What you liked about KotOR1

[Sturm]

First of all, not this isnt a KotOR1 vs KotOR2 sort of topic, Its just something I have set up where we can all discuss what points of KotOR1 we liked or disliked. I'm sure that we have all mentioned in our posts in any old random topic how we liked the characters, or liked the music. So now we can all talk about it in this thread.

 

Well some things at the moment that I can think back on which I liked was such things as the planets you went through. All the planets that you went to in KotOR1 was mentioned some time in the movies and I'm sure that we where all eager to see what these planets where like, Examples being Korriban, Dantooine, Kashyyyk (We werent introduced to it, all we heard was about the Wookie race) and Tatooine, which was involving moreso. Alot of the places you went were mentioned in the movies, ie Anchorhead, the Wookie home on Kashyyyk, Dantooine in general (leia mentions it) and Korriban about being a Dark Sith/Jedi planet. Taris being awfully similar to Coruscant, and Manaan being a lot like Kamino.

 

So really KotOR1 was similar to a step into the Star Wars universe as to what we have been viewing all this time. I really loved the music as well, Very Star Warsish, the whole epic music as you go along by your adventures, and many of the songs sounding like something that would acctually come from star wars. Like the "Basilla Shan" Theme sounds a lot like the "Luke Skywalker" theme. I loved the music on Manaan, Tatooine and the Evil feeling presence sort of music of Korriban I loved the sound of peace and tranquil on Dantooine especially.

 

A lot of the characters where steriotypes of the characters within the movies, Basilla Shan was a teacher and jedi sort of like Obi-Wan and Luke combined in a way, Carth was similar to Han with all the piloting ect. (although we can more accurately compare him to Atton)

 

I loved it how it wasnt just another Bang! Bang! Shoot'em'up Star Wars game which you had to do levels after levels and got really boring, I liked how KotOR was one complete flowing game and how you could learn about your characters and this whole massive quest sort of feel, going around doing side quests and the major "find the star forge" quest, Everything was easily compareable to Star Wars which was great. I liked how what you said effected things, and how it effected your allignment and the ending. It effected Dialogue which I loved and what characters said to you.

 

Well thats all I can think of for the moment. I would like to see your views

[Guest The Architect]

What I don't like about KOTOR is how linear and forced some things are, and also the fact that BioWare gets far more credit than what it really deserves for its so called 'brilliant' storyline...

 

I mean, the story is basically this, a Republic ship, the Endar Spire, is ambushed by Sith fighters while in orbit around the planet Taris. As the ship is destroyed, the player and Carth Onasi land on the planet in an escape pod. Their first priority is to find Bastila Shan, a young Jedi who was accompanying them on the Endar Spire and who knows how to use the rare Force Power of Battle Meditation. One year earlier, Bastila used Battle Meditation to lead an assault against Darth Revan, the Dark Lord of the Sith; as she was battling Revan, Revan's apprentice Darth Malak attacked Revan's ship and usurped the title of Dark Lord. Now Malak seeks Bastila because he fears her power; he will either turn her abilities to his use or remove the threat she poses by eliminating her.

 

The player's character is a male/female (depending on the player's choice), who escapes the attacked Endar Spire with fellow Republic soldier Carth Onasi. Their escape pod crash lands in the upper city of Taris where they begin the search for Bastila. The rescue of Bastila allows them to leave Taris moments before the planet is destroyed. The companions go to Dantooine where the player learns the ways of the Force. The Jedi Council gives the player and his/her companions a mission to find certain Star Maps which will locate a mysterious Sith weapon called the Star Forge that allows the infinite production of Sith warships. In the middle of their mission, a confrontation between Malak and the player reveals that the player is actually the former Sith Lord, Revan, who had lost his/her memory after Malak's initial betrayal. Also during this incident, Bastila is captured and eventually turned to the Dark Side.

 

After all the clues are found, the player travels to the unknown world of Rakata Prime where he/she crash lands. The player goes through difficulties with the natives but finally is able to reach the temple where Bastila is waiting. After a confrontation, the player chooses to go with either Bastila and take the throne of Sith Lord from Malak (DS). Or the player chooses to not go with Bastila and help his/her companions reach the star forge and defeat the Sith threat.(LS).

 

Now what is so great about this storyline? It feels cliched, it's basic, unoriginal, simple and the so called jaw dropping plot twist of you being Revan is far from surprising. BioWare gave you hint after hint after hint that you were Revan, they made it far too obvious, and everything in the game's storyline was spoon fed to us, you were treated like an idiot, it was so simplistic, but I understand the fact that the game felt like an epic Star Wars movie and was so easy to understand, that's what I think people found so appealing about it.

 

The storyline in KOTOR is far from good IMO, and despite all the cut-content, I still beleive that the storyline in KOTOR II is much better than the storyline in KOTOR, but that is just my opinion, and when you look at it, Obsidian had a much more difficult job than BioWare ever did (time constraints, more pressure and dealing with four gender/alignment combo's of Revan and all the other complications regarding Revan).

 

So I think that BioWare gets far more credit than what it really deserves for it's plot twist and storyline, KOTOR is not original, there are many similarities between the movies and KOTOR, they did a lot of ripping off, but I have to give them credit for writing Jolee and HK-47, two, amazing characters IMO, not to mention Canderous, my favourite, but despite the fact he is my favourite, Jolee and HK-47 were the best written characters IMO.

 

But what I did like about KOTOR was the dialogue choices, the character interaction, the epic Star Wars feel the game had (if not a little dodge), the customization of your character (gender, alignment, lightsaber type, colour, etc) and the fact that overall, despite IMO the storyline of KOTOR being average, linear, simplistic and too black and white, I still found KOTOR to be a fun, interesting game well worth replaying just to see all the variables (not in terms of storyline), but character dialogue and side-quests. But with every video game I play, I never have high expectations for the storyline, video games are never meant to have great storylines, there just supposed to be entertaining, and for me, KOTOR was enjoyable, if not flawed.

 

But it's just like for example the movie 'Happy Gilmore', I found it hilarious and entertaining from start to finish, despite the fact I knew it was stupid, but it made me laugh, and that's what I liked about it, it's the same with KOTOR for me...

 

By the way, I'm waiting for the KOTOR storyline worshippers to come out and defend it...

Edited July 28, 2006 by The Architect

[Sturm]

I have to agree with you on the storyline aspect where, yes it isnt fully theirs they kinda just swapped a few names around and all, Malak swaped with Vader if you will or whatever, but I personally although knowing that it isnt their original material to an extent, But I liked how it was sort of copying the story of the movies, it was essential for a new game a new section and era released to have this cliche so people could easily adapt and understand it. It is a big change from going to blasters then back in time to swords and vibroblades. That would explain KotOR2's different storyline and why it was, as I have said just totally different, from then on whoever they want may start to develop and expand on the original KotOR storline which as mentioned used as a template and expanded, similar to how the movie series was just used as a template to make another section of the star wars era.

[vaxen83]

Malak was hardly a challenge at all. Those Jedi captives held in stasis in the Star Forge command centre could basically be drained using DS Death Field by PC Revan. Otherwise, he might have been a formidable foe to go against in a few ways. Can't really help but wonder whether concept of Malak was derived from a mummified corpse with the body of a superhuman topped with a dracula-like look, considering the cape that he wore. Thought that he looked quite artificial, and hardly like a villain of substance, not even half as close to Vader's presence. And his Force lightning could be nullified with an Electrical Capacitance Shield. Somehow, he looked like the Joker from Batman's story, whether his expression was serious or sadistic.

 

Another thing concerning character appearances is why a Scoundrel character has to be shorter in terms of height than a Soldier and a Scout, that is hard to understand. It would be easier if height was about average. Of course, Scouts/Scoundrels/Soldiers each had different clothes, which was interesting in some ways.

 

For darkside, while some things like being banished from Manaan by Selkath authorities is expected as part of being a DS character, other things like having to kill Mission simply portrays darkside as being about nothing except destruction. Almost every conversation option is about killing. Have played DS only just about twice, but found it quite obvious.

 

Here is another thing. K1's ending showed concept of Infinite fleet from Star Forge. That I really don't get is how something that functions in some way like Death Star is able to churn out warships without utilising some kind of resources in doing so. How is it explained that the SF can continually use Force energy to churn that out? Am still puzzled by this most of all as a DS player? Rakatan world was also something like going back to age of dinosaurs which is strangely similar to concept of lizard-like race that invaded Neverwinter itself, suggestive of a long, lost age. Not too sure how force is related to that, anyway. Even Death Star can have its power cut off from it, though not easily done so.

 

Bioware did provide some interesting ways for its Kotor theme. However, if one looks closely, one would notice that many of these ideas were brought over from NSN. The d20 system was ok. However, the names of LS force powers like Force Valour and Force Armour are words positioned centrally within fantasy games like NWN. They could have used some other words like protection rather than shield/armour. And costumes looked a bit weird. How is it that Jolee's Jedi Knight robe is brown while another Jedi Knight robe is blue? Is Juhani's color robe of red supposed to indicate some kind of uniqueness about her training?

 

Think those Dark Jedi that waited on each planet looked more like daylight robbers running around with their strange hoods on and with black rings below their eyes while their costumes for lower part of their body looked like they wore underwear over their outer garments, and looked like they had gone without a day or two's length of rest and sleep. And rancors were used so often on the Unknown world.

 

Just to be slightly direct, complexity and depth is not exactly something that would describe K1. It was more like a once upon a time story with either a happy ending/ or a dark one. The former ending was predictably like a fairytale kind of thing. The latter's concept of Infinite fleet was what could be described as repetitive mass production of something where differences could have been shown.

 

However, one thing could be said about K1 is that it allows some kind of maintenance of quiet rather than having fast paced music and story, which is ok once in a while.

Edited July 28, 2006 by vaxen83

[Sturm]

Yes those Dark jedi where complete goons, with their same dialogue on EVERY planet, and the rancors where overused I reckon as well, the Rakatans explain that they got it from a crashed cargo ship or something, and I doubt that the whole of Rakata Prime would have been infested to the point that it was in KotOR1

Edited July 29, 2006 by Sturm

[CoM_Solaufein]

Kotor 1 topics belong in the SW Universe forum.

[Alec]

We are in the SW Universe forum. <_<

[CoM_Solaufein]

Now, after I moved it.

[Guest The Architect]

Malak was hardly a challenge at all. Those Jedi captives held in stasis in the Star Forge command centre could basically be drained using DS Death Field by PC Revan. Otherwise, he might have been a formidable foe to go against in a few ways. Can't really help but wonder whether concept of Malak was derived from a mummified corpse with the body of a superhuman topped with a dracula-like look, considering the cape that he wore. Thought that he looked quite artificial, and hardly like a villain of substance, not even half as close to Vader's presence. And his Force lightning could be nullified with an Electrical Capacitance Shield. Somehow, he looked like the Joker from Batman's story, whether his expression was serious or sadistic.

 

Another thing concerning character appearances is why a Scoundrel character has to be shorter in terms of height than a Soldier and a Scout, that is hard to understand. It would be easier if height was about average. Of course, Scouts/Scoundrels/Soldiers each had different clothes, which was interesting in some ways.

 

For darkside, while some things like being banished from Manaan by Selkath authorities is expected as part of being a DS character, other things like having to kill Mission simply portrays darkside as being about nothing except destruction. Almost every conversation option is about killing. Have played DS only just about twice, but found it quite obvious.

 

Here is another thing. K1's ending showed concept of Infinite fleet from Star Forge. That I really don't get is how something that functions in some way like Death Star is able to churn out warships without utilising some kind of resources in doing so. How is it explained that the SF can continually use Force energy to churn that out? Am still puzzled by this most of all as a DS player? Rakatan world was also something like going back to age of dinosaurs which is strangely similar to concept of lizard-like race that invaded Neverwinter itself, suggestive of a long, lost age. Not too sure how force is related to that, anyway. Even Death Star can have its power cut off from it, though not easily done so.

 

Bioware did provide some interesting ways for its Kotor theme. However, if one looks closely, one would notice that many of these ideas were brought over from NSN. The d20 system was ok. However, the names of LS force powers like Force Valour and Force Armour are words positioned centrally within fantasy games like NWN. They could have used some other words like protection rather than shield/armour. And costumes looked a bit weird. How is it that Jolee's Jedi Knight robe is brown while another Jedi Knight robe is blue? Is Juhani's color robe of red supposed to indicate some kind of uniqueness about her training?

 

Think those Dark Jedi that waited on each planet looked more like daylight robbers running around with their strange hoods on and with black rings below their eyes while their costumes for lower part of their body looked like they wore underwear over their outer garments, and looked like they had gone without a day or two's length of rest and sleep. And rancors were used so often on the Unknown world.

 

Just to be slightly direct, complexity and depth is not exactly something that would describe K1. It was more like a once upon a time story with either a happy ending/ or a dark one. The former ending was predictably like a fairytale kind of thing. The latter's concept of Infinite fleet was what could be described as repetitive mass production of something where differences could have been shown.

 

However, one thing could be said about K1 is that it allows some kind of maintenance of quiet rather than having fast paced music and story, which is ok once in a while.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I agree with all of that..

[Scarnet]

i just like fighting the randon jedi and carlo nord or w/e his name was in ranom places where u least expect them

[Purgatorio]

What I didn't like was. When I was leveling up as a Jedi if I still had the Implant in I would not go up a Jedi level I would gain a Scout level. So every time I was near leveling up I would have to be sure I had removed all Implants...Pfft.

[DarthReliguim]

Bastila Shan .

[Krookie]

kotor1 was perfect.

 

 

nothing was wrong with it.

 

nothing.

 

nothing was wrong with it at all.

 

at all.

 

nothing was wrong with it at all, ever.

 

ever.

[Jesse Conroy]

The story, the twist, almost everything was good. The only thing I had a problem with was when you were underwater or out in space, how slow everything was.

[Krookie]

manaan sucked for that reason.

[LadyCrimson]

I didn't get very far into Kotor1, but I liked the fact that in my short time of playing, the healing kits/pacs were more than things to be broken down or sold.

[Alec]

kotor1 was perfect.

 

 

nothing was wrong with it.

 

nothing.

 

nothing was wrong with it at all.

 

at all.

 

nothing was wrong with it at all, ever.

 

ever.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Not totally perfect. There where very few contents that were cut, like Sheleyron for example.

[Xard]

But did you miss it before you heard about it? No

[vaxen83]

What I didn't like was. When I was leveling up as a Jedi if I still had the Implant in I would not go up a Jedi level I would gain a Scout level. So every time I was near leveling up I would have to be sure I had removed all Implants...Pfft.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Could also level up as a Soldier if you liked to have additional feats.

[Alec]

But did you miss it before you heard about it? No

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I did. I wanted to see how the Hutt homeworld was since I never saw it. And like M4-78, I wanted to see that as well.

[Sturm]

But did you miss it before you heard about it? No

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

LOL

 

But did you miss it before you heard about it? No

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I did. I wanted to see how the Hutt homeworld was since I never saw it. And like M4-78, I wanted to see that as well.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Umm... the Hutt homeworld is Nal Hutta(Sp?)

And I'm sure that you didnt know of M4-78 while you where playing Korriban in K2, or for that matter when you had KotOR2

[Xard]

Umm... but then you could've wanted to see any other planet from SW lore in k1. Like "I want to see Alderaan in k1, because that place is cool" and when you don't see it you are pissed of, even though Alderaan was never even considered to be planet in k1.

 

Besides, only references to Sleheyron comes from Yuthura Ban, and those little dialogues gives you no reason to presume that you are going to go there.

 

Besides, Hutt homeworld is Nal Hutta

[Alec]

Ah ok. But however, in the Dantooine ruins there's the terminal that states a volcanic world that was of the Rakata... that's Sheleyron, I think. Definitely not Mustafar.

[Xard]

Indeed it was. But that was before Sleheyron was cut.

[Alec]

Oh well. Too bad... with an extra planet I could've at least brought Revan to lv 25