There are multiple ways to stop Malak from absorbing power from the jedi bodies. Besides force breach, you can use lightsaber throw or force lightning, you can even use force drain like he does and empower yourself flipping the tables entirely.
Lol the game was never one of the most graphically stunning games on the xbox much less the PC. You already had games like Halo CE, Final Fantasy X and X-2, Soul Calibur 2, Rogue Squadron 2, Virtua Fighter, and Doom on PC. The character models weren’t great, the animations were bad, the framerate sucked, the level design and textures were repetitive hallways, and there were not vistas or detailed characters. I love the game. It was an ugly game even back in the day, but adequate because it just needed to tell the story.
Oh one thing I noticed always hoard mines in Kotor 2. One free XP from disabling them and 2 Atton can use them twice to get out of two very tricky fights with ease.
Oh thank god, another multi-hour long story analysis on a game from the early 2000’s by someone I never regularly watch. I shall consume this media voraciously and eagerly await more.
And they're mostly all the same. But its kotor.. So if I get to hear the same thing said in different ways, I'm good with that, so long as kotor is the backdrop.
As a kid on a trip in NYC I picked up two Xbox games while out and about with family. My choices weren’t random, but they were entirely based off the cover art and pictures. I was very ignorant to great games and hadn’t found my preference in games up until that day. The two games I bought that day were Elder Scrolls Morrowing and KOTR. Little did I know I had grabbed up two of the greatest games of all time.
Its a shame that we haven't had games like these for almost 2 decades. You would think a starwars role-playing game would have been released twice in that time considering how fondly the 2 kotor games are remembered within the community.
Its just a matter of greed on EA's part. They have exclusivity, once upon a time Lucas used to say "any story can be a star wars story" and that reflected in things like the clone wars and the plethora of games we used to receive. Now there's only ONE entity that can sign off on the games and its clear that they don't have the background to give us a ground breaking RPG. To their credit though Jedi: Fallen Order is a really good game but its more action than roleplaying game.
Yea. Hopefully things change in the coming year/s cause with modern graphics, physics for clothing, animations, the ability to have mods on consoles a Kotor 1 & 2 like series & Kotor 3 & potentially 4 with Kotor 1 & 2 remakes could bring in hundreds of millions for the remakes & to billions for all new content for the series alone. Not counting new adventures.
I'm a bit upset you didn't really go in-depth on how amazing Korriban can be as a light-side character. You can actually redeem many of the students you meet in the Academy, either by showing them how the sith failed them or by persuading them back to the light. The runaway students you can save and allow to escape; Mekei, the one in the tomb you fight alongside with, can turn away from the dark side even without guarantee he will be a Jedi. And the backstory of Yuthura Ban, showing how she joined the Darkside to save the slaves....but the drive for power made her forget why she turned in the first place and never did anything she set out to do, showing how the darkside really is a corruption and how the Jedi failed to give her peace of mind for it either. It is almost as nuanced as Manaan.
Yeah I didn't fit everything in or fully realize that multiple characters had this mechanic. Seems almost like foreshadowing for how KOTOR2 let's you handle your party
@@SuperRADLemon True, I actually love the fact that you can directly influence characters to go certain paths. Kotor2 Nar Shaddaa man is full of NPC whose fates can be directly tied to what you do. Even still, I love how the Sith Academy actually tries to justify itself as not being evil, that it's about freedom....only for the lessons you learn going into the temples to show some of them that in practice, you won't get that from the Sith.
When you put it that way about Yuthera... That's deep. It's simple but not obvious. Don't forget your goals. Don't forget why you are doing what you do
On the topic of Jolee Bindo and the Gray Jedi, while I like the concept of them as individuals who follow the Light without adherence to the politics of the Council or fear of indulging in their emotions, they've never really existed beyond the lip service of the fans. Hell, even in this game and the sequel there is no mechanical benefit to trying to walk the line between Light and Dark. As far as the game is concerned, there's only value in adhering to either good or evil, everything else is muddying the waters.
I'm just happy to see comments that get the definition right rather than the definition of Grey jedi as "using both the light and dark side" because the PC wants to spam force lightning.
@@78910idontknow but light side users can use a similar technique force judgment. Then one could always be a night sister(they are neither dark nor light)
probably because running of a system of "Save one innocent, murder a different innocent to stay gray' is pretty fucking retarded and is utterly mind boggling how everyone seems to keep failing to realize that's what they keep advocating for when they go "But Gray is better! You get all of the cool Jedi benefits while being rewarded for being a selfish little shit"
I got an eye condition rendering almost blind for a few days and I've searching for good long videos to listen to while I recover and rest. This video is just what I needed (I already listened to your MH videos). Thank you.
I love going through both KOTOR 1 and 2 role playing as a Jedi who has given up their blade and uses blasters. Early game play is pretty rough but by mid game you are melting through everything and it ironically makes the malak fight rather easy so long as you’ve picked up a force power that slows or stops him. You can just lead him around blasting away in it. It makes me wish there was a game or story that pursues this path. I know the sabers are cool but a Jedi that’s put their skills into blasters would be pretty cool. Great vid btw same with Vegas. Top notch
Wish they'd make an rpg that wasn't solely focused on the jedi or you at least had the option to deny your involvement in the force instead of getting trained. The Hans, landos, dash renders, wedges, even recently with andor...jedi aren't the only great thing about star wars. On top of rpgs, I wouldn't mind seeing another rogue squadron type game...used to love that game on n64 back in the day
@@bradcarver8127 Well, there is the Sith that favored blasters, though I forget his name at this exact moment. His blaster's flavor text is "This has killed more Jedi than any lightsaber." You can't even use it if you aren't dark-side aligned. So yeah, a jedi or sith switching to a blaster works out pretty effectively.
omfg this is so long, I can't wait. Idk how I keep finding wildly long reviews for games I played 20 years ago that I consistently enjoy. These long videos are perfect for a night off from work. My cat and I are huge fans.
Ah! As for the Sentinel class, it gains immunities to certain powers. One thing I dislike is fear. When you level up the sentinel they gain immunities to the highest form of fear. It’s not much, but I prefer that.
@@venlocity2 Oh heck yes, It's great if you want to dual-class effectively, I just have never had issues with general status effects as I try to make sure at least one of my members can still move during an effect. The immunity to fear that Sent gets is still pitiful compared to raw willpower mod. There's an *enormous* amount of gear attributed to boosting willpower or fighting a specific effect; and if you pay attention to the environment *slightly* you get good hints as to whats upcoming in both KotoR's so you can plan ahead, even moreso is *proper spacing* to try to avoid AoE's in fights.
I feel the need to add my voice to the choir singing praise for your long-form content. As someone who started Monster Hunter with MHW, I loved learning the history of the games from your videos. Now Fallout:NV, DD, and KOTOR, your videos are a magical retrospective down memory lane and I thank you for it. You've put a lot of time and effort into these videos and it really shows. Thank you.
What you didn't want to go into the woman's runaway sexbot on Dantooine? Fun Fact: Nearly 20 years ago, I walked AROUND Calo Nord on Tatooine and he's been standing there waiting for me ever since. 🤣
i think the twist is fun because, regardless what you thought your backstory was, you are actually something else. and it doesn't mean you weren't LIKE that character at one point of your life, but, you became something else.
you can cheese the Calo Nord fight, you can run past him and ignore him completely, if you do this 2 or 3 times, he just... dies. this is because Darth Bandon has to appear, so if you just ignore him he just dies without cause. Bioware didn't make it so you can't flee the battle and they didn't count on people doing that. However, he isn't a problem to kill so ignoring him makes you miss out on loot. Jolee Bindo is also the origin of the phrase "pulling a Bindo" (secret marriage). Manaan has a trap of sorts. a point of no return, if you screw up, you have to restart the whole game. in my first playthrough back to this game for many years, I forgot to take the side mission involving finding some Selkath youths. If you do not take this mission before going into the sith base, you will be executed by the Selkath when you exit the base and if you don't have a save game before you entered, you have to restart the whole game. I made this mistake, don't do what I did. what I find most fun about Korriban is when you encounter some Sith acolytes for the first time (Lashoe and the others) and they ask you to tell a joke and you have Canderous with you, you tell a joke about some Mandalorians, he has some comments about that.
10 months late to this, but there is a very obscure way to get out of being executed on Manaan without the Selkath youth side quest. You have to mention being lured inside by the Sith, and then say you were invited under the pretense of establishing diplomatic relations with them. I found this out a few years ago, definitely would have helped to know it when I was playing this game at like 5 years old. 😂 About as annoying as getting out of being exiled from the planet after you kill the giant fish.
@@KatrionaAvalonI just finished my first play-through. Framing the sith was the first thing I tried. Helped it was a dark side play through. I figured my character was still pro-Republic, so it just kinda fit.
1:45:00 - I actually do know why they have random encounters in this area. I'm trying to find the exact source, but it has to do with a technical limitation and the size of the area. From what I remember, they couldn't pre-populate it all because it was too much for the game to keep track of or something like that. Without any real occlusion, I think? Man, getting old sucks, but I remember someone talking about specifically this. This was the solution to not make it feel totally empty because of the limitations of the tech.
I remember getting stuck for DAYS when I had to find that sith armor as a kid. After I found it, I fell in love with the game and was so captivated. No guides or anything, just a 11 year old roaming the galaxy enjoying the adventure. One of my best gaming experiences 😌
As someone else mentioned, "thank god, another multi hour long analysis". And it is a video-essay for one of my favourite games ever! Never watched you before, but this was awsome.
Just FYI for anyone unaware you can also use force drain (I'm told force stasis works as well but can't confirm that) to kill Jedi husks in the final Malak fight. Additionally after Malak drains the first one all the rest will be marked as hostile and can then be killed with almost any type of attack.
Force storm works too. Even get BOGO when they were close enough together. Force drain line probably best though to help you top off. Funny turning the tables on Malak.
@@RandomPerson1313destroy droid works so good on light side playthroughs because it uses so little force points so when you need some for the Malak fight, you'll have some leftover. You can make it so Malak has no jedi to take life from right after he heals the first time and you have the light side feelings of letting them become one with the force
2:10:15 I'm so glad you observed this! This is why I think RPG's with morality alignment systems should only trigger or apply to what you DO, not what you say.
Weirdly enough I have always loved Taris and love to see how fast I can 100% every quest and dialogue option, and then get to Dantooine. Once on Dantooine though I end up liking only a few of the quests before happily moving on and enjoying every other planet. I think it feels like on Taris I have the freedom to do anything I want as I slowly gain the power and resources to leave. One I'm on Dantooine I am stuck and restricted to whatever I am being told to do by the Jedi Council, with no agency. And then once I am off Dantooine and on to any other planet I am again in the driver's seat making my own decisions and doing whatever my character thinks is best.
I really liked Taris too. And I enjoyed trying to get my face warped by the dark side before I even left, but it required doing every single quest and taking the most evil option for all of them.
Something that doesn’t get mentioned often is that there is an option to have visas use a blade weapon on herself in order to weaken nihilis when fighting on his ship. As long as during the fight visas is equipped with a blade weapon, there will be an option in a cutscene for her to sacrifice herself to weaken nihilis.
I love listening to these! I find it relieving to hear someone talk about videogames who isn't trying to be such an edgelord all the time. You seem like a decent person and the sparse social commentary is always welcome (to me) and I appreciate that it doesnt feel preachy etc etc etc
Man you keep making what you enjoy. It really shows in how in depth you talk about these games. I hope Dragon Age Origins is on the list. If not I fully understand, but I feel like there is so much worth looking into.
Was actually hoping to see an Origins video as well, I've played that game to death and based on his other retros I'd love to hear his opinions on the different themes and politics that take place in that game
The Malak fight drove me absolutely insane when I replayed kotor a year ago after not playing it for years. I tried playing a full dark side counselor, but he hits so hard and resists most force powers. I eventually gave up and made a light side jedi guardian where I used no force powers other than force heal, but I still failed because both characters didn't have the only force power that actually affected Malak whirlwind.
I remember my go to for fighting every time was just to kite him around the arena, throwing my lightsaber at him when he's a safe enough distance away.
As a Consular you're going to want Force Breach to take down his pesky resistance power, resistance isn't a bad power to take either if you have room. Plague is the best debuff in the game, the save is also so high it can't be resisted naturally.
I've recently started to discover retrospectives, and they are some of my favorite types of media. I will spend days consuming these. I am still early into this one, but love it already. Thanks for making these! I will be watching almost all of them. 💁🏼♂️😅
My favorite thing about Kotor on xbox was the ability to create a super jedi. It takes a while, depending on how far you want to advance your character, but it's worth it if you want to feel truly powerful. Max skills, feats, powers, and attributes as high as you want to make them. I think the furthest I ever maxed them was 80
I fell asleep with RUclips in the background, imagine my surprise when I wake up to find I’m exactly 2 hours and 54 minutes into a Star Wars documentary
The arena quest in the first Fable game is also very fun! One of my favorite things each time I play through, I love testing out how different builds work and play in the arena.
You always know how to make me happy. I got tomorrow off of work and I wasn't too sure what I was gonna do with myself. If this is anywhere near the quality of your MH retrospectives, I'm looking forward to tomorrow way more than I was. I love finding channels that have similar interests as mine. Thanks, in advance, for being so consistently great with your content.
I love watching long form video essays on things I know I like to get other people's perspectives on it, what they like and don't like, and maybe get some insights into other things I might be interested in tangentially. Also gives me something to focus on for long stretches of time that I can't quite replicate with other things lately, love these videos. This one especially because Kotor may be the first game I fell in love with on a console other than my Gameboy and Pokemon. I got to borrow a cousin's Xbox and Kotor and I wish I could know how much time I spent on it and 2.
I remember one time I fought Malik and it was literally me running away from him, planting mines and throwing grenades at Malik whenever he lost sight and aggro
I've been playing this game again but this time with a few mods installed, not gone crazy just a few things here and there and it's great how there is still a community for this game and how well it seems to hold up as a standard for games, despite some things being dated. Something about this game it has an infectious replayability to it. I'll be sure to watch this video over the course of the week as it seems even you have a lot to digest in it.
I say this with so much eagerness, I cannot wait to watch the near 10 hour documentary on KOTORs 1 and 2 of yours, games I have spent probably hundreds of hours playing and replaying all the classes and force alignments. I anticipate with much giddiness all the awesome memories as I watch your videos 😍
The Jedi and the Sith come from an older group, the Je'dai The Je'daii Order was an ancient organization unified by its belief and observance of the Force on the planet Tython, in the galaxy's Deep Core. Focusing on maintaining a balance in the Force, a state to which Tython was itself hospitable, the Je'daii saw the Force as three aspects of a whole; the Ashla (Light), the Bogan (Dark), and the Bendu (balance). They saw this duality in the Force represented in the night sky of Tython in the form of two natural satellites; one bathed in light, the Ashla, another shrouded in darkness, the Bogan. In keeping with their view of balance, Je'daii who fell too far to either the light or dark were exiled to the respective moon to meditate until they returned to balance. The Jedi and Sith came from a war they won that then turned into a civil war that split them. The light side isn't actually inherently good and the dark side isn't inherently evil. Within the light side exists a law without compassion, within the dark side exists the purest emotions of love and the most righteous of fury's. To follow the light you must be an emotionless calm. To even defend the weak in righteous fury is to "fall" to the dark.
thank you for the indepth content... this is one of the most underrated pair of rpg , I still find new info and gems every time I try a new playthrough
There's another game that with a morality system that (from its in-game description) is comparable to Mass Effect's Paragon & Renegade system. That game is Jade Empire. Its morality system was SUPPOSED to have shades of gray in both like it does in Mass Effect, but Bioware didn't have such a good grasp on writing gray morality tales until the Dragon Age series & the Mass Effect Trilogy came along!
Never thought that even in this year someone would look back at this game. It's nice that even though I finished it several times, I've learned some new facts here. Btw, I'd love for you to analyze the Xenosaga trilogy because that one is DEEP with its lore and inspiration by Nietzsche's works and is overall a series of good games.
I have so many memories of KOTOR. This was the first game my brother ever played for me, because I wanted to do the RP parts but couldn't handle the combat (still can't, just not my jam lol). I remember so strongly the quest on Kashyyk, where you have to decide whether to allow the people to believe their hero died nobly or tell them the unsightly truth. I was SO SURPRISED when I got dark side points for preserving their hope and following the hero's wishes. It changed so much about my perspective of Star Wars and opened me up to question things, which only helped me engage with the fandom.
It's funny you mentioned the Oblivion ost when you spoke about the Manaan music because the composer for Oblivion also did the music for Kotor. And honestly you can kinda tell when you listen to them to back to back, very much his style.
The droid fight in the Star Forge if you have the "Destroy Droid" force power, and if you have upped your force powers. You can EASILY desimate the droids. Bruh the "Destroy Droid" force power, you can kill (I think) 3 at once.
oh no fucking way you did another retrospective I don't know how you do it you're probably one of the foremost authorities on MH in the western world and you're pumping out these longform reviews you and grimbeard are just like the two most criminally underrated dudes on the platform
The more I see people argue over the morality within Star Wars the more I see the same ancient arguments between Objective morality and Relative morality. It will always amaze me how often the people who argue against the idea of objective morality rail against it as childish and simplistic, and their edgy interpretations of what's good in the moment (framed as arbitrary perceptions) is somehow wise and complex. The wisdom of morality as "whatever I want it to be - whenever I want it to be - as long as I can justify it" - to me, is infinitely shallower and more immature, than the idea of what it truly good, and what is truly evil - causing a complex dance with what is desired and/or pragmatic. Even the most obvious idea that "balancing" the force is to enforce its appropriate use, and NOT some angsty idea that the force NEEDS evil misuse to somehow balance its existence - is utterly lost on the Phi 101 students who shake their fist at their parents' systems of morality. Back patting themselves for knowing how the world REALLY works. Oh well. There is a reason this line of argument continues today since time immemorial.
preach it my friend, the light for good and the dark for bad,.. real world morality is best left on battlefields.. let the grey-jedi way die off as for me its as you say a contemporary justification.
For what it’s worth, both sides are wrong. Morality is complex. There’s almost certainly always a “best” option. Enough factors exist in life that it would be nearly impossible for two decisions to have equal results. But it’s incredibly hubristic to think you’re the one with all the answers. Why should one person be trusted over another? If anyone ties a claim of objective morality existing to knowing what it is, they’re inherently untrustworthy.
@@madmoonrabbit Think your claims need more reasoning. Solipsism and nihilism aren’t bad because they’re incorrect, but bad because of potential negative results from going down a line of thought which entertains them. Unrestrained skepticism does not mean deciding that nothing matters. Rather, it’s the refusal to ignore the fact that the unknown exists. (Also, nihilism isn’t a conclusion, but a question. It is a challenge to find meaning, not a call to act as if there is none.) That’s all a bit beside the point though. Note that another part of my previous response is that there is objective morality. So one should act in a way they think most likely matches. This is a safeguard against the tendencies you spoke of previously.
One thing that I would like to mention is that Juhani is actually canonically a lesbian, that can only have romantic interactions with a player character if said character is female, which would make her the very first confirmed gay character in any of Star Wars media. Unfortunately her romantic content compered to the other characters with whom players can have romantic interactions is underdeveloped and can also be easily missed because of bugs or by not having the prior knowledge to talk to her after defeating Bastila and before leaving the temple which would trigger the final cutscene for her romance path... which had happened to me during my first playthrough not so long ago. Fortunately though the bugs can be fixed by a mod, that also makes the cutscene trigger by itself :)
I do love alignment systems in games. Even in a cartoonish level being able to impact a story and its outcome really is exciting to me and makes me want to play again. I feel more games could get away with it even if it is just a simple karma system.
I always disagreed about the whole darkside points for killing Bendak. He is himself a murderer, and his bounty is a government contract. Bendak is more than willing to kill anyone who will step into the dueling ring with him. I find it akin to finding and getting rid of the Mandalorian crusaders on Dantooine.
Love is not the path to the dark side. The inability to let go is. You can love, and be loved, but when the time comes for what you love to die you must let it go.
I literally just beat this game for the first time a couple days ago (on Switch). I loved every bit of it, I find myself playing old games rather than new even owning a Series X. I just started Kotor 2 wish me luck.
2:09:47 I understand the frustration with gaining dark side points for the answers to the hologram on Kashyyyk. It confused me as a child when I first played it too but thinking about it over the years and getting a bit deeper into Star Wars lore I think in a place with a strong dark side history with an artefact from the Rakatan Infinite Empire that had slaves building the Star Forge and Kashyyyk's Shadowlands it's just a lean into the temptation of the dark side for any Jedi. Which is quite literally what "the force/dark side is strong" means. It is a mentally exhausting task to keep dark forces from corrupting you.
I love how the dogmatic debate about how the force works from a theological stanpoint is not a debate within the star wars universe but is whitin the fandom. With things like grey jedi and the like
I'm not even halfway through this video yet, but I appreciate the immense effort put into this project. Long-form content like this is personally my favorite and it's made even better by the fact that I already love other retrospectives of the KOTOR series of similar length. This video will make a fine addition to my collection👍..... Alright just finished the video, great quality and a very in depth and fair analysis of KOTOR. Looking forward to KOTOR 2 as I enjoy that one far more than the first installment👌
It’s a shame this game has like 3 tracks that play ad nauseam. The background music of this video was giving me panic attacks from how I was reminded of how repetitive it was! 😅 I totally agree with your critique of Taris and Dantooine. In fact, I gave up on my first play through after Dantooine because it was getting borderline chore-like to push forward. I’m glad I picked it backed up a few months ago. I love that you can play a decent amount of OG Xbox games on the XSX! Phenomenal retrospective!
My favorite way to play kotor is to bump the difficulty up to hard, solo, using only blasters. The best build is a scoundrel, as they have the sneak attack feat, also they boast the largest amount of skill points to spare which adds more depth and planning to the combat encounters like planting mines. Oh man it's fun.
I slept on scoundrel for *years* Mission becomes a destroyer at high levels and as a dumb kid I scoffed at the Prima Games guide saying Mission was strong after all stealth was slow and boring... Little did I know.
Thanks SuperRAD. This prompted me to re-install KOTOR and have another bash at it. I completed it twice, but... hell, it's been years... time for some nostalga, eh? As a side note a few years ago I met a guy who would later become a very good friend. One of the things that made us friends was talking about KOTOR.... turns out, he had NO IDEA you could install crystals to enhance your light sabres.... I had to show him..... somehow he'd gotten a LONG way into the game without any "upgrades"!!!! Now, what I've never done is get past the tutorial of KOTOR II... so, whilst I watch this and re-play it, I'll be lining up a KOTOR II run as well... Can you import your original character across or not? I'm guessing no, if they are from different games studio's....
If you've already started Kotor 2 by now feel free to ignore this comment but you decide what happens in the first game through a dialogue with one of the characters you meet in the prologue which was quite clever for the time imo.
every time i watch something about starwars i always come out hearing that lucasarts is the best company in the world. they give so much creative freedom and always look after the people they work with
Thank you for this retrospective! Truly a walk down memory lane. I can't wait for the one you do on TSL! I agree with you on liking that one more. It's refreshing to listen to someone who shares my ideas on both the Light Side and the Jedi. Always frustrates me. I know Lucas backed out on the concept that it's the Force, and then the Force's dark side which is a corruption. It still makes more sense to me, especially since the flaws of the Jedi are the flaws of mortals, not of the Force itself. Your opinion on Gray Jedi reminded me. I don't know if you've ever heard the Gray Jedi Code but it sounds to me like the most hilariously arrogant thing I've ever heard.
This may be controversial, but: The Force is not malicious...it is the heart of the wielder that influences what aspect of the Force is accessed. The Force is one infinite source, energy field, and it is the Darkness of the jedi/sith that allows access to the desteuctive aspect of the Force - entropy while it is the peace and unity of the wielder that accesses the life-giving side of the force - creation. The Force is not at war with itself (despite what Dave Filoni would like to portray), it is merely there. As in all aspects of life, it is musch easier to detroy than to build. The Dark Side is seductive because it is the Force of Destruction, requiring less discipline because passions unchecked lead toward destruction. So the Force, even the Dark, is not malicious - it's just destructive. And people who can sense the Force are more dangerous if they give in to the destructive impulses that everyone contends with, because the Force grants the power to act that impulse out. In an objective sense a "Grey Jedi" (which Qui Gon was not, he was just a slightly heretical jedi) would be one who sees the Force as Unified; no Light, no Dark, just the Force being revealed in different ways by the wills of those beings accessing it. A Grey Jedi would attribute the Darkness to the Sith themselves, not to the Force they make use of. If there was no dark impulses to any force-sensitive person, the "Dark Side" would have never been discovered. If there was no virtuous impulse to any force-senstive person, then there would ONLY be "The Dark Force". The other attributes would simply go unmanifested. No one ever accidentally choked somebody with a hand, nor with the force...it took abandon to their own impulses (in hot blood) or callous decision to will the destruction of another (in cold blood) to strangle someone. Meanwhile, someone being attackes who uses a trained head-lock strangle technique is not using the Dark Side of martial arts, even though they are choking someone....their intent is not to harm, but to prevent harm from the target and to the target by the most appropriate means in the moment. Hence, Luke Skywalker can use a Force Choke on Jabba's guards without using the Dark Side - he wasn't intending to harm them, to squeeze the life from them...he was knocking them out to spare their lives because they could wake up from that with a headache or be cut in half with a lightsaber, and he went with the Merciful option. He Choked from a place of self-control and peace, not from Rage and desire to crush his opposition, as Anakin was prone to. In either case, it's simple telekinesis. It's separared by the avenue by which the telekinesis is acquired, and what's intent is. The outcome - squeezing a throat - is secondary. Darth Maul uses the Dark Side every time he jumped using the Force in Duel of the Fates. The Jedi did the same jumps, matched the same feats - but did not use the Dark Side. It is all a matter of how they force-wielder accesses the Force, not what the Force does at their beckoning. (Certain aspects like Lightning are exceptions, giving the Sith's all-consuming hate and drive to dominate the world around them a physical release and manifestation; agsain, revealing the heart of the user rather than the nature of the Force. Citing "Electric Judgement" showcases this further; not even such shocking (heh) displays indicate the Dark Side, merely that to willfully electrocute somebody is very difficult to to without also willing their harm. As soon as you will harm to another, you are touching the Dark Side. The Dark Side is a manifestation of the darkness in the hearts of jedi, not something external trying to trick people into "becoming" dark. We are seduced by our own desire to lash out, and the Force gives an avenue to do so, and it reflects our hearts in the physical: yellow eyes, withered, unhealthy skin. Dark Side users subsume all good reason to pursuit of ambitions, including their own well-being: Sidious, Vader, Malek, Sion, Malgus, Maul, and many others bear horrific disfigurement as testament to the innate belief that even their own bodies mean less than their goals. Absolute domination at any cost, and the Force makes this possible.
I appreciate you treating the Dark Side like what it is. I think Star Wars, and by extension the fanbase, love to treat the Jedi and the Sith like they're both required for the universe to function. But there's nothing the Dark Side adds to anything as it just prays on Jedi's weakness. It's why the term "Light Side" is never actually stated by anyone in Star Wars. Because being good is supposed to be a normal thing.
I think that's done because the Force, Jedi and Sith are what makes Star Wars unique and stand apart from other Sci Fi universes and without it is it any different from them?
I love the way you think about the "good side" ending. This is precisely why I feel like the dark side ending is the most suited to our character ... If you think about it, even if you spend the whole game doing good and earning light points, the revelation of you being lied to by everyone you considered like the good guys should make you snap, and fall to the dark side again. Just after that you end up on THE sith planet, when you can discover everything there is to the dark side, go and fight Bastila who just conviniently for you joined the dark side, and then you get to kill your old apprentice, get revenge on the jedis, get the girl in the end and feel very good about it all. I actually really enjoyed that ending. The light side one is very much like you described it, leaving a bitter taste. I fully understand why this is the cannon ending, but it's not the one that felt the most "realistic" to me.
On grey Jedi: I think what fans mean by a Grey Jedi is a character who might use the force to cheat at a dice game, but when push comes to shove, they will fight to free some slaves. Grey Jedi are generally light side Jedi, but they are “mavericks”….those who behave this way but don’t back it up with skill don’t last long as Jedi, but those who can back up their convictions do very well as Jedi. I think that Jolee is a bad example because he calls himself a Grey Jedi, but Qui Gon Jinn is the Ur-grey Jedi. Literally cheats at dice to save Anakin from slavery.
Look forward to the kotor 2 video, and yes taris is a pain, but I've been replaying two and yeah I feel like the mining station and the citidel/telos is a lot more of a slog because I like the flavor of taris with its multiple levels and types of people on it.
Imagine if at the very end after you save Bastilla the Jedi Council relegates it as "another test for yourself and Bastilla" that "went over well". The ultimate trolls.
Slowly stopping and starting this video as I reach the same point during my first playthrough! It’s awesome being able to see what I missed on my dark side adventure!!!
Does Jolee knowing you were Revan from the beginning, recontextualize his choice to come with you? I feel like that wildly changes his motivations of joining you either lightside or dark side path
He does explain his motivations in his "farmer & the viper" story. He believes he is leading you away from the wrong path (perhaps his responsibility because he didn't try the first time you passed through Kashyyyk). He just wonders if you'll end up biting like the viper does when you eventually learn the truth, and if he can stop you before you take such a bite.
I like your critique of the ending. most people will say taris is too long, but I've never heard anyone say the apology to malak was weak or that ask that we completely gloss over the fact that you started the war, even if you lost your memory and helped end it. especially considering your memories are returning gradually throughout the game.
Hey guys, spoilers ahead for the final battle!!! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - As long as you have literally any damaging force power (i used force lightning) you can destroy the suspended jedi bodies immediately. You're welcome!
I doubt you'll ever read this. I'll give you my full rundown of the Jedi classes in this game: For what Bioware intended, a particular run of KoTOR I will usually net you 8 starting class levels, and 12 jedi levels. This is very clearly by design, Scoundrel and Scout both get free class related Feats at level 8. The difference between Sentinel and Guardian is actually fairly minimal, even on Hard Mode. A Level 12 Jedi Guardian gets the same number of Force Powers as a Sentinel does: 13. They however, get 1 additional feat to choose from: 6 vs. 5 total. On the otherside of the debate, the Sentinel vs. Consular have the same number of feats: 5, while the Consular gets 15 total Force Powers. Class skills wise, the Guardian and Sentinel are also identical - Awareness, Persuade, Treat Injury. Funnily enough, the Jedi Consular also gets more class skills, which if overlapping with your starter class may not be immediately apparent. However, the Jedi Sentinel counter intuitively gets more skill points on level up than either of the other Jedi Classes: 2 + (1/2) INT mod. The Consular and Guardian get 1 + (1/2) INT mod. Next is the class specific feat: Force: Immunity - Fear/Stun/Paralysis. With the sole exceptions of Force Whirlwind and the Force Choke line, there is no way a Jedi Sentinel can be left debilitated by any use item or power in the game: All droid Stun powers cease to work, most Force Powers including the Fear Horror Insanity line, don't work. You may not have noticed the Jedi Sentinel class' ability to shrug off all forms of stun and mind affecting items which frees a load of items up for your party members. The boons of the other two classes start to wear off and may not even be useful in a given scenario: Force Jump allows you to close the gap quickly, but usually after the first two rounds, no enemies remain without purposelly backing off to use Force Jump again. Clusters of enemies are usually too close to be able to make any use of it beyond the opening exchange. Force Focus on the Consular aides with increasing the difficulty of saving throws. However, the Consular is a glass canon and depending on your starting class especially for Scoundrel/Consular builds, the Feat total at 8/12 splits is like 9 of your own choice for the entire game. For Light Side users, Force powers rarely inflict damage and the Consular sucks as an actual fighter unless you started as a Soldier or melee focused Scout. That leaves Force Storm which requires level 18 as the best way of managing large groups without your party members. Wisdom is the easiest stat to boost in the game, so the extra cast DC becomes moot later. For the Jedi Guardian, they also get access to the weapon max tier feat Lightsaber: Specialization, which inceases damage by 2 points per successful attack. With the max stack of 5: Flurry, Dual Wielding, and Master Speed, that's potientally +10 damage assuming you're using a lightsaber in your off-hand and nothing misses. 10 damage ceases to be any signficant amount after about level 15. But that's +10 over your five other attacks, which are bringing the bulk of your damage anyway unless you're consistently connecting with high attack, but dealing low damage which is counter intuitive to the Guardian's build: Focus on buffing your strength. For Sentinels, the extension of the Scout class, their build is supposed to be reliant on flexibility, since Lightsabers in KoTOR I will calculate their attack (but not their damage) based on which ever modifer you have is higher: Dex or Str. A lower strength, higher dexterity build can still make lightsabers work with the right feat setup and power line because the Flurry special don't penalize your attack as harshly as Power Attack does while rolling the dice more often. For Guardian and Consular, their abilities require a load of setup, don't see much difference for or against later, or their usefulness gradually falls off as the game progresses. However, you can regardless of your build with either class always roll a 1 on your saving throw and potientally get immobilized at any time from any number of enemies, especially droids, or people throwing concussion grenades... unless you're immune to it like you are with the Jedi Sentinel. Being immune takes the dice roll out of the situation entirely. For Consular specifically, your force powers don't mean squat if the enemy is immune to them. Characters and creatures can carry equipment that makes them immune or have natural resistances to certain force power: poison from Afflication, or physical size prevents them from being Force Pushed. With the right set of equipment and starting classes, a Scout/Sentinel can become immune to: Critical hits, most forms of mind affecting, poison, and heavily resist fire, electricity, while building for high scores in saves making you almost impossible to be dehabilitated. Lastly, if you start saving your early levels the benefits of Jedi Consular start to wear off even further. A level 2 start/18 consular gets 23 Force Powers of their choice compared to the 19 of Guardian and Sentinel, a mere difference of 4. The Jedi Guardian at 2/18 gets 9 feats compared to the Consular and Sentinel's 7. A Typical mid-range build for Scouts and Scoundrels is to stop at level 5, leaving 15 remaining levels, and in that case: the Jedi Sentinel and Consular get 6 feats, the Guardian gets 8 feats, and the Guardian and Sentinel get 16 powers to the Consular's 19. Regardless, those points aside, a Jedi Sentinel getting two skill points per level means even starting as a Scoundrel or Soldier means you can still level Repair high enough to fix HK-47 for his dialogue, or if you started as Scout keep enough in reserve to run persuade if you forgo grabbing Force Persuade as one of your powers. And in that case, the high variety of class skills brought to the table by your starter class is better supported by the Sentinel who gets better skill progression despite having the same class skills as the Guardian. And if you played a Soldier with low INT, the Sentinel allows you to keep buffing Persuade which wasn't an option for Soldier, while maintaining Awareness and Treat Injury.
Idk if you role play a scoundrel and create your own back story, I feel like it actually adds to the role play when you figure out your past. Everything you thought you knew about yourself was wrong. That's exactly how your character would feel too
One of the problems I've always had with Star Wars as a franchise is that, the more you dig into the worldbuilding, the cultures and ideologies, the more the cracks begin to form. The original movies were modeled after old pulp media from the 30's and 40's, so their morality and ideology is childishly simple. But the more over time, writers have attempted to flesh out the world, so many inconsistencies and moral quandaries have begun to form and make the setting look like a galaxy-wide dystopia, which I doubt was the intention. I think for me personally, it's also why I preferred KOTOR 2 over this one. KOTOR 2 took all the problems inherent in Star Wars and dragged them out into the light in a way that elevated the story and the world. It took simple black/white concepts and bled grey all over them.
One area that I'm slightly gutted you didn't mention, because I love it, is the riddle box. On Korriban you'll meet an alien who'll ask you about spice hidden in the Ebon Hawk. He'll then also give you a box that you are warned to *never* open. If you open it up your mind is (somehow) trapped in an endless white void with an ancient rakatan prisoner, and the only way to be released back to your body is by beating it in several riddles. I love that it's not even a quest in itself, just a unique experience hidden away for opening things you shouldn't. It's well hidden - I didn't find it until a recent playthrough years later, and I don't see people talk about it much - which is why I'd have loved to see you find it and share it to a wider audience :)
The Old Republic ( tales of the Jedi, books and Kotor and Kotor 2) were so well liked and written that Lucas even kept it as canon to keep. Shame Disney didn't honor it. For Kotor 1 get the New console releases as it includes the Yavin PC dlc and for Kotor 2 get it on PC for it's community patch. Kotor 1 is a chore to get to work on modern hardware. Been bugging Lucasgames about that.
This is not true. Lucas made clear many, many, many, MANY times that the EU was not part of his canon. George directly contradicted a lot of Legends with the PT and TCWs. He even changed the name of the planet Korriban ro Morriban. That has been since re retconned by LF to be the way it is said in Basic, while Korriban is the local pronunciation if it. Again, what you said is untrue. Plenty of reasons to hate Disney without making stuff up
In my boy Nemo's defense (RIP King), it's very possible that the terminals with stupid easy puzzles were using the unknown language. He could have been trying to decipher it when everything went wrong.
Just looked it up, and apparently this was a glitch in early versions of the game. She was written as a lesbian, but I apparently triggered the glitch on my initial playthrough on the OG Xbox.
1:51:30 I kind of just assumed that he came to an arrangement with the Sith for him to get off planet in exchange for taking you/Bastila as a bounty. The Sith have been depicted as hiring bounty hunters before after all, and tracking down a high profile Jedi feels like it would be a higher priority to them than keeping this specific bounty hunter confined to Taris.
Thanks for watching as always. If you want to see more, be sure to check my channel and subscribe!!
Correction:
My voice dupes at 2:49:10-2:49:25
Don’t know if you realized this but there’s a moment 2:49:10 - 2:49:25 ish your voice duplicates itself
this was an interesting video, thank you for taking the time to make it ^,^
There are multiple ways to stop Malak from absorbing power from the jedi bodies. Besides force breach, you can use lightsaber throw or force lightning, you can even use force drain like he does and empower yourself flipping the tables entirely.
Lol the game was never one of the most graphically stunning games on the xbox much less the PC. You already had games like Halo CE, Final Fantasy X and X-2, Soul Calibur 2, Rogue Squadron 2, Virtua Fighter, and Doom on PC. The character models weren’t great, the animations were bad, the framerate sucked, the level design and textures were repetitive hallways, and there were not vistas or detailed characters.
I love the game. It was an ugly game even back in the day, but adequate because it just needed to tell the story.
Oh one thing I noticed always hoard mines in Kotor 2. One free XP from disabling them and 2 Atton can use them twice to get out of two very tricky fights with ease.
Oh thank god, another multi-hour long story analysis on a game from the early 2000’s by someone I never regularly watch. I shall consume this media voraciously and eagerly await more.
Me: “A fine addition to my collection!” 💿🤏🦞
This is literally me
I'm in this comment and I'm ok with that
I'm glad I'm not alone man xD
Yeah I can't count how many retrospectives I listen too and I always learn something new!
I'm a simple man
I see a Kotor retrospective, I spend several hours watching the Kotor retrospective
Same bro. Same.
This.
And they're mostly all the same. But its kotor.. So if I get to hear the same thing said in different ways, I'm good with that, so long as kotor is the backdrop.
I am a simp man too.
it's not much but it's honest work
As a kid on a trip in NYC I picked up two Xbox games while out and about with family. My choices weren’t random, but they were entirely based off the cover art and pictures. I was very ignorant to great games and hadn’t found my preference in games up until that day. The two games I bought that day were Elder Scrolls Morrowing and KOTR. Little did I know I had grabbed up two of the greatest games of all time.
Those box art covers did you good!
@@DanMcLeodNeptuneUK they steared me right into the city of Seyda Neen
Hell yeah!
obviously great at choosing things
You hit the lottery. Twice.
Its a shame that we haven't had games like these for almost 2 decades. You would think a starwars role-playing game would have been released twice in that time considering how fondly the 2 kotor games are remembered within the community.
Its just a matter of greed on EA's part. They have exclusivity, once upon a time Lucas used to say "any story can be a star wars story" and that reflected in things like the clone wars and the plethora of games we used to receive. Now there's only ONE entity that can sign off on the games and its clear that they don't have the background to give us a ground breaking RPG. To their credit though Jedi: Fallen Order is a really good game but its more action than roleplaying game.
Yea.
Hopefully things change in the coming year/s cause with modern graphics, physics for clothing, animations, the ability to have mods on consoles a Kotor 1 & 2 like series & Kotor 3 & potentially 4 with Kotor 1 & 2 remakes could bring in hundreds of millions for the remakes & to billions for all new content for the series alone. Not counting new adventures.
@@devinhargrave4723 it also doesn’t help that EA is very much against single player games.
I blame Bioware. They were trying to capitalize on WoW hype and make a quick buck and put out SWTOR instead of a proper KOTOt 3
Honestly, we live in a day and age were I’d actually be scared if they made a sequel to KOTOR.
I’m also scared for the remake of the original KOTOR.
any one woke up to this playing?
Strangest thing, I can remember most of the plot because the voiceover was talking in my dream like a narrator.
100% this some good sleep medication
Yess!!
Heck yeah!
I played this during my sleep like 3 times now lol, 4th time rn.
HK-47 is the best companion in both games. His dialogue is almost always golden.
And any time it's not golden, it sure is at least silver
Shut up meatbag
STATEMENT: This is true, meatbag.
He is Revan by proxy in a second one
I love Canderous. My friend and I called him out drug dealer because of all the Stims he gives you
"Don't call me that. I'm not Revan anymore. I'm SuperRad Lemon now."
Love that.
Very funny moment if you named your character Revan
@@garlottos ikr lol
I almost always name him Naver Thrad. I always head cannon it as when the Jedi wiped his memory whoever gave him a new name paniced
Hahahhaha, second playtrough I did I named him Raven for the similar reason, not cause I was edgy. @@redvikingbiker
@@redvikingbiker ah yes, the reverse alias
I'm a bit upset you didn't really go in-depth on how amazing Korriban can be as a light-side character. You can actually redeem many of the students you meet in the Academy, either by showing them how the sith failed them or by persuading them back to the light. The runaway students you can save and allow to escape; Mekei, the one in the tomb you fight alongside with, can turn away from the dark side even without guarantee he will be a Jedi. And the backstory of Yuthura Ban, showing how she joined the Darkside to save the slaves....but the drive for power made her forget why she turned in the first place and never did anything she set out to do, showing how the darkside really is a corruption and how the Jedi failed to give her peace of mind for it either. It is almost as nuanced as Manaan.
Yeah I didn't fit everything in or fully realize that multiple characters had this mechanic. Seems almost like foreshadowing for how KOTOR2 let's you handle your party
@@SuperRADLemon True, I actually love the fact that you can directly influence characters to go certain paths. Kotor2 Nar Shaddaa man is full of NPC whose fates can be directly tied to what you do. Even still, I love how the Sith Academy actually tries to justify itself as not being evil, that it's about freedom....only for the lessons you learn going into the temples to show some of them that in practice, you won't get that from the Sith.
When you put it that way about Yuthera... That's deep. It's simple but not obvious. Don't forget your goals. Don't forget why you are doing what you do
And Carths son
who else got this as a sleep autoplay?
Me
Yeeeeup...don't even know how.
Yup!
How did the algorithm know i was asleep, and serve me a video with a relaxing voice that wouldn’t wake me up, but that i would like when i woke up?
Yep
On the topic of Jolee Bindo and the Gray Jedi, while I like the concept of them as individuals who follow the Light without adherence to the politics of the Council or fear of indulging in their emotions, they've never really existed beyond the lip service of the fans. Hell, even in this game and the sequel there is no mechanical benefit to trying to walk the line between Light and Dark. As far as the game is concerned, there's only value in adhering to either good or evil, everything else is muddying the waters.
I'm just happy to see comments that get the definition right rather than the definition of Grey jedi as "using both the light and dark side" because the PC wants to spam force lightning.
@@78910idontknow but light side users can use a similar technique force judgment. Then one could always be a night sister(they are neither dark nor light)
Because Gray is more edgy cowards who want all the power and do nothing with them
@@lancetoston3941 The Nightsisters are most definitely dark side users.
probably because running of a system of "Save one innocent, murder a different innocent to stay gray' is pretty fucking retarded and is utterly mind boggling how everyone seems to keep failing to realize that's what they keep advocating for when they go "But Gray is better! You get all of the cool Jedi benefits while being rewarded for being a selfish little shit"
I got an eye condition rendering almost blind for a few days and I've searching for good long videos to listen to while I recover and rest. This video is just what I needed (I already listened to your MH videos). Thank you.
Get well soon
I fell asleep and now I am hours through a video I didn’t click on.
Me too!
Same here
Me threee!!!
Congrats, maybe you'll have enjoyed this 🙂↕️
Woke up to this playing
The fact the remake to this game got cancelled recently makes this retrospective hit so much harder
The remake isn't cancelled lol
It was delayed indefinitely
Lmao foresaw that when they tried changing the gameplay
@@SuperRADLemon my mistake then
I was agreeing with you
I love going through both KOTOR 1 and 2 role playing as a Jedi who has given up their blade and uses blasters. Early game play is pretty rough but by mid game you are melting through everything and it ironically makes the malak fight rather easy so long as you’ve picked up a force power that slows or stops him. You can just lead him around blasting away in it. It makes me wish there was a game or story that pursues this path. I know the sabers are cool but a Jedi that’s put their skills into blasters would be pretty cool.
Great vid btw same with Vegas. Top notch
I feel like a jedi would be an amazing sharpshooter
Lol, the Kyle Katarn method.
Wish they'd make an rpg that wasn't solely focused on the jedi or you at least had the option to deny your involvement in the force instead of getting trained. The Hans, landos, dash renders, wedges, even recently with andor...jedi aren't the only great thing about star wars. On top of rpgs, I wouldn't mind seeing another rogue squadron type game...used to love that game on n64 back in the day
My favorite build tbh, especially as a dark side user who just blasts anyone and everyone he wants
@@bradcarver8127 Well, there is the Sith that favored blasters, though I forget his name at this exact moment. His blaster's flavor text is "This has killed more Jedi than any lightsaber." You can't even use it if you aren't dark-side aligned. So yeah, a jedi or sith switching to a blaster works out pretty effectively.
Jedi Sentinel only really shines in KOTOR 2, where skills become much more important due to the crafting system
omfg this is so long, I can't wait. Idk how I keep finding wildly long reviews for games I played 20 years ago that I consistently enjoy. These long videos are perfect for a night off from work. My cat and I are huge fans.
Ah! As for the Sentinel class, it gains immunities to certain powers. One thing I dislike is fear. When you level up the sentinel they gain immunities to the highest form of fear. It’s not much, but I prefer that.
So instead of wearing headgear that is appropriate you'll dedicate *your whole class* towards defeating status effects?
*...Okay.*
@@EddieSpaghetti69i mean, its still a good class for hybrid force/melee builds
@@venlocity2 Oh heck yes, It's great if you want to dual-class effectively, I just have never had issues with general status effects as I try to make sure at least one of my members can still move during an effect. The immunity to fear that Sent gets is still pitiful compared to raw willpower mod.
There's an *enormous* amount of gear attributed to boosting willpower or fighting a specific effect; and if you pay attention to the environment *slightly* you get good hints as to whats upcoming in both KotoR's so you can plan ahead, even moreso is *proper spacing* to try to avoid AoE's in fights.
I feel the need to add my voice to the choir singing praise for your long-form content. As someone who started Monster Hunter with MHW, I loved learning the history of the games from your videos. Now Fallout:NV, DD, and KOTOR, your videos are a magical retrospective down memory lane and I thank you for it. You've put a lot of time and effort into these videos and it really shows. Thank you.
What you didn't want to go into the woman's runaway sexbot on Dantooine?
Fun Fact: Nearly 20 years ago, I walked AROUND Calo Nord on Tatooine and he's been standing there waiting for me ever since. 🤣
How
i think the twist is fun because, regardless what you thought your backstory was, you are actually something else. and it doesn't mean you weren't LIKE that character at one point of your life, but, you became something else.
you can cheese the Calo Nord fight, you can run past him and ignore him completely, if you do this 2 or 3 times, he just... dies. this is because Darth Bandon has to appear, so if you just ignore him he just dies without cause. Bioware didn't make it so you can't flee the battle and they didn't count on people doing that. However, he isn't a problem to kill so ignoring him makes you miss out on loot.
Jolee Bindo is also the origin of the phrase "pulling a Bindo" (secret marriage).
Manaan has a trap of sorts. a point of no return, if you screw up, you have to restart the whole game. in my first playthrough back to this game for many years, I forgot to take the side mission involving finding some Selkath youths. If you do not take this mission before going into the sith base, you will be executed by the Selkath when you exit the base and if you don't have a save game before you entered, you have to restart the whole game. I made this mistake, don't do what I did.
what I find most fun about Korriban is when you encounter some Sith acolytes for the first time (Lashoe and the others) and they ask you to tell a joke and you have Canderous with you, you tell a joke about some Mandalorians, he has some comments about that.
10 months late to this, but there is a very obscure way to get out of being executed on Manaan without the Selkath youth side quest. You have to mention being lured inside by the Sith, and then say you were invited under the pretense of establishing diplomatic relations with them. I found this out a few years ago, definitely would have helped to know it when I was playing this game at like 5 years old. 😂 About as annoying as getting out of being exiled from the planet after you kill the giant fish.
@@KatrionaAvalonI just finished my first play-through. Framing the sith was the first thing I tried. Helped it was a dark side play through. I figured my character was still pro-Republic, so it just kinda fit.
1:45:00 - I actually do know why they have random encounters in this area. I'm trying to find the exact source, but it has to do with a technical limitation and the size of the area. From what I remember, they couldn't pre-populate it all because it was too much for the game to keep track of or something like that. Without any real occlusion, I think? Man, getting old sucks, but I remember someone talking about specifically this. This was the solution to not make it feel totally empty because of the limitations of the tech.
I remember getting stuck for DAYS when I had to find that sith armor as a kid. After I found it, I fell in love with the game and was so captivated. No guides or anything, just a 11 year old roaming the galaxy enjoying the adventure. One of my best gaming experiences 😌
As someone else mentioned, "thank god, another multi hour long analysis". And it is a video-essay for one of my favourite games ever! Never watched you before, but this was awsome.
Protip: You can skip the puzzle/fight with the replicating droids before Malak. Just bash the elevator door and follow him.
No way!!
Just FYI for anyone unaware you can also use force drain (I'm told force stasis works as well but can't confirm that) to kill Jedi husks in the final Malak fight. Additionally after Malak drains the first one all the rest will be marked as hostile and can then be killed with almost any type of attack.
Hey husk! You undead piece of shit! You’re my enemy now! Got that? Lightsaber away!
Force storm works too. Even get BOGO when they were close enough together. Force drain line probably best though to help you top off. Funny turning the tables on Malak.
Force drain will give you their life energy and force storm will kill them so at least Malak can't use them
I think destroy droid works as well
@@RandomPerson1313destroy droid works so good on light side playthroughs because it uses so little force points so when you need some for the Malak fight, you'll have some leftover. You can make it so Malak has no jedi to take life from right after he heals the first time and you have the light side feelings of letting them become one with the force
I'm not trying trying bribe you, but I'd pay for more content like this.
Multi hour long breakdowns of classic games. This is brilliant.
Check my retrospectives on the channel
2:10:15 I'm so glad you observed this! This is why I think RPG's with morality alignment systems should only trigger or apply to what you DO, not what you say.
Weirdly enough I have always loved Taris and love to see how fast I can 100% every quest and dialogue option, and then get to Dantooine. Once on Dantooine though I end up liking only a few of the quests before happily moving on and enjoying every other planet.
I think it feels like on Taris I have the freedom to do anything I want as I slowly gain the power and resources to leave. One I'm on Dantooine I am stuck and restricted to whatever I am being told to do by the Jedi Council, with no agency. And then once I am off Dantooine and on to any other planet I am again in the driver's seat making my own decisions and doing whatever my character thinks is best.
I really liked Taris too. And I enjoyed trying to get my face warped by the dark side before I even left, but it required doing every single quest and taking the most evil option for all of them.
Something that doesn’t get mentioned often is that there is an option to have visas use a blade weapon on herself in order to weaken nihilis when fighting on his ship. As long as during the fight visas is equipped with a blade weapon, there will be an option in a cutscene for her to sacrifice herself to weaken nihilis.
Interesting, I didn't know this!
I love listening to these! I find it relieving to hear someone talk about videogames who isn't trying to be such an edgelord all the time. You seem like a decent person and the sparse social commentary is always welcome (to me) and I appreciate that it doesnt feel preachy etc etc etc
Man you keep making what you enjoy. It really shows in how in depth you talk about these games. I hope Dragon Age Origins is on the list. If not I fully understand, but I feel like there is so much worth looking into.
Was actually hoping to see an Origins video as well, I've played that game to death and based on his other retros I'd love to hear his opinions on the different themes and politics that take place in that game
KOTR is quite literally one of the greatest video games ever created
The Malak fight drove me absolutely insane when I replayed kotor a year ago after not playing it for years. I tried playing a full dark side counselor, but he hits so hard and resists most force powers. I eventually gave up and made a light side jedi guardian where I used no force powers other than force heal, but I still failed because both characters didn't have the only force power that actually affected Malak whirlwind.
I remember my go to for fighting every time was just to kite him around the arena, throwing my lightsaber at him when he's a safe enough distance away.
As a Consular you're going to want Force Breach to take down his pesky resistance power, resistance isn't a bad power to take either if you have room. Plague is the best debuff in the game, the save is also so high it can't be resisted naturally.
Jedi Guardian + Str focus + Master Speed + Force immunity + Energy Resistance = Op
Kreia had some of the best dialogue ive seen in a video game. Her entire story arc throughout kotor 2 is amazingly well done.
Her voice actress is phenomenal too, suits the character so well
Dang. Never finished Kotor 2. Need to go back and do that
I've recently started to discover retrospectives, and they are some of my favorite types of media. I will spend days consuming these. I am still early into this one, but love it already. Thanks for making these! I will be watching almost all of them. 💁🏼♂️😅
My favorite thing about Kotor on xbox was the ability to create a super jedi. It takes a while, depending on how far you want to advance your character, but it's worth it if you want to feel truly powerful. Max skills, feats, powers, and attributes as high as you want to make them. I think the furthest I ever maxed them was 80
Jade Empire's arena was really good, too. And it had some extra plot stuff thrown in.
Really? Now I gotta play it!
I fell asleep with RUclips in the background, imagine my surprise when I wake up to find I’m exactly 2 hours and 54 minutes into a Star Wars documentary
The arena quest in the first Fable game is also very fun! One of my favorite things each time I play through, I love testing out how different builds work and play in the arena.
You always know how to make me happy. I got tomorrow off of work and I wasn't too sure what I was gonna do with myself.
If this is anywhere near the quality of your MH retrospectives, I'm looking forward to tomorrow way more than I was.
I love finding channels that have similar interests as mine. Thanks, in advance, for being so consistently great with your content.
Enjoy!
I love watching long form video essays on things I know I like to get other people's perspectives on it, what they like and don't like, and maybe get some insights into other things I might be interested in tangentially.
Also gives me something to focus on for long stretches of time that I can't quite replicate with other things lately, love these videos. This one especially because Kotor may be the first game I fell in love with on a console other than my Gameboy and Pokemon. I got to borrow a cousin's Xbox and Kotor and I wish I could know how much time I spent on it and 2.
I remember one time I fought Malik and it was literally me running away from him, planting mines and throwing grenades at Malik whenever he lost sight and aggro
20 min in: not just historical for kotor, but gaming as a whole. Its up there in all time 'twists', like Samus being revealed to be a woman
I've been playing this game again but this time with a few mods installed, not gone crazy just a few things here and there and it's great how there is still a community for this game and how well it seems to hold up as a standard for games, despite some things being dated. Something about this game it has an infectious replayability to it. I'll be sure to watch this video over the course of the week as it seems even you have a lot to digest in it.
I say this with so much eagerness, I cannot wait to watch the near 10 hour documentary on KOTORs 1 and 2 of yours, games I have spent probably hundreds of hours playing and replaying all the classes and force alignments. I anticipate with much giddiness all the awesome memories as I watch your videos 😍
The Jedi and the Sith come from an older group, the Je'dai
The Je'daii Order was an ancient organization unified by its belief and observance of the Force on the planet Tython, in the galaxy's Deep Core. Focusing on maintaining a balance in the Force, a state to which Tython was itself hospitable, the Je'daii saw the Force as three aspects of a whole; the Ashla (Light), the Bogan (Dark), and the Bendu (balance). They saw this duality in the Force represented in the night sky of Tython in the form of two natural satellites; one bathed in light, the Ashla, another shrouded in darkness, the Bogan. In keeping with their view of balance, Je'daii who fell too far to either the light or dark were exiled to the respective moon to meditate until they returned to balance.
The Jedi and Sith came from a war they won that then turned into a civil war that split them. The light side isn't actually inherently good and the dark side isn't inherently evil. Within the light side exists a law without compassion, within the dark side exists the purest emotions of love and the most righteous of fury's. To follow the light you must be an emotionless calm. To even defend the weak in righteous fury is to "fall" to the dark.
thank you for the indepth content... this is one of the most underrated pair of rpg , I still find new info and gems every time I try a new playthrough
There's another game that with a morality system that (from its in-game description) is comparable to Mass Effect's Paragon & Renegade system. That game is Jade Empire. Its morality system was SUPPOSED to have shades of gray in both like it does in Mass Effect, but Bioware didn't have such a good grasp on writing gray morality tales until the Dragon Age series & the Mass Effect Trilogy came along!
Never thought that even in this year someone would look back at this game. It's nice that even though I finished it several times, I've learned some new facts here.
Btw, I'd love for you to analyze the Xenosaga trilogy because that one is DEEP with its lore and inspiration by Nietzsche's works and is overall a series of good games.
I have so many memories of KOTOR. This was the first game my brother ever played for me, because I wanted to do the RP parts but couldn't handle the combat (still can't, just not my jam lol).
I remember so strongly the quest on Kashyyk, where you have to decide whether to allow the people to believe their hero died nobly or tell them the unsightly truth. I was SO SURPRISED when I got dark side points for preserving their hope and following the hero's wishes. It changed so much about my perspective of Star Wars and opened me up to question things, which only helped me engage with the fandom.
It's funny you mentioned the Oblivion ost when you spoke about the Manaan music because the composer for Oblivion also did the music for Kotor. And honestly you can kinda tell when you listen to them to back to back, very much his style.
The droid fight in the Star Forge if you have the "Destroy Droid" force power, and if you have upped your force powers. You can EASILY desimate the droids. Bruh the "Destroy Droid" force power, you can kill (I think) 3 at once.
This autoplayed while i was asleep and you were narrating my dream
fun story i played KOTOR 2 before KOTOR 1 it made the reval in KOTOR more of a mind blown moment because i was waiting to see Revan
Damn. I'm kind of jealous of that reveal haha
oh no fucking way you did another retrospective
I don't know how you do it
you're probably one of the foremost authorities on MH in the western world
and you're pumping out these longform reviews
you and grimbeard are just like the two most criminally underrated dudes on the platform
The more I see people argue over the morality within Star Wars the more I see the same ancient arguments between Objective morality and Relative morality. It will always amaze me how often the people who argue against the idea of objective morality rail against it as childish and simplistic, and their edgy interpretations of what's good in the moment (framed as arbitrary perceptions) is somehow wise and complex.
The wisdom of morality as "whatever I want it to be - whenever I want it to be - as long as I can justify it" - to me, is infinitely shallower and more immature, than the idea of what it truly good, and what is truly evil - causing a complex dance with what is desired and/or pragmatic.
Even the most obvious idea that "balancing" the force is to enforce its appropriate use, and NOT some angsty idea that the force NEEDS evil misuse to somehow balance its existence - is utterly lost on the Phi 101 students who shake their fist at their parents' systems of morality. Back patting themselves for knowing how the world REALLY works.
Oh well. There is a reason this line of argument continues today since time immemorial.
preach it my friend, the light for good and the dark for bad,.. real world morality is best left on battlefields.. let the grey-jedi way die off as for me its as you say a contemporary justification.
For what it’s worth, both sides are wrong. Morality is complex. There’s almost certainly always a “best” option. Enough factors exist in life that it would be nearly impossible for two decisions to have equal results. But it’s incredibly hubristic to think you’re the one with all the answers. Why should one person be trusted over another? If anyone ties a claim of objective morality existing to knowing what it is, they’re inherently untrustworthy.
@@madmoonrabbit Think your claims need more reasoning. Solipsism and nihilism aren’t bad because they’re incorrect, but bad because of potential negative results from going down a line of thought which entertains them. Unrestrained skepticism does not mean deciding that nothing matters. Rather, it’s the refusal to ignore the fact that the unknown exists. (Also, nihilism isn’t a conclusion, but a question. It is a challenge to find meaning, not a call to act as if there is none.)
That’s all a bit beside the point though. Note that another part of my previous response is that there is objective morality. So one should act in a way they think most likely matches. This is a safeguard against the tendencies you spoke of previously.
One thing that I would like to mention is that Juhani is actually canonically a lesbian, that can only have romantic interactions with a player character if said character is female, which would make her the very first confirmed gay character in any of Star Wars media. Unfortunately her romantic content compered to the other characters with whom players can have romantic interactions is underdeveloped and can also be easily missed because of bugs or by not having the prior knowledge to talk to her after defeating Bastila and before leaving the temple which would trigger the final cutscene for her romance path... which had happened to me during my first playthrough not so long ago. Fortunately though the bugs can be fixed by a mod, that also makes the cutscene trigger by itself :)
I do love alignment systems in games. Even in a cartoonish level being able to impact a story and its outcome really is exciting to me and makes me want to play again. I feel more games could get away with it even if it is just a simple karma system.
I always disagreed about the whole darkside points for killing Bendak. He is himself a murderer, and his bounty is a government contract. Bendak is more than willing to kill anyone who will step into the dueling ring with him. I find it akin to finding and getting rid of the Mandalorian crusaders on Dantooine.
I think the idea is you're participating in and profiting from bloodsport in the form of a deathmatch
@rakino4418 True, there should be an option to decline the Bounty Rewards
Love is not the path to the dark side.
The inability to let go is.
You can love, and be loved, but when the time comes for what you love to die you must let it go.
I literally just beat this game for the first time a couple days ago (on Switch). I loved every bit of it, I find myself playing old games rather than new even owning a Series X. I just started Kotor 2 wish me luck.
That's probably because alot of older games are better written,
2:09:47
I understand the frustration with gaining dark side points for the answers to the hologram on Kashyyyk.
It confused me as a child when I first played it too but thinking about it over the years and getting a bit deeper into Star Wars lore I think in a place with a strong dark side history with an artefact from the Rakatan Infinite Empire that had slaves building the Star Forge and Kashyyyk's Shadowlands it's just a lean into the temptation of the dark side for any Jedi. Which is quite literally what "the force/dark side is strong" means. It is a mentally exhausting task to keep dark forces from corrupting you.
I love how the dogmatic debate about how the force works from a theological stanpoint is not a debate within the star wars universe but is whitin the fandom.
With things like grey jedi and the like
I'm not even halfway through this video yet, but I appreciate the immense effort put into this project. Long-form content like this is personally my favorite and it's made even better by the fact that I already love other retrospectives of the KOTOR series of similar length. This video will make a fine addition to my collection👍.....
Alright just finished the video, great quality and a very in depth and fair analysis of KOTOR. Looking forward to KOTOR 2 as I enjoy that one far more than the first installment👌
Thank you, Lego Yoda
Dude I am so pumped for the Kotor 2 one. Immediate sub
It’s a shame this game has like 3 tracks that play ad nauseam. The background music of this video was giving me panic attacks from how I was reminded of how repetitive it was! 😅
I totally agree with your critique of Taris and Dantooine. In fact, I gave up on my first play through after Dantooine because it was getting borderline chore-like to push forward. I’m glad I picked it backed up a few months ago. I love that you can play a decent amount of OG Xbox games on the XSX!
Phenomenal retrospective!
Each planet area has its own theme that plays in the BG. Thats like. 15 pieces. Ontop of music from various story moments.
You are a fucking npc man, feel bad.
I can confirm that the enemies that are sent after you in the star forge do eventually end, even on the highest difficulty.
That's honestly good to know ty
After how long? Because I was there for at least 30 minutes before I decided to try looking around
My favorite way to play kotor is to bump the difficulty up to hard, solo, using only blasters. The best build is a scoundrel, as they have the sneak attack feat, also they boast the largest amount of skill points to spare which adds more depth and planning to the combat encounters like planting mines. Oh man it's fun.
Wow I've never tried that it sounds wild
I slept on scoundrel for *years* Mission becomes a destroyer at high levels and as a dumb kid I scoffed at the Prima Games guide saying Mission was strong after all stealth was slow and boring... Little did I know.
Man, I love this game, still utter genius and gets better every time you play.
Thanks SuperRAD. This prompted me to re-install KOTOR and have another bash at it. I completed it twice, but... hell, it's been years... time for some nostalga, eh? As a side note a few years ago I met a guy who would later become a very good friend. One of the things that made us friends was talking about KOTOR.... turns out, he had NO IDEA you could install crystals to enhance your light sabres.... I had to show him..... somehow he'd gotten a LONG way into the game without any "upgrades"!!!! Now, what I've never done is get past the tutorial of KOTOR II... so, whilst I watch this and re-play it, I'll be lining up a KOTOR II run as well... Can you import your original character across or not? I'm guessing no, if they are from different games studio's....
I don't believe so no, unfortunately
If you've already started Kotor 2 by now feel free to ignore this comment but you decide what happens in the first game through a dialogue with one of the characters you meet in the prologue which was quite clever for the time imo.
I finally listened to the whole video besides playing it two times at night and then falling asleep during Taris.
A multi hour retrospective about a beloved video game by someone I've never heard of... I'm all in!!! A new subscriber
every time i watch something about starwars i always come out hearing that lucasarts is the best company in the world. they give so much creative freedom and always look after the people they work with
Thank you for this retrospective! Truly a walk down memory lane. I can't wait for the one you do on TSL! I agree with you on liking that one more.
It's refreshing to listen to someone who shares my ideas on both the Light Side and the Jedi. Always frustrates me. I know Lucas backed out on the concept that it's the Force, and then the Force's dark side which is a corruption. It still makes more sense to me, especially since the flaws of the Jedi are the flaws of mortals, not of the Force itself.
Your opinion on Gray Jedi reminded me. I don't know if you've ever heard the Gray Jedi Code but it sounds to me like the most hilariously arrogant thing I've ever heard.
I'm replaying this game on iOS. I still love it 20 years later
This may be controversial, but: The Force is not malicious...it is the heart of the wielder that influences what aspect of the Force is accessed. The Force is one infinite source, energy field, and it is the Darkness of the jedi/sith that allows access to the desteuctive aspect of the Force - entropy while it is the peace and unity of the wielder that accesses the life-giving side of the force - creation.
The Force is not at war with itself (despite what Dave Filoni would like to portray), it is merely there.
As in all aspects of life, it is musch easier to detroy than to build. The Dark Side is seductive because it is the Force of Destruction, requiring less discipline because passions unchecked lead toward destruction.
So the Force, even the Dark, is not malicious - it's just destructive. And people who can sense the Force are more dangerous if they give in to the destructive impulses that everyone contends with, because the Force grants the power to act that impulse out.
In an objective sense a "Grey Jedi" (which Qui Gon was not, he was just a slightly heretical jedi) would be one who sees the Force as Unified; no Light, no Dark, just the Force being revealed in different ways by the wills of those beings accessing it.
A Grey Jedi would attribute the Darkness to the Sith themselves, not to the Force they make use of. If there was no dark impulses to any force-sensitive person, the "Dark Side" would have never been discovered. If there was no virtuous impulse to any force-senstive person, then there would ONLY be "The Dark Force". The other attributes would simply go unmanifested. No one ever accidentally choked somebody with a hand, nor with the force...it took abandon to their own impulses (in hot blood) or callous decision to will the destruction of another (in cold blood) to strangle someone.
Meanwhile, someone being attackes who uses a trained head-lock strangle technique is not using the Dark Side of martial arts, even though they are choking someone....their intent is not to harm, but to prevent harm from the target and to the target by the most appropriate means in the moment. Hence, Luke Skywalker can use a Force Choke on Jabba's guards without using the Dark Side - he wasn't intending to harm them, to squeeze the life from them...he was knocking them out to spare their lives because they could wake up from that with a headache or be cut in half with a lightsaber, and he went with the Merciful option. He Choked from a place of self-control and peace, not from Rage and desire to crush his opposition, as Anakin was prone to.
In either case, it's simple telekinesis. It's separared by the avenue by which the telekinesis is acquired, and what's intent is. The outcome - squeezing a throat - is secondary. Darth Maul uses the Dark Side every time he jumped using the Force in Duel of the Fates. The Jedi did the same jumps, matched the same feats - but did not use the Dark Side. It is all a matter of how they force-wielder accesses the Force, not what the Force does at their beckoning. (Certain aspects like Lightning are exceptions, giving the Sith's all-consuming hate and drive to dominate the world around them a physical release and manifestation; agsain, revealing the heart of the user rather than the nature of the Force. Citing "Electric Judgement" showcases this further; not even such shocking (heh) displays indicate the Dark Side, merely that to willfully electrocute somebody is very difficult to to without also willing their harm. As soon as you will harm to another, you are touching the Dark Side.
The Dark Side is a manifestation of the darkness in the hearts of jedi, not something external trying to trick people into "becoming" dark. We are seduced by our own desire to lash out, and the Force gives an avenue to do so, and it reflects our hearts in the physical: yellow eyes, withered, unhealthy skin. Dark Side users subsume all good reason to pursuit of ambitions, including their own well-being: Sidious, Vader, Malek, Sion, Malgus, Maul, and many others bear horrific disfigurement as testament to the innate belief that even their own bodies mean less than their goals. Absolute domination at any cost, and the Force makes this possible.
I appreciate you treating the Dark Side like what it is. I think Star Wars, and by extension the fanbase, love to treat the Jedi and the Sith like they're both required for the universe to function. But there's nothing the Dark Side adds to anything as it just prays on Jedi's weakness. It's why the term "Light Side" is never actually stated by anyone in Star Wars. Because being good is supposed to be a normal thing.
I think that's done because the Force, Jedi and Sith are what makes Star Wars unique and stand apart from other Sci Fi universes and without it is it any different from them?
I love the way you think about the "good side" ending. This is precisely why I feel like the dark side ending is the most suited to our character ... If you think about it, even if you spend the whole game doing good and earning light points, the revelation of you being lied to by everyone you considered like the good guys should make you snap, and fall to the dark side again. Just after that you end up on THE sith planet, when you can discover everything there is to the dark side, go and fight Bastila who just conviniently for you joined the dark side, and then you get to kill your old apprentice, get revenge on the jedis, get the girl in the end and feel very good about it all. I actually really enjoyed that ending. The light side one is very much like you described it, leaving a bitter taste.
I fully understand why this is the cannon ending, but it's not the one that felt the most "realistic" to me.
I sure look forward to watching this video, as I love any long form critique of my favorite game series of all time
I would say Jolee did not expect you to spare the poachers as he knows all about your past and finds this interesting.
Love seeing retrospectives over my favorite game of all time.
On grey Jedi:
I think what fans mean by a Grey Jedi is a character who might use the force to cheat at a dice game, but when push comes to shove, they will fight to free some slaves.
Grey Jedi are generally light side Jedi, but they are “mavericks”….those who behave this way but don’t back it up with skill don’t last long as Jedi, but those who can back up their convictions do very well as Jedi.
I think that Jolee is a bad example because he calls himself a Grey Jedi, but Qui Gon Jinn is the Ur-grey Jedi. Literally cheats at dice to save Anakin from slavery.
This was a great video. As a major Star Wars fan who never played this, it was wonderful to see
Look forward to the kotor 2 video, and yes taris is a pain, but I've been replaying two and yeah I feel like the mining station and the citidel/telos is a lot more of a slog because I like the flavor of taris with its multiple levels and types of people on it.
Taris > Peragus/Telos
Imagine if at the very end after you save Bastilla the Jedi Council relegates it as "another test for yourself and Bastilla" that "went over well". The ultimate trolls.
I head canon that's how Zhar and Vandar looked at it. Not Vrook though he's a douche.
Slowly stopping and starting this video as I reach the same point during my first playthrough! It’s awesome being able to see what I missed on my dark side adventure!!!
Hope you enjoy it!
Does Jolee knowing you were Revan from the beginning, recontextualize his choice to come with you? I feel like that wildly changes his motivations of joining you either lightside or dark side path
He does explain his motivations in his "farmer & the viper" story. He believes he is leading you away from the wrong path (perhaps his responsibility because he didn't try the first time you passed through Kashyyyk). He just wonders if you'll end up biting like the viper does when you eventually learn the truth, and if he can stop you before you take such a bite.
He does because if you reveal it to him later on he says something along the lines of " so what? I've known that the whole time we've been together"
I like your critique of the ending.
most people will say taris is too long, but I've never heard anyone say the apology to malak was weak or that ask that we completely gloss over the fact that you started the war, even if you lost your memory and helped end it. especially considering your memories are returning gradually throughout the game.
Hey guys, spoilers ahead for the final battle!!!
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As long as you have literally any damaging force power (i used force lightning) you can destroy the suspended jedi bodies immediately. You're welcome!
I used my drain health power to use his tactic against him
Using force drain is even better, you get all the health
I doubt you'll ever read this. I'll give you my full rundown of the Jedi classes in this game:
For what Bioware intended, a particular run of KoTOR I will usually net you 8 starting class levels, and 12 jedi levels. This is very clearly by design, Scoundrel and Scout both get free class related Feats at level 8.
The difference between Sentinel and Guardian is actually fairly minimal, even on Hard Mode. A Level 12 Jedi Guardian gets the same number of Force Powers as a Sentinel does: 13. They however, get 1 additional feat to choose from: 6 vs. 5 total. On the otherside of the debate, the Sentinel vs. Consular have the same number of feats: 5, while the Consular gets 15 total Force Powers.
Class skills wise, the Guardian and Sentinel are also identical - Awareness, Persuade, Treat Injury. Funnily enough, the Jedi Consular also gets more class skills, which if overlapping with your starter class may not be immediately apparent. However, the Jedi Sentinel counter intuitively gets more skill points on level up than either of the other Jedi Classes: 2 + (1/2) INT mod. The Consular and Guardian get 1 + (1/2) INT mod. Next is the class specific feat: Force: Immunity - Fear/Stun/Paralysis. With the sole exceptions of Force Whirlwind and the Force Choke line, there is no way a Jedi Sentinel can be left debilitated by any use item or power in the game: All droid Stun powers cease to work, most Force Powers including the Fear Horror Insanity line, don't work. You may not have noticed the Jedi Sentinel class' ability to shrug off all forms of stun and mind affecting items which frees a load of items up for your party members.
The boons of the other two classes start to wear off and may not even be useful in a given scenario: Force Jump allows you to close the gap quickly, but usually after the first two rounds, no enemies remain without purposelly backing off to use Force Jump again. Clusters of enemies are usually too close to be able to make any use of it beyond the opening exchange. Force Focus on the Consular aides with increasing the difficulty of saving throws. However, the Consular is a glass canon and depending on your starting class especially for Scoundrel/Consular builds, the Feat total at 8/12 splits is like 9 of your own choice for the entire game. For Light Side users, Force powers rarely inflict damage and the Consular sucks as an actual fighter unless you started as a Soldier or melee focused Scout. That leaves Force Storm which requires level 18 as the best way of managing large groups without your party members. Wisdom is the easiest stat to boost in the game, so the extra cast DC becomes moot later.
For the Jedi Guardian, they also get access to the weapon max tier feat Lightsaber: Specialization, which inceases damage by 2 points per successful attack. With the max stack of 5: Flurry, Dual Wielding, and Master Speed, that's potientally +10 damage assuming you're using a lightsaber in your off-hand and nothing misses. 10 damage ceases to be any signficant amount after about level 15. But that's +10 over your five other attacks, which are bringing the bulk of your damage anyway unless you're consistently connecting with high attack, but dealing low damage which is counter intuitive to the Guardian's build: Focus on buffing your strength.
For Sentinels, the extension of the Scout class, their build is supposed to be reliant on flexibility, since Lightsabers in KoTOR I will calculate their attack (but not their damage) based on which ever modifer you have is higher: Dex or Str. A lower strength, higher dexterity build can still make lightsabers work with the right feat setup and power line because the Flurry special don't penalize your attack as harshly as Power Attack does while rolling the dice more often.
For Guardian and Consular, their abilities require a load of setup, don't see much difference for or against later, or their usefulness gradually falls off as the game progresses. However, you can regardless of your build with either class always roll a 1 on your saving throw and potientally get immobilized at any time from any number of enemies, especially droids, or people throwing concussion grenades... unless you're immune to it like you are with the Jedi Sentinel. Being immune takes the dice roll out of the situation entirely. For Consular specifically, your force powers don't mean squat if the enemy is immune to them. Characters and creatures can carry equipment that makes them immune or have natural resistances to certain force power: poison from Afflication, or physical size prevents them from being Force Pushed. With the right set of equipment and starting classes, a Scout/Sentinel can become immune to: Critical hits, most forms of mind affecting, poison, and heavily resist fire, electricity, while building for high scores in saves making you almost impossible to be dehabilitated.
Lastly, if you start saving your early levels the benefits of Jedi Consular start to wear off even further. A level 2 start/18 consular gets 23 Force Powers of their choice compared to the 19 of Guardian and Sentinel, a mere difference of 4. The Jedi Guardian at 2/18 gets 9 feats compared to the Consular and Sentinel's 7. A Typical mid-range build for Scouts and Scoundrels is to stop at level 5, leaving 15 remaining levels, and in that case: the Jedi Sentinel and Consular get 6 feats, the Guardian gets 8 feats, and the Guardian and Sentinel get 16 powers to the Consular's 19. Regardless, those points aside, a Jedi Sentinel getting two skill points per level means even starting as a Scoundrel or Soldier means you can still level Repair high enough to fix HK-47 for his dialogue, or if you started as Scout keep enough in reserve to run persuade if you forgo grabbing Force Persuade as one of your powers. And in that case, the high variety of class skills brought to the table by your starter class is better supported by the Sentinel who gets better skill progression despite having the same class skills as the Guardian. And if you played a Soldier with low INT, the Sentinel allows you to keep buffing Persuade which wasn't an option for Soldier, while maintaining Awareness and Treat Injury.
My work day went by a lot better thanks to you. We will watch your career with great interest. Cheers
Idk if you role play a scoundrel and create your own back story, I feel like it actually adds to the role play when you figure out your past. Everything you thought you knew about yourself was wrong. That's exactly how your character would feel too
Yeah I like that aspect, the reveal wouldn't have been as impactful either if you didn't have a backstory
One of the problems I've always had with Star Wars as a franchise is that, the more you dig into the worldbuilding, the cultures and ideologies, the more the cracks begin to form. The original movies were modeled after old pulp media from the 30's and 40's, so their morality and ideology is childishly simple. But the more over time, writers have attempted to flesh out the world, so many inconsistencies and moral quandaries have begun to form and make the setting look like a galaxy-wide dystopia, which I doubt was the intention.
I think for me personally, it's also why I preferred KOTOR 2 over this one. KOTOR 2 took all the problems inherent in Star Wars and dragged them out into the light in a way that elevated the story and the world. It took simple black/white concepts and bled grey all over them.
One area that I'm slightly gutted you didn't mention, because I love it, is the riddle box. On Korriban you'll meet an alien who'll ask you about spice hidden in the Ebon Hawk. He'll then also give you a box that you are warned to *never* open. If you open it up your mind is (somehow) trapped in an endless white void with an ancient rakatan prisoner, and the only way to be released back to your body is by beating it in several riddles.
I love that it's not even a quest in itself, just a unique experience hidden away for opening things you shouldn't. It's well hidden - I didn't find it until a recent playthrough years later, and I don't see people talk about it much - which is why I'd have loved to see you find it and share it to a wider audience :)
The Old Republic ( tales of the Jedi, books and Kotor and Kotor 2) were so well liked and written that Lucas even kept it as canon to keep. Shame Disney didn't honor it. For Kotor 1 get the New console releases as it includes the Yavin PC dlc and for Kotor 2 get it on PC for it's community patch. Kotor 1 is a chore to get to work on modern hardware. Been bugging Lucasgames about that.
This is not true. Lucas made clear many, many, many, MANY times that the EU was not part of his canon. George directly contradicted a lot of Legends with the PT and TCWs. He even changed the name of the planet Korriban ro Morriban. That has been since re retconned by LF to be the way it is said in Basic, while Korriban is the local pronunciation if it. Again, what you said is untrue. Plenty of reasons to hate Disney without making stuff up
In my boy Nemo's defense (RIP King), it's very possible that the terminals with stupid easy puzzles were using the unknown language. He could have been trying to decipher it when everything went wrong.
Juhani is a higher rank in the Jedi order than you are lol... also you can only romance her if you're a female character.
I am pretty sure that isn’t true. I’ve romanced her before as a male character.
Just looked it up, and apparently this was a glitch in early versions of the game. She was written as a lesbian, but I apparently triggered the glitch on my initial playthrough on the OG Xbox.
1:51:30 I kind of just assumed that he came to an arrangement with the Sith for him to get off planet in exchange for taking you/Bastila as a bounty. The Sith have been depicted as hiring bounty hunters before after all, and tracking down a high profile Jedi feels like it would be a higher priority to them than keeping this specific bounty hunter confined to Taris.