the patch and what it will fix!

[Jam de Ebme]

Honestly? I'm so disappointed in the ending of what was otherwise an impossibility. . . a game that lived up to KOTOR I.

 

The first game was only so-so to me until the revelation of Revan. From then on I was so amazed at how well they'd strung me along through sub-quests and mini games and other assorted (though well-disguised) cliche's of the genre that it wasn't until I discovered who my character had been that I realized I cared what those around him thought. The characters became the focus of my interest.

 

My overall reaction to this sequel was that this was a good game, throughly enjoyable, and it had a few fantastic characters, along with some ridiculously lame ones. Allow me to explain.

 

Again, I started with a Light Side male, but by the end of the game it felt like they were trying to immitate an anime harem show like Tenchi Muyo or Love Hina. You have three females who are to one degree or another chasing you and (thankfully) one who just wants you for obscure reasons. I wasn't aware that my character had a romance brewing with Visas until she all but seduced him in Kreia's chamber. Until that point I was applauding the game's lack of serious romantic overtones. . . though I admit to tryng to hook Exlie up with Mira.

 

Further overencumberance of characters came in the personage (ha!) of G0t0. Like I would ever let a person near me who was animating a torture droid, let alone allow said droid on my ship in close contact with friends. Candeorus, this time, had good reasons for being there and by the time he arrived I had ample confidence of my "Character" to let him stay, but I wanted G0t0 off my ship so fast he'd leave a vapor trail.

 

The saving grace in all this, was Atton. If there is ever a KOTOR hall of fame than Atton in all his snarky glory needs to be it's first inductee. All the fun of Carth with none of his trotured-soul-angstfest-edness.

 

My gosh, I'm long-widned.

 

Anyway, the last third of the game just felt so much like all the much-hyped control and influence of other characters was flushed down the toilet and frankly, the endgame was so horridly disapointing that I had a hard time beliveing it was shipped like that. More loose ends and sloppy knots that a boy scout jamboree.

[Astatine]

Might as well post some of my own thoughts on the characters...

 

I thought Goto was very cool in concept, but was quite disappointed that my Sith Marauder didn't have the option to just blow the damn droid up I could think of no sane reason to keep it around and lots of reasons why I didn't want to. Plot-wise the droid clearly "needed" to stick about for the ending, but it would have been better if the option had been there to try to get rid of it and there was some cunning hook or other to make it come back, or be not-got-rid-of, or something...

 

For some reason I liked Visas but Handmaiden creeped me out. Not sure why.

 

I liked Hanharr, because of the way his character tore apart the downtrodden-Wookiee-slave thing from KOTOR1 which I thought was rather cheesy ever since first arriving on Kashyyyk in that game.

 

Atton very cool.

 

Mira cool too, but not keen on some of the dialogue options -- seemed a bit polarized to the Light and Dark stereotypes, especially a couple of ones for a Light side character which came across as rather preachy. Didn't seem to fit in a game that managed to make quasi-villains out of the Light Side Preachiness Themselves, the Jedi Council (something which I very much appreciated )

 

T3 went from bland in KOTOR1 to really quite intriguing in KOTOR2

 

HK-47 bit disappointing -- mostly his old self but not enough of him, and overshadowed by the HK-50s (especially the wonderful one on Peragus). Then again, I haven't really had a character gain much influence with him yet (my darksider was the first I played and only managed to complete him by the time of the return to Dantooine) so maybe there's a fair bit I've missed, but I suspect the best bits were cut along with the HK factory. Gah.

 

KOTOR2 managed to be cool, intriguing and spring the unexpected just about throughout, though, which is more than I can say for KOTOR1. Bioware's game is entirely about the Revelation and the (masterful) way in which they built up to it; many of the "side" bits not associated with that I found irritating. The villagers in the Telos undercity with that "Promised Land" silliness, and the treatment of the Wookiee slavery thing, both came across as a bit corny to me. And they went and did an incredible job of making a whole planetful of denizens to hate in the Selkath, with their damned neutrality and their damned Judges, and then utterly failed to give the dark side player the satisfaction of being "forced" to lightsaber his way through the entirety of the Manaan city at the end of that section! (Or maybe a stealthier option involving escaping from prison and leaving behind some judiciously placed permacrete charges to go off after the Ebon Hawk was well clear? ) Argh And I won't say anything about Bastila or Carth...

[Mihail]

The orginal endings would have been by far a better, but that's not what left a bad taste in my mouth personally, the thing I did not like was the fact there was little to no character backgrounds:

 

 

Sion: Some darth lord being held together by his rage, who may or may not be the one sucking the life out of planets, although it could be the other guy.

 

Atton: A former jedi assassin who use to love killing jedi untill some jedi let him see what the darkside was, after that he some how meets the exile

 

Visa: A dark jedi who for some reason or another joins up with the exile after a single meeting with him/her, and swears allegiance to the exlie after being beaten.... Although it's sort of explain why she joined, it still does not get drilled into your head

 

Bao-Du: No idea, from what I gather he was with the "general" on malachor V, and the reason he joined the war effort was not to defend or save people, it was to kill the mandalorians, he really seemed like the most intresting charcter when I first met him on telos, but sadly no story.... and odd thing is, he seems to die in the end, how? Got me, remote plays some sort of message which seems to be his death message, but keria at the end of the game says nothing about his death, so I don't know.....

 

Handmaiden: I sort of know her story better then the rest.

 

Artis: I have sort of a idea of who she is as well, but like the other jedi masters, her actual role in the game was very short, much like 90% of all the characters in the game.

 

Mira: From what I understand she was going to be the love intrest I believe, or maybe it was going to be a three way love triangle, i'm not sure, but since she was one of the last characters next to go-to to join I have no idea who she is, I know more about remote then her, and that's quite laughable, she seems to be a bounty hunter for some reason or another joins up because she does not like killing or something, or did not like betraying go-to. But thankfully she gets on the ebon hawk before the remains of malachor v blows up? that's classic, I would have prefer any other character besides mira even remote.

 

Hanharr: Some wookie who use to have a life debt with mira, for what reason I don't know, why his life debt was broken with her or why they hate each other, I have no idea.

 

Go-to: Some sort of mafia type boss, who captures the exile and asks him to save the republic but won't allow him off the ship to do it? okay.... so instead of offering some kick ass War Droid, we get what seems to be a interrogation droid, a smart ass one too, thanks go-to now get in the back with all those other droids that are tagging along..... while your at it scrub the deck..... Also, for some reason go-to even though hes not a droid or so I think, he hates Boa-Dur's droid remote for some reason and it seems he attacked it, but umm nothing happens to remote...

 

HK and T3:Well I know their stories, but why they were on the ebon hawk, why HK was taken apart and stomped on, I have no idea, it seems reven dropped them off on malachor v, then keria picks them up after she seems to have went to meet reven...... anyway I know their back stories...

 

Mandalore: Why hes not not openly called Canderous is somewhat of a odd ball, anyway I know his story, but I would think Canderous was willing and wanting to follow reven to the ends of the earth in the never ending adventure to find glory, but it seems he picks up the mandalore clans and rebuilds them, which to me seems rather odd because what good would come out of that? are they going to try and attack the republic again? Because if they do, I would think reven would quickly stop that not to let another jedi civil war happen....... anyway....

 

Keria: I have a good idea of who she is, she seems to be the master of sion, and reven, who for some reason is a dark jedi even though she hates the force and tries to destroy but still hates the dark jedi for killing so many millions? anyway.....

 

The jedi Masters: Besides Artis and Vrook I have no idea who these people are, and even after I gather the little that are remaining, and after the sith reveal themselfs, they try to take exile's powers away? even though that other darth lord will be coming for them right then and there considering 4 jedi masters and a exile are just standing there? I would think that was unwise of them, and even so, their role was ended quickly when keria killed them all it seems...... okay...

 

The worst part is the little attachment you may have to the characters, is ruined at the end when you seem to loose them all at the end? With no idea what the hell happen? I mean the ship seems to fall into the "plant" Ill use planet loosely but mira, remote and go-to get off but the others seem to die a horrible death during the crash landing, or atleast Boa-Dur did......

 

 

So pretty much my feels are that there was no story development, I really hope that's Lucas's arts fault, and not planned to be like that....

[LdyShayna]

The saving grace in all this, was Atton. If there is ever a KOTOR hall of fame than Atton in all his snarky glory needs to be it's first inductee. All the fun of Carth with none of his trotured-soul-angstfest-edness.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

What? You're joking right? Not angsty? Not a tortured soul? We talking about the same Atton here?

 

[Mihail]

The saving grace in all this, was Atton. If there is ever a KOTOR hall of fame than Atton in all his snarky glory needs to be it's first inductee. All the fun of Carth with none of his trotured-soul-angstfest-edness.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

What? You're joking right? Not angsty? Not a tortured soul? We talking about the same Atton here?

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Haha, Yeah I know what your talking about.... Atton is carth, but worst, by the end of KOTORII, I had my atton dressed in the same way as I had carth dressed, from the little I got out of atton, the less I wanted to hear about his life story....

[Exertim]

The KOTOR II storyline had so MUCH potential, but it blew up near the end. Too many plot holes, etc - it just looked very rushed. I wouldn't really blame Obsidian for it at all, afterall, they were probably rushing to meet their deadline from LucasArts.

 

/sigh

 

Guess I'll hope KOTOR III is better if one is ever made. If Obsidian is ever able to add in a real ending or additional content, that would be excellent.

[AlanC9]

Mihail, some of the backgrounds you want are in the game. You just didn't have enough Influence to learn them. Mandalore, Hanharr, Mira, Bao-Dur,

[Sarjahurmaaja.]

And G0-T0.

 

 

Remember the quest to deliver that droid to Czerka/Ithorians to help in the restoration effort, and how the first droid sent to Telos was supposedly lost? Turns out the droid was G0-T0.

 

[celestine]

I like Atton as he is. Maybe he has more interesting dialogues with a female PC and I found him to be entertaining and amusing. I like his sarcastic remarks and I found his back-story the most convincing to be

trained as a jedi

.

 

I really dislike the ending. Its not even half convincing or conclusive. Granted that the developers might want to leave some unanswered plots for the sequel, I still think the ending's somewhat lacking.

 

GoTo is a waste of time. I find nothing worthwhile having him around. I'm not even the mildest interested in it.

[The Great Phantom]

I personally think that KOTOR II is more of an 'individual expansion' to KOTOR I. However, that is just about as high as the praise gets, from me. Few games are ever even compared to KOTOR, with me.

 

Decent job, Obsidian, but the extra month wait would have been worth it

[guybrush threepwood]

GoTo is a waste of time. I find nothing worthwhile having him around. I'm not even the mildest interested in it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yeah i agree, i disliked the whole idea of some stupid exchange boss for no convincing reason deciding that he had an interest in stabalizing the galaxy.

 

And he is a giant stupid droid, with a more stupid looking hologram, with a crap voice, and is in no way interesting.

 

Worst Kotor character ever. i was hoping i could take him to the hutt that wanted him dead but it didn't seem to work

[99blackbird]

Questions about the story thta I have.....

 

What was the point of resurrecting Hanhaar and sending him to Malacor V? Was there a purpose for having him hunt Mira again?

 

What was up with the whole HK47 and T3 dialogue on the Ebon Hawk concerning the navigational computer?

 

What was the purpose of having remote arm the Shadow thing? And even more perplexing why was GOTO there to stop him?

 

Why did we have to guess that Bao-Dur died from the holo-message that remote played?

 

If the Ebon Hawk fell into that gorge or whatever it was, how did you escape on it at the end?

 

If Handmaiden brought Kreia to Atris as a prisoner, why was Kreia allowed to walk around the Academy freely?

 

Why did I have to run around Malachor V alone? Did everyone but Mira die?

 

How well built is the Ebon Hawk to survive so many crash landing?

 

 

The list goes on and on......

[Judge Hades]

Gods, this ending sucked and made no sense. That was my thoughts after finishing.

[guybrush threepwood]

What was up with the whole HK47 and T3 dialogue on the Ebon Hawk concerning the navigational computer?

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yeah does that go anywhere? i thought maybe it was t3 hiding revans starforge flights (and maybe some newer adventures). Does the t3 influence repair tell you anything? i was a persuasive, aware guardian who didn't have much repair skill...even with all the repair modifiers i could find it still didn't work