Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

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JaySevenZero
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Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Post by JaySevenZero »

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder that where the feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but keeping it brief is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mostly reading out essays. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.
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ashman86
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Re: 572: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Post by ashman86 »

Every once in a while, I get the itch to play a specific kind of Star Wars game that can only be satisfied by replaying KOTOR from start to finish. The last time that occurred was in the lead up to the release of the The Rise of Skywalker when my personal hype levels for Star Wars was as high as it had been since I was a kid waiting in line to see The Phantom Menace. We don't have to get into how badly TROS let me and the whole saga down.

There's a great deal about KOTOR that will probably feel outdated to modern gamers, but it's hard to overstate just what a phenomenon it was upon release. I was already a BioWare fan by this time, after falling in love with Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights, but the studio was all but unknown to my console-bound friends. It put the developers on the map (or at least a larger map) and paved the way for the success of games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age years later.

I remember KOTOR gripping nearly all of my friends and me in an addictive stupor that didn't relent until we'd rolled credits.

One of my favorite memories is being over at a friend's house while his older brother was in the living room playing the game. Although it was mid-afternoon, he hadn't so much as showered for the day and was fixated on the screen. His very pretty fiance at the time asked him how much longer he'd be, to which he replied he wasn't sure. Then, she leaned over and whispered something in his ear.

He waved his hands and said, "later," and she walked away rolling her eyes. To us--a bunch of teens--that was, perhaps, the highest praise a game could ever receive.
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Re: 572: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Post by Alex79 »

I first played this on PC back when it first came out, and am currently midway through a replay on Switch. Back in the day, I thought this was an incredible RPG with a fantastic story, fun combat, really interesting characters, good writing and it captured the feel of Star Wars really well.

Playing it now, getting on for 20 years later and, well, I feel exactly the same! I still think it's the best, or perhaps I should say my favourite, Star Wars game and represents Bioware at the peak of their RPG game.

There are loads of interesting quests, but the one that sticks in my mind as something that really gripped me back in the day was coming across two rival neighbours and you have to try to solve a murder. It was one of the first things I'd done in a game where it felt like you were really impacting upon the world. Of course, that small side story bore very little relevance to the wider narrative, but it felt important at the time.

The game has possibly (well, no, definitely) been succeeded by Mass Effect as my favourite space opera RPG series, but Knights Of The Old Republic remains a fantastic game and it's an easy recommend to anyone with an interest in either Star Wars or classic computer role playing games.

And the twist is one of gamings greatest in my eyes, even if you do see it coming a mile off!

EDIT: I forgot to mention Pazaak! I enjoyed that game so much that during my recent playthrough I even searched for a mobile app to play it outside of the game (there is one!) Along with Gwent and Triple Triad, it's easily in my top three "card games inside other video games" :lol:
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Re: 572: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Post by Granny7989 »

I was 13 years old when Knight of the Old Republic launched. Despite playing a varying array of different genres, I had never played an RPG before, let alone having any idea on what a Dungeons & Dragons d20 system was.

After I convinced my mother to pick up a copy of KOTOR from Tesco, I installed the game on the family PC and was about to experience a game that was going to forever change the expectations of what a video game could do. I could choose how I wanted my player character to behave (do I want to follow the path of the light or be tempted to the dark side). I could decide how I interacted with NPCs (do I want to give the poor beggar some money or do I want to shoot him to death and take whatever scraps he had). I acquired a ship and chose the order I wanted to visit planets as I progressed through the story. I acquired companions along my journey and the responded positively or negatively to my actions. This game had quite the significant impact on defining my tastes during my impressionable teenage years.

The fact that I was able to easily complete the story without having any idea on how I was allocating my points and skills to my characters speaks to the accessibility the game has for new time RPG players. After I was done with completing the story, I had to go back and see what happened when I made different decisions.
Then there’s that twist. My god what a twist it was. I still remember the cutscene playing out as Darth Revan removes his helmet and I thought “Hey, that face sort of looks like my player’s face…it is my player’s face! I’VE BEEN REVAN THIS WHOLE TIME”. It really made me re-contextualise the whole story I had played up to that point.

Despite my love for this game that began at the age of 13, my now 33-year-old eyes can see some of the problems that are present in the game. The morality system, despite something that’s a prominent theme in the Star Wars films, is very shallow; playing the light side feels like the canonical way that the writers wanted the story to unfold, whereas the dark side choices are so laughably evil that it comes across as very silly. (I think the sequel did a better job with the complexities of morality within a Star Wars setting)

The gameplay, while the standard turn-based RPG combat system, using dice-rolls to determine combat effectiveness, pretty much looks the same from moment you start the game to the moment you finish the story, thanks to the very limited animation work for the combat sequences.

This may just be how I play but once I’ve acquired a few Force wielding companions to my party, I had very little need to use the non-Force sensitive ones, unless the quest required the use of a specific companion. Having a full party with the Force Heal ability was too useful to have for the many combat scenarios.

Despite these complaints, KOTOR was a game that began my love for the RPG genre, as well as put BioWare on the map for me. I’m curious to see what the upcoming remake would do to cater to a modern audience, but I would have been more than happy with a simple remaster of the original game.



SIDE NOTE
Can we talk about Carth for a moment? Carth is frequently criticised by players who say that he moans all the time, which I don’t think is the actual problem with the character. Carth was betrayed by his mentor and thought he lost his son during the bombardment of his home planet; no wonder he’s going to be bitter and slow to trust new people. I think the reason people dislike Carth was because new players would be interrupted with “it looks like Carth has something to say” prompts during exploration. Forcing the player stop what they're doing to interact with Carth early on in their playthrough is, what I believe, is the real reason that made Carth an annoyance.
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Alex79
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Re: 572: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Post by Alex79 »

I just didn't like Carth's attitude. I found him to be more rude than annoying really.
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Re: 572: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Post by Ventis »

In terms of game and console memories being tightly bound, KOTOR and the Xbox stands out to me as one of the most vivid. The Xbox wasn't a console I needed, as such. But being a gamer kid with no concept of saving money, and an avid Star Wars fan made this purchase inevitable. The game knocked me for 6, it felt so deep and yet covered a huge breadth of the SW Universe. I've since replayed on mobile (an actual great port) and am slowly dipping in again on Series S. To me a faultless and timeless title.
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Re: 572: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Post by MattL »

The universal praise that KOTOR1 received, plus my relative boredom with the lack of software for Gamecube, convinced me to buy the OG Xbox during the Sixth Console Generation and I was not disappointed.

KOTOR is everything that makes Star Wars great. Likeable characters, beautiful alien worlds, and a sense of galactic exploration and adventure. Bioware clearly understood the assignment and it made me a life long fan of theirs (or at least I was until Andromeda and Anthem, but that's a discussion for another day...).

Having recently replayed KOTOR and it's sequel, I still feel safe in saying these games, tied with the first season of The Mandalorian, are the best in Star Wars media, outside of the original trilogy.
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Re: 572: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Post by Granny7989 »

Alex79 wrote: February 19th, 2023, 8:39 am I just didn't like Carth's attitude. I found him to be more rude than annoying really.
Only the Sith deal with absolutes.
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Re: 572: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Post by Granny7989 »

Alex79 wrote: February 14th, 2023, 4:13 pm EDIT: I forgot to mention Pazaak! I enjoyed that game so much that during my recent playthrough I even searched for a mobile app to play it outside of the game (there is one!) Along with Gwent and Triple Triad, it's easily in my top three "card games inside other video games" :lol:
My friend and I have a running joke where if a game doesn't include a Pazaak minigame, then that game is deemed to be rubbish :ugeek:
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Re: Our next podcast recording (4.6.23) - 572: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Post by Workyticket »

I always expected that KOTOR would become a huge part of my gaming history, though as fate would have it, it would be for more reasons than I was expecting.

In the leadup to release, it sounded like my dream game: a marriage of my loves for RPGs and Star Wars. I got an Xbox in large part to play it, and it certainly lived up to all my expectations and then some. Even taking my Star Wars fandom into account in isolation, playing KOTOR was one of my greatest gaming experiences.

However, this is where the 'fate' part comes in: a few days before the game's release, my father died of a heart attack. I remember going to pick up my pre-order, still reeling from shock, grief and the indiscriminate riot of emotions that comes with the loss of a loved one. Over a year of hype having been completely upstaged, I found myself struggling to muster any tangible sense of excitement for the game. Understandable for sure, but it still weird after so much anticipation.

Nevertheless, I forced myself to sit down and play, and right from the moment you wake up on that embattled cruiser, Bioware had me. While I always loved how games like the X-Wing/TIE Fighter and Jedi Knight series expanded the Star Wars universe, KOTOR did so with a scope previously unseen in video games. With its combination of new and classic planets, the universe felt ripe for exploration in ways the movies and extended media never quite allowed, and paired with excellent writing made for an almost perfect Star Wars experience.

But as much as I can laud KOTOR for its technical and narrative achievements, it persists as one of my all-time favourites for personal reasons. For me, KOTOR was more than just a game - for a few weeks, it became my refuge, a safe space I could retreat to from the turmoil of bereavement. Looking back, I realize how much I identified with the player character's unmoored uncertainty about who they were or what they should be doing; it felt very much like the existential crises that come with losing a parent. In a way, it provided genuine therapy at a point where I needed it more than any other time in my life.

Looking back, I can see how KOTOR saw Bioware lay groundwork which they (IMO) would perfect with the Mass Effect series. But as much as I love the adventures of Shepard and co, KOTOR has a place in my heart that no other game can ever fill.
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Re: Our next podcast recording (4.6.23) - 572: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Post by TechnoRage1127 »

Looking back at KOTOR, I'm still fascinated by how ambitious it was. It's an RPG that has a perfect balance of story and freedom. While I feel like the game wants you to choose the path of a Jedi, either light or dark, you could forgo that entirely and not even touch your characters force powers.
I always felt like the game was an encapsulation of the original trilogy; starting with a big battle, assembling a crew of diverse motives, chosing your path, secrets from the past revealed (Darth Revan/"I am your Father"), and the final showdown with the evil jedi.
I have to admit, the Revan reveal surprised me. It took a subsequent playthrough to fully grasp all the breadcrumbs left leading to that twist.
This was really when Bioware was at the best. It wasn't long after this where their games had more binary good/bad choices and an illusion of freedom (mass effect).
I'd love to revist this game with the remake, if that ever comes out.
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