🤖 Install Mech Arena for FREE here on Mobile and PC ✅ clik.cc/t1Uhp and get a special starter pack to help kickstart your game ⭐ Please consider liking commenting, and subscribing. Corrections below! Corrections: 1. Restored content isn't actually out on the switch yet apparently LOL 2. If you kill Atris, I believe the restored content mod places your lightsaber on her body 3. I forgot you do use a pressurized suit in KOTO1 during the leviathan segment. 4. Clarification on Visas: All Miraluka see through the force, but they have eye sockets. When Visas was captured during the loss of her planet, Nihilus seemed to "remove the flesh from her sockets" 5. Misunderstood the asteroid scene. The decision is to shoot the asteroids yourselves or let the Sith do it.
There's some controversy with the Restored Content for the Switch edition, it was supposed to come out in Q3 or 4 last year but due to Aspyr no longer working on the Kotor 1 remake, they've been radio silent on pretty much anything, including the Restored Content DLC
You forgot to mention the greatest dialogue option in Star Wars history: when playing as a male character and Visas shows up, the next time you talk to Kreia she will imply that you want Visas around romantically. And then you have the option to respond: "Just because I saved her doesn't mean I'm going to charge up her loading ramp." Gets me every time hahaha
@@deviatlon It's a euphemism for sex - 'loading ramp' is a stand-in for, uh, the part you put stuff in. There's also the dialogue option with the Handmaiden where you can complain she's always training naked, and if you're also not wearing anything, she'll pointedly say "it doesn't seem to bother you." Your response? "Yeah, well, this is my ship. I can walk around like this if I want."
Fun fact: In Atris's academy on your first trip, once you reunite with your party, take Kreia to Atris's Chamber door and use her sight ability to look through the door to see Atris's alignment is red as hell 🤣
I think it's funny that despite how much stronger you can make a character in the second one, it comes off as less of a power trip than the first one thanks to how it's written. KotOR1 is about that idea that you can just get real strong and kill the bad guy and it fixes everything. KotOR2 asks why the hell you would think that worked.
I think it's fair to be OP in 1 considering you're basically the big bad evil guy and are sort of supposed to be terrifying. The writing does make sense, and is actually pretty neat especially with the Revan twist, even if KotOR 2 does OP force users better as both being OP but narratively put down as ultimately not helpful.
Indeed, the first one you are already super strong, you are just remembering things, while on the second one, it is mentioned you were weaker than Revan and Malak, and along the path you take with Kreia you are rebuilding your foundation and then expanding on it, becoming one that could rival them in strength and wisdom.
And 2 also shows (accurately) that a character this charismatic and powerful would scare the shìt out of other Jedi and they eventually call you a threat to all life in the galaxy. It’s such a genius meta way to explain XP and why you gain strength in the game plus why companions follow you without question
@FoxyChariot The following without question is explained to be the force basically brainwashing them to do so as Meetra Surik(Exile's Canon name) experienced such trauma on Malachor V that it made her effectively a living wound of the force with potentially no limit to her abilities. This is explained cryptically and requires slightly reading between the lines of Kreia and the Masters' dialogues.
@@CommanderRedEXE On a unrelated note, Star Wars names are so bloody weird, I remember the first time I played Kotor 2 I named my girl Alice and it was just the most alien name in that galaxy.
I love the moment in the Jedi Enclave near the end when Kreia ends the Jedi masters and you hear the awesome Jedi Enclave track and read "This master is dead... drained of life. His body is worse than lifeless. It’s like an absence in the Force."
With all of KOTOR 2’s shortcoming’s I will still gladly play another 5 run-throughs just to talk to Kreia. She is without question the best written character in Star Wars gaming
@55:00 Max XP from the ship fight can be achieved by letting the first 25 sith troopers through, and killing the remaining 5. You get 10 XP for each Sith Trooper you shoot in the turret, and 250 XP for killing them with your character. Because there are only 25 slots for troopers to spawn into, letting all 30 on board means you still only fight 25. Total XP from doing is this way is 6,300 XP. The least amount of XP you can get for this part of the game is 300 XP (30 troopers * 10 XP each).
I also found it funny how you could just destroy the computer to bypass the voiceprint ID puzzle. You can also get all three sound samples in one dialogue with HK50 by implying he isn’t advanced enough to just say the code in dead guy’s voice. You get a little xp and the whole puzzle is solved
to get the most xp grab the sonic sensor, fight all the droids in the hallway and rooms & go back to the top floor (you can gain new dialogue & ds or ls points from Atton depending on how you interact) from there go back to the security room then use the computer, go thru the recordings and press the option that uses the sonic sensor, next go back down & go to the console near the airlock door go through the security recordings & use the sonic sensor again then finally go back and talk to hk ask him every single question, get the third voice print and persuade him to speak the code (might need to use force valor)
It blew my mind way back then when on my second playthrough I accidentally figured out you can coax the voiceprint samples out of HK-50.. this is such a gem of a game and deserves an actual remake out of it with just better graphics, fixes and smoother gameplay but everything else intact.. shame I have 0 confidence that any one studio would keep the game otherwise intact these days..
2:35:00 if you took atton in gotos yacht,he will comment about how the bridge section is like a droid command centre that sends info all over nar shadda Which you can later use against goto to make him spill his secrets
I love the atmosphere throughout kotor 2 as well. It’s very dark and eerie like dread is always around the corner and everyone is scared. It used to scare me as a kid playing through Peragus, Korriban, Nar Shadda, and Malachor V
It’s also worth noting on dantooine if you leave the crystal cave after finding vrook and lie to azkul about choosing his side, kreia will give you influence by saying it was a good maneuver to pretend to be on his side because “with the militia and mercenaries believing you’re on their side, you can control the outcome”
What amazes me about KOTOR ll is that I’ve completed this game dozens of times, and I still run in to new encounters and come across new lines of dialogue every single time
I found out about it a few playthroughs ago, and I was shocked how useful it was early game. -That's if Bao-Dur can even land a hit cause good lord, it feels like he's blinder than a bat.-
As a kid I didn't know it was unfinished and I played it a bunch and when I got to the Droid factory on Telos I tried desperately to open up the door where the HK exploded only to find out years later the game was unfinished.
KotOR 2 is arguably my favorite video game of all time, even the vanilla version (the only one I’ve ever played because I’m a console gamer). I remember when the restoration mod was being created because I was very active on kotorfanmedia - I think I even submitted an audition for the laigrek girl! 🤣 Thanks for a retrospective on a game that deserves all the kudos in the world for trying so many things and having something to say about so many things (including the video game medium itself). Great video. ❤️
The voice recorder puzzle on the mining facility has another alternate solution: You can trick HK-50 into splicing things together for you and it only notices after it already did so.
The best part of that dialogue is that the player giving up the game is completely optional. HK obviously figures it out either way but I really like how they give you the option for a comedic beat
Regarding the development timeline: I remember reading an article ages ago, where they had stated that after showing "the management" their plans, they were granted a year of extra development time and redrew their dev timeline accordingly. Unfortunately management changed and they had forgotten to get this in writing, so the end of the development was basically "how's the game coming up? release is soon." "uhhhhhhhhhh"
You don’t have to have a rematch to the death with Davrel on Dxun--you can offer the alternative of teaming up with him to kill a Zakkeg, which he agrees.
As somebody who’s played every Star Wars game ever made, it is the best by far. No game captures the true world building size and essence of what Star Wars is but kotor 1 and 2. These are truly masterpieces.
I play this game at least once a year. It helps with my conversational focus. I haven't been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD but I've always had problems focusing on conversations. I nod off or lose track. But this KotOR 2 has long but engaging conversations that keep my mind engaged and entertained. It helps with my overall focus. Its definitely in my top 10 games of all time for me.
Doug Stanhope had a great bit about not having ADHD, as is, but the conversation being just plain boring. It's less a weakness, and more term limits for tedious. I feel your comment, 'cause I get the same lapse in focus when I read novels and other stories. Kotor II had exceptional world building and story. I was hooked straight from Telos. Great game! [That Stanhope bit: ruclips.net/video/3VE5BpqJAtg/видео.html]
KotOR 2 is my favorite game of all time. It gave me an intriguing, heart-aching glimpse on what Star Wars storytelling COULD have been. Thank you for doing this. If your video attracts even a SINGLE pair of eyeballs to this amazing game, then it is already worth my 5 hours of watchtime.
@@tonyknighton4019 On the contrary, it's made for people who genuinely love SW. It critiques everything with care and respect. The thing that's made for people who hate SW is the Sequel Trilogy and especially TLJ.
@@GalahadTheSeekerKOTOR 2, for people who love Star Wars and the lore, is an amazing 'through the looking glass' take on it that challenges all the surface level appearances of it, but also reinforces the themes subtly through the gameplay. The mistake people make( especially those whose only time really thinking about Star Wars, looking at you Rian Johnson, was when playing this game) is taking Kreia at her word, and buying into her line of thinking, when her entire character is built on lying and taking the extreme option. People interpret her going from a Jedi Master, to a Sith Lord, and then claiming now that she is 'neither' as she is s Grey Jedi, or balanced in the force, and is right because she is taking a middle ground(a common fallacy). But she's not, she's just taken another extreme to its logical conclusion. She's seen all the Force has to offer, that neither the Jedi or the Sith have the answers or are perfect, and decided that since there is no way to get the answers she wants, her answer is she will destroy the Force. That is her whole arc. She wasn't satisfied with the Jedi answers to her questions, and believed it was because they were afraid of the Dark Side and so the answers must be there. When she dedicated herself so perfectly to the Dark Side she became an avatar of one of its strongest facets, and still didn't get her answers, and was broken and betrayed, and went looking for the only other person she knew who had also been on both sides of the Force and come out stronger for it , Revan. Instead she found the Exile, and they were someone she saw had survived despite being severed from the Force, and was somehow more powerful for it in a way, and decided that was her new goal, that the Force itself was to blame, that it controlled everything for some unknown goal and she resented it for it. She only thinks in extremes, and believes any compromise from perfection is personal weakness, and that the Force always stymied her from finding the answers she sought. And the Exile proves to her that people can not only survive without the Force but possibly be stronger for it. There is also interesting ties ins to the New Jedi Order books and the Yuuzhan Vong( both in this game and the 1st) that prove her wrong too. The game itself though, through gameplay and story prove her wrong. Doing all the classic good guy things leaves the places the Exile visited better, both long and short term. Her argument that not helping actually hurts them is actually short sighted. She claims that on a much longer time frame things would be better if you hadn't done them, but it's literally the exact same outcome as you brought about, sooner and with less suffering. The fact that bad things will also still happen in the future doesn't change the good you did right now. Her foresight is biased and selective to how she interprets the world. She can't be trusted in that interpretation because first and foremost who she deceives is herself. That is proven by how she treated and is proven wrong about the companions on the ship if the Exile brings them to the light, how she was wrong about Revan, about the other Sith Lord's and so on.
@TheMahayanist I get it and I respect it but I just put all my skill points into strength and one-shot Sion and/or Nihlus every time I bumped into them 😂
“Maybe the lost Jedi are the friends we made along the way” I lost it. A year later and I can still appreciate this since I’ve been playing this game since it came out and I was just a baby boy who didn’t understand what I was doing. This games philosphy shaped me into the man I am today and thus will always hold a close place in my heart
1:26:48 If you explore Citadel Station as B4-D4, there are some awesome interactions and recorded lines of dialogue that are specific to someone going off the beaten path while controlling B4-D4. There aren't any real sidequests or anything, but man is it some excellent attention to detail. I believe there are also a few more RP instances, like with a protocol droid at the docks, and with the droid engineer in the apartments. I found this all on my like millionth playthrough and it felt so rewarding.
While I understand why the Handmaiden and Hanharr weren’t discussed as much since they aren’t relevant to the play through covered in this video, I do wish that their stories were touched upon briefly in the video. How Brianna had to shoulder the burden of being the ‘last’ among her sisters because of the nature of her birth, of who she was. How while traveling with the Exile, seeing the galaxy and how the Exile impacts it; she begins to see how Atris and her teachings are flawed, misguided. How eventually, she breaks her oath and learns the ways of the force from the exile. It’s a beautiful story. As for Hanharr, learning more about how the traditions of the Wookiee affected him, making him the monster that we see in the game. It is a dark reflection of not only Zaalbar from the first game, but if Chewbacca. A Wookie whose killed his own tribe to ensure they didn’t become slaves, who became just as evil if not more so than the people who tried to enslave his tribe. And yet, he is still fundamentally chained down by his code. This isn’t even touching upon the lesson of strength that Kreia uses Hanharr to teach, all but stating what happened to the Exile at Malachor if you learn the true lesson of strength. Amazing video though, definitely makes me want to go back and replay the game. What stat line did you go with for your sentinel?
My first playthrough of TSLRCM I went full Sith Lord and I was shook getting to the very end of Hanharr’s arc. That Wookiee is traumatized beyond anything I could have imagined.
If there’s one thing this game did better than KOTOR 1, it’s give T3 depth. From the get-go, you the player obviously know who he is, but he’s very secretive and is obviously hiding things that you want to know: what happened to Revan, what’s his purpose for teaming with you, etc. It’s even more apparent when he disables HK and feels bad over it. It makes me wish the Revan novel didn’t exist.
Kotor2 is probably my favorite #1 game of all time. It was the first really palatable example of DnD and it gained an even bigger special spot in my heart because of how gosh darn broken it is, and how much love the community threw into it
It's not actually D&D. D&D has become ubiquitous with tabletop role playing game, but they aren't the same. There are lots of other TTRPGs out there other than D&D. For example, Fallout is based on the GURPS system. Kotor is based on its own d20 system as well. D&D is a system with its own specific rule set, which doesn't apply to Kotor.
"The TSLRCM comes with the Switch Version." Yeah, it's great. If only Aspyr didn't lock themselves out of their office for 4 months and actually released it.
Was about to say, I just beat the game on switch and am planning to replay it once they restore the content on switch but at this rate idek if it's ever coming out
I remember playing KOTOR 1 and 2 over and over growing up. To this day, they are one of the few games I actively go back to play and still as fun as I remembered them. Thanks for the content man! It’s awesome to see more people talking about these games!
I still remember as a kid the first time I awoke on Peragus. Hot off the heels of triumphantly defeating Malak in Kotor II, I remember expecting the typical “The good guys won the big fight, so everything’s groovy again” sorta trope but boy was I wrong It actually unsettled me as a Kid, not to mention the thought of being the last person alive on a planet of psychotic droids was unnerving in its own right Of course now as someone that’s an adult, and has played Peragus a Kajillion times, It’s like burning through a field with a flamethrower, but I respect the direction they chose with it as a staunch contrast to Taris
@@padenal6069 Yeeeeeah it doesn't lend itself well to repeat playthroughs, the main appeal of it is finding out wtf happened there, once you've done that it doesn't have that same charm
Funny thing I noticed about Force Ghost Kreia on Korriban: This sequence is the only time Kreia refers to your companions by name instead of using her usual nicknames for them (Fool, Alien, etc)
I really appreciate the girth of your videos, and cannot describe how incredible it feels to see the KOTOR series gaining so much love in recent years. For the longest time it felt like only a small group of people actually played these, and the group who clamored for more was even smaller. I’m 32, and not once have I met someone in real life who had actually played these. Now we’ve got official ports to accompany the community’s mods, and even a remaster on the way!?
All people like kotor because the reboot comming but , the first two kotor are the best to discover today in star wars universe . I like this two game since my discover on their year release .
Yeah... Never met anyone who played this game fully besides my brother and he does not value the games lore as i do. I even have kreias face tattoed 😂😂 that my level of obssesion
I truly love how so far all your retrospectives have come out during times where I’m down so I can just chill and watch them in peace. Truly love your content dude
This is easily the best Star Wars story ever told. It's subversive and dark, while maintaining the edge of humor and triumph over evil that defines the original films. It reminds me of things like The Last Jedi, Andor, and some of the underlying narratives of the prequel films. The Jedi aren't the good guys, and are capable of evil, same as their counterparts on the Dark Side. Such a brilliant display of storytelling and character development with the Restored Content Mod, it is easily a top 5 RPG of all time.
The game's original trailer and the story even stresses your character is the last known Jedi in the Galaxy which is why I call this game the REAL Last Jedi tale
@@chunk5465 I love subversive storytelling when it's done well. TLJ didn't do it well and ended up feeling like something an edgy 14 year old who's only seen one Star Wars movie would write I loved KOTOR 2 and I loved the New Jedi Order series, both of which are focused almost entirely on subverting and deconstructing the themes of Star Wars. Plus, the whole purpose of Empire is to subvert the expectations set up by the previous movie Outside of Star Wars, I actually like most of Rian Johnsons work, both Knives Out movies are absolutely brilliant I just don't like TLJ because it is a badly written movie. It's not "subversive" if all the characters make decisions that character would never make (There's no way in hell the person who believed that one of the most evil men in the galaxy could be redeemed would try to murder his nephew in his sleep for having a bad dream). That's just bad writing Imo, Johnson is a good film maker who just doesn't understand the Star Wars universe or the characters that inhabit it. You can't properly try to subvert a story when you don't even understand that story in the first place. That's why Empire, KOTOR 2 and the NJO books work, while TLJ falls flat on its face And that's not even mentioning how nonsensical, contrived and boring the plot is or how boring, one note and unlikeable all of the new characters are. TLJ (Along with the rest of the Disney trilogy) is one of the worst movies I've ever seen
Holy crap. I had no idea about this at 44:00. Using the voice samples of the dead security officer from the holoerecords is brilliant. If your persuasion stat is high enough, there’s a unique dialogue option that comes up where you stroke the HK-50’s ego to get him to say the door code in the officer’s voice. I thought that if you didn’t have enough persuasion stats you could just blow up the console and unlock the door that way. Apparently there’s three ways to open that door now that you have brought this new method to my attention. Persuade the droid, blow up the console, or collect voice samples from the holos. This is amazing.
1:58:36 Wanted to add one thing regarding the influence mechanic; you can progress conversations and bonuses with party members by decreasing their influence as well. The important thing is fully embracing increasing or decreasing a companion’s influence from the jump. If you’re trying to gain full LS or DS points for the attack and force bonuses, this is helpful to maintain those while still fully digging into your companion storylines and eventually training them to become Jedi or Dark Jedi. Negging Bao Dur and T3 on a DS run or being too nice for HK’s and Kreia’s liking on a LS one to bring their influences to 0 fully opens them up.
I played KOTOR 2 as a kid on the xbox without experiencing KOTOR 1. I was just coming off experiencing the whole of star wars through all the movies, lego star wars, and star wars battlefront. KOTOR 2, even in its unfinished state, completely blew my mind in terms of how stories could be told in this universe I was already intimately familiar with and how games could be made (it being one of my very first RPGs). Further still, I loved the air of mystery around Revan. To me, he was this unknowable entity that commanded such power and respect as to be revered the galaxy over, and it gave me an extra layer to the game into trying to figure out exactly who he was! I've since gone back and played the original (which I find pretty bland in comparison) which lowers that reverence a bit for me, but I still greatly cherish this game and go back and replay it at least once a year.
I would argue that the start of the Ebon Hawk in KOTOR II is the Endar Spire section of the first game. Then Peragus is the Taris section. And Telos is the Dantooine section. Because in the first game, you still have things to do on Dantooine before the game opens up. Like that in the second game, you have things to do on Telos before the game opens up. It just follows the theme of it being longer here. Peragus is longer than Taris by about an hour and Telos is longer than Dantooine by about an hour as well--even if you rush the main questline. Like Dantooine as well, you can return to Telos whenever you want. Whereas you cannot return to Peragus, just as you cannot return to Taris. I think they shortened the prologue and made it skippable because they assumed they'd have returning characters who knew the system. So it wasn't needed to hold the player's hand through the different mechanics. But they wanted their story to be longer and more expansive, so they made Peragus and Telos longer to juxtapose Taris and Dantooine. A short-hand way to tell players "Hey, this is a longer game! Much more here!" It just had the unfortunate side-effect of being an absolute slog to get through on repeat playthroughs. But the first time through? I think the mystery holds up and is interesting enough to keep the player's attention.
Cool observation. Makes me wonder if the Ebon Hawk prologue should have been made a bit longer, and not something to be skipped (obviously hints could be turned off, but one could have fit some extra story stuff there to lighten the time sinks of Peragus & Telos).
@@DBArtsCreators I like how they offer the Ebon Hawk prologue to be skippable. Having it shorter as well (Since, like the Endar Spire, it's just a tutorial on the gameplay mechanics) makes it a bit more manageable on repeat playthroughs.
I’ve played through KOTOR2 somewhere close to 50 times fully at this point. I always say “I’m a KOTOR fan, not a Star Wars fan.” It made me fall in love with Chris Avellone as a writer; who I still aspire to have 5% the talent of! Its a classic in my eyes and although buggy, glitchy and unfinished it holds a place deeper in my heart than almost every other game (except New Vegas which beats it by a slither) Thank you for these four hours listening to someone I enjoy walking through a game I adore in such an in-depth fashion! :)
I'd say the music is superior in this one and bioware seems to have realized it because I've heard the majority of the tracks from kotor2 in the swtor MMO and only two from the original. They always used the malachor V theme whenever some big evil shit was going down which is one of the best tracks
My head-canon on battle meditation is that many force-user can learn it, but the vast majority can only use it in their immediate surroundings, so essentially a couple of meters range and what's so special about Bastila is that she can affect an entire battlefield at the same time. It meshes quite well with how Bastila was able to affect dozens of ships with tens of thousands of crew over an area tens of kilometers across at the minimum, while we in the game can only affect a single room's worth of area. In regards to G0T0: If you remember Telos station, they said that their first droid went missing and B4 is the replacement. The game heavily hints at G0T0 being this original droid, though I don't remember if it was ever fully confirmed. Sometimes I entertain the thought that what Kreia did, really did ultimately lead to the death of the Force millenia later and that's why it existed "a long time ago" in this galaxy far, far away, but does not exist anymore now in our galaxy. It would also hand-wave the power-creep away that makes the original movies' force-users appear to much weaker than the Old Republic era ones. Due to the wound Kreia struck it, the Force is slowly dying and with it the force users are getting weaker and weaker too, until nobody can use the Force anymore. By teh way the conclusion to at least the Exile's and Revan's stories can be found in a book or book series. The MMO mostly just references those events and then spins some more stuff of their own after it. That being said I have not read the book(s) and only played SW:TOR, so I don't know if the novelization is any good.
From what I've heard, the book(s) absolutely butcher their story. The Exile is killed in the worst way possible. And people who *have* read it all say that they don't consider it an actual canon ending to her story. Apparently, she's killed fairly early on or something? The book just wants to focus on Revan and how #SuperCool he is, so the author killed her off to let Revan get the limelight.
@@shaelynmartin1996 book kills her and Revan fights a near godly Sith Emperor to a standstill before a sith ally stabs him in the back due to a vision and nothing else. Revan is than tortured for hundreds of years with the Exile ghost keeping him semi sane until he gets out and literally splits into a good light Revan and a bad dark 4evan in 2 different 'bodies' and everything. No word to my knowledge on where the Exile ghost went but I could be wrong on that.
@@nahte123456 That honestly sounds like the dumbest shit ever and I'm so glad I never read it lol Maybe we'll get lucky and the Remake(s) do happen. And they actually make a KOTOR3 as well to *properly* finish their stories.
@@shaelynmartin1996 Yeah, the book is straight butchery. It ignores virtually everything about the Exile in favor of turning her into a cheerleader for Revan. Like SWTOR, it pretty much wanted to pretend KotOR II never happened. (How does Meetra Surik even become a Force ghost when her shtick is that she is literally a void in the Force? Never mind the sheer audacity that her grand destiny in the Unknown Regions is just dying immediately.)
Man idk how I've watched so many multi-hour reviews of this game but I still get so much enjoyment out of watching/seeing different people's takes on it. It's like, comforting.
Loved KoTOR but never bothered with the sequel until watching this retrospective. Now doing my first play-through and really enjoying it. Thanks so much!
I think my favourite planet has to be Duxun/Onderon. I really enjoy helping out the mandalorians with odd jobs, I think this has always jelled with my character who I’ve always seen as being good at repairing things, and even though it’s pretty basic I enjoy the murder mystery on Onderon and have fun whenever I do it. The final battle is fun too.
It is also my favorite as well - i loved the mando camp as well as the detective case on Onderon, as well as returning to these worlds later on. And of course i loved Canderous in this game even more than in the first one
4:18:22 We all saw you named your character SuperGAL Lemon! Also I think Kreia mentions that Atris surrounds herself with people who cannot feel the force so they can’t see how far she has fallen
What a great video. I always love to see when people post long retrospectives and analyses about this game. The writing, characters, narratives, and themes taken from this game are really unique and you did a great job exploring them. Kudos to you, will definitely be recommending this video in the future.
There is a mod that allows you to have both the Disciple and the Handmaiden in the same run, along with submods by the same person that add in their "romances" along with their opposites for all, including certain comments made by both Atris and Sion. Also, for those who are interested in these kinds of things, there are 3 total conversation mods for KOTOR 2, all trying to be a sequel in their own ways: two that are partially complete and one that just has a demo. First is the Jedi Masters, which try to follow Obsidian interactions of making the True Sith Kreia talks about Lovecraft like though the way this was done, along with most of the voice acting, makes the whole thing unintentionally funny in the "so bad it's good" way (though there is a companion with surprisingly very good voice acting). The second mod is called Edge of Darkness, which takes place after the Revan novel, with you being part of a cleanup crew sent by Emperor Vitiate to pave the way for the invasion that you see in the trailers. It's very weird since it's more like an adventure game made in the KOTOR engine than an RPG with a bunch of puzzles, including hidden ones. The third is the most ambitious of the three, about as ambitious as Obsidian was, which is probably why it's been in development since 2008 and has been abandoned and restarted twice by the same person. Like Edge, it's set after (or maybe during, I'm still confused on this point) the Raven novel, with you being one of the first padawans of the newly rebuilt Jedi Order on Coruscant (the council of which might have a few familiar faces) about to become a Jedi Knight, but a series of events force you to follow the trail of Revan and the Exile while being hunted by both the Jedi (who think you are a secret Sith) and the True Sith. It still has plans for a revamped influence system renamed Trust that will include npc's and factions along with companions (you won't be turning almost every companion into a Jedi like 2 though), plans for a choice between a partially and fully* Revan novel/TOR version, which will change how the final quarter of the game is like (* You will be able to choose Revan and the Exile alignment and gender in both), improving skill use for role playing even more, a somewhat fleshed out Gray Jedi path, and more. So yeah, I doubt it will come out anytime soon unless things are cut down, but there is a plan remake of the demo that was released in 2011 to come out soonTM.
Wonderful review. Slight correction for around the 46-minute mark: the suit did come from the Manaan section of KOTOR 1, but it was also used for the space walk on the Leviathan just before you meet Saul Karath.
Incredible video. Glad I found you and this retrospective. KOTOR 2 was the first RPG I ever played where I remember feeling part of something bigger. KOTOR 1 has an important place in my heart, but it suffered from a universe decidedly protagonist-centric. The game was a stage and characters felt like they were just waiting for the player to come in and drive the plot. I distinctly remember how shocked I felt when Kreia's scenes with other chracters would take place without you. KOTOR 2 writers knew how to make characters that didn't seem like they were waiting for their cue to say something to you. They are so much more alive and the world feels like it is driven by the collective actions of them all, even of that is obviously an illusion. I know some people don't like the mean old lady, but Kreia will always be my shining example of what a companion character needs to aim for in terms of relationship, dynamic, and agency.
It makes me so happy to see yet another retrospective on the things that were formative to my personality and interests growing up - and it excites me so much remembering hearing you talk about how much work you were putting into this video during MH streams. Absolute class rep for our generation, you are
To this day this is one of my favorite games of all time and I still pick it up yearly for a playthrough or two. The writing, the options of your character and party members. Do you want to be a light side counselor? Where your party members gain powerful bonuses. Will you be a sith assassin and rely on stealth. Will you use Mira as a Jedi or a blaster build. Will you delay your level ups to make bao and atton Jedi early? Or will you give them skill and class upgrades so they’re a more rounded Jedi? Ah what a great game.
Mechanically, it doesn't make much sense to make Bao-Dur a Jedi. Guardians get much less skill points than he does normally, and with the feats and a high Intelligence you can get him incredibly high in all skills. I use him to make anything I need since he can make every item
Gotta love these kind of extensive analysis of my favorite video games. The first one I've seen pop up was an Oblivion analysis of 4 hours length like 5 years ago and I'm seeing more and more of these. They are the best to listen to during a workout sessions especially when narrated well and gripping. I'm gonna add this one too for tomorrow's session, thanks for the upload!
Maybe this will be corrected later in the video but I'm fairly certain you can actually retrieve your original lightsaber late in the game when you encounter Atris for the last time, depending on how you resolve your conflict with her. It would be nice if in the dialogue with Atton you had the option of choosing to have dual wielded lightsabers originally, even having one full length and one short, rather than only having the option of a single or double bladed lightsaber.
I’ve been playing since it came out and I NEVER realized that first conversation with Atton was setting up the rest of the game. So cool. Also, this channel is great.
3:24 Concerning the Thalia-Vaklu-Question: There is an option for you to say "Queen Thalia should listen to what the people want" which the game consideres you siding with vaklu. This can prompt Adana to approach you and ask you to kill the three captains. Btw: Monarchie is not necesarily the opposite of democracy. Think about Queen Amidala from Episode I, who was elected. Or real life parlamentarian Monarchies like England, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway and Sveden.
Kotor 2 is a classic and I played it a lot more than Kotor 1. Once I experienced Kotor 1, there wasn't much reason to play it maybe twice because its big payoff is really in that first experience for me. Kotor 2 and all its choices and paths had me playing it a dozen times easily, I still come back to it.
I’ve played KOTOR 1 slot more times simply due to the fact that while telos is a pretty bad slog of an intro, peragus is just so much friggin worse. Like I haven’t timed it but it feels like doing 100% of everything on telos doesn’t take near as long as doing everything in peragus and then on the telos station and then finally on telos itself. Like ugh.
Awesome video! I wanted to add that on Telos when you need to pay off both the Czerka employee and the droid tech debt, talk to the Ithorians. They will just give you the money. No need to pay out of pocket.
One thing to be mindful of about KOTOR 2's ""canon"" main character being a light-side woman is that this decision was made post-release by comic book writers. The game seems much more suited to a male protag with no clear alignment to dark or light.
Fantastic video. I replayed Kotor 1 and 2 alongside you and it was a blast. Fantastic fallout 3 video as well, keep it up! I look forward to your uploads.
I’ve been listening to this while I sleep, so I’ve been dropping in and out, figured I’d speak up about the Ritual the Sith masters are doing Their ritual is what gives the Sith forces control over the beasts of Onderon. The Handler using the Drexl loses control of the beast presumably because the masters have been killed by the Temple crew
Man, watching this video and the one on KOTOR 1, I have truly seen just how amazing both games are, and how much I’ve missed in KOTOR 2 by not wanting to take the time to do anything but the few side quests that directly impact the story. Guess I gotta play it again lol
I don't remember if there's anything directly contradicting this in the game, but the monarchy of Onderon may not be a monarchy as we traditionally think of one. For example, Queen Amidala is indeed a Queen, but Naboo has an elective monarchy system, at least. It may be that system of government is commonplace in the Star Wars universe.
This timing is crazy. I just decided to replay KOTOR 1 a few days ago, finished it and then watched your review video and as I was watching it checked to see if you had a KOTOR 2 review. Great timing!!!
@@SuperRADLemon Yup! Carth is replaced by some old fart instead, which makes sense if you've ever played KOTOR 1 with the darkside ending. I don't know if you ever have, but during a traumatic series of events Carth runs away like a little girl never to be seen again, so he could hardly be an admiral in the future.
@@SuperRADLemon Turns out that Carth does make a brief appearance after all, but on Dantooine. If you play the Exile as male, there is a brief cut scene where you see Disciple talking to a hologram and he calls him Admiral, and it does look like Carth. The Admiral is never named and the scene only lasts for a few seconds.
In the middle of my first playthrough so I'm not gonna watch this yet but I'm liking and commenting for the algorithm. I'm sure this video will be great, can't wait! 👍
Damn I just checked in to see if you made this yet, I watched the first one at work a few weeks ago, and you released it earlier today! This is my favorite game of all time narratively. Looking forward to it, already liked.
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Please consider liking commenting, and subscribing. Corrections below!
Corrections:
1. Restored content isn't actually out on the switch yet apparently LOL
2. If you kill Atris, I believe the restored content mod places your lightsaber on her body
3. I forgot you do use a pressurized suit in KOTO1 during the leviathan segment.
4. Clarification on Visas: All Miraluka see through the force, but they have eye sockets. When Visas was captured during the loss of her planet, Nihilus seemed to "remove the flesh from her sockets"
5. Misunderstood the asteroid scene. The decision is to shoot the asteroids yourselves or let the Sith do it.
You keep mentioning "BETHESDA" instead of "BIOWARE" at the beginning rant.
Gonna see where I did this and I'll add a correction
I don't think the restored content is out on the Switch. At least it wasn't a few weeks ago.
@PFworth Do you have a timestamp? There's six mentions of Bethesda in the script and they were all referencing New Vegas development.
There's some controversy with the Restored Content for the Switch edition, it was supposed to come out in Q3 or 4 last year but due to Aspyr no longer working on the Kotor 1 remake, they've been radio silent on pretty much anything, including the Restored Content DLC
You forgot to mention the greatest dialogue option in Star Wars history: when playing as a male character and Visas shows up, the next time you talk to Kreia she will imply that you want Visas around romantically. And then you have the option to respond: "Just because I saved her doesn't mean I'm going to charge up her loading ramp." Gets me every time hahaha
Explain the meaning of this for a non-native english speaker?
@@deviatlon It's a euphemism for sex - 'loading ramp' is a stand-in for, uh, the part you put stuff in.
There's also the dialogue option with the Handmaiden where you can complain she's always training naked, and if you're also not wearing anything, she'll pointedly say "it doesn't seem to bother you." Your response? "Yeah, well, this is my ship. I can walk around like this if I want."
@@Dianacat777 thanks mate! now i know more)
Not Atton's "Are you an angel?" joke?
Fill her exhaust port
Fun fact: In Atris's academy on your first trip, once you reunite with your party, take Kreia to Atris's Chamber door and use her sight ability to look through the door to see Atris's alignment is red as hell 🤣
That's a great idea!
What????
Really? I'm not that far from that point in my 98th play through lol. I'll have to check that out. Iv never heard that before
Yeah, I did that on my first playthrough out of curiosity. I thought it was a glitch, but what it really was is a great attention to detail.
I think Its more of an oversight because you fight Her in the end
I think it's funny that despite how much stronger you can make a character in the second one, it comes off as less of a power trip than the first one thanks to how it's written. KotOR1 is about that idea that you can just get real strong and kill the bad guy and it fixes everything. KotOR2 asks why the hell you would think that worked.
I think it's fair to be OP in 1 considering you're basically the big bad evil guy and are sort of supposed to be terrifying. The writing does make sense, and is actually pretty neat especially with the Revan twist, even if KotOR 2 does OP force users better as both being OP but narratively put down as ultimately not helpful.
Indeed, the first one you are already super strong, you are just remembering things, while on the second one, it is mentioned you were weaker than Revan and Malak, and along the path you take with Kreia you are rebuilding your foundation and then expanding on it, becoming one that could rival them in strength and wisdom.
And 2 also shows (accurately) that a character this charismatic and powerful would scare the shìt out of other Jedi and they eventually call you a threat to all life in the galaxy. It’s such a genius meta way to explain XP and why you gain strength in the game plus why companions follow you without question
@FoxyChariot The following without question is explained to be the force basically brainwashing them to do so as Meetra Surik(Exile's Canon name) experienced such trauma on Malachor V that it made her effectively a living wound of the force with potentially no limit to her abilities.
This is explained cryptically and requires slightly reading between the lines of Kreia and the Masters' dialogues.
@@CommanderRedEXE
On a unrelated note, Star Wars names are so bloody weird, I remember the first time I played Kotor 2 I named my girl Alice and it was just the most alien name in that galaxy.
I love the moment in the Jedi Enclave near the end when Kreia ends the Jedi masters and you hear the awesome Jedi Enclave track and read "This master is dead... drained of life. His body is worse than lifeless. It’s like an absence in the Force."
"Rebuilt Jedi Enclave" is my favorite Star Wars soundtrack ever. RotJ's "Jedi Fury" is a close second, though.
No Ghost for You. No “One With the Force” for you.
Corpse (Nothing) (Nothing)
With all of KOTOR 2’s shortcoming’s I will still gladly play another 5 run-throughs just to talk to Kreia. She is without question the best written character in Star Wars gaming
Best written ever, the only character who doesn’t want blind obedience
Not just star wars gaming, i think all of star wars. Character depth like hers has not been explored in starwars
One of the best written characters in all gaming IMO
Best voiced also, Sarah kestleman is a classically trained theatre actor and this was her one role as a VA period and she was ICONIC
@55:00
Max XP from the ship fight can be achieved by letting the first 25 sith troopers through, and killing the remaining 5. You get 10 XP for each Sith Trooper you shoot in the turret, and 250 XP for killing them with your character. Because there are only 25 slots for troopers to spawn into, letting all 30 on board means you still only fight 25. Total XP from doing is this way is 6,300 XP. The least amount of XP you can get for this part of the game is 300 XP (30 troopers * 10 XP each).
The party: Apathy is death
T3-M4: 30 seconds of beeping
T3 said something else entirely. Probably insulted the PCs sorry ass with an ocean of slurs. Damn Droids, can't trust'em.
Deet.
I also found it funny how you could just destroy the computer to bypass the voiceprint ID puzzle. You can also get all three sound samples in one dialogue with HK50 by implying he isn’t advanced enough to just say the code in dead guy’s voice. You get a little xp and the whole puzzle is solved
to get the most xp grab the sonic sensor, fight all the droids in the hallway and rooms & go back to the top floor (you can gain new dialogue & ds or ls points from Atton depending on how you interact) from there go back to the security room then use the computer, go thru the recordings and press the option that uses the sonic sensor, next go back down & go to the console near the airlock door go through the security recordings & use the sonic sensor again then finally go back and talk to hk ask him every single question, get the third voice print and persuade him to speak the code (might need to use force valor)
I love Peragus. It's a dark, uncomfortable, Cosmic Horror setting with a great villain in HK-50.
It blew my mind way back then when on my second playthrough I accidentally figured out you can coax the voiceprint samples out of HK-50.. this is such a gem of a game and deserves an actual remake out of it with just better graphics, fixes and smoother gameplay but everything else intact.. shame I have 0 confidence that any one studio would keep the game otherwise intact these days..
@@bradensmith8682
I love settings where everyone is dead and your propose is to find out but the answer is more bizarre than you would think at first.
I found two parts to the voice code, got frusterated and just blew up the console. I was amused they let me do that as well.
2:35:00 if you took atton in gotos yacht,he will comment about how the bridge section is like a droid command centre that sends info all over nar shadda
Which you can later use against goto to make him spill his secrets
I love the atmosphere throughout kotor 2 as well. It’s very dark and eerie like dread is always around the corner and everyone is scared. It used to scare me as a kid playing through Peragus, Korriban, Nar Shadda, and Malachor V
It’s also worth noting on dantooine if you leave the crystal cave after finding vrook and lie to azkul about choosing his side, kreia will give you influence by saying it was a good maneuver to pretend to be on his side because “with the militia and mercenaries believing you’re on their side, you can control the outcome”
What amazes me about KOTOR ll is that I’ve completed this game dozens of times, and I still run in to new encounters and come across new lines of dialogue every single time
Bao-Dur’s Shield Breaker move breaks enemy NPC energy shields, so it actually does have somewhat limited use beyond the Telos restoration area
I found out about it a few playthroughs ago, and I was shocked how useful it was early game.
-That's if Bao-Dur can even land a hit cause good lord, it feels like he's blinder than a bat.-
Bao Dur was an absolute powerhouse on my playthrough, I dunno why they decided to make unarmed combat stronger than most weapons
@@Amalgam03 Characterization.
As a kid I didn't know it was unfinished and I played it a bunch and when I got to the Droid factory on Telos I tried desperately to open up the door where the HK exploded only to find out years later the game was unfinished.
Same
Same
Same
Same
Same
KotOR 2 is arguably my favorite video game of all time, even the vanilla version (the only one I’ve ever played because I’m a console gamer). I remember when the restoration mod was being created because I was very active on kotorfanmedia - I think I even submitted an audition for the laigrek girl! 🤣 Thanks for a retrospective on a game that deserves all the kudos in the world for trying so many things and having something to say about so many things (including the video game medium itself). Great video. ❤️
also a console gamer, the mobile version is moddable!
@@laithhart4013wait are you saying I can play the full KOTOR2:TSLRCM on mobile???
@@kettlemagic Yes! That’s what i did on my iphone
Same
The voice recorder puzzle on the mining facility has another alternate solution:
You can trick HK-50 into splicing things together for you and it only notices after it already did so.
The best part of that dialogue is that the player giving up the game is completely optional. HK obviously figures it out either way but I really like how they give you the option for a comedic beat
Regarding the development timeline: I remember reading an article ages ago, where they had stated that after showing "the management" their plans, they were granted a year of extra development time and redrew their dev timeline accordingly. Unfortunately management changed and they had forgotten to get this in writing, so the end of the development was basically "how's the game coming up? release is soon." "uhhhhhhhhhh"
I'm
@@javifuentes302you're what? YOU'RE WHAT?!?
yep
Pretty big Oopsie.
When time travel is invented, that's the FIRST thing I'm going back to fix. Retroactively, you're welcome.
You don’t have to have a rematch to the death with Davrel on Dxun--you can offer the alternative of teaming up with him to kill a Zakkeg, which he agrees.
Oh very interesting, ty
Dang I had no idea
As somebody who’s played every Star Wars game ever made, it is the best by far. No game captures the true world building size and essence of what Star Wars is but kotor 1 and 2. These are truly masterpieces.
I play this game at least once a year. It helps with my conversational focus. I haven't been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD but I've always had problems focusing on conversations. I nod off or lose track. But this KotOR 2 has long but engaging conversations that keep my mind engaged and entertained. It helps with my overall focus. Its definitely in my top 10 games of all time for me.
As someone who HAS been diagnosed, you just gave me the idea to replay these games on meds to be able to focus on the long dialogues better.
Doug Stanhope had a great bit about not having ADHD, as is, but the conversation being just plain boring. It's less a weakness, and more term limits for tedious. I feel your comment, 'cause I get the same lapse in focus when I read novels and other stories. Kotor II had exceptional world building and story. I was hooked straight from Telos. Great game! [That Stanhope bit: ruclips.net/video/3VE5BpqJAtg/видео.html]
KotOR 2 is my favorite game of all time. It gave me an intriguing, heart-aching glimpse on what Star Wars storytelling COULD have been.
Thank you for doing this. If your video attracts even a SINGLE pair of eyeballs to this amazing game, then it is already worth my 5 hours of watchtime.
This is also my favorite game of all time
This game is made for people who hates Star Wars.
@@tonyknighton4019 On the contrary, it's made for people who genuinely love SW. It critiques everything with care and respect. The thing that's made for people who hate SW is the Sequel Trilogy and especially TLJ.
@@GalahadTheSeekerKOTOR 2, for people who love Star Wars and the lore, is an amazing 'through the looking glass' take on it that challenges all the surface level appearances of it, but also reinforces the themes subtly through the gameplay.
The mistake people make( especially those whose only time really thinking about Star Wars, looking at you Rian Johnson, was when playing this game) is taking Kreia at her word, and buying into her line of thinking, when her entire character is built on lying and taking the extreme option.
People interpret her going from a Jedi Master, to a Sith Lord, and then claiming now that she is 'neither' as she is s Grey Jedi, or balanced in the force, and is right because she is taking a middle ground(a common fallacy).
But she's not, she's just taken another extreme to its logical conclusion. She's seen all the Force has to offer, that neither the Jedi or the Sith have the answers or are perfect, and decided that since there is no way to get the answers she wants, her answer is she will destroy the Force.
That is her whole arc. She wasn't satisfied with the Jedi answers to her questions, and believed it was because they were afraid of the Dark Side and so the answers must be there. When she dedicated herself so perfectly to the Dark Side she became an avatar of one of its strongest facets, and still didn't get her answers, and was broken and betrayed, and went looking for the only other person she knew who had also been on both sides of the Force and come out stronger for it , Revan.
Instead she found the Exile, and they were someone she saw had survived despite being severed from the Force, and was somehow more powerful for it in a way, and decided that was her new goal, that the Force itself was to blame, that it controlled everything for some unknown goal and she resented it for it.
She only thinks in extremes, and believes any compromise from perfection is personal weakness, and that the Force always stymied her from finding the answers she sought.
And the Exile proves to her that people can not only survive without the Force but possibly be stronger for it.
There is also interesting ties ins to the New Jedi Order books and the Yuuzhan Vong( both in this game and the 1st) that prove her wrong too.
The game itself though, through gameplay and story prove her wrong.
Doing all the classic good guy things leaves the places the Exile visited better, both long and short term.
Her argument that not helping actually hurts them is actually short sighted.
She claims that on a much longer time frame things would be better if you hadn't done them, but it's literally the exact same outcome as you brought about, sooner and with less suffering.
The fact that bad things will also still happen in the future doesn't change the good you did right now.
Her foresight is biased and selective to how she interprets the world.
She can't be trusted in that interpretation because first and foremost who she deceives is herself.
That is proven by how she treated and is proven wrong about the companions on the ship if the Exile brings them to the light, how she was wrong about Revan, about the other Sith Lord's and so on.
The Sith Triumvirate = a blind granny, a walking corpse, and the love-child of No-Face and Barry the Chopper.
@TheMahayanist
I get it and I respect it but I just put all my skill points into strength and one-shot Sion and/or Nihlus every time I bumped into them 😂
I mean, they're all walking corpses really.
Why do you think Bao-Dur found Kreia to be "tougher than she looks"?
Wow, your nar shaddaa playthrough was absolutely wild. I don't think I've ever had SO much happen in such a short time before. Holy cow
“Maybe the lost Jedi are the friends we made along the way” I lost it. A year later and I can still appreciate this since I’ve been playing this game since it came out and I was just a baby boy who didn’t understand what I was doing. This games philosphy shaped me into the man I am today and thus will always hold a close place in my heart
2:14:24 "the lost jedi are the friends we made along the way." 😂 i laughed way too hard
1:26:48 If you explore Citadel Station as B4-D4, there are some awesome interactions and recorded lines of dialogue that are specific to someone going off the beaten path while controlling B4-D4. There aren't any real sidequests or anything, but man is it some excellent attention to detail. I believe there are also a few more RP instances, like with a protocol droid at the docks, and with the droid engineer in the apartments. I found this all on my like millionth playthrough and it felt so rewarding.
😢happy
While I understand why the Handmaiden and Hanharr weren’t discussed as much since they aren’t relevant to the play through covered in this video, I do wish that their stories were touched upon briefly in the video.
How Brianna had to shoulder the burden of being the ‘last’ among her sisters because of the nature of her birth, of who she was. How while traveling with the Exile, seeing the galaxy and how the Exile impacts it; she begins to see how Atris and her teachings are flawed, misguided. How eventually, she breaks her oath and learns the ways of the force from the exile. It’s a beautiful story.
As for Hanharr, learning more about how the traditions of the Wookiee affected him, making him the monster that we see in the game. It is a dark reflection of not only Zaalbar from the first game, but if Chewbacca. A Wookie whose killed his own tribe to ensure they didn’t become slaves, who became just as evil if not more so than the people who tried to enslave his tribe. And yet, he is still fundamentally chained down by his code. This isn’t even touching upon the lesson of strength that Kreia uses Hanharr to teach, all but stating what happened to the Exile at Malachor if you learn the true lesson of strength.
Amazing video though, definitely makes me want to go back and replay the game. What stat line did you go with for your sentinel?
Lol they didn't read the whole comment
My first playthrough of TSLRCM I went full Sith Lord and I was shook getting to the very end of Hanharr’s arc. That Wookiee is traumatized beyond anything I could have imagined.
The implicit storyline of kreia being arren kae (aka handmaidens mother) is also great.
If there’s one thing this game did better than KOTOR 1, it’s give T3 depth. From the get-go, you the player obviously know who he is, but he’s very secretive and is obviously hiding things that you want to know: what happened to Revan, what’s his purpose for teaming with you, etc. It’s even more apparent when he disables HK and feels bad over it.
It makes me wish the Revan novel didn’t exist.
@TheMahayanistwell that’s a lie lmfao
Kotor2 is probably my favorite #1 game of all time. It was the first really palatable example of DnD and it gained an even bigger special spot in my heart because of how gosh darn broken it is, and how much love the community threw into it
It's not actually D&D. D&D has become ubiquitous with tabletop role playing game, but they aren't the same. There are lots of other TTRPGs out there other than D&D. For example, Fallout is based on the GURPS system. Kotor is based on its own d20 system as well. D&D is a system with its own specific rule set, which doesn't apply to Kotor.
@@asturias0267 It was actually based on the WotC Star Wars rpg they made at the time, which derived most of its rules from third edition DnD.
Thank you. I needed a 4 hour reminder of how good the KOTOR series was.
as much as I came to loathe peragus and telos as a kid, looking back on them now they were really good. the tense horror of peragus especially.
"The TSLRCM comes with the Switch Version."
Yeah, it's great. If only Aspyr didn't lock themselves out of their office for 4 months and actually released it.
Was about to say, I just beat the game on switch and am planning to replay it once they restore the content on switch but at this rate idek if it's ever coming out
@@flamingbagofcrisps9157Yup, it's not happening. Got cancelled. Fucking shame
@@sayvionwashington1939 But it's OK, they still got your money.
@@Double-R-Nothingand mine smfh sigh. Oh well I guess. At least we can still play most of the game 🙄
I remember playing KOTOR 1 and 2 over and over growing up. To this day, they are one of the few games I actively go back to play and still as fun as I remembered them.
Thanks for the content man! It’s awesome to see more people talking about these games!
I still remember as a kid the first time I awoke on Peragus. Hot off the heels of triumphantly defeating Malak in Kotor II, I remember expecting the typical “The good guys won the big fight, so everything’s groovy again” sorta trope but boy was I wrong
It actually unsettled me as a Kid, not to mention the thought of being the last person alive on a planet of psychotic droids was unnerving in its own right
Of course now as someone that’s an adult, and has played Peragus a Kajillion times, It’s like burning through a field with a flamethrower, but I respect the direction they chose with it as a staunch contrast to Taris
Peragus has a ton of problems, but on my first play through as a kid it was the area with the best atmosphere in the game. Actually really memorable
@@padenal6069 Yeeeeeah it doesn't lend itself well to repeat playthroughs, the main appeal of it is finding out wtf happened there, once you've done that it doesn't have that same charm
Funny thing I noticed about Force Ghost Kreia on Korriban: This sequence is the only time Kreia refers to your companions by name instead of using her usual nicknames for them (Fool, Alien, etc)
I really appreciate the girth of your videos, and cannot describe how incredible it feels to see the KOTOR series gaining so much love in recent years. For the longest time it felt like only a small group of people actually played these, and the group who clamored for more was even smaller. I’m 32, and not once have I met someone in real life who had actually played these. Now we’ve got official ports to accompany the community’s mods, and even a remaster on the way!?
All people like kotor because the reboot comming but , the first two kotor are the best to discover today in star wars universe .
I like this two game since my discover on their year release .
Lmao girth
Yeah... Never met anyone who played this game fully besides my brother and he does not value the games lore as i do. I even have kreias face tattoed 😂😂 that my level of obssesion
i swear you are like the only guy making 5 hour videos where you actually say stuff warranting the length. great stuff as always.
I recommend The Salt Factory who also has a multi hour review of this game as well as others :)
I can’t count how many times I completed this one. Peragus and telos were a slog but I absolutely loved the rest. Especially the music.
I put bootlegs of KOTOR soundtracks on at work or at the grocery store lol #Xile
Going to have to dedicate four hours of my time to this. Judging by how good your first KOTOR Retrospective was, this one should be a banger.
I truly love how so far all your retrospectives have come out during times where I’m down so I can just chill and watch them in peace. Truly love your content dude
This is easily the best Star Wars story ever told. It's subversive and dark, while maintaining the edge of humor and triumph over evil that defines the original films. It reminds me of things like The Last Jedi, Andor, and some of the underlying narratives of the prequel films. The Jedi aren't the good guys, and are capable of evil, same as their counterparts on the Dark Side. Such a brilliant display of storytelling and character development with the Restored Content Mod, it is easily a top 5 RPG of all time.
Very true. New vegas is also a top 5 obsidian are built different.
The game's original trailer and the story even stresses your character is the last known Jedi in the Galaxy which is why I call this game the REAL Last Jedi tale
Please don’t compare this masterpiece of a game to that steaming turd Rian Johnson shat out
@@kaitosevski3881 just say you have no taste in film or subversive storytelling and move on.
@@chunk5465 I love subversive storytelling when it's done well. TLJ didn't do it well and ended up feeling like something an edgy 14 year old who's only seen one Star Wars movie would write
I loved KOTOR 2 and I loved the New Jedi Order series, both of which are focused almost entirely on subverting and deconstructing the themes of Star Wars. Plus, the whole purpose of Empire is to subvert the expectations set up by the previous movie
Outside of Star Wars, I actually like most of Rian Johnsons work, both Knives Out movies are absolutely brilliant
I just don't like TLJ because it is a badly written movie. It's not "subversive" if all the characters make decisions that character would never make (There's no way in hell the person who believed that one of the most evil men in the galaxy could be redeemed would try to murder his nephew in his sleep for having a bad dream). That's just bad writing
Imo, Johnson is a good film maker who just doesn't understand the Star Wars universe or the characters that inhabit it. You can't properly try to subvert a story when you don't even understand that story in the first place. That's why Empire, KOTOR 2 and the NJO books work, while TLJ falls flat on its face
And that's not even mentioning how nonsensical, contrived and boring the plot is or how boring, one note and unlikeable all of the new characters are. TLJ (Along with the rest of the Disney trilogy) is one of the worst movies I've ever seen
Holy crap. I had no idea about this at 44:00. Using the voice samples of the dead security officer from the holoerecords is brilliant. If your persuasion stat is high enough, there’s a unique dialogue option that comes up where you stroke the HK-50’s ego to get him to say the door code in the officer’s voice. I thought that if you didn’t have enough persuasion stats you could just blow up the console and unlock the door that way. Apparently there’s three ways to open that door now that you have brought this new method to my attention. Persuade the droid, blow up the console, or collect voice samples from the holos. This is amazing.
I did a dual-blasters only playthrough.... There's a lot of really powerful blasters and the upgrades make them insane! 10/10, I highly reccomend!
So uncivilized.....😂
@@MrClubfoot90 🤣🤣🤣🤣
1:58:36 Wanted to add one thing regarding the influence mechanic; you can progress conversations and bonuses with party members by decreasing their influence as well. The important thing is fully embracing increasing or decreasing a companion’s influence from the jump.
If you’re trying to gain full LS or DS points for the attack and force bonuses, this is helpful to maintain those while still fully digging into your companion storylines and eventually training them to become Jedi or Dark Jedi. Negging Bao Dur and T3 on a DS run or being too nice for HK’s and Kreia’s liking on a LS one to bring their influences to 0 fully opens them up.
I played KOTOR 2 as a kid on the xbox without experiencing KOTOR 1. I was just coming off experiencing the whole of star wars through all the movies, lego star wars, and star wars battlefront. KOTOR 2, even in its unfinished state, completely blew my mind in terms of how stories could be told in this universe I was already intimately familiar with and how games could be made (it being one of my very first RPGs). Further still, I loved the air of mystery around Revan. To me, he was this unknowable entity that commanded such power and respect as to be revered the galaxy over, and it gave me an extra layer to the game into trying to figure out exactly who he was! I've since gone back and played the original (which I find pretty bland in comparison) which lowers that reverence a bit for me, but I still greatly cherish this game and go back and replay it at least once a year.
I would argue that the start of the Ebon Hawk in KOTOR II is the Endar Spire section of the first game. Then Peragus is the Taris section. And Telos is the Dantooine section.
Because in the first game, you still have things to do on Dantooine before the game opens up. Like that in the second game, you have things to do on Telos before the game opens up. It just follows the theme of it being longer here. Peragus is longer than Taris by about an hour and Telos is longer than Dantooine by about an hour as well--even if you rush the main questline. Like Dantooine as well, you can return to Telos whenever you want. Whereas you cannot return to Peragus, just as you cannot return to Taris.
I think they shortened the prologue and made it skippable because they assumed they'd have returning characters who knew the system. So it wasn't needed to hold the player's hand through the different mechanics. But they wanted their story to be longer and more expansive, so they made Peragus and Telos longer to juxtapose Taris and Dantooine. A short-hand way to tell players "Hey, this is a longer game! Much more here!" It just had the unfortunate side-effect of being an absolute slog to get through on repeat playthroughs. But the first time through? I think the mystery holds up and is interesting enough to keep the player's attention.
Cool observation.
Makes me wonder if the Ebon Hawk prologue should have been made a bit longer, and not something to be skipped (obviously hints could be turned off, but one could have fit some extra story stuff there to lighten the time sinks of Peragus & Telos).
@@DBArtsCreators I like how they offer the Ebon Hawk prologue to be skippable. Having it shorter as well (Since, like the Endar Spire, it's just a tutorial on the gameplay mechanics) makes it a bit more manageable on repeat playthroughs.
@@shaelynmartin1996
Fair.
I’ve played through KOTOR2 somewhere close to 50 times fully at this point.
I always say “I’m a KOTOR fan, not a Star Wars fan.”
It made me fall in love with Chris Avellone as a writer; who I still aspire to have 5% the talent of!
Its a classic in my eyes and although buggy, glitchy and unfinished it holds a place deeper in my heart than almost every other game (except New Vegas which beats it by a slither)
Thank you for these four hours listening to someone I enjoy walking through a game I adore in such an in-depth fashion! :)
I'd say the music is superior in this one and bioware seems to have realized it because I've heard the majority of the tracks from kotor2 in the swtor MMO and only two from the original. They always used the malachor V theme whenever some big evil shit was going down which is one of the best tracks
My head-canon on battle meditation is that many force-user can learn it, but the vast majority can only use it in their immediate surroundings, so essentially a couple of meters range and what's so special about Bastila is that she can affect an entire battlefield at the same time.
It meshes quite well with how Bastila was able to affect dozens of ships with tens of thousands of crew over an area tens of kilometers across at the minimum, while we in the game can only affect a single room's worth of area.
In regards to G0T0: If you remember Telos station, they said that their first droid went missing and B4 is the replacement. The game heavily hints at G0T0 being this original droid, though I don't remember if it was ever fully confirmed.
Sometimes I entertain the thought that what Kreia did, really did ultimately lead to the death of the Force millenia later and that's why it existed "a long time ago" in this galaxy far, far away, but does not exist anymore now in our galaxy.
It would also hand-wave the power-creep away that makes the original movies' force-users appear to much weaker than the Old Republic era ones. Due to the wound Kreia struck it, the Force is slowly dying and with it the force users are getting weaker and weaker too, until nobody can use the Force anymore.
By teh way the conclusion to at least the Exile's and Revan's stories can be found in a book or book series. The MMO mostly just references those events and then spins some more stuff of their own after it. That being said I have not read the book(s) and only played SW:TOR, so I don't know if the novelization is any good.
From what I've heard, the book(s) absolutely butcher their story. The Exile is killed in the worst way possible. And people who *have* read it all say that they don't consider it an actual canon ending to her story.
Apparently, she's killed fairly early on or something? The book just wants to focus on Revan and how #SuperCool he is, so the author killed her off to let Revan get the limelight.
@@shaelynmartin1996 book kills her and Revan fights a near godly Sith Emperor to a standstill before a sith ally stabs him in the back due to a vision and nothing else. Revan is than tortured for hundreds of years with the Exile ghost keeping him semi sane until he gets out and literally splits into a good light Revan and a bad dark 4evan in 2 different 'bodies' and everything. No word to my knowledge on where the Exile ghost went but I could be wrong on that.
@@nahte123456 That honestly sounds like the dumbest shit ever and I'm so glad I never read it lol
Maybe we'll get lucky and the Remake(s) do happen. And they actually make a KOTOR3 as well to *properly* finish their stories.
@@shaelynmartin1996 Yeah, the book is straight butchery. It ignores virtually everything about the Exile in favor of turning her into a cheerleader for Revan. Like SWTOR, it pretty much wanted to pretend KotOR II never happened. (How does Meetra Surik even become a Force ghost when her shtick is that she is literally a void in the Force? Never mind the sheer audacity that her grand destiny in the Unknown Regions is just dying immediately.)
To be fair, she created a wound in the force that follows her, but it in turn made her godly in the force, so force ghost makes sense imo
Man idk how I've watched so many multi-hour reviews of this game but I still get so much enjoyment out of watching/seeing different people's takes on it. It's like, comforting.
Loved KoTOR but never bothered with the sequel until watching this retrospective. Now doing my first play-through and really enjoying it. Thanks so much!
Hope you enjoy it!
I think my favourite planet has to be Duxun/Onderon. I really enjoy helping out the mandalorians with odd jobs, I think this has always jelled with my character who I’ve always seen as being good at repairing things, and even though it’s pretty basic I enjoy the murder mystery on Onderon and have fun whenever I do it. The final battle is fun too.
It is also my favorite as well - i loved the mando camp as well as the detective case on Onderon, as well as returning to these worlds later on. And of course i loved Canderous in this game even more than in the first one
4:18:22
We all saw you named your character SuperGAL Lemon!
Also I think Kreia mentions that Atris surrounds herself with people who cannot feel the force so they can’t see how far she has fallen
Ah yes my favorite genre: 3+ hour long kotor 2 videos this will make a fine addition to my collection
What a great video. I always love to see when people post long retrospectives and analyses about this game. The writing, characters, narratives, and themes taken from this game are really unique and you did a great job exploring them. Kudos to you, will definitely be recommending this video in the future.
There is a mod that allows you to have both the Disciple and the Handmaiden in the same run, along with submods by the same person that add in their "romances" along with their opposites for all, including certain comments made by both Atris and Sion.
Also, for those who are interested in these kinds of things, there are 3 total conversation mods for KOTOR 2, all trying to be a sequel in their own ways: two that are partially complete and one that just has a demo. First is the Jedi Masters, which try to follow Obsidian interactions of making the True Sith Kreia talks about Lovecraft like though the way this was done, along with most of the voice acting, makes the whole thing unintentionally funny in the "so bad it's good" way (though there is a companion with surprisingly very good voice acting). The second mod is called Edge of Darkness, which takes place after the Revan novel, with you being part of a cleanup crew sent by Emperor Vitiate to pave the way for the invasion that you see in the trailers. It's very weird since it's more like an adventure game made in the KOTOR engine than an RPG with a bunch of puzzles, including hidden ones. The third is the most ambitious of the three, about as ambitious as Obsidian was, which is probably why it's been in development since 2008 and has been abandoned and restarted twice by the same person. Like Edge, it's set after (or maybe during, I'm still confused on this point) the Raven novel, with you being one of the first padawans of the newly rebuilt Jedi Order on Coruscant (the council of which might have a few familiar faces) about to become a Jedi Knight, but a series of events force you to follow the trail of Revan and the Exile while being hunted by both the Jedi (who think you are a secret Sith) and the True Sith. It still has plans for a revamped influence system renamed Trust that will include npc's and factions along with companions (you won't be turning almost every companion into a Jedi like 2 though), plans for a choice between a partially and fully* Revan novel/TOR version, which will change how the final quarter of the game is like (* You will be able to choose Revan and the Exile alignment and gender in both), improving skill use for role playing even more, a somewhat fleshed out Gray Jedi path, and more. So yeah, I doubt it will come out anytime soon unless things are cut down, but there is a plan remake of the demo that was released in 2011 to come out soonTM.
Wonderful review. Slight correction for around the 46-minute mark: the suit did come from the Manaan section of KOTOR 1, but it was also used for the space walk on the Leviathan just before you meet Saul Karath.
Yee I added a correction for this but thank you
I've spent years thinking about Kreia's many words of wisdom, that's how serious this game is.
GOD I LOVE WATCHING HOURS LONG VIDEOS ON GAMES I'VE ALREADY PLAYED 60 TIMES AND KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT lol.
Incredible video. Glad I found you and this retrospective. KOTOR 2 was the first RPG I ever played where I remember feeling part of something bigger. KOTOR 1 has an important place in my heart, but it suffered from a universe decidedly protagonist-centric. The game was a stage and characters felt like they were just waiting for the player to come in and drive the plot. I distinctly remember how shocked I felt when Kreia's scenes with other chracters would take place without you. KOTOR 2 writers knew how to make characters that didn't seem like they were waiting for their cue to say something to you. They are so much more alive and the world feels like it is driven by the collective actions of them all, even of that is obviously an illusion. I know some people don't like the mean old lady, but Kreia will always be my shining example of what a companion character needs to aim for in terms of relationship, dynamic, and agency.
It makes me so happy to see yet another retrospective on the things that were formative to my personality and interests growing up - and it excites me so much remembering hearing you talk about how much work you were putting into this video during MH streams. Absolute class rep for our generation, you are
To this day this is one of my favorite games of all time and I still pick it up yearly for a playthrough or two. The writing, the options of your character and party members. Do you want to be a light side counselor? Where your party members gain powerful bonuses. Will you be a sith assassin and rely on stealth. Will you use Mira as a Jedi or a blaster build. Will you delay your level ups to make bao and atton Jedi early? Or will you give them skill and class upgrades so they’re a more rounded Jedi? Ah what a great game.
Mechanically, it doesn't make much sense to make Bao-Dur a Jedi. Guardians get much less skill points than he does normally, and with the feats and a high Intelligence you can get him incredibly high in all skills. I use him to make anything I need since he can make every item
Gotta love these kind of extensive analysis of my favorite video games. The first one I've seen pop up was an Oblivion analysis of 4 hours length like 5 years ago and I'm seeing more and more of these. They are the best to listen to during a workout sessions especially when narrated well and gripping. I'm gonna add this one too for tomorrow's session, thanks for the upload!
Just when I've finished watching KOTOR retrospective and thought that I'd like to see its logical continuation. Perfect timing, my good man.
Maybe this will be corrected later in the video but I'm fairly certain you can actually retrieve your original lightsaber late in the game when you encounter Atris for the last time, depending on how you resolve your conflict with her.
It would be nice if in the dialogue with Atton you had the option of choosing to have dual wielded lightsabers originally, even having one full length and one short, rather than only having the option of a single or double bladed lightsaber.
Corrected in description using Restored content!
Yup I believe you had to be dark side or chose a very specific dialog path to get it.
This is my favorite game of all time. Great points and I love how well you dive into every location.
I love this game. Its basically what The Last Jedi wanted to be, a truly great deconstruction of the Star Wars universe.
I’ve been playing since it came out and I NEVER realized that first conversation with Atton was setting up the rest of the game. So cool. Also, this channel is great.
Converting this to a game like Mass Effect III would be the greatest thing, ever
3:24 Concerning the Thalia-Vaklu-Question: There is an option for you to say "Queen Thalia should listen to what the people want" which the game consideres you siding with vaklu. This can prompt Adana to approach you and ask you to kill the three captains.
Btw: Monarchie is not necesarily the opposite of democracy. Think about Queen Amidala from Episode I, who was elected. Or real life parlamentarian Monarchies like England, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway and Sveden.
Kotor 2 is a classic and I played it a lot more than Kotor 1. Once I experienced Kotor 1, there wasn't much reason to play it maybe twice because its big payoff is really in that first experience for me. Kotor 2 and all its choices and paths had me playing it a dozen times easily, I still come back to it.
I’ve played KOTOR 1 slot more times simply due to the fact that while telos is a pretty bad slog of an intro, peragus is just so much friggin worse. Like I haven’t timed it but it feels like doing 100% of everything on telos doesn’t take near as long as doing everything in peragus and then on the telos station and then finally on telos itself. Like ugh.
Awesome video! I wanted to add that on Telos when you need to pay off both the Czerka employee and the droid tech debt, talk to the Ithorians. They will just give you the money. No need to pay out of pocket.
i just got back into kotor II around 2 weeks ago, and then this video immediately released, perfect timing.
An incredible retrospective. Great job talking about one of the best games of the best gaming era.
One thing to be mindful of about KOTOR 2's ""canon"" main character being a light-side woman is that this decision was made post-release by comic book writers.
The game seems much more suited to a male protag with no clear alignment to dark or light.
1:26:05 You can also go back to the Ithorians to pay the Debt and then get him to do the Payback Later Option so you gain 2500 credits.
So happy this game is still getting the love it deserves 😁💙
I've been waiting for this. KOTOR 2 is one of my all time favorite games. This is a quality retrospective.
What an amazing video. I saw 4 hours and was like, "Ugh, ill give it a shot." 3 hours in and im like, "damn, this is fukn good." ❤
You can convince hk50 to just tell you the airlock password on peragus while using the sonic imprint sensor. Skipping the terminal puzzle
Awesome video! Thanks for making it! Honestly, I didn't think I would watch the whole thing, yet I did, and I adored the whole thing 🤙
Fantastic video. I replayed Kotor 1 and 2 alongside you and it was a blast. Fantastic fallout 3 video as well, keep it up! I look forward to your uploads.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I’ve been listening to this while I sleep, so I’ve been dropping in and out, figured I’d speak up about the Ritual the Sith masters are doing
Their ritual is what gives the Sith forces control over the beasts of Onderon. The Handler using the Drexl loses control of the beast presumably because the masters have been killed by the Temple crew
Fluid speech, intelligent dialogue, and insightful ideas. This was an amazing video and I loved every second of it.
New S-RAD content?? Is it a good day to exist or what?? I can feel my force echoes healing already
OH MAN! So excited to watch this, I loved your Kotor retrospective, I am going to enjoy the hell out of this one
Just came across your channel today and I absolutely love your breakdowns and brings back so much nostalgia
The best Star Wars story even. Best companions in any game
Man, watching this video and the one on KOTOR 1, I have truly seen just how amazing both games are, and how much I’ve missed in KOTOR 2 by not wanting to take the time to do anything but the few side quests that directly impact the story. Guess I gotta play it again lol
I don't remember if there's anything directly contradicting this in the game, but the monarchy of Onderon may not be a monarchy as we traditionally think of one. For example, Queen Amidala is indeed a Queen, but Naboo has an elective monarchy system, at least. It may be that system of government is commonplace in the Star Wars universe.
This timing is crazy. I just decided to replay KOTOR 1 a few days ago, finished it and then watched your review video and as I was watching it checked to see if you had a KOTOR 2 review. Great timing!!!
"maybe the lost jedi are the friends we made along the way" what a bar
thank you so much for making videos like this. keeps old games alive
54:02 Carth is not in the game if you tell Atton when first meeting him, that the Sith defeated the Jedi.
Even if you get the light side ending? That's crazy
@@SuperRADLemon Yup! Carth is replaced by some old fart instead, which makes sense if you've ever played KOTOR 1 with the darkside ending. I don't know if you ever have, but during a traumatic series of events Carth runs away like a little girl never to be seen again, so he could hardly be an admiral in the future.
@@SuperRADLemon Turns out that Carth does make a brief appearance after all, but on Dantooine. If you play the Exile as male, there is a brief cut scene where you see Disciple talking to a hologram and he calls him Admiral, and it does look like Carth. The Admiral is never named and the scene only lasts for a few seconds.
In the middle of my first playthrough so I'm not gonna watch this yet but I'm liking and commenting for the algorithm. I'm sure this video will be great, can't wait! 👍
I envy you
This video is almost 5 hours long. This is a reference to the time you'll have to spend on peragus
r/ShittyRUclipsDetails
Damn I just checked in to see if you made this yet, I watched the first one at work a few weeks ago, and you released it earlier today! This is my favorite game of all time narratively. Looking forward to it, already liked.
Always a good day with a RAD upload. Keep up the good work, man! :)
Thanks, will do!
YES IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS!! Thank you SuperRAD, this is awesome!