Kreia said:
Welcome, one and all, newcomers and veterans, to this Let's Play of Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. KotOR II is a game that inspires many feelings when one hears the name. To most, it is recollections of a disappointing mess of a game, borderline unplayable on it's original release on the Xbox, and still extremely buggy when it was released on PC, with a ludicrous amount of cut content, numerous plot threads without resolution, and, until Mass Effect 3 was released, the definitive inconclusive, half-assed ending to an RPG in recent memory. To the select few who persevered throughout all that, they found one of the most unique pieces of RPG storytelling to ever grace the computer screen, and arguably the most interesting piece of Star Wars fiction ever, and my absolute favorite game of all time. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Who the hell are you, and why should I care?
I'm Woodaba, expert lurker on the Escapist forums and the master of thinking up what I think are really profound and insightful posts, only for it to come out as confusing, incoherent, twaddle. I've done a grand total of one Let's Play, so to answer your first question, you shouldn't.
What's this "KotOR" nonsense? I've been living under a rick astley (rock) for the past 10 years, so please, enlighten me.
Gladly. KotOR 1 was a western-style RPG, loosely based on the Star Wars Tabletop Roleplaying Game, which is in turn based on the D20 system, which is in turn loosely based on Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition. Yeesh. Developed by Bioware, it was set 3000 years before the Battle of Yavin, thus removing any issues with continuity with the rest of the series. Except for the Tales of the Jedi comics. But Lucasville doesn't care about them anymore. When it was released in July 2003, it was met with widespread critical acclaim for it's simple, but brilliantly told story, an enjoyable cast of characters, quality writing, and the ability to turn it into the worlds premier Dickhead Simulator. Train Simulator can go stuff it.
(yawn) Fascinating. What about this one, with a two stuck on the end?
Patience, padawan. Lucasarts, as usual, was very pleased at the amount of money KotOR was bringing in, but Bioware had fled the coop, going off to develop Bruce Lee: The RPG, Dragon Age: Development Hell, and Multicolored Explosion Simulator: The Trilogy. So, Lucasarts needed more code monkeys to bring in more cast. Enter Obsidian Entertainment. Obsidian was a company made up of veterans from Black Isle studios, an RPG studio owned by Interplay, and known for making Candy-Coated Crack in the guise of Videogames. With Bioware's endorsement, the project was handed over to Obsidian, the intention being that this would be the second part in a trilogy of KotOR games. The scene was set for a game that would blow the minds of the collective gaming conciousness.
So, what happened?
Lucasarts happened, basically. Obsidian was hit with a ridiculous deadline from day one: a mere 13 months, in order to rush the game out for christmas. For comparison, that's about as long as it takes to create the annual Madden roster update. And Obsidian was planning on creating a 40-Hour epic. Needless to say, things were cut. Many things. Many, many, things. In the end, the game released to the public in December 2004 was but a pale shadow of Obsidian's vision. While the game itself was well recieved, the backlash against certain aspects of the game, particularly the ending, was enormous, and the game did not end up selling as many copies as Lucasarts had hoped for. Obsidian offered to restore the missing content in a patch, but Lucasarts had already written the game off as a failure, and were not willing to waste the resources required to develop and distribute a patch for a failed game.
Bummer.
Indeed. However, out of the night, there comes a savior. You see, the cut content from the game was never actually removed from the game files, on the Xbox disc, it all still exists, some finished but not implemented. Many modding teams took it upon themselves to restore this lost content, but it was the modders Stoney, Zbyl2, and Jinger, and a few others in 2012 that completed the task, releasing the final version of the Lost Content to the public. Now, it is possible to experience the game in it's true glory.
And what is this "true glory"?
An improvement on the original KotOR mechanically in every way, a superb cast of characters, one of the best characters in anything ever, a dark, deconstructive, weird, and sometimes post-modern storyline, and other awesome things.
Sounds good. Where do I sign up?
Right here. Similarly to the previous LP, we'll be running things based on choice. That is, you decide the path the story takes, you decide what kind of character we play as, and you decide the fate of the galaxy. Last time, we were a Female Dark Side Consular, so to add variety (and because the game is arguably better this way), we'll start off as a Male Light Side character. That may change, however, depending on your choices. The light side thing, I mean, not the Male part. No transgender people in Star Wars, so sayeth the great bearded conservative asshole, George Lucas himself.
In case you want to read the previous LP, you can find it here.
If you don't fancy reading all that, here's a quick summary of what happened.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away...
The Republic and the Sith Empire are trapped in a deadly war. The Sith empire, under Darth Malak, a major asshole with a huge metal plate over his mouth, is winning. As a last ditch effort, the Republic send their Macguffin Person, Bastila, on a mission that will supposedly win the war, but is never elaborated upon. Bastila's ship is shot down, and the only survivors worth a damn are Bastila herself, a Jedi special because she can use a power called Battle Meditiation to turn the tide of a battle, Carth Onasi, ace pilot and professional emo, and Varen Von BadDoom, a mean lady with a Meaningful name, in more ways than one. Carth and Varen rescue Bastila from Taris, being assholes along the way and recruiting a street urchin and her wookiee Slave...er...friend, a droid who was used for one thing and promptly tossed in the bin, and Mandalorain and all-round Badass Canderous Ordo. The gang escapes Taris, after Malak blows it the fuck up. Varen turns out to be a latent Jedi, and the group goes to Dantooine so she can train. No one realizes Varen is evil because they're all morons, so she murders a padawan so that the Jedi Council could prove a point. Turns out, Varen's really good at this whole Jedi thing, and so is sent on a mission to recover Star Maps that lead to the location of the Star Forge, the source of Malak's seemingly unlimited armada. Along the way, she picks up a crazy old man, and a psychotic robot, and generally makes everyone's life miserable. However, after gathering three star maps, the gang are captured aboard Malak's flagship, and it turns out that Varen is actually Malak's old master Revan, who had their mind, and sanity, erased by the Jedi Council. Bastila sacrificed herself pointlessly and turned evil. The gang eventually confronted Bastila, whereupon Varen turned back to the Dark Side, to the shock of everyone. She crosses the Moral Event Horizon multiple times, and eventually kills Malak and assumes control of the Sith. Although the Sith eventually destroy themselves in the resulting Civil War, the galaxy is generally left a shitty place, and only one Jedi remains.
The Republic and the Sith Empire are trapped in a deadly war. The Sith empire, under Darth Malak, a major asshole with a huge metal plate over his mouth, is winning. As a last ditch effort, the Republic send their Macguffin Person, Bastila, on a mission that will supposedly win the war, but is never elaborated upon. Bastila's ship is shot down, and the only survivors worth a damn are Bastila herself, a Jedi special because she can use a power called Battle Meditiation to turn the tide of a battle, Carth Onasi, ace pilot and professional emo, and Varen Von BadDoom, a mean lady with a Meaningful name, in more ways than one. Carth and Varen rescue Bastila from Taris, being assholes along the way and recruiting a street urchin and her wookiee Slave...er...friend, a droid who was used for one thing and promptly tossed in the bin, and Mandalorain and all-round Badass Canderous Ordo. The gang escapes Taris, after Malak blows it the fuck up. Varen turns out to be a latent Jedi, and the group goes to Dantooine so she can train. No one realizes Varen is evil because they're all morons, so she murders a padawan so that the Jedi Council could prove a point. Turns out, Varen's really good at this whole Jedi thing, and so is sent on a mission to recover Star Maps that lead to the location of the Star Forge, the source of Malak's seemingly unlimited armada. Along the way, she picks up a crazy old man, and a psychotic robot, and generally makes everyone's life miserable. However, after gathering three star maps, the gang are captured aboard Malak's flagship, and it turns out that Varen is actually Malak's old master Revan, who had their mind, and sanity, erased by the Jedi Council. Bastila sacrificed herself pointlessly and turned evil. The gang eventually confronted Bastila, whereupon Varen turned back to the Dark Side, to the shock of everyone. She crosses the Moral Event Horizon multiple times, and eventually kills Malak and assumes control of the Sith. Although the Sith eventually destroy themselves in the resulting Civil War, the galaxy is generally left a shitty place, and only one Jedi remains.
On last thing, this will be a screenshot LP, because I think they're much better than the video variety.
Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy the adventure that is about to unfold.
Contents
Act One
Act Two
