k2 I Have a Confession to Make

[The Frozen One 22]

I've owned KotOR: TSL (K2) since January 2015, played it for 20 hours... but I have never, not once, finished the game. Ever. I've somehow managed to not let myself be 1000% spoiled on the story. When it comes to the both of the KotOR games I've just only ever finished the first one, and I've must've done that 15 times by now over the years. I want to play K2 and finish it, from beginning to end instead of replaying a 4 year old save file on Steam, but I always tell myself to start from the earliest game in the series if I've got the game. A bad habit, I know. I just need to finish K1 for the refresher of anything I may have missed so I can get to K2 in order to see what that is all about.

 

What do you guys think? Am I a heretic? Or a window licker? Let me know in the posts below lol.

[Sith Holocron 2,478]

I played TSL first.  You bought 'em, play 'em any order you wish. But prepared for folks to spoil you on K1 once you tell people you've finished TSL.

[The Frozen One 22]

It's all good if they do, it wouldn't be the end of the world for me by any stretch of the imagination. And I've finished K1, but not K2 yet. I wish I knew all of the hours I clocked in on KotOR 1 so I could compare, but I owned it first before I had it on Steam. My Steam hours of K1 are not as high lol. Anyways, thanks for the advice if you will. I'll probably load up KotOR 2 sometime soon.

Edit: Removed the small quote thingies on the word advice in case it came off the wrong way lol. Didn't sound right at the time of typing, hence the ' marks.

[Sith Holocron 2,478]

Misread your original post.

[Talyn82 84]

I first played both games when they were first released individually on the original Xbox in 2003 and 2004.  Then I bought the retail versions for PC.  Then years later the Steam and GoG versions.  As you can tell I am a KOTOR super fan.  I beat the original game over 15 times on Xbox and it was the game that got me into Star Wars in general.  Before it I never watched a SW movie or played a SW game.  Fast forward to 2019 and I have 30 hours on the GoG version of KOTOR and over 150 hours on TSL.  As you can see I am a big fan of TSL , Chris Avellone, and Obsidian in general.  With TSLRCM the mod has made it better to play.  

Sorry I have a tendency to ramble on and lose focus.  But my point is both games are great imo, and your favorite might be different from mine.  I love TSL mainly for Kreia (my favorite SW character ever), Darth Sion, and the various companions like Atton.  I think they are a vast improvement over the originals.  Although I still love most of them except maybe for Carth.  But Canderous is one of my top faves in the series.  Love his war stories or as I used to call it story time with uncle Canderous.lol

There I go again rambling.  Uh what was my point again?  Oh yeah.   No.  You are not a herectic for not finishing TSL.  Maybe you were working at the time?  Maybe you had school work or a family to take care of?  The reasons are many and vary.  At first I thought the original KOTOR was the better game cause I got into the story flow easily.  With the sequel once you get past Peragus and really get to know your companions and their backstories like Kreia and Atton.  You may like it as much as I do.   For me what made the game was the well written characters like Kreia who I keep mentioning.  The story is good and I like that the past ten years of the Exile's life are a mystery so you can make up your own story for it.  Also I know the games are not canon anymore to the movie saga, but they do have a set canon for the game series.  For example DO NOT look up information on SWTOR the mmo.  Although it takes place 300 years later both main characters of the games have been given a gender and name, and both of their fates are revealed.  Being a fan of both characters I hate what EA BioWare has done to them, and refuse to accept it as game canon.  Like how most fans of the original movie trilogy hate what Disney has done to the original characters (Luke, Han, and Leia.)

So yeah play K2 after the original, because TSL contains many spoilers to the original, and the main character of the original game is referenced a lot.   I know you said you played the original before, but that may have been some time ago and you probably forgot certain things.  TSL will most likely spoil that game for you.  So like I said play them in order.  If you don't care about spoilers play them in whatever order you want.

Lastly the most important thing is have fun.  

 

[The Frozen One 22]

I just got done reading your whole post from within my email, and man was that a good read. I really don't mind when people ramble, I could very well do the same lol. Also yeah, my goal for the past week and a half has been to finish up KotOR 1 and 2 so I could eventually go and start SWTOR. I had played the MMO briefly before, but I hadn't got that far into it at all. I wish The Old Republic was a singleplayer experience, but that's just wishful thinking on my part. Thank goodness there is another Star Wars game coming out very soon, that IS singleplayer though. I hope it turns out to be not just good, but great.

 

And lmao at "Story time with Uncle Canderous", that was pretty funny.

 

Edit: BTW, the reason it's been taking me so long to finish up K1 and K2 is because I've been sucked into the Civilization series ATM. I love me some strategy games.

[Talyn82 84]

2 hours ago, The Frozen One said:

I just got done reading your whole post from within my email, and man was that a good read. I really don't mind when people ramble, I could very well do the same lol. Also yeah, my goal for the past week and a half has been to finish up KotOR 1 and 2 so I could eventually go and start SWTOR. I had played the MMO briefly before, but I hadn't got that far into it at all. I wish The Old Republic was a singleplayer experience, but that's just wishful thinking on my part. Thank goodness there is another Star Wars game coming out very soon, that IS singleplayer though. I hope it turns out to be not just good, but great.

 

And lmao at "Story time with Uncle Canderous", that was pretty funny.

 

Edit: BTW, the reason it's been taking me so long to finish up K1 and K2 is because I've been sucked into the Civilization series ATM. I love me some strategy games.

No problem I enjoy strategy games also, and I especially know how addicting the Civilization games are.  I too wish SWTOR was a single player game.  I do not know why LucasArts canceled development of the third game.  But I read an old interview with Chris Avellone lead designer and writer for KOTOR II.  He said Obsidian at the time as well as BioWare were interested in making a 3rd game.  But even he did not know why LucasArts canceled it's development.  The only theory I have is the original game was a massive hit, and the sequel was not due to the game being rushed and incomplete.  Maybe LA figured no one would be interested in a 3rd game?  Even though the reason why the second game was rushed and incomplete was because LA had set an impossible deadline for K2.  This is well documented and can be found using google.

So with that play the sequel with the TSLRCM it restores most of the cut content to the game, and fixes many bugs that were not fixed.  I say most of the content was restored, because there was a planet that was not restored due to the fact that Obsidian had barely started work on it.  So there was no cut data in the game files, like the other restored content.  But they make no mention of the planet in game so you won't be missing anything.

So yeah with TSLRCM you pretty much have the complete game. 

Lastly I'm not an mmo fan but I did buy and subscribe to SWTOR, and despite my reservations it's not as bad as most KOTOR fans would have you believe.  Even though I do not like what they did canon wise with the main characters from the original games, and how it pretty much ignores what K2 accomplished.  The Exile plays a very important role in the KOTOR games but as far as I can tell is never mentioned or their companions.  The only thing I know that is K2 related is some of the music tracks.  With that said I did like that every class had it's own storyline.  For example the Jedi Knight storyline (my favorite) is completely different from the Jedi Consular storyline.  Also like I said I am not an mmo fan, but SWTOR plays mainly as a singleplayer game.  I just thought of the other players as intelligent npc's running around.  But I never finished any of the storylines, because the game got too repetitive for me and it bored me.  But I did enjoy the Jedi Knight story even though I did not complete it.

Take care and have fun!

[Ebony Moon 187]

I don't play K2 to the end. I have played the end several times before, light side and dark side. But now I don't/ I find the endgame depressing, because I would rather play Revan, not hearing about Revan- "where Revan wanders now." 

Don't get me wrong, K2 is a good game. The new companions are good (but not better than K1- they have the advantage of a year's technology to be developed more for more game content) The gameplay and the Jedi class, feats, powers, and skills are great- in all a fun game. Kreia is fascinating and I was "Yes!" when she revealed that she was one of Revan's teachers, if not his original Jedi master. I understand game limits, etc, and what the writers had to work with- and they did a great job in spite of the limitations.

But when it come to retcon, and Revan this and Revan that, I'm out.  I won't touch swotor because of what they did to Revan.

Finish the game! It is interesting to the last.

[narshaddaarocks 67]

You should finish the game! It's very good! Probably my fav game ever tied with KOTOR 1. Though like @Ebony Moon said the end game is very sad/not a lot of fun since we  never got a proper conclusion (aka KOTOR 3) and instead we got a book that in my opinion ruined the series since several characters like The Exile and T3 are killed off, Revan is captured for like 300 years and other characters like  Bastila grow old and die and never see Revan again....so yeah all that sucks to me.

But if you're interested in a fan made KOTOR 3 after finishing K2, then I suggest you try this incredible mod: http://www.the-jedi-masters.com 

[The Frozen One 22]

10 hours ago, narshaddaarocks said:

You should finish the game! It's very good! Probably my fav game ever tied with KOTOR 1. Though like @Ebony Moon said the end game is very sad/not a lot of fun since we  never got a proper conclusion (aka KOTOR 3) and instead we got a book that in my opinion ruined the series since several characters like The Exile and T3 are killed off, Revan is captured for like 300 years and other characters like  Bastila grow old and die and never see Revan again....so yeah all that sucks to me.

But if you're interested in a fan made KOTOR 3 after finishing K2, then I suggest you try this incredible mod: http://www.the-jedi-masters.com 

I've temporarily stopped playing KotOR because I got sucked into yet another game franchise, but I'll come back around to it one day. It'll probably be 40 years from now, I'll be old and moldy, and I'll think to myself... Where did all these mods in my game come from? Why am I a Jedi from the get-go? Why do all the blasters and lightsabers look so cool? And why on earth is Mission black and red?! I thought she was blue!

Nah, haha. But seriously, once I get do get bored of spending half a day downloading mods, only to restart my campaign over and over in Xcom 2 WOTC, I'll be back annoying the folks of the nearest Star Wars community within reach. I'm definitely on a "Must download every cool mod" kick lately, mods are great, but if you could view my entire Steam comment history from the past 2 weeks, you'd know just how much undying respect I have for modders.

Because I lack the motivation to learn how to make ambitious mods, I can't express just how bleeping awesome the modding community is in general. Taking the time out of their day to work on something, not just for themselves, but to share with others, and not only do these great people do it free of charge, they will take even MORE time out of their days to help players troubleshoot any issues. Modders rock.

Ok, end of my tangent. I had maybe too much coffee and not enough sleep haha. I mean it though.

[Talyn82 84]

12 hours ago, narshaddaarocks said:

You should finish the game! It's very good! Probably my fav game ever tied with KOTOR 1. Though like @Ebony Moon said the end game is very sad/not a lot of fun since we  never got a proper conclusion (aka KOTOR 3) and instead we got a book that in my opinion ruined the series since several characters like The Exile and T3 are killed off, Revan is captured for like 300 years and other characters like  Bastila grow old and die and never see Revan again....so yeah all that sucks to me.

But if you're interested in a fan made KOTOR 3 after finishing K2, then I suggest you try this incredible mod: http://www.the-jedi-masters.com 

That's why I refuse to accept the book and SWTOR as game canon.  In my head canon the Exile is male and had a threeway with Briana and Visas.   Revan never got captured.  Both of them teamed up against the Yuushan Vong.  Or in my other canon both fell to the darkside and killed each other over who got to rebuild the Sith Empire after dealing with the Yuushan Vong.  But yeah I love both Revan and Jacen (My Exile).  I've had fun playing both characters.  I hate how cheaply the Exile died in the book.   Bastila's fate is sad I did not know that.   It's like I told Ebony Moon in a PM BioWare always had a history of making great characters and them canonizing them in a way that disrespects them.  Obsidian/ Avellone respected Revan by making him a godlike figure.  In fact Avellone respects Revan so much that he said Revan who is not his creation would beat both the Exile and Kreia who are both his creations.  BioWare and especially Karpyshyn disrespected the Exile and made her from unique to mediocre.  I know Vrook says in TSL that the Exile aside from making Force bonds was nothing special, but with Kreia's teachings the Exile became powerful, not Revan level but still powerful.  Plus aside from making Force bonds the Exile had another special attribute.  They could live without the Force as the Exile proved after the Manadalorian wars.  I don't think even Revan could live without the Force.  

[Mellowtron11 180]

Honestly I played TSL first mainly because of this advertisement I saw in Star Wars insider #79. As I was finishing up high school, I bought both games for xbox from a classmate for $10. And first game I tried was KOTOR 2. I had no idea what I was doing, aside from knowing that I wanted to play as a Consular.  Honestly, I didn't spoil too much- I had no idea who Bastila, Carth and Revan were, as I was fairly clueless about the KOTOR 1 storyline. Heck, I accidentally set Revan to the dark side when the Exile first meets Atton on Peragus.

[Ebony Moon 187]

I got an Xbox and both games second hand, mostly because I was curious about the picture of Nihilus. I played K1 first because my friends were telling me that I should play that one, as I was going to play the second one. I'm glad I did.

[Mellowtron11 180]

2 hours ago, Ebony Moon said:

I got an Xbox and both games second hand, mostly because I was curious about the picture of Nihilus. I played K1 first because my friends were telling me that I should play that one, as I was going to play the second one. I'm glad I did.

Kotor and halo were the reasons I picked up an old original xbox. At that time, the Xbox 360 was in its heyday with Halo Reach and Call of Duty Black Ops, but I was able to find an original xbox at a local Play N trade. A good choice all around.

[Ebony Moon 187]

K1 was the first video game I' ve played. It was so awesome that I played it six months straight.  Didn't do anything else besides sleep, go to work. I ended up saving money, lol. I got a 360 later to check out Oblivion.