I never said "make it exactly like Fallen Order just replace Cal with Chewie". Anyway, the whole thing is just a pipe dream, no need to overthink the details.

That's fair. I'd still give it 4/5 for being that pitch perfect rendition of Star Wars. Even if you personally don't like it, I think it has to be acknowledged when a game excells at doing what it's supposed to do. We shouldn't confuse "this is bad" and "I don't like it". You could as well deduct points from Sam & Max for being too silly if you prefer more serious games.

But I agree about combat, at least to a degree. I think the combat system itself is quite good, I actually enjoyed combat for a good while, but a greater variety of enemies and encounters that would require more strategy would certainly be welcome. And indeed, the infinitely respawning enemies on the Star Forge are just annoying. A limited number of memorable fights would have been way better than "respawn the same six guys again".

I still think the story is interesting, or at least presents some very interesting ideas. The big twist is honestly fascinating, it's just too bad we never get to explore it much beyond the polar light and dark options. It's one of those situations where the roleplaying that happens in my head (like what I mentioned about Taris serving as motivation for pivoting away from the sith persona) has to fill in for what the game actually let's you express. There's a couple other side quests like that. I guess how you feel about it relies on to what degree you can have fun with supplementing what you're playing with your own imagination.

All console-focused games of the time have very tight limit on resource usage, so none of those could possibly hold up from the technical point of view.

As for the story, characters and dialogues, it is a typical Bioware game. They won't disappoint, if you like other games of the studio.

Gameplay and character development are fine for a simplified RPG, in my opinion.

Yeah, for sure! I was being serious too. If done well, it could be a fantastic game. Do it in 3rd person, like a mix between Spiderman and HZD - swinging through the forest, taking out imperial walkers, laying traps for them, etc.

Unfortunately, it's the kind of game that would never be made today, as it would be too original and too much of a risk.


The proper way for a true wookie to defeat their enemies is to rip their arms off and beat them to death with their own fists, before they bleed out. ;-)

Was KOTOR console-focused? It never occured to me before. But then, back in those days I only had the vaguest notion that such a thing as consoles even exists. If that.

Yes, it was developed for Xbox and ported to PC almost half a year later.

I'd recommend playing both. The story of 2 is standalone enough, I guess, but in terms of themes and on a sort of meta-level the two are like yin and yang and I think it's just much more interesting if you know what KOTOR 2 is a "reply" to in a way.

Sure, I didn't mean to imply that it's all bad, I did like elements of it. I actually even kind of enjoyed the Bastila romance. But I think the game could have been better if the story and characters had been a bit more nuanced, and the gameplay a bit more varied...there were long, linear sections, especially near the end, which I found just tedious. Fewer, but more challenging fights and more interactive environments would have improved the experience.
One thing I did sort of like, because it was so unusual and shocking, was the destruction of Taris...essentially most of what you do in the first act is pointless, since presumably many of the people you help are killed shortly thereafter. That was unexpected and quite effective on a first playthrough, especially in a game that mostly plays the Star Wars fairy tale in space atmosphere pretty straight.

Yeah, the console-based development influenced a lot of decisions on its design, such as wanting to move closer to the characters instead of the old Infinity Engine overhead style, trying to make the combat animations more cinematic, and including those little "arcade" minigames of the turret shooting and racing.

I always assumed all of that was to make it more... well, Star Wars. It just made sense to me that way. Even the racing, which I hate an didn't do a single race after the obligatory one on Taris, in a post-Episode I world it didn't surprise me one bit they included that.